My Best Friend Of 15 Years Asked To “Share” My Husband Because She Saw Him First. Then I Found Out She’s Been Stalking Him For 5 Years. What Should I Do Now?

The Frame-Up

The front door opened and Leo walked in. He must have left work the second I texted him. He stopped in the kitchen doorway and stared at Elena standing at our stove. His face went through about five different emotions in 2 seconds: confusion, recognition, disbelief, anger, fear.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. His voice was controlled but I could see the tension in his shoulders.

Elena’s whole body changed when she saw him. She stood up straighter, her face softened. She looked at him like he was the sun and she’d been living in darkness. “Leo, I’m making your favorite. I remembered you said you missed home-cooked meals. I wanted to surprise you both.”

She gestured at the stove like she was showing off a gift. “You also remembered the barbecue,” I said. “Two years ago. You remembered exactly what he said.”

“Of course I did,” Elena said. “I remember everything about him.”

I caught Leo’s eye and glanced at my phone propped against the fruit bowl. He understood immediately. He needed to keep her talking. “Elena,” Leo said slowly. “How did you get into our house?”

“I have a key. I made a copy.” She held it up again proudly.

“And you’ve been coming in when we’re not home,” I added. “Rearranging things. Going through our stuff.”

“I was helping,” Elena insisted. “I was making things nice for Leo.”

“That’s not helping, Elena,” Leo said. “That’s stalking. That’s breaking and entering. That’s illegal.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” she waved her hand dismissively. “I have a key. It’s not illegal when you have a key.”

Leo pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

Elena moved faster than I’d ever seen her move. She crossed the kitchen and slapped herself across the face hard. The sound made me jump. Her cheek went red immediately, then she did it again and again.

She stumbled backward and screamed, “Leo, stop! Please stop hitting me!”

I lunged forward and tried to grab her arms. She twisted away from me and clawed at her own neck, leaving red marks. “Please, Leo! I won’t tell anyone! Just stop!”

She threw herself against the counter and wailed. “Not my face! Please not my face!”

Leo was frozen, his hands up, not touching her at all. I finally got hold of her wrists and yelled, “Elena, stop it! Stop!”

I fumbled for my phone and stopped the recording. The second I did, Elena went still. The tears stopped like someone had turned off a faucet. She looked at my phone in my hand and smiled.

“You didn’t think I saw that?” Her voice was completely calm now. Completely cold. “You were recording. Waiting for evidence. But all you got is audio of me begging your husband to stop beating me while you tried to pull him off.”

She straightened her clothes, wiped her face. She walked over to Leo and her voice went soft again, almost tender. “I’m doing this for us, Leo. Everything I do is for us. One day you’ll see that.”

She touched his face. He flinched but didn’t move. She kissed us both on the cheek and walked out the front door like nothing had happened. Leo and I stood in our kitchen in complete silence. The pot on the stove was still bubbling. The whole house smelled like the dinner she’d made.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “What just happened?” Leo asked. His voice was barely a whisper.

I looked down at my phone. I played back the recording. Elena was right. Without the visual of her hitting herself, it sounded exactly like what she described. Leo threatening, Elena screaming, me trying to pull him off. The recording was useless. No, it was worse than useless. It was ammunition for her.

“We have to delete this,” I said. “If anyone ever hears it without context…”

Leo nodded. “Delete it now.”

I did. We changed the locks that night. We thought that would be the end of it.

The Mother’s Secret

That night I couldn’t sleep. I lay in bed next to Leo staring at the ceiling, replaying every conversation I’d ever had with Elena, looking for signs I’d missed. Looking for some clue that this was coming. And then I remembered something.

Elena had never let us meet her mom. Not once in 15 years of friendship. I’d asked a few times over the years. “Hey, we should all do dinner sometime. Your mom could come.”

Elena always shut it down. She’d get this look on her face and say her mom was complicated or that it wasn’t a good idea. At the time, I figured they had a difficult relationship. Lots of people do. I didn’t push it. But now I wondered why. What was she hiding?

I got out of bed quietly and grabbed my laptop. I went to Facebook and searched for Elena’s mom. It took me a while, but I finally found her through a comment on one of Elena’s old posts: Beatrice.

I clicked on her profile. The cover photo was a church. The profile picture was Beatrice standing with a pastor, both of them smiling. I scrolled through her posts. Bible verses, church announcements, photos from bake sales and charity events. Posts about family values and raising good Christian children. Elena’s profile was the opposite. Carefully curated. Nothing controversial. Nothing too personal. Because her mom was watching.

I found what I was looking for in the comments of a church fundraiser post. Beatrice had listed her address for people who wanted to drop off donations. I wrote it down. I woke Leo up and showed him everything.

“I think we need to go talk to her,” I said. “Elena’s mom.”

Leo rubbed his eyes. “Why?”

“Because she might know something. Elena’s been hiding her from us for a reason. Maybe her mom knows something about all this. Maybe she can help us understand what’s going on. Or maybe she can talk some sense into her.”

Leo looked at me for a long moment. “And if she can’t?”

“Then at least we’ll know more than we know now. I’m still processing what just happened in my own kitchen. Elena thinks that performance put her in control. She thinks we’re trapped. She doesn’t know what I found an hour ago. 5 years she kept her mother away from me. Tomorrow, Leo and I are driving to an address I found tonight. I’m done being the one who doesn’t ask questions.”

I’ll update after that conversation. Something tells me Elena’s about to regret keeping secrets from me.