All Comments on 'My Story'

Divorce and go on with lives

Kids have to know something wrong affects them

Lesson to them? Don't do anything just both suffer

Don't make difficult decisions

Etc

Your worst story

Intense story and talented writer. Thank you

Until the wife's character was fleshed out, I was of the opinion of dumping her.

But as the story continues, she becomes more likeable, real and comes across as a nice person who did about the worse thing they could do to their spouse.

That said, the husband drove himself insane over analyzing what happen. He made it a ritual to replay and analyze his situation even after he had all the facts. Thinking things through and then start all over again. Why?

IMHO, I believe reason the husband couldn't let it go is because he wanted to punish his wife. He couldn't do that unless he kept reminding himself of her cheating.

The way the husband ran that tape over and over again in his head, he purposely closed his heart to his wife to punish her.

Grieving for loss is normal. The loss he felt was justified. But grieving forever in not normal.You can't tell someone the way they feel. You can tell them what they are doing is wrong. Grieve and move on. His self-inflicted long time suffering was just stupid.

The only wimp is one who doesn't make a firm choice either way. You want to call it quits, just do it. You want to stay together, suck it up. But make a choice.

no star. good story as noted by feed back. you seem to effect many. slap hapy papy#9

Just another whore with loose legs.

You should've done something drastic like destroying the guy mentally and physically. The wife took the fall alone wasn't enough to get revenge.

One of the more true to life stories I have read on this site

Not a bad story but not necessarily good either. For my taste, it was certainly way too long-winded. At times it seemed like the guy talked on and on about absolutely nothing relevant to the story. But the main reason I didn’t care much for it was the protagonist himself. He almost seemed to relish the pain inflicted by his wife’s cheating behavior, to the point of martyring himself with his own self righteousness. Okay, so the bitch cheated on you. Dump her and move on. Or not. But don’t wallow in your own self pity until you’re as worthless as she is.

Jacob may not have been able to recover the marriage, but Stacy’s fling and pregnancy from that fling was definitely the underlying cause of the destruction of the marriage.

Who is to say what is wrong or right

in a situation like this?

It's a personal decision

not a universal one.

This was a powerful story

and very well written.

Jacob has my fullest sympathy.

Even though I would've acted differently.

Top ratings from me.

After thinking about this story, I just can not imagine that a reasonable solution to the situation could not be found that would provide a compromise among all affected parties.

While I am not a fan of counseling, a competent counselor will recommend divorce or permanent separation when appropriate. Working with the couple a plan to maintain two households in close proximity would seem doable. Both parents work and their joint income is substantial. Being self employed he has a flexible work hours and could be a stay at home dad while the children are in his custody. The homes would be adequate for all the children to live for extended periods so shared domicile custody would work. He may have to subsidize her household but he would also have his children around far more often than the typical arrangement. Both are devoted parents. Having the children grow up in a loveless environment is not a prudent decision for loving parents. The parents not having day to day contact could lower the tension between them and make joint activities with the children possible. Finally, with a planned divorce when the empty nest occurs, each could have a retirement plan so they are financially secure when the inevitable divorce occurs. Each parent would be free to pursue their personal lives without interference from the other. Finally, reconciliation is always an option.

Of course the plan would be a binding legal document.

Serious story... I can relate to the CHEAT but not the BIO kid, luckily.

And here is the MISS in this story... He discovered the CHEAT when is daughter was 13. From that point on until empty nester was ~10yrs. The young children saw the change, they saw the guest bedroom, they knew there was trouble under that roof. They had to see daddy's disdain for mother - no more loving touches, snuggles, hugs between them. The did not know why but they saw it - daily between their parents.

Is that what the parents want to project onto their kids and a 'normal' loving relationship?

What damage did the new 'hate-norm' do to the kids values; and the kids future relationship?

I can tell you I stuck it out for my kids in a relationship of her cheating. My boys nearing 40 now still have not married. One told me he never wanted to endure the pain he saw in my eyes. Our facade relationship showed no spontaneous love - has harmed my kids values and that is on me - in hindsight, I should have walked becoming poverty weekend father. I write this as listed but Annon...

So she lied to protect her big mistake ,he raised another’s child. A 2 night mistake and13 years later. And her loving him he couldn’t forgive her even with 3 new children added. So they both paid for this. Right or wrong this is no way to live your short existence on this planet. A really sad tale. She was sorry but couldn’t express herself to him. Since this was a one time error why punish yourself and her.

Reading this again didn't change my mind. Stacy, the lieing, cheating, wife ruined the marriage.

This is such a sad comment on how cheating kills everything it touches, the lies and secrets can be worse then anything else.

He was like those mortification priests - flagellant. The man was deeply disturbed and corrupted his family’s life. No decisions, not even for the daughter. Stacy may have instigated the “fire”, he was however, the one who kept feeding it.

A sad, grim, tale.

We are used to quick retribution or reconciliation. And move on to the next story.

In real life, people tend to draw out the pain till it numbs completely. Detachment kills hope. I think it better to move on. The calculations on money saved or kids protected finally comes at a great cost.

It's scary.

This history is a real example that one can know a series of facts, realize things that are almost certainly true, in one's mind, but it doesn't mean anything if it doesn't change how one feels. Knowing that she didn't tell him about her cheating and the true parentage of their daughter because she was terrified of him leaving wasn't enough to overcome the feelings those facts generated in him. And it's sad. Incredibly so.

I think the metaphor of the chemistry experiment was incredibly important and an excellent visual. Most people don't experience a relationship that feels PURE. They go through a series of them and each one colors their world a little bit more, changes how they think and feel, how much trust they put in others and alters their perceptions. When one has a relationship that's pure, though, one places incredible trust, faith, and emotion into it. It's mean to be, soulmates. There are no doubts, there is no hesitation, and there especially is no holding back. It's incredibly comforting and... well, pure. Once something that was thought to be pure is found to be faulty, contaminated, though...? The fall is just from such a great height that it can't be recovered from and that's what happened here. All the trust was broken, all the faith was replaced by doubts, all the memories were infected, and that's why the love was lost. Just like in the chemistry experiment, every memory, every emotion, every belief in who and what they both were to one another was tainted.

This was a really powerful but incredibly sad history. Jidoka has a lot of courage to put that much of himself out there for people to read. I wish it had turned out much better but sometimes it just can't.

Well, a truly depressing tale of broken lives, love and deceit. Sadly an all too familiar tale in real life.

Well written, powerful and it shows the terrible effects of cheating and unfaithfulness. No one is a winner, everyone looses, nothing remains the same and trust is never regained. No matter what is said or promised, there will always be that doubt which eats into your soul. There will always be a grayness, a fog, a damp mist, that filters out the amazing colours of the world.

Amazing that all the women know yet the husband is callously, coldly and deliberately misled and lied to over years.

Why do writers torture themselves and their readers with such disturbing tales. Is there not enough misery in the world without authors adding to it. Love and sex should be happy, enjoyable situations not depressing moments of nothingness. If one wants to write about infidelity it should be mutually agreed; darling I wish to fuck or be fucked by another person, okay as long as I can watch. Everybody ends up happy.?

the reason for their divorce was lack of communication in as much as the wife wanted more sexual activity than her husband could give. A woman,s sexual life is quite a complex matter whereas a man,s is a simple ejaculation. Where women can enjoy several orgasms men are finished after one or two. I shall qualify this by saying that where the male is involved with a new partner the added attraction of a fresh exciting body can inspire him to many orgasms in each session which also brings his new partner the same reward. Stacey and Jacob, at the start of their marriage would have been in the same situation, lots of sex with Jacob able to bring Stacey multiple orgasms with ease; but, gradually, once the newness wore off Jacob would find it increasingly difficult to achieve more than one climax which ,of course, hampered Stacey,s pleasure. Even though Jacob may well be pleasuring his wife three times a week this will not be enough to bring her complete satisfaction.

Once a woman has climaxed one time she remains on a high eagerly awaiting, and able, to enjoy further orgasms. With a fresh, rampant partner this will happen, but with an apathetic, familiar male the desire for further congress is muted; the male enjoys his climax, believes his female partner has been similarly satisfied and all is well with the world. Not so; In this particular story Jacob leaves his wife on a high wanting more. When she doesn,t get it, disappointment steps in and gradually, probably unthinking, her feelings begin to gnaw at her and the need for further satisfaction kicks in. She remembers Jacobs lust when first married and reasons a fresh strange male will have the same, necessary, desire to last long enough to give her truly, satisfying, continuous orgasms. Thus when the opportunity arises, in the shape of Glen, long standing discontents arise and it seems a simple solution to slake her lust ,and at the same time involve her husband. Unfortunately for the poor, needy wife, her hubby is not on the same wave length. Perhaps if she had talked the situation through with Jacob they would still be married. Men are more likely to agree to some extra-curricular activity if it is suggested to them before hand. Thus because of Jacob,s ignorance of his wife,s need the marriage ended. 'Jacob I love you and your lovemaking, your cock is everything I need but...

When I make love to my wife I give her plenty of foreplay; with tongue, fingers and a plastic test tube I can give her several small climaxes, when she is ready for the 'big one, lol' she say,s 'come and get me' which tells me she wants penetration. Further orgasms with my trusty cock and she gives me the okay to enjoy my own climax. After I roll off, exhausted, she says in a small voice, 'can you do it again' Women! insatiable.

Stacy carried out her unprotected, no holes barred slutfest in full knowledge that she was in the fertile period of the month and that conception was likely. She not only punished her husband with her sexual betrayal, but sought to conceive another man's child to add to her revenge. You could say it came back to bite her in the ass.

Maybe hubby should have concentrated on this aspect of Stacy's treachery and not the physical sex.

Fuck Him - everyone makes mistakes

Husband was right to stay married till the kids were grown. This gave him the time to secure his finances and spend time with his children. It must have been extremely hard to be in the same room as his slut wife. He also took time to make HER miserable as possible!!! I would have sought out and invited her lover to dinner at home with wife. This would have been wonderful!!!

this story is one of the best here.

It feels autobiographical. It feels real. Also, it feels like a real outcome.

Despite the abundance of ninja and supermen stories, all the way through to the males(?) who willingly step aside to let the women in their lives disrespect them, the truth for many who finds themselves the unwitting recipient of circumstances like this is something else in the real world.

How do you move through life, given a situation, not of your making, but that impacts your very being? How do you protect the people you love, the life you have built, and even your very own soul? It is never easy, and you really cannot fix everything. Just do your best.

This story is about that middle ground. It may be that it's total fiction. Somehow, though, I don't feel that's true. If that's the case, then I am not really surprised that this excellent author has stopped contributing. I feel that he has said everything he needs to say. If this reflected his reality, then in actual fact, it's therapy. He's purged his soul, shown us all who he is, and has moved on to living his life instead of pondering it's meaning.

For me... I love this one. It utterly destroys the concept of anything like what she did being just meaningless. It shows that lies and betrayal can never really be equalised. It points out the truth that disrespect and selfishness, once discovered, will reveal the betrayer to be as selfish and shallow as they really are.

She may always have needed him as her partner, the one to support her and make her feel whole as her life faded into her older years, but she still never did love him as much as she professed. She couldn't have, it's not possible. Even given the dirty weekend, the sordid, putrid dalliance, her bigger crime was that she never gave him the respect and honor of knowing the truth. That's why she never did say sorry, until it was forced out of her. She didn't think he deserved that much.

This is what all you modern, 'open' types try to sell through your stories... You will have people believe that they can have their cake and eat it too, and that you deserve it. You call that love. It... is... NOT. It's a lie. All your ravings that say that people are more complex than just sticking to vows... It's just justification, diversion, and bullshit.

A story like this, reveals the lie you are peddling for what it is.

We, as human beings, are unique. There is no other species, no other entity (other than the concept of divinity that we more than likely have just created ourselves) that have what we have. That difference is that we have a memory, and more importantly, the ability to formulate and understand abstract ideas. This sets us apart from animals. We don't have to respond to base instincts to survive, and have built ourselves a system to cater for that. When we ignore those higher functions, we lower ourselves to the status of animals. That's what the wife in this one did. That's what the players do, and it's what I choose to resist.

That resistance is the very foundation that has built civilisation. Playing with that set of rules is crumbling away that foundation. Doing so... is delivering a much worse future for following generations.

I understand that this story will never be the top point scorer here. The audience is full of those seeking fire and brimstone, or for him to forgive and forget. In that environment, there will always be detractors. That doesn't mean that this is any lesser of a story, it just says more about the state of the world. And just because a crowd rejects a truth, does not make that truth any lesser, or the crowd right in its thinking.

Well done, author. This is an immensely brave story.

"Is Jessica my daughter? No. She is not your biological daughter. But she is your daughter in every other way. Please don't ever doubt that."

Don't doubt that? You aren't her actual father, but don't doubt that you've been defrauded into paying all her expenses and doing the things her real father should have done? Imbecilic writing. As for those who think it's "realistic", all he did was model an exceptionally disfunctional marriage for the children. In real life you need to be honest with the children, both for the sake of honesty and because you want them to learn the lesson of the consequences of betrayal.

Tone it down a bit. Don't make it personal.

This story is great because, with a little emotional imagination, you can easily understand both the husband and wife.

The husbands story is very well fleshed out. He is understandably unable to forgive his wife because she committed one of the worst offenses a women can: Paternity fraud. Why it isn't considered a crime in any civilized society, worthy of serving prison time, is beyond me. Just like a rape victim, he will never be able to look at his abuser the same again. She is a different person to him. That others were conspiring is simply adding salt to the wound.

Here is how I see the wife's perspective: After a falling out with her husband, she goes out and does something really stupid, in a large part to punish him. That is why she goes back the second time.

The husband comes back, and they manage to mend things. She is already regretting her actions, because somewhere in her mind, she understands that she was abusing his trust and her own sexual power to punish him. She overreacted, he didn't deserve it, and in an effort to protect his feelings, and herself from losing him, she decides to keep her betrayal secret. And oh, whoopsies, she gets pregnant. Now she is already in deep, so her solution, instead of coming clean, is to hope and pray the child is her husband's. 3 months after the child is born, she learns it is not. All along she has been talking to her friend and her mother, and I have to guess that she has been given poor advice and rationalizations. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, you will break him, you will lose him, you will be a single mother, etc, etc.

But here is the problem with that kind of thinking: SHE knows, and she does have a conscience. The subject must have come up fairly regularly with whomever she spoke to on the phone. Otherwise "he knows" would not have been enough of an explanation as to what she was referring to. She must have been living with both guilt and fear. For years and years. That is also why she sticks around until he finally ends it all, and why she doesn't date or seem happy after he leaves. I can't say if some of it was out of love for her (ex)husband, but for at least a very large part, it is guilt. She is punishing herself, because she knows she deserves it.

You both analized this story with great skill and interpretation way beyond what I had come up with while reading. I'm almost sorry that I read them as your indepth observations left me even more distressed than I was already at the end of the story. One thing that stuck with me after their confrontational conversation was her inability to explain why she stayed for a second day and night if she already knew she made a terrible mistake. I also wondered when it was that she began to worry about the possibility of being pregnant. Surely she had to have been aware of the danger of it happening, if not the first time, she had to have been aware the next day and night. Definitely a tortured story that I hope was fiction and not autobiographical. Signed BTW

In the end, it was indeed you who ruined two lives. She did all the right things to heal your marriage and you stayed rigidly enveloped in your anger. Sad,

He destroyed the marriage? He is at fault? Fuck no! And fuck you to everyone who has written that.

The more all-in you are emotionally, the more difficult to recover from betrayal. I fell in love at first sight I was no fool. I took my time. It was months before I asked her out. We went slowly. She was a lovely girl and I was her first. When I asked her to marry her, she cried, "I can't," and ran away. She never explained. I later discovered she had been dating another guy behind my back for nearly a year. Her family knew. Our friends knew. Nobody told me.

It took me years to recover, and I never fully did. I've been married for several decades to a good women. Our kids have grown and I am looking forward to grandchildren. But as much as I love my wife, I have never opened myself emotionally to her. I want to. I can't. I really have tried. I've even been through therapy. But I am emotionally damaged. Somehow, the pain of that betrayal cut out my ability to feel love. You'd never know if you met me. I fake tenderness. I feel nothing. I'd give almost anything to have that part of me back. I am an old man who dearly loves his wife but has to fake emotion with her. It's like I lost a leg. You can get a prosthesis, but it can't replace a warm, living leg. You will always have an unfeeling lump of cold plastic and metal in its place.

That is what happened to the main character. He was broken. He did not break himself. His wife did. Some men can recover. Others can't. Maybe if he had loved her less, he could have recovered. But like me, he never did, no matter how much he wanted to. The damage his wife caused was too great. And saying he should recover is like telling a man with a prosthesis that it's his fault he has no feeling in his "leg." No asshole, he has no feeling in his leg because he has no leg. The man in this story has no feeling in his heart because the love of his life cut it out.

Good read. I think they deserved each other. Two miserable people plodding through life. I suspect in the real world, the lack of obvious love and communication between husband and wife would had serious and negative repercussions on the emotional development of the children. For a guy who had to write down 150 questions for his wife to answer, I'm surprised this one wasn't on the list: "Are you sorry for what you did to me and our family?"

A very well written story, though terribly sad in the husband's shortcomings and what that did to their life.

That she cheated is reprehensible. That he could not move past that single mistake was most sad.

HE punished his entire family for his ego.

Though she cheated ,the problem was him.He caused himself hours of anguish by not divorcing her or by not forgiving her.As for years of lies there were not any,she just kept the knowledge to herself ,that is not a lie.

Very Sad bordering on Depressing Story!..It's like I was reading an Autobiography...Very Sad none the less..5 Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

He was a cry baby and whiner. He made is life's ambition to be unhappy. Sad.

Too much babbling in this story. The reader didn't need to hear every thought that he had.

And we wonder if the sad truth is this? What became obvious while reading the comments was this: not very many of the commentators have had very much traumatic experience in their lives. This really is about his story. Its not the story of love, btb, raac, etc. It is is story. When you read it like that it makes so much more sense. I have read a story where the husband just walked away-and it got plummelled like no tomorrow. Heck I even got a hate email. Go figure. Such is annonymous. I have been trying to get the coward to email me again using a good email address. Oh well, but I have to say the two stories that are most true life were picked apart. What does that say about us readers?

I agree with anonymous 06/16/20. To really appreciate the story you have to have experienced the trauma regardless of which side of the trauma you were. A well written lifelike story (is it a true one?). And despite the sadness of the breakup it seemed to be a relief at the end. Like so many true to life stories, it usually is down to fear and poor communication that lead to a painful breakup/existence. Don't forget there are rarely any winners in these situations. 5* for this one. About time we had some new stories from you

PS for those who know all but know nothing of life i have posted this comment with my name so by all means rip me to shreds, I really don't care.

So bitterly dejecting, frustrating! Despite thousands of years of evolution, of intellectual and scientific advancement, and yet, mankind still blindly, stupidly grapples with self-made demons and ghosts; finally reducing itself to the level of a mindless donkey.

You may have heard or even seen in the movies how a donkey was used to turn a water pump in the ground by pulling a pumping lever strapped to its back in a never-ending circle around the pump jack. A carrot was dangled in front of the donkey, tied to a stick from the donkey's shoulders but just out of reach, to entice the donkey to try and reach the carrot by walking toward it. Thus the donkey would continue to pull the pump arm around and around the pump jack, walking in a deepening groove in the ground, hour after hour, day after day, never gaining the carrot. Not long after, even when the carrot was removed, the donkey would continue the labor, mindlessly walking the grooved circular path, until the day it finally drops in death.

Even today, men still do the exact same thing. The carrot? Perfection. The perfect conduct demanded of woman, of wife, to never make a mistake - to never stray, never stumble, never fall, not even once.

Like the donkey, even when finally realizing perfection is not attainable, that we are all human, and that more likely than not we all make mistakes, yet still we march that grooved, never-ending circle demanding the carrot no longer there, until we drop dead in our tracks.

Let me try and put the question into one easy to understand, objective perspective. If you should ever stray, stumble or even fall, realizing the human mistake you have committed, can you find it in yourself to forgive yourself? To learn from your mistake and have the character to never commit that mistake again? A little reflection should invariably lead to the conclusion: yes, of course - I will find a way to forgive myself and dedicate my energies to being an even better person. And you resolutely pick yourself up and resume the straight and narrow path. You have overcome the carrot and the never-ending circle. You have evolved beyond the donkey.

Now, if you can do that for yourself, why can't you do it for your spouse??

(or as demanded in other circumstances, your own parent, or child, or friend ...).

Clearly, I am not talking about the person who willfully or deliberately deceives and betrays you, and not just once. Self-preservation, self-defence, survival demands you distance yourself from someone intentionally causing you injury and pain.

But a singular occasion of weakness, of bad judgment, of mistaken intention or even vengeful need or selfish desire is nontheless the result of human frailty, imperfection, immaturity, lack of wisdom or experience or knowledge. A mistake that person will carry and regret the rest of their lives, spent in attempting to obtain forgiveness, absolution, acceptance, understanding.

A frail human, imperfect, that a real human could not deny forgiveness for once having strayed, stumbled, fallen or having been preyed upon.

Shame - you selfish, stupid, mindless donkey.

Get over yourself.

She fucked a guy a few times over a weekend...20 years ago.

Of course, because it's a story, we see that she got pregnant and, because two things are NEVER different: they never get abortions and the guy always treats the woman "fairly" in the divorce, he makes two lives miserable for 20 years.

Oh, and because women can't live without their man, she stays. Never happens in real life, where anyone selfish enough to have an affair sure ain't staying around for 20 years of....neglect.

I've read this story a couple of times. I didn't read past the hate fuck thing this time. Just feels like a story from 1970 vs 2020, and not a believable one at that.

I'm in my late 50s. So, I've been around awhile. I really don't know why I like this genre. I guess I like it when it's done right, with developed characters, interesting plots, tension, and eroticism. This story is more like a Western, no deviation from the central theme and the guy is the singular focus and wields all the power in the relationship. Anyone who is married knows that's not the case.

Men have a significant legal advantage because they have the majority of the wealth. But that's changing. Many women make more than their husbands or at least around as much, so not the unrestricted access to the joint wealth, like in, say, All in the Family or Leave it to Beaver. And, please, can we not use the "real estate" career because it's done online mostly or the secretary: People don't have them anymore.

The lives of the characters seem untouched by modernity or credulity.

Sad not that they divorced but that they both lived miserable lives. Move on grow up be adults

I didn't like this although it is clearly a 5 star story. People, including women, aren't perfect and make mistakes. In this case she made a huge mistake at a low point in their marriage. She regretted it all her life and didn't tell him because she didn't want to lose him. What would you do because don't say it could never happen to you. A one time lack of judgement over a weekend away is possible for anyone. She obviously loved him and instead of him running away and sending an e mail he should have sat down and told her he knew and asked her why she did it all these years before and why she had never confessed. He obviously loved her and could have forgiven her for her long ago mistake. They say time is a healer and to forgive is divine. In this case they stayed together for a long time and I think there was a case for them to work it out. He never gave them a chance and I know all the gung ho women haters will say he should have burned her immediately but real life and love isn't like that. Still 5 for a very well written story.

whether or not this story is true or not, its author gave many truisms which are so well laid out and explained spectacularly well. I would make a couple of diversions from commenters. Just because a story doesn't end the way you want it to, doesn't make it a bad story. I notice that all you negative anonymous commenters never submit a story. If you think you can do better, put yourself out there and let the morons of this sight rip you to shreds. This is life. This is his life. He gets to tell it. 2. I agree with him. Stacy didn't end their marriage. She was willing to stay, even in a bad relationship. It was he that stopped it. And probably rightfully so. If I could give you 10*'s, I would . Probably in the top 10 stories, I have ever read here or elsewhere on the subject, maybe the top 3. This ought to be required reading for every person about to be married.

Most importantly: 1) hubby did not know about wife's adultery, 2) hubby did not know the daughter is a bastard child of his wife's adultery, and he accepted the little girl as his own. Those are the minimum necessary requirements to make a man a cuckold. NOTHING else does!

Listen up, you stupid cunts! If a man finds out TODAY about your cheating on him 20 years ago, you have just CHEATED TODAY!! He has not yet had the benefit of 20 years of experience living with the knowledge of your lying, cheating, adulterous, whoring conduct. You are a liar every day for 20 years AND a cheating, adulterous, skank whore AS OF TODAY!

A MISTAKE is giving someone 50 cents change instead of the correct 60 cents change. Letting a complete stranger plunge his naked cock over and over and over again, for two days, into your cunt, your mouth, even your ASSHOLE, and defiling your body with his sperm, inside, outside, in your mouth, your womb, impregnating you with his vile seed -- that's a betrayal of humanity, of dignity, of trust, of love, of the soul. That is an unforgivable, abominable, vicious, hateful assassination of your own marriage.

I truly liked your other works, but this one is just pathetic.

Yet another sad egotistical husband, puts his own feelings before those of his kids, don't try and tell me his selfish attitude didn't impact on their upbringing and happiness. Yes I could understand his initial feelings of hate, if he had left and divorced her I would have been in his corner. But to live together like that, it must have been hell for all of them, not an ounce of happiness in the place, regardless of what he said. I bet the kids remained close to their mother even after they left home, whilst drifting away from a bitter, twisted father. Forgiveness is a virtue, he could have lived happily with them all, into his old age, instead he ruined 6 lives, all of them would be scarred for life, because of one awful weekends mistake, over 20 years before. It wasn't like she had been a serial cheater, who didn't deserve forgiveness. It was really well written and I gave it 5*, but in actual fact I hated it. Stories that leave children's lives in tatters always upset me and leave me feeling depressed, this was the worst ever.

Too drawn out, boring and depressing. What was the point? Nothing I guess. Waste of a lot of time.

Helen. Helen, Helen, Helen. How very modern American of you. An unhappy marriage cannot be hidden from the children, so divorce is better. BULL! Families have for centuries had unhappy marriages, but the parents have been able to hide it from the kids. Now, would the kids’ lives have been better if both parents were lovey-dovey? Probably. But a bitter divorce, with both parents spitting at each other at every chance they get is probably much worse.

Example: my parents (far east asian) may or may not have ever truly loved each other in the Western romantic manner. They were the last generation, who came to adulthood just during/after the War, who had just a little of the idea that a marriage MUST be loving. No, most of that generation was marriage was far more for economic reasons. True love was saved for the kids, and IF the parents romantically loved each other, then all the better... but it wasn’t required. Hell, my mother’s friends kept telling her how lucky she was that her husband didn’t get drunk, gamble, or beat her (which I guess was a problem in THEIR marriages).

My parents showed very little/any affection for each other. But they NEVER fought in front of the kids. They sacrificed their time for us kids. They spent every spare dime on us kids. They put 3 kids through university on a lower-middle-middle class paycheck during the early-mid 1980s.

On the converse, my American wife’s parents, from all signs, loved each other very very very much. I mean in their 60s they were giving each other mushy looks and touches, and talking about “...my LOV-er...”, with disgusting lick of lips. But they were the absolute shittiest parents of anyone I personally know. Mother couldn’t cook worth a damn (and often didn’t cook, period) so kids started cooking when they were 5-6 years old. Parents (mother really, but father went right along with it because in his love-struck eyes, wife could do no wrong) MADE kids start doing their own laundry by about the same time. Parents/mother didnt buy clothes for growing kids, so oldest started sewing clothes for her and siblings when she was 9-10 years old, using grandma’s pre-war Singer sewing machine and their father’s old clothes (she started because she was teased by other kids for habitually wearing the same clothes for several days in a row). Parents took kids on 3 hour hike up mountain when kids were 5, 7 and 8 with a six-pack of beer... and no water, so kids were forced to eat melting snow (i.e. parents thought of their own needs, but not the kids). Father beat kids with buckle end of belt, with my wife having scars on her back to this day. Father beat oldest two when, because he kept the house so cold, he found them lying in the hallway above the heater register one night, which was warm from the pilot light. And the list goes on. My wife got into the best of the state universities, which at that time was ~$3000/tuition, and get this, parents wouldn’t sign for a student loan because “girls don’t need a college education”. Yup, parents loved each other, but should never of had kids.

Yup, happy romantically loving couple, but terrible parents, beats indifferent couple who puts the kids happiness above their own — NOT!

End rant.

First, let’s do the math. When Jacob’s mom passed he’d been married 15 years. He was ~24 when he married, and Stacy ~22. In the second year of their marriage they had a rough patch, so ~13 years ago, which is when Stacy met Robert Paulsen. So the daughter ~12 years old. Stacy says she suspected the daughter wasn’t his when she was ~6months old, and knew when a blood test came back 5-6 years later. Therefore she has positively known for ~6 years. And Tricia knows, and Stacy’s mom knows. At his mother’s death Jacob has apparently known about the cheating for several months.

Jacob is peeved because he feels, not just that Stacy cheated once (or even 2 days, though that makes things worse), 13 years ago, and lied to him about that. No, he’s pissed because feels he’s been lied to every second of every minute of every day for the last, at least, 6 years. AND to top it off Stacy was the biggest whore that Robert Paulsen ever met, but, apparently, not such a whore for Jacob, as demonstrated when he first hate-fucks her, including anal, after finding out, and she, surprise to Jacob, likes it. AND instead of he telling Jacob, who really SHOULD know, she informs her mother and Tricia, leaving Jacob in the dark.

Now, is that rational? I’m not Jacob. For me, in the intervening 13 years Stacy has been a supermom and a superwife. One weekend? I’m not sure how I would react. Obviously Jacob had a HUGE reaction, as demonstrated by him getting violently ill just by the knowledge of her infidelity (while in other stories the husband gets sick after getting roaring drunk on JD). This is important — He got physically and violently ill, for hours, JUST from the knowledge. It REALLY affects him.

Me? I don’t think I’d react quite so strong. And I don’t think I’d think that every minute of every day since her infidelity is a lie. But the author has Jacob feeling that way, and that’s just the way it is. How do you make him “un-feel” that way?

...for what he did/happened to their relationship. Brilliant.

Helen nails it with her comment. Why destroy your life and life of your children with bitterness and unforgiveness. Well written but I prefer restoration and happy endings

....this story is factual or not, BUT if it is, I feel sorry for Stacy being married to her pathetic unforgiving husband. He states he knew she loved him, knew she was sorry but still punished her for years. I’m a guy and certainly not a wimp, but not a bastard either as is this protagonist, He claimed to love his wife, but didn’t. (Love requires putting the other persons’ needs ahead of your own.)He just engaged in self-centered self-delusion. Only two stars,

Not a favorite. He was an asshole.

Fantastic story. 5 stars. I only wish i could give it more stars. Very thought provoking. Stacy never really explained her fucking Robert the second night. She just has a wild weekend while off at a conference out of town. She only cheated on Jacob that one weekend. I thought it was handled correctly. I know i would have divorced Stacy as soon as i learned about it but that is me. I am married to the same woman that i started dating at 18 years old and has been the love of my live for the last 49 years! I feel very fortunate that i found her and it was the best decision of my life to spend my life with her, our two grown sons and two, soon to be three, grandchildren. Great story!!!

Well written. It was painful. I understood him, and though another character might have been able to move past it, this character could not. But, he knew what he lost. Well done.

The omission of an "I'm sorry" should have been laid upon her during the question answering phase.

If anyone deserved a second chance, it was her. Besides being secretive, her only shameful crime was the second night.

Nobody is mistake proof!!

Holding the grudge destroys Yourself.

.......dreadfully.sad and criminally hopeless tale. As another comment had it, her true infidelity lay in her repeat dalliance the next day. Drunk and angry at Jacob, yes,she made a bad mistake but it was a mistake and maybe could have been forgiven and worked through. Her unforgivable action of going to the braggart Paulson the second day, ,when she was sober and able to think and choose, was gross and deliberate infidelity which could not be condoned.The fact that she got pregnant and delivered a bastard and then compounded her deceit by concealing the facts, sealed her fate. There could never be any reconciliation. This author's stories are depressing and in spite of the very good writing (with lots of little mistakes not worth quibbling about) I am relieved to leave his site! 4*s.

Another dark story from this author. However, I think he has got the emotional response from the husband wrong in this story. The husband responds to his wife's cheating as though he had actually witnessed the sexual act between the wife and her lover.

His response was wrong because of the way our brains respond to events. When you cut a finger the pain that you feel is real but try to imagine the pain from a cut finger and what you imagine you feel is nowhere near what it really feels like.

This story might have had a totally different outcome if the author had portrayed the husbands response to verbally being told his wife cheated as opposed to witnessing it

There are many ways Jacob could have learned about Stacy's tryst e.g. a friend might have seen the couple leave and followed them to Paulson's room or he might have traveled to her convention to surprise her and walked in on them. We've read many scenarios in LW stories. But to sit a listen to a low life predator unwittingly give you a blow by blow of two nights of absolutely unbridled sex with your wife had to burn total humiliation and betrayal like a branding iron into Jacob's psyche. Then to find out that he is not the biological father of his daughter and his mother -in-law and wife's best friend knew everything would launch most men into utter despair.

That Jacob kept his sanity and didn't beat her to death is a miracle. That he lived with her for another 10 yrs was a Herculean commitment to his children. But the fact that as part of that commitment he had to live with and interact with Stacy never really allowed him to heal. The cause of his anguish was constantly and unavoidably with him at all times.

Divorce and more importantly separation from Stacy was an absolute necessity if Jacob was ever to put his demons to rest.

An utterly depressing story. But as in so many divorces there are no winners.

I think I've now read all the stories by this author. They are consistently outstanding! This is no exception. It shows how one mistake can ruin a marriage years later and it rings very true to life. Should he recognize she is human and forgive her? Sure he should. Is that easy to do? Never. It was a big mistake and it haunted them for the rest of their lives. Great story!

What a great story. Much closer to the reality of my two divorces than anything else I've read on Literotica.

Sometimes the worst the worst thing you can do is over think shit...

-jaye-

You write some f the most compelling stories on LW. Mostly with very sad endings. Too bad you stopped.

Stacy dug the grave of their marriage years ago. He just filled in the hole. She did suffer enough for the cheating and her.lies.

I’ve enjoyed all your stories, they’re well written and compelling. Thank you for your efforts.

Constructive criticism on this story:

A bit repetitive, could have been tightened to a page shorter.

Fraternal grandparents?!

Really nice story. My heart was pounding in my chest when I read it.

I'm divorced,she had an affair. The dreadful feeling of something so precious being lost forever. And the pain for everyone.Those become the memories, not the good times. Damn.

read this a cple times now and overall not a bad story. it is pretty damn sad! he shouldve just divorced her and got on with his life. they both basically lived like zombies and wasted all that time while they couldve moved on. but i am glad she got to suffer as well, he on the other hand made his fate and deserved it just as much for living like that for so long.

Wait for the length of time it takes to get your affairs in order then divorce and move on asap.

Not all stories (real or fictional) have happy endings. Thank you for your story.

somewhere east of Omaha

Is funny how his first though against divorce aren't his children or the love he still has for his wife, but the money, how screwed he will be going for it at that time.

Damn

I feel for both of them. He could have made himself a decent life had he took charge and left while he was still young. She could have had her one weekend affair and confessed to it and would have been forgiven. But to live the life they made was just a tragedy. Only one more thing to say. Don't cheat. It's not worth it.

This should have been a reconciliation. A one off. Contrition.

His stubbornness, ego, pride.

What a waste

Yeah no. The reason why tricking a man into raising another man's child is disgusting and cruel isn't financial. It is the fact that you are going to rob the man of all self worth and value when he falls in love with the kid and he finds out that love was built upon deception, lies, fraud, dishonor, and disrespect. It isn't the child. It is what the child represents. The love isn't taken away but pain is added. Over time that can lessen but it never truly goes away.

The family would have been happier if he just divorced her. No family is ever better off by staying. It's a decision based in fear.

Dry as a popcorn fart.

I like your writing. This was so sad. Jacob, a martyr, proved he was a decent guy by never telling his daughter the truth. That alone makes him the more likeable person in this story and to the idiot Stacy, if you're gonna cheat, use a condom.

Another person commented that he was just humiliated and that is too much to get over. Had their not been a child involved, maybe he could have forgiven her. Had she not told her mother and her friend there was a slight chance, unlikely, but the humiliation was too great.

only thing i dont agree w/ was when he said he killed the marriage and not her. thats not true, she did! yes he didnt try to move on or reconcile so if that killed the marriage then i suppose so but not in my pov. otherwise a sad tale about the hubby who couldnt learn to move on with or without her.

Such a mess. Maby he never wants to be forgiven?

So sad. Makes you wonder if staying together for the kids would have been the best or the worst thing... I think worst. Well written... just so sad. Thanks

“His name is Robert Paulson … his name is Robert Paulson … his name is Robert Paulson … “ Ain’t that the truth.

“Unfaithful” (with Diane Lane and Richard Gere) was another good reference. But we knew why she did it: Connie loved the attention, which came out of the blue, and even though she resisted at first, she gave in to the thrill, and she became addicted to the illicit high. I understood. And her Euro boy-toy lover wasn’t a sleazy traveling salesman.

But I still dunno why Stacy did it. I dunno why she acted like a “total whore,” having unprotected sex (including anal sex) with a total stranger who was an obvious self-absorbed womanizer. As best we could tell, this was wildly out of her character. And I certainly dunno why or how she could keep it up for two days.

Maybe that was the point — mom wanted, if only for a weekend, to unleash the “inner slut” that we all have. There’d be a literary message there. But then … I refuse to believe she’d be satisfied after just one brief affair.

Why don’t I know all this? Because the author wouldn’t tell us. You’d think after all those years of awkward living that the entire story would have found its way out into the open. For our benefit. But somehow it never did.

It was ironic to me that Jacob would write 126 questions (and apparently get written answers in return) when we couldn’t get a satisfying answer to one simple question: why?

So I deducted one star.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Perhaps the most authentic story I have read on this site. When it comes to infidelity, there are no winners. I wish I didn't know, but I do.

Pile of shit sad sack story. All that pain and we never learn WHY anything. What was the one thing that was the deal breaker?

I might forgive the 13 year lie. The non biological daughter would be the least problem. The heart knows who it loves no matter what the mind knows.

Two nights? Houston, we have a problem.

One person knows a secret. 2 or more knowing is a conspiracy. I MIGHT forgive telling her best friend. Her Mom? MY Mom? What the unholy FUCK?

I don't buy the "hidden inner slut" crap from other commenters. They roleplayed fantasies. Husband and wife "becoming one flesh" means that sharing flesh denied the husband would be a deal breaker.

They kept going because they were both SOOOO loving of their kids while he HATED her. Of COURSE the kids wouldn't notice (sarc).

There is a popular LitRot story where the 2 exes swap weeks in the family home w/the kids. A much better solution than years of whinefest.

After a long-winded description of his job; the rest of the story was all pain and angst. I was waiting for him to have a heart attack or shoot himself to put ME out of my misery.

TO READERS: If this is your first story by this author, read "In Her Eyes" and skip the rest. They all suck.

What a POS this MC is….Stacy deserved better then this self righteous bastard! I ahve ansolutkey no doubt that he too has indulged in whoring on his out of town visits…that’s why the holier than thou attitude!

"Stacy, I have never forgiven you because in all of our long drawn out discussions about saving our marriage you have never, not once, said you're sorry."

Those who are truly repentant make amends and are forgiven.

You know, if you have to ask a person "why" they've never said they were sorry for hurting and betraying you then you know that they're not really sorry for their actions in the first place. In Tracey's case, she's just sorry she got caught after all these years.

As to the "WHY" Tracy cheated in the first place...she was upset at her husband and felt she was entitled to cheat. Her entitlement was obvious when she went back to Robert the second day since she hadn't completely filled her entitlement the first time. Cheating is a profoundly narcissistic act.

Cheating is about entitlement. Being truly sorry is about humility. True remorse is a deep awareness that infidelity broke a sacred trust, and you are not owed reconciliation. Real remorse understands that repairing a relationship after infidelity is a long haul with dubious prospects. Humility is painful. It wrestles with shame. Humility recognizes that regaining trust is a long, slow process that may end, despite their best efforts.

Tracy kept her dirty little secret for 13 plus years before she her cheating was revealed. To her it was old news and fond memories of being a total slut and no one every being the wiser.

For Jacob, he just had his entire life upended end and now he questions everything. He thought his life was this one thing (settled, “normal,” “successful,” committed, intact). When in reality, he was being played. His life investment was a Ponzi scheme. His spouse was a con. He now sees himself as being robbed of the opportunity to live an authentic life elsewhere and where he could have made life altering decisions that were not based on false information and not have wasted his youth on lies and betrayal. What does it mean to be robbed this way? Especially in a culture that doesn’t see it as theft at all. Hey, shit happens. Suck it up and get over it.

I’m sort of glad this the last of this writer’s pieces left for me to read. This is so relentlessly depressing and utterly negative that I boggle at the thought the writer could set pen to paper (so to speak) without a breakdown! I would’ve stopped reading it early on, but I was attracted to it like a moth to a flame for the sheer experience of a story seemingly written as a psych class development of a “Freudian death drive.”

The MC is a dark character despite saying how happy he was in his marriage the way he describes everything is like there's a black cloud hanging over him all the time. If this were real life it wouldn't surprise me that the wife sort some happiness elsewhere. Living with someone like this, no matter how much you loved them to start with, would eventually drag you down. The MC is not written as a character you have sympathy for.

This story is utterly dark, depressing, and I loved it! The plot is so well written and constructed that I read it in one sitting and then re-read it the next day. It is easily the best of Jidoka’s stories and one of the best on Literotica. It describes the slow motion decay and death of a marriage which results from the corrosive effect of lies and consequent loss of trust. The ending was so dismal for both husband and wife. They were both losers. Very sad.

Dark and well written. He needs to move on that is hard to do when you stay in the darkness. Staying with his kids and not being a part time dad did not help him either. He needs to heal and with an untreaded wound that old it probably won't happen

If this:

"Her betrayal and my discovery had killed our love and try as we might, there would be no rekindling of the passion of our youth, no growing together as partners into old age."

Then not this:

"In the end, it wasn't Stacy that killed our marriage. It was me. "

I am always taken aback by the "years of lies" trope. As if every day without a confession was another lie. We don't know what, if any, outright lies she told. That Jessica was "his" daughter qualifies I suppose. But what was Stacy supposed to do when she found out? In spite of the betrayal she loved her husband, and knew he loved "his" daughter. Was she supposed to out herself and destroy the happiness of all three of them? Of course she didn't tell him, and if it hadn't been for that conversation with RP and his reaction to it he would have continued living a great life. Yes his daughter was unexploded ordnance waiting to go off some day under the right / wrong conditions, and Stacy lived with that every day. Living with that worry and fear and continuing to love and care for her husband and family was her contrition. It would have been far easier for her to have bailed out when the child was young and stuck him with alimony and years of child support. That she chose to stick around and continue making a life with him should have told him what he needed to know. His inability to come to grips with that was the ultimate reason for their end.

Her infidelity was like a broad headed nail in a tire, very little air escaping, until you pull it out.

Sorry to mix metaphors but his reaction was like a termite, eating its way through the marriage, with things appearing normal on the surface but hollowed out within.

Sad all around.

Would have liked a bit more detail about the 126 questions and her answers.

"In the end, it wasn't Stacy that killed our marriage. It was me. "

Nah, it was Stacy fucking around and cucking him that killed the marriage. Somethings there's no coming back from.

As for the Anon below, yes, every day the cheating slut went living a lie, playing him for a fool, letting him unknowingly raise another man's child, is a slap to his face. The amount of disrespect she obviously had for him is astounding tbh.

main character started to annoy me the last few pages. too much self pity

Well done! Have a wonderful life for the rest of your loner life…don’t think u gonna get any other livening wife with the mindset you have now!!

She made a mistake! But she gave u the rest of the marriage with her whole heart! I feel no pity for u…u dragged urself in the quagmire when u could have put her through hoops and loops and taken her back! She was not a compulsive cheater…there is a difference ! And most important keep ur greatness about urself up your ass…nothing great about a pipsqueak trying to milk sympathy rather than being a man and doing what’s right!!boo boo hoo!

"Another wimp husband."

Well written, but the blame shifting is repulsive. Adultery, paternity fraud, lies, telling her sister and mother, no honest repentance...staying around for all those years was a herculean effort. Stacy was a narcissist who got caught. She got better than she deserved.

Poorly constructed story with too many me's and I's. Also too much emphasis on on mc's thoughts and feelings/opinions and not enough details of events that affected them.

I enjoyed this story and your writing. It's your thoughts and you story. The moral judgments are not of any importance.

I would like more sex description in the discussion of the cheating.

Having read several stories with this same theme I find it interesting that when the woman discovers she is pregnant with someone else's child she does not consider abortion. Just let the sucker husband raise the bastard.

I'd like to call him a wimp for staying but it was for his kids which I think it was unhealthy for the kids maybe. Who knows what the atmosphere was like for the kids and how they turned out. He should've just left and got on with his life. It seems like he was just a zombie barely living.

SAD SAD story. You assholes who called him a wimp...he loves his children and wants to be with them everyday.. you fucking little dick morons.

Sad story, she was bad he was worse

4/5