I Should Have Left at the Beginning of the Relationship
3 months into us becoming official I caught her trying to invite an ex-coworker to stay the night, he rejected her. I always felt off about this guy and when I tried getting her to block him before we became official, she would get defensive.
Anyways, trust was destroyed, I wanted to leave, but she seemed genuinely apologetic.
She blocked, deleted him, love bombed me, said she wanted to start over, to give her a chance, that she knew I wouldn't trust her for a while and that I'd be upset, but that she loved me so much that she was willing to take it on the chin however long it took. It sounded like a good offer at the time, nothing physical actually happened (that I know).
I sighed, I stayed, and 5 years passed. We had a lot of great moments and made so many memories, traveled, worked towards our goals. But throughout these years I could never fully forget what she did. Good moments were constantly interrupted with thoughts of what she tried doing. Every I love you I thought, "then why did she try with this other guy?"
My friends all disliked her for that reason, one of my good buddies told me that people like her don't change and to be careful. I wanted to believe he was wrong so badly.
Last year she went on a cruise with her mom and her mom's coworkers. When she came back I questioned her about it due to the trust issues, she declined over and over, that she was just with her mom but I felt something was off. It took 8 months of asking until I accidentally found out she was hanging out with another guy the whole time on the cruise.
Trust broke again even worse, I cussed her out over this and said really bad things (first time I've ever done this to anyone). I was in this weird limbo state where I stayed and was detached, but from her reactions things didn't get physical and she sounded like she hated him. He was the only one there her age so that's why they hung out. I stayed again. I was getting even more exhausted, and so was she with the constant reassurance.
Another incident, one day her and her mom were belittling me for not having enough money to pay for the whole table. I was in school and budgeting. And the mom was calling me a bum. So I decided to just leave, well they came chasing after me, I got in my car, and was reversing slowly. My ex stupidly got in the back of the car, I reversed slowly, foot always on the brake. She almost tripped at one point and they were begging me to come back.
That situation was then framed as me trying to run her over, and was used against me over and over.
Flash forward to this year, I found out she had sex with another man on New Years (10 years older) while I was hanging out with my little sister (I took her to watch stranger things with me in theaters). She tried with him but he rejected a relationship 3 months after this happened and parted ways with her. For 4 months she hid this from me. I never suspected it, all while we slept together, she hung out with my family and I, was talking about our future, etc. absolutely no shame
And well, here we are. 5 years went by, my friend was right, people like her don't change. Things escalated until they finally got physical and a part of me wishes that I should have just left much earlier to avoid feeling the pain I'm currently going through. I feel like an idiot, but this was my first real long term relationship and I feel like I've learned a lot from it.
She blamed me for the affair, for cussing her out when I found out about the cruise, for "trying to run her over," and other dumb things, constant deflecting, zero accountability, zero remorse, she told her coworkers my constant questions were annoying, her mom told me I was crazy for digging, that I should just forget it and forgive her daughter if I actually loved her, that she forgave me for trying to run over her daughter so I should do the same, she acted like a completely different person but a person I recognized at the start of the relationship.
She told me she told her friends I found out, but she immediately said it was because I tried running her over and cussed her out so somehow they're on her side.
She turned into the same person that was defensive about blocking the guy I didn't like. She came back all these years later but even more vicious. I thought about reconciliation, but being around her was a constant reminder of what she did so I finally left for my own mental health.
Oh and get this, when I found out she started to freak out where she knew she would lose me, so to avoid being alone guess who she tried contacting? She drunk called the same guy she tried cheating on me with at the beginning. He rejected her again.
My dream is just to find someone someday who respects me, and who I can trust. So that I can know what it's like to fully love someone without something like betrayal constantly hanging in the air. I know I have to work on myself first, I'm broken and don't have the energy or confidence to be with someone else. My health declined, I started eating poorly, gained weight, I can barely recognize myself at times due to the toll this all took on me
Update: she sent a letter wanting me back. That she's extremely lonely and feels a void I used to fill that I was her best friend, and wants to start over stronger.
I think the old me would have folded but I see it clearly as a cry for help, because she just doesn't want to be alone. If she loved or respected me she wouldn't have put me through this