All Comments on 'Lyin' Eyes Ch. 07'

Didn't like the psycho bullshit. Made the whole reconciliation taste like shit.

Although rather clunky I feel you did a reasonably good job of dealing with an all too common flaw in many of the tales here on LW - that of the "perfect" male and the oh so terribly flawed and weak female. You also addressed, a little obliquely, one of society's greatest flaws that of not being able to deal with people with mental health issues. Comments often emphasise the general attitude to "psychobabble" of psychology/psychiatry yet rarely try to debate the harsh reality that it reflects for so many. Perhaps Literotica is the last place in which such issues will find fertile ground but I salute your contribution.

BEEN THERE!!!!!!

DONE THAT!!!!

I truly enjoy this author

REQUITAL being my favorite!

That having been stated too often females are granted a psychological pass so to speak even in real life.

A ''pass'' never extended to males. Not sure why.

I do know the following, after decades of life and observation and conversation. I have known hundreds of females whose spouse-boyfriend dumped them and have yet to know one who was completely emotionally destroyed. Perhaps the ''sisterhood'' helped them cope, survive and indeed prosper.

Conversely I have met and known scores of males who experienced that same betrayl whose lives were shattered and whose minds were destroyed.

I have come to conclusion females are incapable of committing to a relationship as fully as males are.

Deep in their primordial nature is the certain knowledge they can attract another mate, the path is eternally available between their thighs and I am certain they know it and use it

How do we know that...?

Well, because Carl said so... He said he knew that the Laura who cheated wasn't the Laura Mark had married...

But she was. The Laura whose parents had a weird (in her mind) sexual relationship with her aunt was the same one he married... It wasn't like the issue with her parents didn't occur until AFTER she'd gotten married...

And it must be nice to be an apparent alcoholic who has NO craving for alcohol... I bet there are lots of alcoholics who wished they could get things that easy...

You know it's all bullshit because... not a chance in Hell Mark wouldn't have recognized her with a serious drinking problem and dealt with that... Long before the realizing he had to deal with her cheating.

And, so what...? She was ultimately disturbed about telling her husband and daughter to go to Hell... But didn't see anything implying she was upset about telling her husband she WOULD find someone to fuck just to "let him be right".

Maybe people get back together after such damage... But, it wouldn't work for me... Not to mention... Really!? How could someone "ignore" the sex (or consider it as having no bearing on the relationship going forward)...?

Worth the price of admission! Love the ending! One thing I want to touch on is Predators in general. Truth Known I don't know the laws about predators in the work place In America or Australia! What boils my blood is some bosses in companies are the predators, like a business man in AUSTRALIA WHO RAPED MY SISTER AND GOT AWAY WITH IT! I was told by the police if I went near him I'd go to jail! Fucken Bastard still out there ! I won't go there! Love you all! GREG. OH 100 % OF READING ENJOYMENT BYE.

I wasn't sure for awhile, but I ended up liking this story. Thank you

I'm not sure if it can overcome the problematic structure or logic breakdowns. Wish I could give it 2.5/5, but I think it's a story that will be rounded down instead of up.

much to long for me, could have been half as long

And I really didn't think I would. Thanks!!!

This chapter was vomitous.

She was a vile bitch and your explanation was terrible.

Very unsatisfying though you are a talented writer.

Seven chapters too many.

After reading your first 4 chapters i thought what a brilliant story he evolved!! But now, after reading your last chapters i know you only choose a different way to try to explain why a wife can be a slut and the man has to be her cuckold!!!! Idiotic!!!

To compare illness with betrayal to compare alopecia with disrespect and broken trust!!! What are you a softy or a perpetrator who wants to explain his own failure???

..... from the range of comments how this story has hit the psychological nerve center of so many readers. Some with the capacity to personally understand and except, and some others forced toward total denial of life's realities. Same comment I made several chapters back. Congrats to the author.

I can thank the author for laying out a path for me to see how this unfolded. However I can't see that it could be reality. Great job on the writing to be able to make me think about it, shows the leave of skill you bring to the table.

Cocksucking,wannabe writer

Still one on the most gut-wrenching, emotional series I've read here......well-crafted and well written.

And the rest was welll done too. I can see how she would imprint on her dad's & Aunt's covert but very dramatic actions. I remember many of the mundane things my parents did that I imprinted on.

IMHO, both of them had incredible courage to push through such immense problems and great force of will. It would have been so much easier to drop it all, burn the relationship and start over with someone else. His love for Alyssa is the binding glue at first.

Taking problems and learning from them is the way I prefer to go.

The mind is a very complex thing that controls every thing we do. Think about how the mind controls our heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, balance, etc. without any imput from our consensus thoughts. We judge others by what we see from our parents without consensus thoughts until we think about that person; like walking down the street and stepping a little farther away from someone we see as unclean or looking dangerous. If our subconscious part of our mind gets disrupted I could understand someone making irrational decisions.

Great story and very well written! Can't help but think the author experienced something similar or maybe some catastrophic incident in his life that led to this powerful, well depicted, emotional ride!

I, myself, have known families that have had to deal with family members that had emotional and mental disorders! It's devastating!

Thanks for a great read!

You created a situation where a reconciliation is totally implausible. Forcing a reconciliation simply means you totally lied about the character and reaction of the husband in first four parts. Your story depends on fairy dust to reach your result.

I really got into this. Having done my share of counseling, I must say you really nailed a lot of the aspects of discovery.

Great story.

Like the Peanuts cartoon: Pay Dr. Lucy 5 cents and get nonsense.

I noticed that Laura's "mental illness" revealed her default emotional actions of a mean, lying, cheating slut-whore. Her true personality is that. 10 cents please.

Great story of love, love almost lost, and then found again. Far more satisfying than ending it with a BTB chapter 3 ending. Love does at times triumph if husband can get by his ego and pride and have a little compassion and understanding. Does not make him a wimp or cuck by a real man.

Easy to say "cuckhold", but in each relationship, the conditions are different. How can anyone say how the story should have concluded. The man stated over and over his overriding concern was for "his" daughter. He placed her well being before his own as a devoted father would. Were there no child to in there marriage, we can only imagine the end could have been much different. Thanks to the author for his work.

Wow. I'm a big fan of both btb and reconciliation BUT this woman doesn't deserve either. She deserves to be alone away from the people she hurt. She knowingly fucked around on her family for half a year. A very disappointing ending imo.

3*

SamJones

With all the Negative Nazis Harsh words , you can't but love this story! Thanks for sharing this Fantastic Story with us! ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ WOOF!

I have to agree with TMSPTGR3. The characters has no consistency. No plausible reconciliation could happen after what she did. In the manual about How To write a believable reconciliation step one is "don't create a cheating scenario from which there is no way back". You did just that, No amount of psychobabble can take off the mind of the reader the atrocities of the first chapters. You ask too much to the reader.

You've crafted a complex story with a memorable plot. Perhaps not very typical in non-fiction life, but plausible nonetheless. A quibble: The reconciliation outcome could be made more complex and plausible if the mostly implied "mental illness" of the wife's character were made more explicit. Unless someone is really familiar with the self-destructive behaviors that can issue from a troubled mind, with motivating compulsions that are buried in the subconscious, her extreme behavior defies understanding. There's a lot of literature available on that subject.

On the whole, a good tale with complex development. Many thanks.

WTF, wuss out and take her back but leave the gene pool and the rest of us out of it. Get fixed before getting back with her.

I have lived through MH issues in my family, I get forgiveness and adaptation up to a point, but this story falls flat in the later chapters.

If I fell in love with a divorced female-who had not cheated on her husband-I would not ask or wonder about prior males her life.

Difference is the hypothetical divorced female his friend was talking about was not his former wife who cheated on him.

That was idiotic argument.

Their reconcilliation is fine with me. His decision. A child was involved

However anyone who believes he truly trusts her is delusional.

I am well acquainted with a number of couples that reconciled after one of them cheated. A comparison of their interaction with each other before and after the cheating definitely shows something is missing. My wife and I have been to scores of social gatherings with them. Anytime the cheater ends up in a one on one conversation with a member of the opposite sex the tension is evident to everyone.

We all know about your wedding and marriage. Puree shit, you don't have to tell us!!

YOU are living in a fairy tale world.

it is amazing what could happen. TK U MLJ LV NV

Perhaps our family move too many times during my formative years. Every couple of years limits the close sustaining relationships. Add in a bit of shyness, around new people and I dvdloped into a person fiercely loyal to those with whom I had bonded. I came to know I was loyal to a FAULT. A defining moment would arise when I had certain proof my loyalty was a one way street. Once that epiphany cleared my mind, all bonds were immediately severed. Copyrighted following line from Book of Daniel Chapter One - Daniel Carlson author. ''I chose the path which ending here, allowed for no return. All bridges once crossed, COLLAPSED, there was no need to burn.

Loyalty and trust protect and guard two souls against the raging winds...carved to perfectly be joined, one exists not without the other.

How does one trust one who is not loyal, how can you be loyal to one you cannot trust.

Fragile egos be damned whichever the gender.

TRUST CORNERSTONE OF ALL RELATIONSHIPS. LINCHPIN, KEY STONE, VITAL COMPONENT.

NOT EASILY BUILT UN-REPAIRABLE IF SHATTERED.

A month later, two felons who unfortunately self-medicated their serious schizophrenia with crack did a home invasion murder at their place, killing the wife. Of course, everyone understood that they couldn't help their mental illness, and their actions had to be forgiven and forgotten, because Carl has a grandson. That's why they weren't even convicted, and naturally, everyone introduced in this story were unanimous in their almost immediate inclusion in the family. The murderers were naturally welcomed to any family barbecues as guests of honour, because it would have been morally repugnant to hold their actions against them.

Laura would be fucking the slimeball, not holding her husband's coat.

If the cuck idiot ever got pissed at me calling his wife a pathetic slut, he would be more than welcome to cave his cuck face in on my fist.

What a bitch.

Your ability to develop characters is so far beyond the skill level of 98% of the writers here. OMG, I love your writing. I've read most of your stories twice so far, several months apart and, I have to say, I enjoy them even more the 2nd time. That just doesn't happen very often. It's also nice to read a story that has been edited so well. Very few mistakes in this long, but mesmerizing tale. It brought tears a couple of times. Very well done. Thank you for sharing. Easily a 5. 😊😊😊😊😊

What a masterful tale woven with intricate characters and emotional upheaval, well done.

Fuck yourself, Longhorn! Telling her husband and daughter to fuck off to hell is NOT something you can just get over. Cunt. 1*

Heeded your advice but read it anyway, well written but just could not get in a forgiving mode for this one , just slutitis and caught, the amount of disrespect and the time involved was to much for any forgiveness, 4 ⭐️ For the first parts and the composition,thanks.

Although I'm not totally convinced, I guess Lauren worked hard for the reconciliation. Even when less than satisfied with the ending, I recognize superior writing. It was an emotional, gripping story. Thank you.

I know a lot of people thinks she didn't deserve a second chance but I see it as well written and thought out story I know different situations deserve different endings this couple loved each other and that's what you portrayed. Bravo

You wrote a great story. Please do not listen to the haters.

Very well written and very persuasive. If it was the story of my marriage it would have ended at chapter three, because that’s when my cutthroat lawyer would have launched the “Take No Prisoners” divorce action against my cheating slut of a wife. But: The real author of this story decided on a ‘reconciliation’ ending, and with a little tear-jerking soul searching and a lot of psycho-babble, he created the ending he wanted. And Hey! It turned out to be a pretty good story. I enjoyed it, I liked it. Every one should enjoy a happy ending, right?

This thing just kept going with reality suspended several chapters back. If I was to write an epilog to this story it would be that the guy realizes what a hopeless cuckold he's been and ends up shooting his wife and then himself. Their kids end up being adopted by a loving family and with love and affection they totally forget about the two pieces of shit that brought them into the world. I can't give this story a low enough rating.

The deus exmachina was the rage that made her come out of the fog she was in , from that point she no longer need to cheat.

No slipups , just I now want to be faithful and true.

Is a terrible thing to have to deal with.

A master of words you are.

Otherwise, sayonara, you crazy, cheating bitch.

first find out if any of the kids are yours. Second start screwing anything in a skirt you wanted as she did whoever she wanted. Two wrongs don't make a right but why should she get away with it as some lame mental issue? Else just divorce the bitch. How can you live not knowing when she will again go off the deep end with some lame medical excuse for cheating?

I very much enjoy your stories. Just read first, first installment in 12 years. That made me reread this story - another top effort. LW stories are simple, straightforward tales - an event (usually infidelity), a discovery (usually rote, but sometimes a clever addition), and a reaction. When well written all are great, because I think the range of possible reactions is so broad. Your seem most realistic - anger and action from that anger, followed by reason. Looks like the new one is headed that way, I look forward to reading it.

I think for the third straight chapter, I can understand the underlying cause for the cheating, but I cannot, WILL not, excuse her conscious attitude toward him and her daughter.

At the start of Ch 4 you said, "For those who see no chance of a straying wife rehabilitating herself and regaining her husband's love, please don't read any further."

Better would have been not to WRITE any further, at least under this title.

I hate to be redundant, but I will! The STRAYING maybe can be rehabilitated, but not the ill treatment, especially as to the daughter.

I have to admit I read all of your comments on every story. Still, it’s amazing to me that we are reading this story on the same day, 14 years after it was written. Laura was fucked up, I don’t know how much I buy the psychobabble, but quit beating the writer up ... he wrote his tale, he warned you how it was going to end, and it’s WAY past time to revise a story over a decade old. Don’t be a dick.

Good writing regardless, Longhorn, and it’s great to see you back on the scene. Thank you.

You picked a tough subject, and on the whole you managed to sound convincing. I'm not sure about it though, because I've met a lot of mentally ill people - some slightly over the top and some completely over the horison. The problem for me is that psychotherapy isn't finite, which means that people are rarely 'cured'. They are given the tools to somehow function within society without causing too much distress, but cured?

So does that mean when it reoccurs - when the same triggers that set her off in the first place are pulled again - she will be expecting him to have an affair? And if he doesn't will she? After all, she can't help it. The mist moves in to mask reality and she doesn't know who she is anymore. She isn't cured. Understanding isn't a cure. Alcoholism can't be cured, but once it's understood by the alcoholic, it can be managed with supreme self-control, but that is a physical addiction as well as mental.

Perhaps in the end, all he can do is wait until the mists roll in and then have an affair of his own. She won't blame him, according to the shrink. So, to maintain the family and the daughter's peace of mind, he should find himself a honey and let himself go.

But then why even keep the marriage going? It's illogical, even taking the love and desires of all three parties into account. Logically and rationally - and the husband is nothing if not that - it seems better for all concerned to break up. He can find someone who isn't ill and who will honour their promises, his daughter can move on after a period of mourning and discover a true role-model, and the wife can find someone of lesser status who would at that level not trigger her the way her husband does.

Nobody gets everything the want, but they all get something: he can get a wife who doesn't remind him every day that she screwed some random loser and basically threatened the flames of hell on him and his daughter - if he does, then those are just sad, fading memories. The daughter gets away from the influence, insidious in its nature, of someone who can subconsciously spread moral infection without even realising it, and the wife has a chance of finding someone to love who doesn't - in her own mind - tower over her and trigger self-destructive impulses.

Understanding just shines a light on the problem. It is not a cure.

As the Jesuits say, "Give us a child until it is seven and it is ours for life," meaning that by the age of seven, a person has every moral response set in stone for the rest of their life. Hers were set by her parents by then.

You can't cure that.

you picked a deep topic.

people that 'aren't in control' could never be laura.

they need medicine. they need hormone treatments.

everything about laura showed she was a high functioning person. she had repressed memories, and a few hiccups. but she does not display the sort of control loss you'd witness in people like that grown man with a child's mind. i can accept a minor episode or two. that's common in psychological literature.

i find it way too convenient the ONLY time in laura's life where she 'lost all control' was her entire affair. and it stunk. every character sounded like the exact same person. they did not sound unique anymore. they sounded like....one author....pushing a plot resolve....with the EXACT same outlook on life. the same belief structure. the same sense of humor. the same whiny priest like proselytizing. go ahead, be mad at me for saying that. i have opinions too. lots in fact. i'm not afraid to tell you them too. i don't assume they are all correct though. i don't assume they work for everyone. but your characters did, all of them in fact.

anything could have helped this forgive feel reasonable. but you assumed 'pride bad', 'let it go', 'not her fault at all', 'men will think i'm a wimp'. i mean, it's all terribly cliche'. i don't know what's more cliche at this point....your beliefs in love....or how you view others that disagree with you. i disagree with you. i don't think he's a wimp nor a cuck. dude you wrote is a complete baller.

here, some tidbits that could have made this feel less forced. the wife accepting she had SOME control, and totally fucked that up. how about not hiding behind her episodes. how about the husband being less of a macho stone cold alpha? he could have at least acted more upset, argued with the therapist more about her weird obsession of playing match-maker and not a therapist. how about a diverse character rooster? they all said the same things to convince him. how about hypnosis reveal her having earlier episodes? shown some history of actual lost control....and not just her affair. so many easy fixes.

“If you met a divorced woman who you loved and had previous sex relations, would you turn her away? I didn’t think so.” This right here is just stupid. She’s divorced because the person you’re talking to divorced her, her “previous sex relations” were during the time said person was still married to the one you’re speaking to. Carl is an idiot.

The BTB crowd only believes they are right and hold to that absolutely. Sbrookes is an example. Nothing is absolute!

Why can't people work through issues? Is it not allowed in real life?

Quit believing every story needs to follow a formula and just read it for enjoyment.

BTB has gotten tiring.

I enjoyed the whole ride.

There are bits of the psychobabble I don't buy, but most of it rings true enough. Restoring trust is a tough, tough job and owning your mistakes is step 1.

I especially liked the way the daughter was written. She was very believable.

I should have stopped reading after chapter 2. I really hate when the good man becomes a worthless, wimpy, CUCK boy... FIRST 2 WERE GREAT THOUGH,

I'd venture a guess that most of the commenters on this website that are so quick to label a man who is able to forgive a transgression as a wimp that they are themselves self loathing wimps. I am proud of a man who will go to such great lengths to forgive and preserve a marriage particularly when the wife is contrite and repentant. 5 Stars for the who series.

Interesting, enjoyable, instructive. Thank you.

Why just the other day I remembered how my wife was having sex with a guy in a motel room while yelling at me on the phone. As I hung up, I thought, this is just a blip on the happy road of my life. And I remembered how common it was for perfect marriages and happy families to evolve from just this situation. Thank God I live in California where we are so wonderful and nothing ever goes wrong.

This is a tough one. My instinct is to say oh hell no. Set her on the curb and set her on fire. But I had a wife that was almost the same way. 4 years after the divorce she is a different person. I gave up on her. Was I wrong....maybe.

I’m sure you knew what kind of reaction you would get from many readers of LW, thanks for having the guts to write the story your own way, knowing it would not be popular. Thanks. KS

After being so well informed that you might not like it and why, seems to me we all got what we deserved. Good Job, Neighbor. Signed: BTW

Laura was not mentally ill in the sense that she was not bi-polar or a schizophrenic, and she had no traumatic brain injury. The concept of the story is a psychological problem resulting from her childhood. Sorry, but that just does not seem like a justification for what Laura's long-lasting behavior amd her words,

But, it is fiction, and I suppose it could happen. I am glad that the author tried to get into the deep recesses of adultery, and the reconciliation was believable and appropriate if you accept that Laura was so so psychologically damaged that she was not truly in control of her behavior.

Ditto. Not buying it.

GREAT story well done. thank you

Sanctimonious nonsense of a totally implausible nature

I can see certain things in this story that I can go along with and understand, the fact that Laura had repressed memories, feelings and emotional distress stemming from childhood isn't difficult to imagine. The fact that the death of a loved one so intermingled with those events and feelings could have caused some kind of traumatic psychotic break and compounded her undocumented depression is within the realm of reality. The fact that this just unhinged her entire personality for over 6 months though just seems absurd. The lying, deception and general lack of trust and respect for her family for a sustained length of time isn't something you can explain away by not being in her right mind. It took planning and the ability to deceive her husband continually with no apparent lapses or guilt? No waking up in the middle of the night thinking she was doing something wrong or realising the depth of the betrayal she was perpetrating? I mean, if it was a shift in personality because of the compounded traumatic events, there would have been some kind of realisation that something was wrong, some kind of awareness surely?

Regardless, the shrink talked through the route cause of her issues but never really attempted to talk about the whole deception within their relationship. He had confronted her multiple times and she vehemently denied any wrongdoing. What's to stop her from doing that again? What assurances can she give? Once the trust is gone, it's very hard to remain close with someone.

If this story doesn't make you stop and think then you need to change the batteries in your brain

Great story if you have never had a family member or close friend who has had to deal with mental demons you will probably be quick to judge those who have been through it. So many of those people who have these issues fall through the cracks and are lost to society, only to become homeless or worse. Try helping instead of judging them and you may find out some intersting things about them and yourself. If nothing else you will have done a great thing.

those that found the tale implausible such as by WretchedMonkey and TMSPTGR3 + others...

You have obviously never had to deal closely with someone who had sever mental and/or physical trauma and the mental issues (such as PTSD) that can follow. It can take months and years for some to find their way out of the debilitating fog that can result. Or breakthroughs can come in days or weeks with the right treatment, understanding and support. One can never tell. As a Vietnam veteran who suffered for years with survivor's guilt, nightmares and a disrupted life (lost wife and children--was able to reconnect to children years later) not to mention drug and alcohol abuse, in part because of the attitude, disdain and complete lack of understanding and treatment I received of the majority of the world (family, former friends, colleagues and most of all, the government). Even now, many still do not accept or understand the trauma that life, let alone war, can inflict an a human being.

So scoff if you will, but I have seen the quick breakthroughs of young, damaged veterans who were lucky (yes, luck plays a great deal in these situations) to received that RIGHT kind of treatment and understanding needed. And I've also experienced firsthand the years of pain and exile that can result in the WRONG treatment and understanding. With veterans and the VA health care system it is really luck. There are some GREAT doctors, nurses and other caring people in the system, and there are some real butt-heads there too!

Overall, I liked it again the second time through. But I still don't buy into the psychology of the reason for the cheating. It does help excuse it though.

If mental health issues resulted in physical abuse of the spouse, I doubt there would be as many comments praising the spouse for staying. If the mental health issues resulted in verbal abuse, I doubt the comments would advocate for staying. Assuming she legitimately is mentally ill, it is apparently praiseworthy for a spouse to stay when the abuse is "only" mental resulting from her cheating and lying over an extended period of time. I write as someone who is diagnosed as bipolar that nobody should tolerate abuse regardless of the reason. This is one reason the divorce rate is so high for marriages in which one spouse is bipolar. Understanding, sympathy and a desire to help are certainly reasonable responses. If the husband opts to stay in this situation I cannot say he is wrong, but I certainly don't praise his decision to accept the mental trauma he's experienced and may very well experience again. (The comparison made to having cancer is laughable. Unlike cancer, the actions of the wife in the story directly undermine the marriage and the husband's mental well-being. It's this kind of logic that made the ending so disappointing for me.)

Got back together,how.Did they remarry because they divorced.Also,he should not have taken her back.Her .Aunts death might have caused her to start an affair,but it wasn't the reason,she shunned him when he begged her not to go out,or why she screamed down the phone at him

Nice happily ever after fairy tale. It works only if you don’t believe in concepts such as “right and wrong”. Nicely written, though.

Yeah, not buying the "mental illness" defense put forth by the author to excuse her cheating and overall bad behavior towards her husband and daughter.

Did Laura have some fucked up ideas about what was acceptable behavior? For sure, but nothing about her so-called physiological state of mind was such that she was incapable of discerning and choosing between right and wrong.

She chose and made bad decisions and her therapist provided her with a laundry list of excuses for her bad behavior and at no time made her take ownership and responsibility for her bad choices and decisions. Laura fucked up her life not the world around her. Own your fuckedupness!

beautiful storie loved it made me cry. Its a great love the two share and still together you came out stronger in a bind.

She's just a cheating wife and that's all she is. You ruined the story by letting her off the hook! 1 star for all of it!

Enjoyed reading the story and like a happy ending. Would a husband be able to forgive a wife who cheated for this length of time even given the mental issues she had. I'm not so sure.

To the commentators who always want to BTB you people must lead such miserable lives that any opportunity to put down someone, even someone in a fantasy world, are truly sad.

Laura's father has a longtime relationship with his sister-in-law (who is a widow) since his wife is not in the least interested in any sexlife with her husband. All involved should be happy with this win-win situation. And now the American bigotry kicks in. The famous Gordian knot should have been cut by cutting the fathers balls off. A true win-lose situation. Beside this bullshit an easy writing and reading. Thanks shorthorn_07

shoehorned RAAC

1*

I normally prefer reconciliation endings but not here. Im sorry but what she did was too much to get past. Also the therapist is an idiot and hated her explanation when he said people will think of me as a cuckold/wimp. If you are already thinking that, then theres a good chance that you are one and the husband was definitely one.

I love it when a couple get back together; even so it was very difficult to comprehend the reasons for Laura,s infidelity but, as they say, 'all,s well that ends well'.

So basically a psychotic serial murderer isn't to blame for all those women he raped and butchered. He didn't choose to be a psychopath, so we can't blame him for all those deaths. No need to punish him. We should be giving him the tools to overcome his unfortunate mental health issues.

Why criticize a well written story just because you don't like the way it turns out?

You ever watch movie you can't stand? Turn it off, that's what I do.

The way I look at this story is when he reconciled with his wife she was basically a new person. It gets 5 stars from me I even had a tear at the end. Good story

Well after reading the story I at one point early on thought he should kick her into the burning fires of hell. But as the story progressed I could see how she in her subconscious was seriously in trouble because of her mother, fathers affair with her aunt Ruth. After the death of her aunt she was unprepared to handle the situation mentally. The year and half or so she was in treatment led me as the reader to understand how salvaging the marriage was a solution that would not only benefit Laura but Mark and Alyssa. The story takes a broken marriage from the gates of hell and through patience, understanding and forgiveness to that restored family unit, much stronger than before the cheating. I am going to give the story a 5 as the writing was excellent. I know that there will some who say he is a cuckold, but in my opinion in the end he was able to rise above it all and become once again a trusting and loving husband.

I thought the story was very well written, as is the case with all of LongHorn’s stories. He gets the reader invested in the characters and you want to see how the story ends. So, in that regard, I give the story five stars.

However, I found the conclusion of the story to be terrible. Didn’t like it at all. I felt the therapist pretty much created the backstory that got Laura off the hook. So, to that end, I intensely disliked the story. I don’t mind reconciliations if they’re earned. I honestly didn’t feel this one was. But I still think it’s a five star story. The characters and plot are LH’s so they are his to do with as he pleases. Just like I don’t automatically give a reconciliation story a one, I don’t give every BTB story a five.

Enjoyed this series!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wow, this story twisted psychology to essentially give a woman a free pass for her infidelity, lies, and other inexcusable behavior. The unconscious mind doesn’t suddenly take over people’s bodies and take their choices away. She knew exactly what she was doing and I’m going to laugh at him when she’s back under another man in a year or two.

I'm not sure if I've ever read the mix of mental illness in these type of stories, but it was certainly an interesting spin on things.

I'm late 60s, and this one made me cry. Can't remember anything else in this site ever doing that.

IMHO it seems to me that Laura's mental health issues were at the root of her affair,

If you've never been through someone close to you dealing with a mental disorder then it's VERY easy to dismiss this story. The brain is a crazy thing that can deal with so much and yet, at the same time, it is very fragile. Even a small chemical change in the body can have monumental effects on how the brain functions. LongHorn actually did a really good job of navigating through the various aspects of Laura's mental issues and showed that it wasn't any one thing, but rather many smaller things that built up to a tipping point. Well done!

Second read still bollocks.

The mental stuff is bull. All this is about is a wimpy cuck taking back a slimy cheating whore. He's a pussy and she's a slut. This is not worth reading or rating!

I was kinda of hoping for a twist that the stronger version of Laura with her strong self confidence now, thinks she can do better then dorky engineer and the divorce happens.

Your story, your universe.

Extremely well written, complex, and very mature.

Forgiveness happens through emotional maturity. Shouting "cuck" portrays immaturity.

This story slowly, deliberately, and meticulously walked us through their thought and emotional thought processes, well done!