Cheating, especially in a long marriage, and when kids are involved, is a tough situation. People often debate whether forgiveness is possible. But some women have a special ability to spot cheating based on small details.
Our heroine — an Internet user shared the story of her friend who caught her husband lying in a tiny detail.
So I went Christmas shopping and met my friend who I haven’t seen for 6 months.
Me — Hey, how are you?
Her — I’ve divorced my husband.
Me — Sorry to hear that! But you’ve been living together for almost 20 years and everything seemed so good.
So we decided to have a cup of coffee and she told me everything.
"Around February my husband started to have some financial issues: some months there was no bonus, others his salary was less. By the summer it was only my salary that we were living on. He would bring home some bacon, of course, but it was many times less than I was bringing home. Additionally, he was constantly having issues: the car was broken down, his parents needed urgent help, etc. I wasn’t upset about all that because there were times when I wasn’t earning a lot, and we were living on his money.
Once he went fishing — he and his friends have had this tradition of going fishing every year for 15 years. When he came back home, I started to go through his belongings, so I could wash them, and I found a branded plastic bag from a store that sold expensive footwear. I thought he probably just took the first available bag he could find on the boat and put his things in it. I also felt happy for one of his friends’ wives, who had gotten these luxury shoes from her husband.
A couple of weeks passed, and I was going to the supermarket, but got a flat tire. I called my husband and asked him to bring the keys to his car and pump up the flat tire on mine. So I finished shopping, opened the trunk, and saw 2 plastic bags from the same luxury footwear shop with his athletic clothes in them. At that moment, my trigger got flipped, and I got suspicious about everything. I called the wives of all his friends he had gone fishing with — no one had bought shoes at that shop (it wasn’t a surprise because the prices start around $500 there). The next day I went to that shop and tried on all the shoes in my size and secretly took photos of all the retail associates.
Later, it was my husband’s birthday. He came home with a new phone and said it was a present from his colleagues. An iPhone! That costs $1,000! No way! He gave his old phone to our daughter. I checked it, wrote down all his contacts, and started to call them. The contact “Jack, tire master” had 2 numbers: landline and mobile. When I called the mobile, I found out that there was a girl who answered the phone, while the landline was the expensive footwear shop. Bingo! Checked the internet and found this store’s Instagram page. I looked through all the followers and found a girl named Hilary. Her page was full of photos with huge bouquets, fancy restaurants, and comments a-la, “A present from my significant other” starting from the spring.
The cherry on the top was a photo with my husband and a comment that said, “On a vacation with my beloved.” As it turned out later, he had actually started to earn more because he got promoted at work. He was just spending all of his money on that girl, he was renting an apartment for her, giving her presents, etc."
We were already on our third cup of coffee, but I still couldn’t believe everything she said. “So did you pull out this woman’s hair? Why would you let her take your husband so easily?”
I was expecting to hear something about pride and “I’ll never forgive him” but she answered differently, saying “Do you want an honest answer?” I think I would have forgiven him. At first, I didn’t tell him I knew the truth — I just kept silent. In September, when our daughter started her final year at school, we started to discuss hiring some tutors. She wanted to apply to a medical university and needed someone to help her with preparation. So he said that he didn’t have the money and tried to get her to apply to a different school. However, it was her childhood dream to become a doctor. I sold my car, paid for the tutors’ services, and started to call my friends and acquaintances asking them to lend me the money, in case mine wasn’t enough. I called my husband’s boss (we have good relationship with him) and he said that my hubby had already borrowed $5,000 for our daughter’s tutors. That’s how everything was revealed. He has become a stranger to me since then. I instantly filed for a divorce. Of course, he was begging me not to do it and swearing everything was over with that girl. But that was all a lie — and not only did he deceive me, but his own kid as well.“
We sat a bit more without saying a word, and I was feeling weird about the whole story. I have known their family for a long time and would never have expected something like this. At one moment, my friend said, “It doesn’t matter anymore. Isn’t it cool how I managed to find the truth with the help of one plastic bag!” So the moral to this story is, never underestimate a woman’s logic. Ever.
And what is also interesting, people in comments started to share their own cheating stories, which have no plot twist.
- I had it like that. Graduation, admission, father’s salary, which turned out to be 10 times more, and not the pennies that the mother saved with the last of her strength, the father’s boss (the owner of the company part-time), who came to talk to his mother at work — his father lied at work. Only I am the daughter in this story, and my mother worked three jobs, because one salary was greatly delayed. And now this asshole is telling everyone that his daughter doesn’t respect him. © Drsrgvna
- One day, I decided to make a pleasant surprise for the guy, bring him lunch at work. I cooked, I’m going to the other side of the city, I run into the office, and his colleagues tell me, they say, he’s not working today, he asked off, he felt bad. I’m calling, he’s not answering, he showed up only in the evening. Another time his brother calls, says he can’t get through to him, let him come to his parents, they missed him, they haven’t seen him for a long time. But my boyfriend left for them the day before yesterday, which is what I’m telling my brother. He mows down like a fool: “But I haven’t been home, I’ve been talking to my parents for a long time.” And then, a couple of months later, he left me his phone, when he went to the shower, he asked the courier to answer the call. And then the message comes: “Come to me”. After the breakup, he took out my brain for two more years with his “I love you, I don’t want to lose you,” etc. © Swiett
- About women’s logic. The wife of an acquaintance figured him out well. I arrived a day earlier, but my husband is not staying at home. He comes into her open arms in the morning, smelling of someone else’s shower gel and explaining that he spent the night with a friend. She picks up his phone in front of him, dials the last number. There’s a girl answering. Wife: “We have detained citizen X. He claims that he was at your place last night. Can you confirm that?” Of course, the madam confirms, swears, and even paints some details of the pastime. The wife hangs up the phone, looks at her husband reproachfully, goes off to do her own business. The next day she has a new fur coat, some jewelry, flowers and so on. They have not divorced — they have been married for many years, the children are already adults, a common business, etc. But he stopped lying to her after that. © DemiEntier
Deciding to forgive is personal and depends on factors like the strength of the relationship and the sincerity of the person who cheated. It’s a difficult journey from revealing to forgiveness, involving pain and the need for rebuilding trust. Each couple has to figure out what’s best for them, considering the hurt and the possibility of fixing things.