There are few things in life more devastating than finding out that your significant other is cheating on you. It's awful at any time in life, but if you factor in marriage, a few kids and years of emotional investment, it can be almost as devastating as a death in the family. Anyone who has ever been cheated on can easily pinpoint the moment their world changed forever and a new thread on Reddit is focusing on just that — the moment women found out their spouse was cheating. Warning: They are awful.
Imagine this scenario: You are going along in your life, happy and oblivious to any secrets your spouse may be keeping. Then bam! One day it all changes. It's a cliché, but there's a reason people use the expression "pulled the rug right out from under me." Because that's it. Only that expression — and many, many expletives — can possibly do justice to the horrible feeling that comes from having everything you believed to be true turn out to be wrong.
These eight women lived through that and told their horrible cheating stories (anonymously) on Reddit. Here they are, in all their (painful) glory:
1. In the car in the middle of a big move
"I was driving across country to move. He had moved ahead of us and he chose to wait until we were 600 miles from home, about halfway there. This was after I had resigned [from] my job, given up our apartment, packed a U-Haul, and became certified to teach in another state. I had the dog, cat, two mice and my child in my car. We turned around and went back after he told me."
2. Walked in on them in bed
"Walked in on them in bed together. She was also a close friend. They work together and I've since found out they were carrying on for weeks before I found them. It has destroyed me."
3. Snooping through texts
"... I snooped through his texts... He saw an escort a month before our wedding and texted them for another meetup during our honeymoon!"
4. On Facebook
"Found out via Facebook a few months after I had broken up with him. I was still friends with his siblings and parents, and they were tagged in some photos of him. Holding his clearly to term newborn son. Less than nine months after I broke up with him."
5. Checking his phone
"I was in bed with him and wanted to email me some pictures we had taken that day from his phone to me. The first email was sent a couple hours prior addressed to someone I didn't recognize. The subject said 'love never dies' and all the body said was 'I want you.' I typed in the email address in his phone to see if it was a contact, and to my surprise he had sent it to his mom's best friend."
6. In a letter
"I received a letter in the mail from a college I never went to. Inside, I found the entire texting history between my now ex-husband and his lover. I have determined that the sender was most likely the lover herself or her scorned husband (local police officer). At the time, I was seven months pregnant."
7. It was on his computer
"My ex had both an iPhone and a Macbook. This means that he can send and receive texts from his laptop. I was using his laptop while he was at work. He got a text message from his ex: 'Just textin to say I love you.' I opened the messages. Found hours of sexting messages. He'd been sexting her that morning even, when I had slept next to him all night and we'd cuddled and kissed goodbye when he went to work."
8. From the phone bill
"I looked at the phone bill details and found many calls to a phone number. With dread, I called that number. The woman who answered was aghast because he told her he was single. He filed for divorce and was trying to get it pushed through as quickly as possible. He must have told that new one that he was divorced. Our kids were three and one. It was devastating."
Trust is hard to come by. One's heart can't help but break for these women and, of course, we all hope they found better love later. The non-cheating, non-lying, non-jerk kind. It's out there! Even if these stories make us feel otherwise.
Have you ever been cheated on?
