Affair Discovery
You never think it will happen to you. You never believe that you will be the victim of infidelity until it happens. When it happens, it rocks your world to the core, for a long, long time.
I remember D-Day (Discovery Day – the day I found out about my husband’s affair) vividly. My D-Day was 2 1/2 months ago.
I had my suspicions for a few months prior to confronting him, and I had even approached him about this several times. Of course there was denial. A whole lot of denial. And a whole lot of gas lighting (I’ll explain this lovely term in another post).
We have been married for 18 years and together for 24. We have always had a loving and caring relationship, and I often remarked how he loved me like a parent does, with my best interest at heart always. He has always been so good to me, respectful, and I believed he adored me (even my mom used to say how he looks at me with such love in his eyes). We never fought, instead we compromised. It was a true, deep love that only the luckiest of spouses experience. He was my very best friend.
Over the past couple of years, however, he became kind of distant. I asked him often to please hug me more often, touch me, and show his love for me. He always agreed, but nothing really changed. He was still very thoughtful in every other way, and that part seemed “normal”.
I remember about a year ago or so, I got to thinking about a few things that raised my suspicions. He had bought new underwear. He has always been a boxer guy, but suddenly he bought and wore more form-fitting briefs. This really struck me as odd, because he was pretty set in his ways. He also started wearing body spray. He seemed secretive with his phone, always turning it with the screen facing down. There were a few other things too, but the biggest clue was that he was just “different”. I called him at work and straight up asked him who she was. He sounded panicked but assured me that there was nobody. I even recall saying, “You KNOW who I’m talking about”. Nothing.
About 4 months ago, I was just having a really bad feeling again, and asked if I could use his phone, as my battery was almost dead. I told him I wanted to text our daughter. He has a passcode lock, but I didn’t know what it was. He unlocked it and handed me his phone. I texted our daughter and he seemed really nervous while waiting for her reply. Finally he grabbed the phone from me and said sternly, “let’s just call, this is ridiculous”. So he called her and I kind of wandered around with his phone, asking her to hold on, while I multitasked and looked for any clues. He was too close for comfort and I didn’t get to look as long as I wanted. Later that evening, I asked him to come outside with me and to bring his phone. He looked really annoyed. I asked if I could see what apps he has and he got extremely mad and said, “Just cut to the chase, what’s going on?”.
I don’t believe I have ever seen my husband that angry before, and quite frankly, it scared me. I asked if he was seeing anyone and he got very indignant and insisted that no, he was not. Then he went on yelling at me that I always accuse him of this, and when will it stop. We had the biggest fight of our lives, and he actually was trying to put on his jeans, saying he needed to leave for awhile. I wouldn’t let him go. We made up, with me actually apologizing for suggesting that he might be having an affair. The rest of the night was actually romantic.
But I knew. I just knew.
I actually kind of stumbled upon the proof I needed, two months later, the night before Father’s Day.
I didn’t want to ruin Father’s Day for everyone, so our morning went along happily. Later, while sitting in the backyard alone, he asked me what was wrong. My heart sunk, as I knew my life would be forever changed.
I asked him to tell me about “her” (using her name). He started rambling about how she does some charity work and enlists the place of his employment (her communication is with him solely). He looked very strange (for lack of a better word), while he was telling his story. I finally blurted out, “Are you sleeping with her?”. He answered, “no”. I asked if he had slept with her in the past two years, and he said “yes”.
I cannot adequately describe the initial feelings. Shock, of course. Anger. Disbelief. I felt like the ground was crumbling beneath me and I could barely stand upright. Since our teenage daughter was inside, he said we should take a drive. We drove to a little park that is about 3 minutes away, but the drive seemed to take an hour. My mind was racing (as I’m sure his was), and the questions were building up in my mind. We parked and he started to open his door. Bad idea! I knew this conversation would be extremely emotionally charged, and it was probably best to keep the doors closed and windows rolled up, as I fired off the questions faster than he could answer them.
I don’t remember how long we were there, and I don’t even remember most of our conversation. I was completely numb. I know the questions I asked included how long it had been going on and how many times he was with her and where. I was having a complete emotional breakdown, and he just looked incredibly stunned. I knew from that moment that my life would never be the same…
Read Affair Discovery Part 2, to learn how we survived the next few weeks.
Read More
