OUR MARRIAGE SURVIVED AN AFFAIR

After suffering a huge betrayal, Jo* knew that she had to learn to trust again

- 

When I started at university in the late 90s, I sat beside a gorgeous girl who would go on to become my new best friend - and then I fell in love with her brother Paul*. We've been together ever since. We married in 2005, and had busy lives raising two sons and holding down challenging jobs. I was in the retail industry and Paul worked in finance. We'd been married for about 10 years when I spotted text messages on his phone that were not meant for my eyes. They were between my husband and a woman he'd met on a boys' weekend ski holiday. It seemed clear to me something was going on but when I confronted him about the texts, he was adamant that I was just reading too much into them. It was a complicated situation, as we were going on a family holiday the next day with our sons, who were both under 10.

It was a difficult trip. If I ever look back at photos, I can see the mental strain on my face. Although Paul denied having an affair, he agreed we should get help, as the fact he had been secretive highlighted that something must have been missing in our relationship. We started going to marriage counselling, and with therapy, we decided to put the past behind us and move on. However, two years later, in 2016, I got WhatsApp messages from that very same woman, who had got hold of my number.

BROKEN PROMISES