My Husband’s Best Friend Toasted To Me As “The Temporary One” At Our 3rd Anniversary Dinner. I Just Found The “Future Plans” Folder For His Ex In His Locked Desk. How Do I Get My Revenge?
The Support Group & Lucas
Two days later, I walk into a community center for a divorce support group that meets every Thursday evening. The room smells like old coffee, and there are about 15 people sitting in a circle of folding chairs. A woman named Kendall runs the group, and she welcomes me without making a big deal about it being my first time.
Everyone introduces themselves with just their first name and how long they’ve been divorced or separated. Some people have been coming for months and others are brand new like me. A woman across the circle talks about how her husband left her for his high school girlfriend after 20 years of marriage and three kids. She found out because her teenage daughter saw them together at a restaurant.
Listening to her story makes my three years with David feel less devastating somehow. Not because her pain is worse than mine, but because it reminds me that I’m not the only person who built a life with someone who was secretly waiting for someone else. After the meeting, several people come up to me and welcome me to the group. Kendall gives me her phone number and tells me to call if I need to talk between meetings. Walking back to my car, I feel less alone than I have in weeks.
That night, I’m scrolling through Facebook when I see a message request from Lucas. My first instinct is to delete it without reading, but curiosity wins. He’s written several paragraphs apologizing for what he said at the anniversary dinner. He claims he was drunk and angry at David for lying to everyone, and he took it out on me in the worst possible way.
He says he’s been feeling terrible about it for weeks and he knows a Facebook message doesn’t fix anything, but he wanted me to know he’s genuinely sorry. At the end, he offers to testify in the divorce if I need someone to confirm David’s intentions and the existence of the secret planning. I stare at the message for a long time before responding.
I tell Lucas I don’t need him to testify because I have enough evidence from David’s own files, but I appreciate him finally being honest with me. I ask him why he decided to blow up David’s secret at our anniversary dinner instead of just telling me privately. He responds almost immediately, saying he’d been drinking and watching David play the devoted husband all night while texting Natalie under the table, and something in him just snapped.
He admits the whole friend group knew about Natalie and they all felt terrible watching David string me along, but nobody knew how to bring it up without destroying my life. I type back asking why none of them said anything sooner, and he takes 10 minutes to respond. When he does, he just says he doesn’t have a good answer and that they all convinced themselves it wasn’t their place to interfere in David’s marriage. He says he wishes now that someone had told me earlier before I wasted 3 years. I don’t respond after that because there’s nothing left to say.
