Cheating Wife Dumps Me for Younger Guy, Then Begs to Come Back!

My wife of 23 years was busily packing a few of her most cherished items in plastic storage boxes, humming to herself like she was doing a casual spring cleaning. I in turn was standing in the doorway of our family room, watching Amanda with tears flowing down my face. Despair and a sense of total powerlessness rippled through my soul, knowing she was minutes away from the sudden abandonment of our life together.

Part of me already hated her for the betrayal she had so unemotionally informed me just hours ago. But truthfully, part of me also hated myself for breaking down like I did. And even now with me silently crying. I guess a real man like her lover Mike Jericho would have acted out in some other fashion.

But he wasn’t the one being betrayed. He was the man my wife was going to live with and give her heart to in California. Standing there with Amanda seemingly oblivious to my presence, I ran the events of the past few months through my head, trying to make sense of everything. It had started about 6 months prior with Amanda’s employer, a national insurance company, hiring Jericho as an efficiency consultant.

He supposedly was the best in restructuring companies by cutting waste and the usual other business related nonsense. Jericho’s contract with Amanda’s employer had him there for 6 to9 months. Amanda, as a department head, was tasked to work closely with him to make the reorganization as smooth and quickly as possible.

That’s where things now obviously went terribly wrong. Before this jerk Jericho showed up, my wife had never given me the slightest hint that she would ever be unfaithful. She was the type of wife who got semi hurt if I casually looked at another woman while we were out in public. She would then make her usual comment about how I was the love of her life and couldn’t begin to imagine being with another man.

Jericho must truly be one amazing man because it only took a few months to completely win over my wife. This day had started as usual with me making reservations at Amanda’s favorite restaurant, which I was going to surprise her with that evening. Instead, I got a call from her after lunch asking me to return home as something important needed to be discussed.

Of course, I rushed home to find her unnaturally calm sitting on the couch. My first thought was that something had happened to our kids. Sally, our oldest, was a college student in New York City. And Kevin was in the army stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. “Please sit down, Bruce,” she said.

“I have some difficult news to tell you.” “Are the kids okay?” I asked immediately as I sat next to her. “Yes, they’re fine. It’s about you and me and something that I never expected to happen.” like some surprise attack. Amanda admitted she was in love with another man and was leaving me that day. She also told me flat out it was Mike Jericho, someone she had mentioned only a few times in passing since he had arrived.

I’d met the guy once when I had to pick Amanda up from work because her car was in the shop. Standing in the lobby watching Jericho interact with others. It took less than a minute to realize he was the type who believed his accomplishments were extraordinary. True, he was a handsome man who looked like he was in his mid30s. The flashy clothes he was wearing, complete with the rings on his fingers and a gold Rolex on his wrist along with his greasy charm and good looks could get him anything he wanted.

Never in a million years would believe my wife would fall for that act. Especially since she was older than him. She was 42 and though she was gorgeous, I was confident she was immune from his charms. Why would a younger handsome guy be interested in my older wife? Apparently, I was wrong. Amanda tried to explain it this way.

When she began working with Jericho, she felt an instant connection that only got deeper as the days and weeks passed. that she was sorry for how this happened and that I had been a wonderful husband, but she knew it was time to start a new phase of her life. “I can’t believe you’re seriously doing this, Amanda,” I said, watching her secure the lids on the storage boxes. “This is crazy.

You don’t know Jericho. And while I accept that things between us may have gotten stale, I can’t believe you’re going to throw away our life together like this,” I said in a hurt voice. You don’t know anything about him? Mike has completely explained his past to me,” my wife replied with a strange look I had never seen before.

Amanda used to look at me with a special soft smile and a glint in her eyes that told me that she loved me. Amanda now looked at me with a combination of cold indifference and annoyance. In an afternoon of blows to my soul, I think this was the worst. I knew then that there was no hope. She was in some form of love with another man.

Bruce, she said, please try to understand and be happy for me. I found a man that matches my passion and lust for life. Are you serious, Amanda? I yelled back, my body, shaking from the insane words coming out of her mouth. It was at that moment Amanda rushed over and grabbed both of my hands and pulled me close.

I wasn’t foolish enough to believe she had suddenly come to her senses, but then again, I didn’t pull away. “Bruce, I’ve made my choice. You’re going to have to let me go,” she said, then releasing my hands and turning back to the two boxes she had packed. “Amanda attempted to lift them herself off a table, a difficult task, but she got them to the floor and on the hand truck we kept for such tasks.

” Realizing that she was done with me as both a husband and person, I allowed her to maneuver the boxes out the front door on her own and over to her SUV. After popping the rear hatch, I saw two large travel cases in the back, which had to contain the clothes she was taking to start her new life. When Amanda explained the situation about her leaving with Jericho, she told me that in the coming divorce, I would get the house and both cars.

Amanda also added that she had told her lawyer not to pursue alimony. My stomach clenched because the way Amanda made those statements, it was like she was trying to pass those things off like a grand consolation prize. All Amanda wanted in the divorce was half of our joint savings, a sum that came to $65,000. She was leaving behind the 3,000q ft home we had lived in for 15 years.

A house that she had obsessed over from everything to the foundation up to the roof. Every item in the house, from the fixtures to the paint on the walls to the make of the furniture and appliances, was chosen by her. She loved that house in a way I often couldn’t understand. Given all the time and effort she put into its creation and development, I couldn’t help but wonder if Amanda had suffered a brain injury that had altered her personality.

“Bruce, along with the divorce papers, I’ve left contact information on the desk in your office in case something happens to the kids,” she said, getting into her car. “Tell the kids I’ll be in touch in a few weeks.” “Forget you, Amanda,” I said with anger building. I will not be relegated to some messenger between you and our kids.

You’re going to have to explain your actions to them personally. And I know our kids, they will not accept Jericho in their lives, and they might cut you out completely. That statement seemed to pierce the thick affair fog for a moment, crashing the beautiful delusion that had consumed her.

Of course, she quickly shook it off, got in her car, and cranked it up. Just when I thought Amanda would just drive away, she rolled down her window. “Bruce,” she said. “I’ll have a driver return my car. You can keep it. Give it to one of the kids or sell it. I won’t need it where I’m going.” With that, she rolled up the window, pulled out of the driveway, and drove away.

It was then that the neighbors learned what had just transpired because I collapsed on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. Luckily for me, one of my oldest friends was a lawyer who could handle divorces. Robert Carter and I went back to our days playing high school football. He was the person I called a couple of hours after Amanda had driven off to begin her fairy tale come true.

This took place after a few neighbors found me lying on the driveway and carried me back into the house. In the following days, Robert found Amanda’s lawyer, whom her new lover was paying for, easy to work with since she had laid out to him that this was to be an uncontested divorce.

Amanda had already transferred the 65,000 in our joint savings to another account, and with her attorney signed away any claim to alimony and the house, and her car, which was returned the following day. All I had to do was wait from 30 to 90 days for the divorce to make its way through the bureaucracy. Robert assured me though that my weight would more than likely be around the 1-month mark.

I don’t remember much of the following weeks. Luckily, my boss and co-workers at the engineering firm I worked for knew what happened with my marriage and took care of the few unfinished assignments I had at the time. Once they were squared away, my boss even used a little known company hardship policy to get me an extended leave of absence.

My kids, Sally and Kevin, had thrown their full support behind me once they learned of what their mother had done. They both desperately wanted to return home, but the demands of their own adult lives made that impossible. As far as Amanda contacting them, you would think a mother who was suddenly leaving their father after more than two decades of marriage would have called her kids to try and explain. But no.

When I reached the kids after talking with Robert, I found out they hadn’t received any communication from their mother in several weeks. Goodness, that Mike Jericho must have quite the charm. After talking with Robert and the kids, I pretty much shut down after that, refusing to leave the house or talk to anyone else.

A few weeks later, some sense of self-awareness finally crept back the morning after Robert called to tell me it was time to sign the papers. Of course, that would have required me to be presentable in public. So, I stumbled into the master bathroom where Amanda had taken a full month to decide on the decor and proper fixtures and looked at myself in the mirror.

For the first time, I saw a thin, hollowed stranger with a thick, unckempt beard full of gray. Thinking back at that moment, I couldn’t remember the last time I had a real meal. I lost at least 30 lbs since Amanda left and honestly looked so close to death that it scared me. I became so mad then at how I had been used and betrayed.

I did something totally out of character for me. I punched the mirror with my fist. The glass shattered all over the sink and my right hand was badly cut with blood going everywhere. It took a visit to the emergency room and a few stitches to finally clear my head. I still had enough time afterward to get cleaned up and go to Robert’s office.

Robert looked on with some concern as I went to pick up the divorce papers in his firm’s conference room. Who would have thought that a hardened divorce attorney who had gone through his marital nightmare could still have empathy for a stupid client who still loved his errant wife? “Well, Bruce, you are officially divorced,” Robert said in a way that was supposed to bring me some relief.

Yay me, I said with spite. Bruce, he said, standing up, bringing an end to our meeting. I know this stinks, but I’ve got to say, you came away from this divorce mostly unscathed. Losing just $65,000 in the settlement, given your shared wealth, is a win in anyone’s book. With this state’s divorce laws, I’ve known cheating wives that have taken almost everything from their former husbands.

I stayed silent, taking no comfort in Robert’s words as I stood up to shake his hand and leave. It was then that I caught sight of the pretty parallegal entering the room. A blonde somewhere in her 20s looking at me visibly overwhelmed with pity. A more dynamic and smarter version of me probably could have used her emotions for comfort.

But in truth, that talent for me never existed. I was no Jericho. Having Jericho take my wife and live rent-ree in my head was almost too much to bear. I walked out to my car wondering just what in the hell I would do now. My wife and kids held all the meaning in my life. The kids were grown and out on their own.

So Amanda had become my purpose. I broke down after getting in the car, oblivious if anyone saw me lose control. At some point, I guess a self-preservation instinct kicked in and I regained my composure. It was the last time I cried over Amanda. A couple of weeks later, I’m back at work trying to rebuild my life. I think the worst thing was the looks that the others gave me.

There were several variations. I was mostly looked at with deep pity, but there were a few looks of suspicion with some whispering. There had to be a reason why Amanda threw away what on the surface looked like a perfect marriage. The real hell for me was when I returned to the house we shared. Amanda’s ghost was everywhere. Given all the time and effort she had done to create what for her was the perfect home. It was so overwhelming.

I had dreams each night of her returning to me begging for forgiveness. It was obvious what my next move would be. Just a few days later, a moving van rented by a used furniture dealer backed into the driveway. I sold him at a bargain price just to spite Amanda’s metaphorical ghost.

Almost every item in the house that wasn’t bolted down. When he and his workers left, there was only a bed for me. The large screen television, the basic kitchen appliances, a couch, and my recliner. The house was so empty that any sound echoed through it like a cave. I wasn’t done yet. Even when the kids were living with us, Amanda’s creation was insanely too large for a family of four.

I had no intention of living in it alone any longer than I had to. I called a real estate agent the next day. A few weeks later, I found a nice patio home for sale and snapped it up immediately. The big house was also listed at a bargain price and bought by a family with four young kids. Seeing the wonder in the eyes of the mom and dad as they walked through the empty rooms of their new home brought me my first joy in months.

A little over 4 months had passed since Amanda destroyed my world and I was developing a new normal for my life. Especially heartening was that both Sally and Kevin had in no uncertain terms cut their mother out of their lives. Apparently, Amanda and Jericho went on a two-week long cruise after arriving in California, and she didn’t try to contact the kids until well after it was over.

It was a little after the 6-month point of Amanda leaving that I got a phone call from an unknown number. It was late in the day, and I had just cooked a frozen pizza and popped the top on a beer when the phone buzzed. I declined the call and went back to the movie I was watching. At some point, it occurred to me to look up the area code, and I laughed when I learned it was the one from the San Francisco area.

I figured it was probably from a telemarketer, but I found it comforting how much I didn’t care one way or the other if it was Amanda trying to make contact. A few months later, I got a call from Amanda’s sister, correctly named Karen because she was one, informing me that Amanda had tried to contact me. I instantly thought back to the unknown call from the San Francisco area.

Well, Karen, I said, I’ll take your word for it, but I haven’t received any call from her. And frankly, our marriage ended on really bad terms, so I don’t have any desire to talk with her. Plus, according to your sister’s own words, Jericho is her true soulmate. If it involves the kids, whatever relationship she can rebuild with them is on her.

Not only will I not help my ex-wife with anything, I don’t know if I would help Amanda if I saw her in dire trouble. Karen and I only tolerated each other at the best of times. So, not surprisingly, she hung up without saying another word. Though, I couldn’t help but ponder what might have gone wrong between Amanda and Jericho.

If Amanda had run headirst into some form of reality with her lover, she was going to be in a world of trouble for someone to save her. My former father-in-law and mother-in-law were dead and Amanda’s sister and her husband were taking care of his aging parents. And even if Sally and Kevin were speaking to their mother, neither had any way for her to live with them.

“Oh well,” I thought to myself as I took a sip of my beer. Amanda should have $65,000 to cushion any return to the real world. I did realize that I hadn’t mentioned to Karen that I had sold the house and everything in it. It was a month later when the final shoe dropped. I was sitting in the office I shared with another engineer when the phone on my desk rang.

“Hello, this is Bruce Evans. Can I help you?” I said, not paying attention to the number on the screen. “Yes, Mr. Evans,” a female said. “I’m Doctor Sylvia Alman calling from Sacramento Regional Hospital, and I need to inform you that your wife, Amanda Evans, is my patient. She was in a car accident a couple of days ago and has just regained consciousness.

Her Illinois driver’s license records have you listed as her next of kin. Needless to say, Dr. Altman was taken aback when I chuckled. Yeah, doctor Alman, we’ve been divorced for almost a year. My ex-wife should have updated her emergency contact information. She’s in a relationship with a man named Mike Jericho.

He’s the one you should contact. That’s just it. Doctor Alman sighed. With Ms. Evans unconscious, the police ran the license plate on the car and contacted Mr. Jericho. He has disavowed any responsibility for Ms. Evans and has stated they were not in a long-term committed relationship. Oh, wow.

I don’t know what to tell you, doctor. As I stated, she and I are divorced, and the breakup of our marriage for me was unexpected and brutal. I don’t see how I can be of help to Amanda. Not to get petty, but she burned our bridges thoroughly, and the last thing she said to me was her certainty that she and Jericho were meant for each other. “Yes,” Dr.

Altman began. “Mr. Jericho has gone as far as to have his lawyer make it clear to the hospital that he wants no further contact from Ms. Evans.” “Dr. Alman, Amanda has money. She got $65,000 out of the divorce.” I responded, “Now knowing where this was going.” M. Evans says that money is gone and that she doesn’t have any medical insurance. Mr.

Evans, your ex-wife has repeatedly asked about you and has some idea you’ll help her. I’ll be on the first flight I can get, I said to the doctor, not believing the words coming out of my mouth. Do you want to speak with Ms. Evans? The doctor asked. She still has a long recovery ahead of her, but your ex-wife wants to speak with you,” she said, obviously relieved that someone would come to her injured patient. “No,” I replied.

“I need to speak with my lawyer before talking to her.” Dr. Alman didn’t push the point, and I believed she fully understood the nature of how our relationship ended. We talked for several more minutes, getting some of the details about how the car wreck happened. What I began to understand was that Jericho and she were fighting with Amanda fleeing his residence in one of his cars.

My ex-wife was never a good driver, and being in control of some high-end vehicle on unfamiliar roads in bad weather explained everything to me. What Dr. Alman only alluded to was that after examining Amanda, she had evidence of physical abuse on the part of Jericho against her. After talking with my lawyer, I got a flight to Sacramento and arrived at the hospital after a layover in Dallas.

It was morning when I met with Dr. Altman. I wanted to talk with her and fully explain my position before seeing Amanda. The doctor wasn’t happy with what I told her, but didn’t stop me from proceeding since Amanda had done nothing but ask for me since becoming conscious. I walked into Amanda’s room to see her awake and sitting up.

Her right arm was heavily bandaged, and it was obvious she had suffered numerous cuts and lacerations. I also noticed the broken nose and black eyes, but didn’t know if that was from Jericho or the car accident. When she saw me, it was immediately clear the Jericho delusion was broken.

Looking at me, she had that soft smile and twinkle in her eyes that said I was the love of her life. All I could think was, “Oh, no.” “I knew you would come save me,” Amanda said before breaking down in uncontrolled sobs. “I’ve been such an ungrateful fool,” she blurted out between howls of what could have been either shame or relief that I had arrived.

“Amanda’s nurse showed up, but was waved away. Several minutes later, Amanda had regained some control of her emotions. That’s when she noticed I was still just standing inside her room, that I had neither walked over to her bedside nor was showing any emotion at seeing her. “Please come here, Bruce,” she said, starting to have an inkling I wasn’t going to be her shining white knight.

“I know what I did was unforgivable, that I threw our life and family away for a man that began abusing me just a few weeks after I left with him.” She finished, still looking for some reaction from me. Tell me everything that happened from the time you met until now, Amanda,” I said coldly, grabbing a chair near the foot of her hospital bed and taking a seat.

I listened as Amanda began telling her story of how Jericho had manipulated her into believing her life had been wasted, that Jericho had used his charm to delude her into wanting to start a new and wonderful life with him. “How many times did you two become intimate before the day you packed up and left with him?” I asked. “Bruce, please.

I don’t want to talk about that,” Amanda said quietly and looked away. “Answer the question,” I said in a tone of voice that must have scared her. “We started being together about three times a week, a month after we began working together,” she answered, ashamed. “When did you first get a hint that you had made a mistake? That Jericho wasn’t the soulmate you said he was?” Amanda started crying again, but answered the question.

He took me on a cruise to the South Pacific just a few days after arriving at his home. A few days into the trip, he became very controlling, warning me not to embarrass him around others on the ship. He compared me to other women and told me many times that I wasn’t equal to them, that he was doing me a favor by being with me.

What was the deal with crashing his car? Amanda looked down for several seconds, remaining quiet before speaking. About 3 months after returning to his house, he started beating me. It was then I realized how badly I had been deluded, that I had made a huge mistake. I wanted to call you and ask if I could come home, but Mike had long since taken my cell phone.

If I wanted to make a call, I had to ask to use his. Then came a day when he left his phone on a table while talking to one of his equally strange friends. I took my chance and called you. Your phone rang a few times and then went to voicemail. I was devastated and wanted to try again, but Mike walked back inside. He knew I had tried something and beat me so badly I had to be taken to another one of his friends who was a doctor.

He treated me without reporting the abuse. This doctor and Mike had a huge laugh over my black eyes. And when we returned to his place, he assaulted me. Amanda broke down again. I had to give her credit. She was coming clean. After recovering, she continued her story. Mike left me alone in the house for several days.

He said I was an embarrassment and that he didn’t want to be seen with me. Since I couldn’t reach you or the kids, I gathered enough courage to steal one of his cars and head east. I had this blind desire to return home where I was going to beg you to take me back somewhere. I went off the road near Sacramento and crashed. I woke up here.

What about Jericho? What did he do when he found you gone? The car’s registration led to him and when informed of my condition, he didn’t want anything to do with me. The car I wrecked was just written off. Just a few days before the cruise, he convinced me to transfer my money to him for safekeeping.

So, I guess my money went to paying off the wreck. We just looked at each other in silence for several minutes. Some small part of me wanted to comfort her. Hell, that sliver of caring wanted me to grab her and take her home. But the main problem was that there was no home anymore. And more importantly, I couldn’t forget nor forgive the cold indifference shown the day she left.

There was no way in hell I could ever trust Amanda again. I really couldn’t trust anything she had said or done during our entire marriage. “What do you want me to do about all of this, Amanda?” I finally say, wondering what she would say. Amanda started crying again, and I honestly believe they were true tears of regret and sadness.

I was sure it wasn’t some emotional meltdown, lamenting the disastrous end to a romantic gambit. I felt bad for her because she must have felt utterly alone. Bruce, Amanda said, gathering her courage. I want to go home. I want to sleep in our bed, wake up the next morning beside you, and work the rest of my life to make up for what I have done to us. And especially you, Amanda.

There’s no easy way to say this because what you did to us was a nightmare. But the home you and I built is gone. I sold everything to recover some of my self-respect. Your ghost was everywhere in that house. I couldn’t live there anymore with everything reminding me of you. It hurt too much.

I bought a small home on the other side of town. I live by myself and have come to like that way of life. Despite the roller coaster of emotions in that room, Amanda was stunned into silence. I sensed a similar level of overwhelming disbelief from her that I felt when she suddenly informed me of her affair and that she was leaving me. “Can we start again in your new place?” Amanda asked.

“I can’t imagine not having you in my life.” She finished leaving me amazed she could utter those words with a straight face. After Amanda made her appeal to come home and start again, I looked at her with an indifference I would have never imagined possible one year ago. Back then, I believed our lives were irrevocably intertwined.

So much so that I would have used the naive word soulmate to describe how I felt. But in the space of a few months, she threw that all away. She even cruy broke up with our two kids with only a vague statement to me about contacting them later to explain. Her actions were so shortsighted, selfish, and narcissistic that it was impossible for me to even consider accepting her back in my life.

The injury she had inflicted on me was just too grave. Our lives were once intertwined, but now I only saw dead wood that needed to be cut out of my life. I searched for anything to say to her request. It was her last words to me months earlier that popped into my head. Amanda, you made your choice and I let you go.

Now’s the time for you to do the same with me. I replied, feeling a sudden sense of relief. My ex-wife started to say something, but must have remembered those words that I had just echoed back to her. The look on Amanda’s face was one of stark terror. Her hope of rescue by me was destroyed. And now my ex-wife realized she was not only completely alone, but penniless.

“I’m leaving you a check for $10,000,” I said, standing up to leave. “My lawyer recommended against this since you signed away any claim to the house or alimony. So consider it a gift. It’s a little cash to restart your life. How you go about that is up to you. Whether or not the kids let you back into their lives is up to them.

” Amanda broke down into tears again. “Please, Bruce, I have nothing. I’m scared and have no one. Help me. Please help me.” I took that moment to walk out, not saying another word. As I walked down the hall, I heard her screaming my name, begging to help her and not abandon her in a strange city.

I saw a nurse rushing into her room. On the flight home, it occurred to me that even after the divorce, I had let Amanda’s choices restrict my options in life. Seeing Amanda in that hospital room admitting the monumental mistake she had made with Jericho, restored a good chunk of my soul. Along with that was seeing Amanda’s face when she realized I wasn’t there to rescue her, that whatever future she had didn’t include me.

This new feeling of vindication was liberating, but also came with a curious relief of my burden. I had been living among the pieces of our broken marriage. It was on me to sweep away the shattered glass that was all those past commitments and fond memories. It was time for me to begin a new life. As for Amanda, she made her choice. She must live with it.

5 years later, I was standing looking over at Amanda’s grave. She’d returned to Jericho after being released from the hospital, having nowhere else to go. I’m guessing she offered the check I’d given her to Jericho for it was cashed. Her badly beaten body was found in an alley several weeks later.

Whether he killed her or not, I’m not sure. Jericho was investigated and swore he kicked her out of his home wanting nothing to do with her. No evidence was ever found linking him to her death, and he was never charged. Amanda’s sister reluctantly brought her body home for burial. As I looked at her grave, I realized that no one had visited her for quite some time since the small tombstone was covered in grime except for a small portion of her name.

I cleaned it off, the least I could do, and looked at it. My loving wife, my soulmate, the love of my life was before me, reduced to nothingness before her time. What a sad ending for a silly woman who listened to a master seducer and let herself be destroyed by him. I turned to go, but took one last look at her lonely, unvisited grave.

I looked at the sky and saw a few snowflakes falling. I pulled my coat tighter on me and walked away. Amanda, unmorned and unloved, rested in her grave.