What did these men do to ever deserve such cruel and unusual punishment? Their partner not only cheated on them, but did so in the most horrible ways possible! There were entire second lives going on right behind these men, and they made their discoveries at the worst moment. Content has been edited for clarity.
Twisting The Knife In His Gut
“I had been recovering for six months from being hit by an SUV as a pedestrian that left me with a severely broken back, legs, and pelvis. I had moved back in with my then-girlfriend for about a week at that point when she decided to take me to a party that her friends were hosting. Well, I got left at this part becasue she was unable to find my in the crowd, so she decided to go home, I guess? I didn’t know any of these people, as they were all her friends, and none of them could help me get home when I realized she wasn’t there anymore. Everyone there was far too wasted to drive or even give directions. I managed to walk back to the apartment quite tired and in pain from my still recovering injuries. I banged on the door as loudly as I could. This random dude answered the door, let me in, and then he crawled back into the bed I had been sharing with my girlfriend up until then. I did not have the cognitive ability to process what was going on. So I simply laid down right on the floor next to the bed and fainted. My girlfriend broke up with me the next day and blamed me for it. It’s painful to re-live that traumatic experience, it hurt more than my injuries.”
Mischievous Mother At Work
“My mom had a boyfriend when my parents met, and she broke up with him to be with my dad. Fast-forward ten years or so, and my parents are married with two kids, my older brother and me. Anyway, she travels for work semi-often, and she started taking trips to see her ‘friend’ in Chicago. I was young enough that I don’t really remember when it started, but my I noticed that my dad was really irritable on these weekends. I think I was about twelve when I realized what was going on. I figured it out before my brother did. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to my parents argue. I don’t even remember if I heard something that gave it away, if it slowly dawned on me as I grew up, or if one day it just hit me. It’s always just been a part of my life that my mom lies. Still is. My dad used to beg me to not tell her that I knew because he was desperate to keep the family together, and my mom would get on his case for getting the kids involved. No joke. One day, during the summer after I graduated from high school, I came home from work to find my mom in the garage loading up her car. I asked her why she was putting blankets in her car. She got quiet for a moment and said, ‘Well… I’m moving out.’
I just went inside.
Later, she texted my dad that she had moved to her brother’s house. That’s how he found out. They were married for twenty years and she sent him a text message. I don’t know if she was planning on telling me at all if I hadn’t happened to come home when I did, or if she would have just disappeared. There have been times when she left without telling me she was going somewhere. I had realized that I hadn’t seen my mother in a few days and ask my dad where she was, and he’d be like, ‘Oh, she didn’t tell you? She’s in ‘Montreal’ for a week.’ So anything was possible.”
Karma Has Never Been So Terribly Perfect
“The story is remarkable in that it happened before the internet was widely available, in the very early 90s, when the world seemed much bigger. My fiancée (Meg) had one semester left of college that had to be taken as an internship abroad for her major. She chose to go to Belgium for this internship. I stayed behind, and the plan was that I would set up our house, and when she returned that summer, she would move directly in. We would set a date for our wedding afterwards. So, while Meg was off in Europe, calling every couple of weeks to check in (the long distance calls were super expensive back then), sending me letters, I moved in to a brownstone and bought tons of furniture. About two weeks before Meg was supposed to return, I stopped into a nearby coffee house that I had noticed down the block, but had yet to visit. To my surprise, I found that my childhood neighbor from a completely different city, Claire, was a waitress there. We hadn’t seen each other since high school, so we made a plan to meet up after her shift for a cup of coffee to catch up. We met, and Claire told me that she was engaged to Ben, who was completing his course of study by working on an internship in, you guessed it, Belgium. I couldn’t believe the coincidence. I told her about my fiancée, and that they HAD to know each other. Crazy, right?
A couple days later, I stopped in for a cup of coffee, and Claire looked extremely upset. She asked if I had time to wait, as she had a break coming up, and that she needed to talk to me. We went outside and she told me that she had gotten a call from her Aunt Sue the day before. Aunt Sue had just returned from Czechoslovakia, and something very strange had happened. While they were touring Prague, Sue and her travel group had stayed in a local hotel and ran into Claire’s fiancé, Ben, in the lobby. Ben was with a female companion by the name of Meg. She said that he introduced her as a student from America, that they worked together, but it was very awkward and they both looked caught.
Claire said that she immediately called long distance to Belgium, and after several tries over the course of a day, got him on the phone. She asked him about the chance encounter, and he said he had been kind of expecting her call. He ended up admitting that he had been seeing Meg pretty much the entire time they were in Europe, spending weekends and holidays traveling around with each other. I was floored. I couldn’t believe it. I went home and started trying to call Meg at her dorm in Belgium, finally getting through to her late into the night. I point-blank asked her if she was dating Ben. I didn’t even explain how I knew about it. She hemmed and hawed for a moment, kind of acting like I was crazy for saying something so nonsensical, but when I said that I knew Claire, she dropped the facade and admitted to all of it.
So Ben and Meg had a very bittersweet homecoming. Meg got off much easier than Ben, as Claire had already left all of his belongings on the front lawn the day she found out, which had been pretty much picked over by the time he got back two weeks later. I did pick Meg up from the airport. I think at the time I really just wanted to see her face when I told her that all of our friends knew what a piece of garbage she was, and that I never wanted to see her again. To this day, I revel in how many utterly astounding factors of complete random coincidence went in to Meg and Ben being caught. The universe works in incredible and mysterious ways. The two of them later married, then later divorced after he cheated on her. “
Redoing Her Whole Life Behind His Back
“It started out as your classic love at first sight story. We said, ‘I love you’ after two weeks. We moved in together after two months. We were engaged after six months. We had been together for four years and some change. I left my rent-controlled bachelor pad and picked a bigger apartment so she could have her art studio. We did everything together and split all bills 50/50. We had different jobs in the same industry and made around the same income. We really loved each other and, as cliché as it sounds, completed each other. I am very analytical and stoic and she is a creative artist. At one point, she went to exhibit at comic con in New York City, so I help her pack and drop her off at the airport. Everything was fine. She should be back in four days. She never came back home.
She simply disappeared, ghosted me. They day that she should have been home, I freaked out that she may be dead, only to find myself blocked on all forms of social media, as well as email and her phone number. Everything I know was based on the unpaid credit card bills that she left for me, and her cell-phone bill, since we were on the same plan. I found this one particular area code form New York City over and over again on her call history and put everything together. She must have met this guy at the San Diego comic con she went to a few months before, and she systematically organized a plan to abandon me. She took as much as she could to New York City and never looked back. Well, she maxed out our credit card for her new home in New York City. By the time my grief turned into practicality, it was too late for me to cancel everything. I saw all of these house ware purchases bought with my money, for a house that I would never live in.
I couldn’t live in our apartment on one income alone. She destroyed my self-esteem forever, and I can’t trust anyone ever again. She ripped my heart from my chest, watched it die slowly, and didn’t bother to clean up the mess. All I want to know is why she did it, but I don’t think she’ll ever tell me that. It is crazy how much people can change in such a small amount of time. People can still surprise you in the worst ways. No matter how much you may prepare yourself, it still hurts. Nothing is worth sinking to that level in response. Being the bigger person is always the only positive to come out of something so negative like this. I could try to get the money back in court, but being in a different state would make the matter rather difficult.”
Here’s What To Do In The Worst Case
“Four years ago, I was dating this girl who became distant and disinterested in a lot of things we both enjoyed together. Despite my efforts to talk about it, she only became more distant and less available. Suddenly, she was working late quite a lot. I started to get suspicious of her when she was on her phone all the time. I tried to talk to her about it again, but she wouldn’t engage. She also didn’t want to break up with me, so I was confused. I was planning on ending things on my terms, but one weekend when she was supposedly busy, some mutual friends told me they saw her with a dude from her workplace. They were all over each other. Coincidentally, she lent me her iPad, which was synced to her phone, so I saw all the texts between those two. They were talking about running away together.
This other guy was her supervisor, and he was married. The mutual friends were also coworkers, and they reported the two to HR. My girlfriend and this guy were forced to do training about proper workplace etiquette, they were denied promotions, and the man’s wife left him. I was devastated, but the karma really got them good.
The best advice that I could give to anyone in this situation is to accept feeling broken for a while, but not forever. Do things you enjoy even if you don’t want to, like watching your favorite shows, cooking, or working out. Bit by bit, you’ll be able to focus on those instead of your significant other without realizing it. I did yoga, which took me way out of my comfort zone. It occupied my mind for an hour, and I felt great. After that, you should write your significant other a letter, but never send it. It helped me to get control of my emotions and say everything that I wanted to say for my own closure. I left it in a drawer and had completely forgotten about it. Sometimes you need to literally spell out your feelings, and you realize the red flags or flaws that your significant other had. All of this will eventually make you realize that you are not only better off without them, but you deserve better.
It took me about a year in total to work through these feelings. It was so gradual, but eventually you stop caring about that person. The nightmares took a while to fade away though. Even a few years later, when I am stressed and anxious about work or anything, the memories of this girlfriend will creep back into my stress dreams. It’s just the body processing stress, and at this point, I couldn’t care less. It will work out for you too, don’t worry.”
Thousand Mile Heartbreak
“My wife was on vacation in another country with her parents. Before she left, we got into this huge fight, and she decided to stay for a whole month longer with her family than she planned to. She broke up with me and shatters my heart. She confirmed with me later on that she would be flying back home, but only to move her stuff out of my place. We shared an online photo storage account, so any pictures that she took would be uploaded to the account automatically, which I would see. A day or two after she breaks up with me, I see her getting very with a guy in a van. It turns out that she had been seeing this guy behind my back for several weeks already. My wife and I had been best friends for years in high school, had been together for ten years, and married for six of them. This was a huge shock.
My initial reaction? Not as intense as I expected, but confusing. We weren’t in an open relationship, but maybe she had felt like the fire was just gone. Maybe she didn’t view me as a romantic partner anymore. I don’t want her to be locked in a relationship that she doesn’t want. The guy she ended up with was her ex-boyfriend, and I didn’t recognize him at the time because he had shaved off his mustache. She knew that this was literally the only person in the world I would never have wanted her to end up with. He treated her badly during their relationship, and she knew how badly I would react had I known. Several months pass by, and she collects her things, divorces me, and flies back to the country she was vacationing in to stay for a little while. She ended up marrying that guy and having a few kids with him. Even worse, she had always been hesitant to have kids, whereas I always wanted them. It took me a few years to recover from all of that. I dated around a bit, but I ended up in a good place with a woman who is arguably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Now Way Out
“My wife started talking non-stop about her male co-worker, for almost six months. In November, we took a weekend trip for our wedding anniversary. In December, her job exploded and she started working long hours and weekends. At Christmas time, we took a trip to see my family, and she had to leave a few days early to come back and ‘work’. Everyone in my family just gave each other knowing glances and didn’t say anything. By January, we were in a serious rough patch, as she was never home. When she was, all she did was sit in front of the computer and work. I worked my full time job and cooked, cleaned, and looked after our two children. Finally, one morning after essentially not speaking for days, I told her we needed to sit down and talk and work things out. She teared up immediately and told me she didn’t know if she still wanted to be married to me. Then I had to go to work with that knowledge.
That night, I sat her down to talk and asked her directly if there was someone else. She said yes, and I knew exactly who it was: the male co-worker. I pressed for details, but she insisted all they had done was make out. I mulled that over for a day and thought about how parts of her story didn’t add up. I sat her down the next night to talk and told her I know how she operates. I asked if she was texting him. Yes. Was she sending him pictures? Tears. Yes. Were they intimate? Yes. I pushed for more details and got her to admit it was much more than just making out. It had become physical, in the office, while I was home struggling to try and raise our kids and run our home.
Thus began a nine-month-long nightmare of her refusing to stop talking to the other guy. I am a walking train wreck most days, now in therapy and on anti-depressants. I am hugely embarrassed about the time I got overwhelmed at work, couldn’t stop thinking about her and the other guy, and I broke down crying in front of the CFO of the company. I spoke to a family lawyer who assured me I would almost certainly not be able to get full custody of my son, and I’d most likely never see my step-daughter, who I treat as if she were my own, if we were to get a divorce. My children need me and I won’t leave them, but most days now are some form of living nightmare. This year has broken me.”
The Interrogation Pays Off
“I had a girlfriend who was great, we were together two years and lived together in an apartment before I bought a duplex when the American housing market crashed. I didn’t want her to feel trapped or anything, so I said that it was my house and I would like her to live with me, but that I would pay the mortgage and bills if she would just help with utilities and food. She lived with me for a year and started to have signs of depression. The duplex was a bit in the country and she talked about wanting to live in the city, so being the loving and trusting boyfriend I was, I moved her to an apartment in the city, including buying her furniture for her birthday and helping her move it in. We made it clear we were still together to all friends and family. We talked daily and did weekend dates in the city, as well as nights at my place, since it was close to the town we both grew up in and we had a lot of mutual friends who lived near me.
Well, we made plans with a whole bunch of friends to see a movie together that we all were VERY excited about coming out. She came up the day of, and right before we were getting ready to go, she got weird and said she was too tired to go. I explained that she could sleep, but made sure she knew I still wanted to go as we had been planning this for months, and I frequently didn’t get to see this group of our friends due to work. She said that was okay as long as it was okay she didn’t go. The movie was great and I had a blast, I get home and she is awake and completely wasted.
I feel I should mention I am a police officer who specializes in interviewing, and I don’t drink but I do have a very nice bottle above my fridge for the days when I need to come home and need a little extra something before bed. She drank it all. I was a little upset about that, but mostly just concerned, who gets super wasted by themselves when they could go out with their loving boyfriend and friends? Well I pride myself on not bringing work into my personal life, but the interrogator in my head prompted me to figure it out. When asking someone a yes or no question, anything that isn’t a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ is the bad answer.
First, it was that she kissed someone else, then when I pressed, she admitted the full nasty details. I am not a big crier, but the tears came from my eyes for the first time in our relationship, and she goes to comfort me. I said, ‘Oh no, you don’t get to do that anymore.’
That really helped it hit home for her, I think. I called her a cab and paid for her to leave, but she tried to pay and I informed her, ‘I’m the one who wants you gone, so I’m happy to pay.’
No excuse for cheating.”
She Made A Fatal Mistake
“My wife walked dogs for work, and she told me she would be going on some late night walks. She was acting so dumb though, she had her pictures synced to the kids’ iPad. My daughter came up to me that night and asked who this mysterious man was with Mommy in the photo. I tried to play it cool, and I took the kids to go visit my mom. While I’m over there, I get a notification from my home security app that there is some movement in the apartment. According to the security camera, the mysterious guy is there, and my wife took down all of our family pictures. I saw them hooking up. I could only sit and breathe heavily in anger. I call my wife, but she denies everything and say that she is at work. I found out who her lover was from her social media page. I messaged him copies of all of our family photos. He writes this massive apology message, saying that my wife had totally lied to him.
I really did try to forgive her, for our kids. It was a Saturday morning, and I got back from taking the kids to the park while she was at ‘work’. She still has her phone synced to the iPad. my kids wanted to video chat with my mom, but when I opened the app, I saw that my wife had been video chatting with the mystery guy. I finally got her to confess. It grew into a huge fight, where she blamed me for everything. Apparently a wife with a good husband wouldn’t have to cheat. She slapped me in front of our kids and threw my phone and keys off of the balcony, because this was all my fault. I moved out later on that day. Not a day goes by where she doesn’t beg and plead for us to get back together. I don’t care about her at all, and it makes me want to throw up every time that she tries to talk to me. It is awful, because I’ll have to deal with her for the rest of my life while we share custody of the kids.”
An Unexpected Delight
“I was in the Navy and was out on deployment for six months after just recently getting engaged (it’s one of those stupid things that young military guys do). One day, I get a letter from my fiancée’s best friend, telling me that she caught my fiancée and some other man together (this was years before email and smartphones were common). We wrote back and forth several times, and eventually it comes out how she caught them, how my fiancée begged her not to tell me, and that the fiancée didn’t know that the two of us were corresponding.
I eventually get back to the States and planned to play it off as though I didn’t know, but too many of my friends intercepted me with the news. It turns out that it wasn’t just the one guy, but several, and they let me know that she knew I was aware. Eventually we met, and the confrontation was minimal and tame. We broke off the engagement without a lot of drama, and she kept the ring. The best friend who corresponded with me ended hooking up with me, and it grew surprisingly serious. The two of us will celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary this year. Sometimes doing well is the best revenge.
The Perfect Way To Get Back
“My ex was a big drinker and I wasn’t. She would frequent this bar close to our place pretty often with friends. I rarely went with her, because I just wasn’t a fan of bars or her drinking friends. One night, she went out with a couple that I didn’t mind that much. I was bored at home, so I decided to head over for a little bit. As I walk in, I see my ex sitting at the bar with the couple. The bar was packed, and as soon as I made eye contact my ex, she had this strange look on her face. She turns to this guy sitting next to her, and he immediately gets up and leaves. I felt something strange right away, but I brushed it off as me being irrational. I stayed for like an hour and headed home. I couldn’t shake the feeling I had though, so I checked one of her friend’s social media page to see if there was any connection that existed between my ex and this random dude. Sure enough, he was friends with one of my ex’s friends.
I knew his name now, and I knew that I wasn’t as crazy as I thought. I sat on the information though. The next weekend, she goes out drinking again and still had not returned home at four in the morning. I tried contacting her multiple times, and I got no response. I woke up to her coming home at seven in the morning and jumping in the shower immediately. I decided to check her phone while she was in the shower, and she kept all of her messages with this same guy. There was some pretty telling information in the text thread. While she was still showering, I grabbed a fresh pair of clothes and headed to my best friends’ house. Twenty minutes later, I get a phone call with her going insane about me leaving and not saying anything. I laughed and told her that if she wasn’t moved out by Monday, the police would be there to force her out. She wasn’t on the lease and her parents lived ten minutes away from me. That was that.”
“Unending Love, Mourning, And Absolute Anger”
“I learned that my wife had cheated after she passed away from cancer. It was the worst feeling ever. I was caught between unending love, mourning, and absolute anger. A lot of times, I didn’t want to be around anymore. My family, friends, and God are what pulled me through the worst of it. It’s been three years since she passed, and I’m the only one who knows about her other life. I didn’t ruin her name to her friends or family, but my image of her is forever shattered. I did forgive her eventually, and I am now living with my current girlfriend and am happy again. She didn’t know she had cancer. We went to the ER about her severe stomach pains. A CT scan picked up these spots in her lungs and ovaries. From the day of the diagnosis, it took two months for the ovarian cancer to take her.
A week before she passed, she and I took the passwords off her phone, so I could respond to her texts and take care of her business. After she passed, maybe a week or two after, I explored her phone and found numerous intimate texts and emails. I believe the cheating started before she had the cancer. But then again, when we found the cancer, it was already at stage four and was spreading, so who knows. I hated her for a bit, but she was the one and only true love I ever had at that point. I was torn between mourning and anger. Some days I would visit her grave sobbing while in mourning. Other days, I went and talked so angrily to her tombstone. She never said sorry outright. The only thing I think she said that would be something of an apology was about two weeks before she passed. Of course, with cancer destroying her, I would help her shower, eat, change, and use the restroom. While I was helping her out with the various tasks, she told me how she didn’t deserve me, specifically, she didn’t deserve me caring for her so much. I didn’t understand her words at the time. I really understood what she was referring to much later.”