My Husband’s “Best Friend” Ruined My Marriage With A Sick Lie That Caused My Miscarriage. 10 Years Later, He’s Back To Steal The Child He Refused To Believe Was His. Am I Ever Going To Be Safe?

The Husband Who Believed I Cheated with My Stepbrother

My husband’s ex told him I cheated with my stepbrother, claiming our baby isn’t his. We eventually divorce. Years later, he returns and wants the baby, but he never expects the bad news.

My husband’s ex completely manipulated him into believing that I was cheating on him. But it gets much worse: she convinced him that the person I supposedly cheated with was my stepbrother and that I was pregnant with his child. I would never be unfaithful to him, let alone with my stepbrother.

He didn’t believe me, so I ended up leaving him. But now, he wants to see his child.

For reference, and also for me because I’m not going to use real names here and want to keep track of the fake names I choose, the people involved in this story are as follows: Me (35 years old), Grant (38, my current husband), Sebastian (my step-brother), Ezra (my ex-husband), and Cassie (in her 30s—I don’t know her exact age—Ezra’s ex-wife before we met).

A Decade of Silence Broken

I’ll try to keep this as clear as possible, but this is a mix of seeking advice with anxiety and venting anger that I don’t want to take out on anyone else. So even if you’re just here to read about the horrible lives of strangers and aren’t going to leave any advice, feel free to read. I hope I can do justice to summarizing one of the worst times of my life.

Before I get too sidetracked with background information, here’s a summary of the current situation. I just found out that my ex-husband has been asking about me after almost a decade of silence because he wants to see me and my child. It might not seem like a big deal when written in one sentence, but I hope as you continue reading, you’ll understand why this news has caused such an emotional upheaval.

When I was 24 years old, my best friend and I moved across the country to a new city and a new state to start our adult lives. Six months later, she was offered her dream job in our hometown and, of course, I encouraged her to take it. Unfortunately, that meant I was left alone in a new city and a new state.

Two weeks after she left, I met Ezra. I was alone, without friends, and stressed for my new job. He had just broken up with his high school girlfriend, and all of that combined to form a very intense relationship. A few weeks after meeting, he was practically living in my apartment, and I was convinced he was the love of my life.

He was in his last semester of college after changing majors several times and was ready to start working at his father’s engineering company half an hour away from the city. Maybe I was starting to see a future in that city. Now, looking back, the cracks were evident from the beginning. Hindsight is much clearer than foresight.

The Uninvited Third Wheel

When his graduation arrived and his ex-girlfriend showed up with his mother, I simply smiled, introduced myself, and tried to make a good impression on his family. Cassie was practically a family friend, which was expected considering how long they had been together before the breakup. But she was basically the classic “girl next door.”

Their mothers were best friends, so they grew up together, and I was told that the day they started dating was the best day of Ezra’s mother’s life. Still, I was young, naive, and in love, so I put up with it. I sat next to her and did everything I could to get along with his mother.

She never fully accepted me, but I never stopped trying. Cassie became a constant presence in my life from that moment on. Ezra told me it was hard for him to cut contact with her because their families were so close, so I tried to understand.

It didn’t matter that she clung to his arm at every event or called him by every affectionate nickname in the book. We’d come home to our apartment because it quickly became our shared home, and he’d tell me he loved me, and I believed him. He simply didn’t want to hurt his family by cutting Cassie out. I mean, how could I complain when I love my own family with all my heart?

I would do anything for them, so I could understand that he wanted to protect his mother’s feelings. Eight months into our relationship, he proposed to me. I now know he did it the same day he found out that Cassie had a new boyfriend.

At the time, though, I was blinded by love and happily accepted, even though there was no ring. I thought he wanted to propose so much that he couldn’t wait to get one. A year later, I was walking down the aisle, happy to marry him.

A Wedding Marred by Manipulation

Back then, I thought my wedding to Ezra would be the best day of my life. I hadn’t seen my family in months, and suddenly they were all in the same room celebrating my husband and me. I was so excited to catch up with them and introduce them.

Until that point, the only family member of mine Ezra had met was my stepbrother, who had visited me a few months earlier. I didn’t even care that Cassie showed up in a white dress or danced almost as much with him as I did. Afterward, I excused it, thinking that Ezra was just celebrating this special day with his lifelong friend. After all, I had danced with my best friend and my stepbrother, the two people closest to me besides Ezra.

That’s what I did throughout my entire marriage to him. I ignored the warning signs and justified his actions, especially when it came to Cassie. But that should have been a huge red flag.

For two years, I made excuses every time Ezra prioritized his ex-girlfriend, whom he privately called “obsessive” and “crazy” among other insults when no one else could hear. I ignored every time his mother compared me to Cassie. I turned the other cheek every time Cassie made a snide remark disguised as a joke or helpful advice.

At the end of the day, Ezra was all I had, right? All the friendships I had made in that city were related to him or us as a couple, and every family connection I had was through him. My family lived in another state hours away, and Ezra was never willing to make that trip. He was all I had.