I went to visit my sick mother-in-law to give my exhausted husband a break, only to find she wasn’t sick at all. She revealed the truth: Jacob hadn’t been visiting her every night like he said. He’d been lying to me.
Jacob and I had been married for eight years, and his mother, Linda, never liked me. Despite my efforts, she always made me feel like an outsider. But when Jacob said his mom was sick, I felt guilty for not checking in on her myself.
One night, Jacob came home completely drained. I knew he was struggling, so I decided to visit Linda and help. But when I arrived, she was perfectly fine and shocked to hear I thought she was ill. She hadn’t seen Jacob in months.
My heart sank. Jacob had been lying about visiting her every night. I called him, but he didn’t pick up. Panic set in. I realized something was wrong, so I followed him that night and discovered he wasn’t going to his mom’s at all. He parked at a suburban house, and when I knocked on the door, a woman answered—a woman with a young boy who had Jacob’s eyes.
Jacob’s secret family. I felt betrayed. He’d been living a double life with a child and an ex-girlfriend. The exhaustion, the lies—it all clicked. I smiled, told the woman to “keep him,” and walked away.
The next day, I filed for divorce. Jacob begged for another chance, but I was done. I couldn’t stay with a man who’d betrayed me like that. Trust your gut—if something feels wrong, dig deeper.