“Don’t come back, it’s over, the girls don’t want to see you anymore,” my husband wrote in a message to me. I was taken aback by this message and was rendered indignant by what I later learned.
While I was overseas on assignment, my spouse looked after our girls. The last time I got this message, I had just stepped off the airport after three lengthy flights. “I’ve changed the locks, it’s over between us, the girls don’t want to see you anymore, so you can stay away,” he wrote.
I didn’t comprehend. I thought I would get a message asking how my flight went or even asking when I would be getting home, but instead I got this. An icy, unexpected, and unexplained message.
After 15 years of dating, I never would have thought that we would break up like this. It had always been a very peaceful relationship between us.
He had made the decision to get a divorce after all these years, and he didn’t even wait for me to get home before talking to me about what wasn’t working.
Surprised and disappointed, I returned home and was rendered speechless by what I found.
I was devastated by what I discovered when I got home.
In addition to leaving me without communication, I discovered messages and unmistakable proof of his adultery when I dug through his belongings.
For months, he had been having an affair with someone else.
Knowing that he had been living a parallel life while acting as though everything was good at home with our girls made the betrayal much more agonizing.
I wasted no time after this shock. I needed stability for myself and my daughters.
I thus got in touch with an attorney, and we began the process of obtaining custody of the kids.
I wanted to ensure that he wouldn’t be granted full custody despite his infidelity and careless actions.
I knew there was no other option, even though the divorce and custody dispute weren’t simple.
To finally turn the page, and for my girls’ sake. Justice and protection were no longer the only considerations.
