Reddit Stories - Betrayer Beware From FORGIVENESS To RETRIBUTION My Wife'S INFIDELITY Cost Her Everything

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #relationships #betrayal #forgiveness #retribution #infidelitySummary: A story of betrayal and forgiveness unfolds as a wife's infidelity leads to devastating consequences. From forgiveness to retribution, the betrayer faces the consequences of their actions, leaving a trail of heartbreak and loss in their wake.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, relationships, betrayal, forgiveness, retribution, infidelity, consequences, heartbreak, loss, marriage, cheating, trust, redemption, confession, secrets, consequences, emotionalpainBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Discovered my spouse being unfaithful in our shared bedroom. I pardoned her on one occasion in the past, but this instance led me to claim ownership of the residents and children in the separation. Subsequently, I ensured her dismissal from her job. Leaked her firm's files online. I've been lurking here for a long time, but to think that I'm actually here writing my own story and looking for advice is wild. I need help in my marriage, or maybe I should say to end my marriage. Because things really aren't the way they used to be and to be honest, I blame myself.

There were points where I saw the reddest of red flags and I didn't act appropriately, but don't worry, I'll explain everything and I'll try to make it easy to follow. At least to the best of my abilities because I'm not a great writer. My wife is 41 years old and her name is Grace, not her real name. I'm 43 years old and I've been married to her for 15 years and that marriage has given us two absolutely beautiful children. Our daughter is 13 and our son is 9. Whether we've been good spouses to one another is one thing, but I know that we have been good parents to our children and I have personally always done my best to make sure that my kids are always happy. I have to tell you something that happened after the birth of our son when he was just a few months old. My wife was going through a really tough time and it seemed to be postpartum depression, so I was doing absolutely everything that I could to take the load off of her.

One day, she told me that she wanted to go out, to just breathe, and I totally understood that she needed a complete break at least for a day, so I told her I had everything under control and let her take off for a day to herself. I mean, that's what a good husband would do when it was my kid too. Now, the problem came when she got back home. It was very clear that Grace was sad about something. Yes, she might have been going through a depression at that time, but she looked visibly down about something that night and it all made sense when the children were sleeping and she said that she wanted to talk to me about something. We both sat in the living room and she started crying almost right away.

I remember being very confused, but I assumed that the emotions had finally started to overflop. but then she spoke and I remember the exact word she said. It's hard to forget things like this. I slept with somebody. The living room was dead quiet after she said that and considering that we had just had a child, my wife was going through postpartum depression and that bad news had been sprung on me late at night with no preparation. I remember being completely confused on how I was meant to react.

Was I supposed to start shouting or flip a table? I had never been an aggressive person even in moments when it was warranted. The whole night was weird because it took me ten minutes of us sitting there before I could break the silence. I asked her who it was. She also left a big pause before admitting it was just some random guy. I was tempted to ask exactly what they had done, but I didn't want to do that to my mental health. She volunteered more, saying she went to a bar and he hit on her and she got carried away and then she let the sentence end. in silence. We sat there for like another ten minutes before I told her she should get some sleep.

She went upstairs and I slept on the couch that night. That was actually the last time we actually spoke about it. I don't know why. I really can't explain why I didn't go back to the cheating after that point. I think I felt like everything was so happy with a new kid and what I felt was a model family. And maybe I made excuses for her because of her PPD was that the the wrong thing to do. Should I have berated her like any other cheater would have been, regardless of what she was going through? I don't know and I know a lot of you will judge me for sticking with her after that, but it's one of those situations you'll never know how to handle unless you're in it. I even gave her credit for coming out with it right away.

It was a sign of remorse, so I just let the whole episode slide. We never spoke about it for nearly a decade after it happened, until this year. Some needed context is that I'm a busy guy. I have my own business and after reading some books years ago, I became big on properly structuring my days for productivity. So most of the time, except for rare cases, it's pretty easy to tell when I'll be at work, when I'll be eating lunch, when I'll be working out, and so on. It's a pretty great system for me and ever since embarking on it a few years ago, I felt so much more productive. But I'm not here to advertise anything to you guys. The main point is that I have very predictable days so if you're very close to me, you know exactly where I'll be and at what times,

though again, except for on rare occasions. One day not too long ago, it was a Tuesday so I was supposed to be at work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. before hitting the gym and returning home. The day started out the way it was supposed to and I went out by 10 a.m. and everything was going the way it always does. I think it was around 2.30 p.m. that I got a call from one of my neighbors. His name is Steve. We were pretty friendly, but he rarely called me because most of our interactions were in person. I picked up the call and we exchanged the regular greetings and made a little of our usual small talk, but it seemed like he had something to say, so I asked him why he called. I might be very off, I mean, maybe I'm being paranoid on your behalf, but I've noticed a black Tacoma parked in

your driveway. This might be the third time I've seen it over the last two months, but I only just saw the driver today and it's a man. Itk, I'm not trying to say anything is going on because I like Grace as much as I like you, but I've seen this car around when you are, so I feel it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm sorry if I'm being in its hole and if you'll hate me, because I'm essentially accusing your wife of some things, but I'd want you to do this for me if you saw the same, so you can hate me after, okay? When he finished talking, my heart was already beating pretty fast because it just zipped my memory right back to what had happened all those years ago. My wife wasn't an angel, I knew that, but I felt like it was truly a mistake she had

made back then. And Steve could be very off with the situation. It could be a plumber or some other kind of handyman. I was trying to reassure myself, but I knew I would have to show up no matter what. I needed to have closure so I told my workers that I'd be taking off for a bit. They were surprised because they know all about my routine, but they didn't ask any questions, and I got in my car and headed for home. If what Steve was saying was true, I couldn't announce my presence. So as I got to my neighborhood, I parked way down the street and decided to head to the house on foot. I got to my house in a few minutes and I carefully unlocked the door and entered. The moment I stepped in, I was greeted by the scent of an unfamiliar perfume and it was clearly masculine.

I headed up the staircase and halfway up it, I saw a loose and tie sitting on the upper landing and when I got upstairs, two shoes tossed aside in front of the door. and then I could hear it. I could hear the bed creaking from inside the room and I could hear their sounds. They thought they were alone so the door was wide open but they couldn't see me from where I was. And I remember standing there and really contemplating what I was going to do when I entered the bedroom. In fact, I remember thinking that I could walk back downstairs without either of them and knowing that I was there. But I just kept thinking that this was our house. This was not the first time that my wife had cheated on me.

She was sleeping with someone in our bed. A bed that I would have slept on happily hours later. I walked right into the room and they jolted in fear. My wife immediately pulled the covers up to hide her body and her face, and the guy with her seemed incredibly confused. I wasn't convinced that he didn't know he had been sleeping with a married woman all this time. He was only shocked that I was around when she had probably guaranteed him I wouldn't show up. He started to wear his clothes and my wife just did beneath the covers. As I stood in the doorway, I really didn't know what to do.

Like what exactly is the appropriate reaction when you find your wife sleeping with another man in your matrimonial bed? Well, I figured out what my body thought was the appropriate reaction. The man, now with his pants on and trying to button up his shirt walked towards the door to leave the room and I slugged him. I didn't even think about it before I did. I just gave him a solid hook to the jaw and he fell back on onto the bed. My wife yelped when she felt the impact. The guy rubbed his chin and touched his busted lip to look at the blood and he stood up again. This time, I let him pass and I heard his car start up a minute later. I should have done more than just that, but one, I could have killed him with the way I felt,

and two, I didn't want to waste all my energy on him when my wife was the one with the burden of faithfulness. I mean, I felt so goddamn stupid. I had really let this woman cheat on me twice, or at least twice, and this second guy was a recurring thing. I really should have cut her off when I had the chance, new baby, or not. I ripped the covers off her so I could see her face and her naked body. At that moment, I was disgusted by everything about her. Someone was just in her, and I think that I didn't go this deep and thought the first time she cheated on me because if I had, I know I never would have touched her again. But here, I just saw a guy get off her. They were just going at it a few minutes ago.

Look at me. I barked at her because she was still covering her face like a schoolgirl, and I think the aggression with which I said it made her instantly obey. Once she made eye contact with me, all I said was, this is over. I want a divorce, and I'm going to make sure that you regret taking me for a fool. Then I walked out. I left my wife there, got into my car, and went back to work. I really don't know why I returned to work, but I think I needed something to get my mind off of things. By the time I was done at night, I just went to a hotel with a bottle of scotch and drank so I wouldn't have to think about anything.

I've already reached out to a divorce lawyer that was a no-brainer, and I've paid a retainer. I'm going to fight tooth and nail to make sure I get custody of my children. But beyond that, I want to cause her pain and I'm trying to figure out how. I honestly can't be taken for a fool like this, especially because I already made myself a fool by letting her cheating at SS get away with things once before. I guess it's true that once a cheater, always a cheater. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and hopefully advice on the approach I can take next. Edit 1, I saw a lot of suggestions saying that I aim for the job and that's a good suggestion,

but I'm really unsure of what angle I can take to get her fired. That one might be a tough ask, but I'll think more on it. Just for context, she works in a law firm in case anyone has suggestions for me. Edit 2, I saw a suggestion about getting her in trouble by deleting importantly. file she has access to or leaking confidential info. Thankfully for me, I do know a few of her passwords after so long together, so this might actually be practical. I'll see what I can do, but for now, I've got to go.

Until the next update, I suppose. Update 1, I'm really happy as I'm writing this update because the divorce proceedings have finally concluded between I and my ex-wife Grace, hopefully you all remember the story well enough. It was a pretty messy journey here, so let me tell you guys everything and how it went down. So, after I caught my wife cheating in our bed, I went to sleep in a hotel and I was there for about five days because I was totally unsure about how to go about things. After that, I showed up at the house to see my kids and make up a dumb excuse as to why I might not be around every day, which broke my heart. I went to my brother's place following that, which wasn't too far.

I had to tell my workers I wasn't feeling great and I didn't show up until the next week. However, it was during that time that I had gotten a lawyer and he had started the necessary paperwork for me. He told me that things would probably be tough especially since my wife worked at a law firm, but he was the best in the state, according to him, so I felt confident. My wife got served at work, which made me glad because it must have caused a bit of embarrassment, but that was just the start of things. An important piece of the puzzle came together on one of the days when I came home to see the kids. Tell me why my son told me about the time when he was sick and took time off from school for

two days, which I recall, and just randomly mentioned Mom's friend. As soon as he said that, I started recording the audio. Apparently, Mom's friend drove a big black car and she came around on one of those days he was at home. This literally happened about a week before I caught her. Honestly, I was furious, but I had to keep my cool around the kids because this meant that Grace was fornicating even with the kids in the house. Bringing random men around my children. If it was my daughter sick at home, would that have changed anything?

Was her affair that important that she didn't have the decency to keep her bad behavior away from my kids? Everything I found out went straight to my lawyer and he seemed to be a lot happier than I was with the new development because he seemed to see an angle that things could work from. He also asked for bank statements, we had a joint account, so he could try and find any evidence of her using our funds on her affair. Admittedly, the guy was doing a great job and I felt confident in him. The whole divorce saga was extremely long, tiring, and expensive. And I don't ever want to have to go through anything like that again, because it was so sad to see myself having to fight for custody of my children from a cheating hoe. Honestly, it went on for several months and every time I remembered I was about to split my children's home, I had second thoughts, but I realized that the unhappiness would be evident between their mother and me, and it wasn't worth them growing up in that kind of household. Anyway, to cut the whole thing short, I was very happy with what was awarded at the very end of the day. I have to pay alimony, it's not going to kill me, but I have to pay some nonetheless.

However, I don't care about that part, because I got sole physical custody of the kids. It was messy getting to that point, but there was a good argument made about her endangering the kids by bringing strange men to the house. Who knows how many more enter the residents that were not fortunate enough to know about, said my lawyer. Legal custody is shared, but I'm fine with that. She's still their mom after all, as much as I might now hate her guts. Another good piece of the pie. Along with custody of the children, I naturally got the house. Because why uproot the kids from where they live and school and have friends?

Can't have three people leave the house on behalf of a cheater after all. This was all a very major win for me and I'm glad that I was able to get this much from the situation. But I don't think I'm done. I couldn't engage in any other plots because the divorce was taking up all my time. But now that's done, who knows, I might have another update for you all in the future. We'll see anyway. Update 2, it's me, back again, months after my last update. I'm sorry for being so tardy but revenge takes time, and I'm happy to say that this should be the final update.

Now, let me cut to the chase. What I wanted to take last was my ex-wife's job. I really wanted to go after her AP, but I had no idea. what his name was or where I could find him, so I let it go. At least I got to slug him though, which made me feel very good in retrospect. I think this was recommended in the comments of my original post way back whenever, but I took one of the suggestions that was made there. About a month after the divorce, I was able to get into my ex-wife's Google Drive because she was still using the same password that I knew. I did this at night, with a VPN active,

since I already knew I was up to no good. I knew that I should have stopped with my win in the divorce, but there was something that just made me have to get back at her in full. Anyway, I spotted the files that she had been working on last and I downloaded a bunch of them that seemed confidential. Then, I deleted them. Yes, I do recognize that what I was doing was illegal, but honestly, I couldn't care less. Like I said, she works at a law firm, not the biggest one in the world

for anything, but sizable for where we lived. I wasn't too scared of them, especially after they weren't much of a threat during the divorce. The files I took were all I needed, and I gave it about a week before I did anything with this is where things got fun. I had a friend in another country who knew all about the divorce and the cheating and he was entirely on my side through the whole thing. We've been friends for a very long time, so I had him sign up for a new email account. I had sent him the confidential files through a separate platform and all I told him to do was send those files to the law firm's email address with some cryptic message about how a certain Grace had left herself open and those confidential files had been posted to the dark web, they hadn't, but it made the whole thing seem more nefarious. After this point, he told me never got a reply from the law firm and I wasn't surprised. In fact, I didn't hear much about the situation until Grace called me about two weeks.

after asking whether she could get her alimony early. I asked why and all she said was just trouble at work, that's all you need to know. There was an edge to her voice that normally would have pissed me off, but in this case, my goodness was it sweet to hear. It was only about a month after this that she ranted to me about how she had been let go because of some kind of security breach at work that wasn't her fault, and I had to mute the call to laugh at how everything worked out for me. At the end of the day, I got the kids, I got the house, and I got her job, not that I needed it for anything but my own satisfaction. I hope I never get found out and I probably won't because I doubt they'll deem it big enough to warn investigation,

she was never a big shot at work. The moral of my story is that sometimes being the bigger person is not the most satisfying way for things to go, so if you ever get the chance to get some sweet revenge, take it. It's not going to fix your ex-wife sleeping with someone else, but it'll certainly make you feel better than alcohol can. Now on to the next story. Story 2. Welcome my wife's sister and her boyfriend into our home. Later, I found his underwear in our room and caught them in bed together on a hidden camera. My wife and I have been married for 12 years. We met in a grocery store after there was a huge rush to go in and buy the essentials before a hurricane. We were both scrounging around in the bread all searching for anything we could purchase. We started talking and we really

hit it off. Fifteen years later we are married and we have a beautiful family of our own. During our initial dating period, I realized that we came from completely different backgrounds in regard to our families. Mine was much more traditional, not necessarily in a good way. We weren't super close. I had a father who was not very involved because he thought that child rearing was a woman's job. Her family was everything I wished mine was like growing up. She had several brothers and sisters, her parents were always involved in her life, and they all genuinely seemed to enjoy being around each other.

I was welcomed into their family with open arms and I had never been happier. My wife's involvement with her family was something I admired and I hoped to be close to them as well. Her youngest sister was eight years younger than her. She was probably one of the family members she was the least close with because of the age gap. So, when her sister reached out about needing a place to stay my wife welcomed her, she thought it would be a good opportunity for them to spend time together and bond in ways that she had with her other siblings. Her sister was going through a tough time in her life. Her boyfriend, whom she had been with for years, been injured at work and couldn't go back. He was receiving disability payments, but it was only

a portion of his salary and they were having trouble paying the bills. They were just going to stay with us until they knew what to do about moving into a new place and getting new jobs. Everything was great at first. I loved seeing my wife with her sister. I could tell that they were both happy to have the time together. I also really enjoyed spending time with her boyfriend. He was a was a lot younger than me, but we still had a lot in common. The trouble started when my sister-in-law found a job and her boyfriend didn't. My wife was a stay-at-home mom. It was in the middle of the school year so she was home alone with him for about eight hours

every day. Never in a million years did I think that they would be sleeping together during that time. The first thing I noticed that clued me into their relationship was finding a pair of boxers in my bedroom that didn't belong to me. I asked my wife about it, insinuating that there was only one other man in the house. She laughed it off and told me that it was probably something that she dropped on the floor when she was doing laundry. I wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer, but I didn't have anything else to prove that she was being unfaithful. A couple of weeks went by and nothing else happened.

I was starting to think that I was overreacting when I saw the boxers. But then I smelled his cologne on my pillow. It's one of those things where you know that you're not wrong, but it's difficult to prove. I sleep on that pillow every night, I know what it smells like. When I told my wife that it smelled like another man, she thought that I was hallucinating. She assumed that I had been paranoid and was thinking of anything that would align with my story. My gut was telling me that something was wrong so I needed to prove it. The next day, I installed a nanny cam in our bedroom to see if I could catch her in the act.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long before I got the evidence that I needed. Just two days after the installation, when I checked the footage I saw my wife in bed with her sister's boyfriend. Divorce was the only option for us after I saw that. I had no intention of trying to reconcile what we had before this. Honestly, I wanted to hurt her the way that she hurt me too. She was so happy to be getting closer to her sister, and I was going to ruin that. When I told her sister, I knew that it would ruin her relationship with her entire family and I didn't care. She was ruining someone's life and she needed to suffer the consequences of that.

On top of doing that, her sister's boyfriend had been claiming disability after his work accident, but I highly suspected that it was fraud. I didn't say anything when I noticed it at first, I didn't think it was any of my business and I liked the guy. However, he slept with my wife so I thought it would be good to report him. I called the Social Security offices and reported him for suspected disability fraud, which they told me they would be promptly investigating. After that was done, I texted my sister-in-law and told her that we were all going out to dinner and to meet at a restaurant. While we were there and away from the others, I showed her the evidence that I had. I explained how I'd been suspecting something for a while and that I needed to get the evidence for myself.

She was hysterical when I showed her. She trusted her boyfriend with all of her heart, and she trusted her sister even more. When she calmed down, we both went back to my house where I confronted my wife about what happened. My sister-in-law was standing behind me sobbing the whole time. It was completely inexcusable, and she couldn't even come up with anything to say other than saying it didn't mean anything. I helped my sister-in-law pack her things so I could drive her to her mother's house. She didn't want to be around either of them, which was understandable. When I got back home, my wife was waiting for me.

She was furious with me for some reason, claiming that I had no right to tell her sister about the affair that I caught. She also said that I had unlawfully gained the footage of their affair and demanded I turn it over to her. Of course, I refused to do that because it was evidence that I would need for our divorce. When I told her that she practically begged me to forgive her, she didn't want to divorce because that would mean that I wouldn't be there to support her anymore. I told her that I was going to be staying with my brother and that I would give her a week before she should be out of the house. It was all in my name and she had no claim to it otherwise. On top of that, I told her that she needed to make sure her new boyfriend was out of the house too. I was afraid that if I had to see him I might attack him.

Several weeks went by and my wife had moved out of the house to stay with her aunt. None of her family wanted anything to do with her after what she did. I figured they might take her back at some point, but they would need a lot of time and their relationships would never be the same. The boyfriend ended up having to go back to work because the Social Security Office deemed him fit to do so. I got a hateful voicemail from him complaining about how vile he thought I was for reporting him to the office.

I just ignored it. My wife and I ended up getting divorced. The funny thing is, I think I am more involved with her family than she is. I didn't want to take my children away from that side of their family, so I stayed in the same neighborhood just in a different house. They're all still very upset about what she did and are trying to find ways to move on. As for me, I don't know how to date anymore. Everyone is telling me that it's about time I start trying again, but I'm honestly afraid that something similar is going to happen.

I don't want to put myself out there again only to have somebody betray me like this.