This sitch is very unique.
I know you believe this HF. What I am trying to figure out is why you believe it to be true.
When I first got here I was in a fog of my own, convinced that no one had ever been where I was and had never experienced what I was feeling. My wife was telling me things that I just couldn't understand but for some reason I believed she was speaking the truth to me.
As I began to read here, not even beginning my own thread, just reading what other people were going through I suddenly realized that a LOT of guys had been and even were exactly where I was and that what I was going through wasn't only not very unique, it was in fact pretty much text-book.
Down the right side of the screen on this website is a flash presentation that runs continuously unless you stop Flash from running. One of the segments of this presentation is a list of things a WS might say. These include:
Too much has happened
I love you but I'm not in love with you
I need space
I just don't feel that way
I can't change my feelingsMy wife said every one of these. She also said,
We're just friends
Nothing happened with (OM)
This isn't about (OM)
Why are you spying on me? I could never trust you after you've done that.
And 50 other things that hurt like hell and other folks around here have all heard before.
And it was exactly because I read all those things here that I knew that I was only unique in that I live in my house and have my own wife who was set on destruction of my marriage...
But EVERYTHING she did, said and even seemed to think was a perfect example of how all affairs are alike.
So when you say "But you don't know what it's like..."
You are dead wrong.
When you say "But this isn't like that."
You might want to read a whole bunch of threads from the early days of other folks visits here.
You will soon have hard evidence to prove that your wife is boinking OM. It won't be allowed in court because it will not be obtained through proper methods. It may or may not prove to OM's W that he is a doofus that is cheating on her. It might prove to your wife and OM that they are having an affair...Oh WAIT. THEY ALREADY KNOW THEY ARE HAVING AN AFFAIR!
You were advised to begin Plan A and try to show her that you could meet her ENs if she ended the affair and returned to work on the marriage.
You were told to expose the affair, not to let people know what was going on in your life and hers, but to get folks to stand against the affair. On this you have procrastinated to the extreme. You keep looking for that conclusive proof that this is happening, but while you look, your wife is getting closer to OM and farther from you because all she gets from you is talk about her affair while from him she gets comfort, compassion and understanding. You are in fact helping your wife fall in love with OM more deeply every day.
Exposure is not just to clue people in. It is designed to let people know the truth who might (not WILL, but MIGHT) be willing to stand against the affair. Even HER family might do that because is isn't about SIDES but about right and WRONG.
But by delaying for too long, you give the affair partners time. They have time to be together with no worries other than getting caught in the act, which for many is what it is all about. You give them time to concoct some sort of cover story in order to minimize what will eventually come out, that they are having an affair.
But they will have time to spin things so that they look like the good guys. Your wife has already told somebody that you are acting all crazy and jealous. She has already hinted that you have been having marital trouble "for a long time now." She is already telling people that she and OM are just friends and he is trying to help her through this crisis that is YOUR doing.
And in the mean time, a whole bunch of people have tried to get you to stop planning and start acting. You are so worried about this one battle that the fact that the enemy has taken over all but your HQ is lost to you. All you have left is what you can salvage right now. Start salvaging and stop planning a war that you can only survive and not really win.
To save your marriage not only do you have to convince your wife that you love her better than OM, you have to actually love her when you are all done. Every day the affair continues, your love for her dies. She is falling in love with OM and you will no longer care when this plays out unless you begin to act soon. Dr Harley suggests that most men can do a decent Plan A for about 6 months.
After that begins Plan B which is pretty much waiting for the affair to end on its own and for her to decide to look you up. The hope of Plan B is that by OM being there day-to-day and that he will not be able to meet her ENs like you were doing during Plan A that he will fall in stature with her and she will start to miss you and what you did for her. With a crummy Plan A the best you can hope for is that she will remember your name since OM is the one that is meeting her ENs while you argue with her about the affair she says isn't an affair and that you keep looking for proof that it is one.
You don't have to prove it to her, HF. She already knows. You already know. We already know. Time to tell people who might be able to help you stop it.
Mark