My Husband Left Me When I Was 8 Months Pregnant For My Best Friend Of 20 Years. He Just Crawled Back After Finding Out Her Baby Isn’t Even His. Should I Let My Mom Throw Another Bucket Of Water On Him?

Twenty Years of Lies

I felt a fire burning inside me, but paradoxically, my mind was becoming increasingly clear. That night, after they left, I sat on the living room sofa for a long time. The baby moved in my womb. Stroking my belly, I whispered, “What a fool Mom has been.”

Waiting for a surprise. “I’m sorry, my little one.”

20 years. That was how long Sarah and I had been friends. We met in seventh grade. We shared our lunches during recess. We cried together on graduation day. As adults, we always congratulated each other on our birthdays. We gave each other advice on our relationships.

When one of us broke up with a boyfriend, we cried together over drinks. It was Sarah who was by my side, helping with everything on my wedding day. And that same Sarah had betrayed me with my husband and gotten pregnant.

And James, the man who had confessed his love for me and asked me to marry him, promising to love me forever, now told me with complete nonchalance that he was in love with my best friend and that we should get a divorce,.

Thousands of thoughts swirled in my head in the face of such an unbelievable reality. At that moment, my phone rang. It was my mother.

“Emily, is James home yet? Have you two had dinner?”

Hearing my mother’s voice, tears welled up again, but I couldn’t worry her, so I swallowed my sobs and replied, “Yes, we’ve already eaten.”

“What’s wrong with your voice? Is something the matter?”

“No, nothing. I’m just a little tired.”

After hanging up quickly, sadness overwhelmed me, and I broke down crying. How was I going to tell my mother about this situation? How could I tell her that her only daughter, about to give birth, was getting a divorce because of the betrayal of her husband and her best friend? How much my parents would suffer.

The night wore on, but sleep was impossible. Lying in bed staring at the ceiling, the last few months played before my eyes like a movie. Remembering, I started connecting the dots. Sarah’s frequent visits to our house at the beginning of her pregnancy. My husband’s especially kind treatment of her,.

How Sarah had been avoiding me lately, saying she was very busy, and how during that same period my husband always came home late with the excuse of overtime. I especially remembered the beginning of her pregnancy when she came over often, worried about my morning sickness.

She visited frequently, always on weekends when James wasn’t working. Since I could barely eat, she always brought a ton of food, but the mere smell made me gag, so I would lie in the bedroom or go to the bathroom. From there, I could hear James and Sarah eating and chatting cheerfully.

At the time, I felt bad for not being able to join them, and their laughter and murmurs seemed like a gesture of kindness. Now I realized they were having dates in my own home.

I picked up my phone and reread my WhatsApp conversations with Sarah. The messages from a few months ago now took on a new meaning. “I’m so swamped lately. I can’t keep up. We’ll catch up and talk later.”,

Sarah had been avoiding me. And the photo she posted on Instagram a few days ago, the picture of intertwined hands with matching rings? Only the hands were visible, so I didn’t know who he was. It was my husband’s hand.

When I asked her if she had a boyfriend, she replied, “I’ve met someone wonderful.” And that wonderful someone was my husband.

Suddenly a wave of rage washed over me. It was a feeling much stronger than sadness. How could they have done this to me? To have an affair with your 20-year friend’s husband, get pregnant, and on top of that, ask her to sign the papers so you can get married?

Did your child need a father? And what about the child I’m carrying in my belly? My son, who will be born next month, does he not need a father? I clenched my teeth. I squeezed my fists so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.

“Sarah, how could you do this to me?”

Collateral Damage

The next morning, after a nearly sleepless night, Emily sat on the sofa again with swollen eyes and a pale face. She couldn’t tell if yesterday had been a dream or reality, and she didn’t know what to do from here,.

After a while of staring into space, she suddenly thought of her mother-in-law. Did she know her son intended to abandon his pregnant wife and their baby to marry his mistress? Did she know that James had taken out a $350,000 loan and was now receiving default notices?

Emily went to her mother-in-law’s house. She went with the hope that upon learning her son wanted a divorce, she would intervene to stop it and perhaps help pay off the debt. As she got off the bus and walked down her mother-in-law’s street, she noticed the landscape had changed.

The front lawn was unkempt and overgrown, and the flower pots that adorned the porch steps were dry and dead. When the door opened and she saw her mother-in-law’s face, a chill ran down her spine. Her hair was messy and she had deep, dark circles under her eyes.

Her mother-in-law, normally a cheerful, active woman who took such good care of herself she looked 10 years younger, was now a completely different person. In just a month, her face had become gaunt, her eyes were sunken, and she looked like an old woman whose health was a cause for concern,.

“Mom, it’s me, Emily. You came.” Her mother-in-law’s voice sounded nervous.

Entering the dark house, she felt a chilly atmosphere. The living room, usually immaculate, was cluttered, and piles of papers were stacked on the dining table.

“Mom, is something wrong?”

At my question, my mother-in-law sighed deeply, sank onto the sofa, and with teary eyes and a trembling voice said, “The truth is, James told me he needed money, so I mortgaged this house and gave him $700,000. He said he would pay me back double when the stocks went up and asked me not to tell you anything. The first few months he paid me the interest, but now he doesn’t pay it and he doesn’t answer my calls.”

$700,000. I couldn’t believe it. Mortgaging the house she had owned her whole life. My mother-in-law pulled another document from a drawer. The words Foreclosure Proceedings jumped out at me,.

“I haven’t paid the interest in 3 months. They’re going to take my house soon. At my age, I’m going to be on the street.” My mother-in-law’s voice broke.

$350,000 plus $700,000. 1 million $50,000. Infidelity wasn’t enough; now there was also a mountain of debt. Was this really the husband I knew? On the bus back home, I looked out the window.

It was sunset. The orange-tinted sky, which I usually found beautiful, looked desolate today. I caressed my belly and thought to myself, “A total of $1,050,000 in debt. A mother-in-law about to be homeless. My husband’s infidelity and my friend Sarah’s betrayal.”

Everything was tangled like a ball of yarn. Unraveling that knot seemed like an impossible task. When I got home, I sat on the sofa in the empty living room and was lost in thought for a long time. The sound of my phone startled me. It was James.

“Have you signed them yet? Don’t drag this out. Let’s just get it over with.”

“I was with your mother.”

“So what?”

“She’s worried because they’re going to foreclose on her house. What did you spend the $700,000 on that you got from mortgaging her house? On top of that, a notice for a $350,000 loan arrived at the house. What the hell are you doing?”,

On the other end of the line, James said nothing.

“Does Sarah know all this and still want to marry you?”

“That’s not your business anymore. You just sign the papers and that’s it.” James hung up abruptly.

I stared at the divorce papers he had left on the table. Should I endure this for the sake of my son who was about to be born, or should I sign for my own good and the good of my baby? Thoughts crowded my mind, but the answer seemed clear.

A mother-in-law with no money and about to be homeless, who would want to live with me? A husband with over a million dollars in debt and involved with my best friend? The more I thought about it, the clearer it became that divorce was the only way to protect my son and me.

Yes, I will get a divorce, and I will make sure to pay them back for all the pain they have caused me.