They say that what goes around comes back around, but sometimes karma can hit when you least expect it – even decades after the initial event.
That’s what happened to one woman on Reddit, who explained she’s been left heartbroken because her husband has filed for divorce 20 years after she made a series of mistakes.
The woman explained in a lengthy post that she cheated on her husband – who was her boyfriend of five years at the time – four times in 2001, but insisted all her acts of infidelity only involved kissing and did not involve sex.
She said she was encouraged to do so by her friend Julia, who also cheated on her boyfriend at the time, but the woman put a stop to her antics because it felt wrong to kiss someone who wasn’t her partner.
She said: “Back in 2001, yes 20 years ago, I was young and dumb and did something horrible. I had been with my husband (boyfriend at the time) for five years at that point.
“We grew up in the same hometown, part of the same friend group as kids and fell in love in high school. We’ve been together ever since.
“After college, however, I got it into my head that my relationship was holding me down and stifling my self-expression.”
My best friend Julia agreed with the sentiment. Together we’d go out clubbing, leaving our boyfriends at home.
“The more we partied, the more Julia would want to cheat. Eventually, she started making out with other guys at clubs.
“And I’m ashamed to say that for a few nights, I did the same: dancing with guys and kissing them.
“I put a stop to this after a few such incidents. I felt disgusted with myself, with her, with these strangers I was kissing, and most of all I felt horrible about cheating on the love of my life.”
The woman told Julia she wouldn’t be going out with her anymore and they both agreed to stop what they were doing – but the woman never told her partner what she had done.
She went on to tie the knot with her spouse and the pair have four children aged between 18 and 14.
But now, 20 years later, the truth has come out, as Julia has told the woman’s husband what happened two decades ago – but with key details missing.
Julia doesn’t remember that the woman only kissed four people, and instead only remembers that she cheated “for almost an entire year” and assumes her friend continued the actions for just as long.
And following the bombshell announcement, the woman’s husband filed for divorce.
She added: “One night, in February of this year, she had too much to drink, and she ended up letting spill our little cheating incidents back in the day.
“I came home the next day and my husband sat me down and asked me point blank if I ever cheated on him. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he knew everything.
“He told me that he wants a DNA test on all of our children, which of course I agreed to because they’re his. He’s the only man I’ve ever slept with.
“When the results came back, I thought that we could finally start rebuilding our foundation of trust.
I had all the energy in the world to put into our marriage and to show my man that I was worth his time and his love.
“The day the results came back, he told me he wanted a divorce.”
The woman and her husband were legally divorced in October this year and she is devastated to have lost the love of her life.
But to make matters worse, Julia is now “sleeping over” at the man’s condo – leading the woman to believe she’s making a move on her ex-husband.
She explained: “Last weekend, one of my younger kids mentioned that Julia has been sleeping over at my husband’s condo. I am incensed with jealousy and hatred for her and anguish at this whole situation.
“I need to win him back. This isn’t how our lives are supposed to end. We have worked so damn hard to build our home and he can’t share it all with her, while I rot out here in the cold.”
The woman’s Reddit post received over 1,000 comments – and people are divided over who’s to blame.
One person said: “Your ‘best friend’ planned this to take your husband.”