My Husband Told Me His “Work Wife” Was An Upgrade. Then I Found Out He Was Paying Her Rent While Telling Me To Budget. How Should I Handle This Dinner Invite?

Craig’s Mother Calls

I left the coffee shop feeling drained and went home to Laya’s apartment where I took a long nap to escape thinking about everything for a while.

Three days later my phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize and when I answered a woman’s voice asked if this was Craig’s wife. I said yes cautiously and she introduced herself as Craig’s mother, her tone already sharp with disapproval. She said Craig had told them everything about the divorce and the HR complaint and she wanted to understand why I was throwing away 8 years of family over a misunderstanding.

I felt my jaw tighten at the word “misunderstanding,” like Craig’s months of emotional infidelity and policy violations were just some small confusion we could laugh about later. She kept talking without waiting for my response, reminding me of all the family holidays we’d spent together and asking if I really wanted to lose all those relationships and memories.

Her voice took on this guilt-heavy tone that probably worked on Craig when he was a kid but it just made me angry listening to it now. I interrupted her mid-sentence and told her that her son called another woman an upgrade from me. That he shared intimate details of our marriage including my miscarriage with his coworker. That he violated company policy by financially supporting a junior employee.

She went quiet for a second then said I must have misunderstood what Craig meant, that he’d been drinking and didn’t mean those things the way they sounded. I asked her point blank if she’d stay married to someone who called her inferior to another woman while building an emotional affair behind her back. She didn’t answer that question just said I was being vindictive and destroying her son’s career out of spite instead of working on the marriage like an adult.

The Final Sign

The anger I’d been holding back finally broke through and I raised my voice, asking what exactly I was supposed to work on when Craig spent months telling another woman she was better than me. She started talking over me about family loyalty and commitment through hard times and I cut her off mid-sentence.

I explained that Craig destroyed his own career by co-signing leases and covering expenses for a junior employee which violated company policy regardless of how I felt about it. If he’d respected our marriage and followed workplace rules none of this would be happening right now.

She made a disgusted sound and said she didn’t raise her son to be treated like this by someone who gave up at the first sign of trouble. I felt my hands shaking from frustration but kept my voice steady, telling her that 8 years and months of dismissing my concerns wasn’t the first sign of trouble. It was the final sign that Craig didn’t respect me.

She hung up without saying goodbye and I sat there staring at my phone feeling both guilty for yelling at her and relieved that I’d stood up for myself instead of accepting her blame.