All Comments on 'My Wife's Painful Mistake'

I'm surprised that nobody was entombed alive.

Decent premise. Some changes of perspective that worked against it, and waaaaay to much repetition.

Excellent story. I have one comment/question: Does Florida have any laws in place that would protect Bob from Becky filing a sexual harassment lawsuit? That is the only problem I see with the story. Why would he date a subordinate and put his company at risk?

How true the devastation is. Having been a paratrooper, jumping from airplanes and helicopters, I completely understand the analogy of falling without a functional canopy. After having had to deploy my reserve one time, it's amazing the sense of fear,, hoping the reserve functions properly.

Upon returning from Desert Storm, being hit with divorce papers, and working to protect my children from the fallout of my former spouse's actions, along with not having a job to come back to, life truly was living between the peaks and valleys. My largest saving grace was taking care of my minor children. I lost almost everything, never being able to find another relationship.

I thank you for writing this story. It has helped me to put my life into perspective. I will attempt to continue doing well and living a fruitful single life.

Could've used some trimming. There's only so many ways you can say "Laura screwed up, and she felt bad about it" before it starts to sound like a broken record.

This was a good story, though quite depressing. I liked that Bob went nuclear on Stan, since his betrayal was nearly as great as that of Laura. Yet, in your story it is above board and legal, as well as showing that Stan wasn’t quite as smart as he thought. However, too many people knew about the affair for Laura and Stan to keep Bob clueless, even if he hadn’t made his accidental discovery. The conversation Bob recorded made everyone else seem a bit stupid, even his fishing buddies who had wives thrilled by cheating but were blissfully unaware. Bob loses some of his credibility when he jumps into bed with his much younger secretary so quickly after splitting with Laura. This seems a cliché and would probably make some of his workers wonder if Bob had been cheating while married. This brought this down to a 4 star, as I believe real doubt would show up with Bob’s grown kids with the timing and choice of new partner.

I agree with you about the consequences and impact of betrayal. And no, it's not just a question of ego, although that's part of it, of course.

On the other hand, when you feel a betrayal so strongly (and this varies greatly from one person to another), you don't think in any way about repairing or healing your wounds as written on page 2. For a while, you're in survival mode, trying to survive, trying to move on..........and unfortunately some don't make it, leading at best to depression, alcohol or drug dependency, and even suicide.

And likewise, you don't think about repairing or saving your marriage.

It's a time of survival, of personal survival.

When you come out of this period, choices and decisions can be made, for you, for your marriage, for the continuity of your life......... but only after you've come out of this period.

Good story.......well written but only 4*. I just don't bye the ending.

Good story bbut courts would never allowed her to. E destitute. She would have gotten half the house at least and alimony for a long time accordingly to what husband made

Also It was raw for her. She might have calmed down in three days like Bob did and given a chance

My first wife cheated with several different men and because divorce laws in Florida favor the wife especially if kids are involved she got half of everything. I fought like hell and ended up with shared custody where I had my 2 kids 6 out of every 14 nights. 3.5 years later I remarried a wonderful lady who welcomed my children into her life. My ex is on hubby number 4. He is a great guy who lead my ex to the Lord. For me my ex is just another person who is the Mother of 2 of my 5 children. I hardly even know her now

If the women friends already knew about Stan, why did the overheard conversation ever happen? And how could they have known? She had to have told them before. A good read. D

If Bob was that tramatized I don't see him moving on with Becky that quickly. The one million dollars he asked for in the non-compete lawsuit would have been ridiculously low for that type of suit and why wouldn't Stan simply move far away to start over? The Devil is in the details.

Utterly depressing parable. Still it is effective.

5 stars

Well written and clearly done to perfection. Don't cheat and don't tell should have been the wife's motto.

Thanks for sharing...

keep it up, although i did find it a bit repetitive & wordy in the emotional department.

It needed a much better editing job - too much sudden switching from first person to third person perspectives, too much repetition, interrupting the unfolding drama of the story with explanations that deaden the narrative. Show us, don’t tell us.

Cindy,

I felt the emotion deeply from your characters. You weaved a tale of pain and woe that runs deep. I appreciate your story telling. You give us tales of varied treatment that runs the spectrum of options between people. It would be interesting to explore this story from the road less taken. When I experienced a betrayal of similar scope I went to counselling. I also went to psychologist who told me the only validation that has any meaning is the one we give to ourself. In the end what others think is irrelivant. If our actions are good and true then there is no shame or embarrassment. I have lived my life since alot happier. Just one way to live. Anyhow another engaging story. Many thanks.

All the best,

Dave

Good story...just a couple nit picks...when Bob shattered stans collar bone and they just had him stay there the rest of the trip....do you know the extreme pain of a shattered collar bone? Not to mention his demolished balls. He would have been in excruciating pain and in need of medical attention. That just didn't come through. The other thing was the mention of stan poaching Bob's loyal customers. They really weren't loyal were they? Maybe should have quotation marks around " loyal"...that said, I really like your stories, and you're a very good writer...thanx!

Loklie

Being incredibly repeatitive does not make you look clever, it just makes a story drag. Many paragraphs moaning about the same thing just with some slightly different wording isn't cute or clever.

Two points are not very clear to me: 1) Why was Laura alone in that restaurant with Stan, that night of "sympathy and blowjob"? 2) Laura doesn't work, but Stan does, and he works for her husband. So how did they manage to have hot sex for half a day (at least a few hours) without arousing suspicion either at Laura's house or at Stan's work?

Gut wrenching

Over all a good story. I found myself agreeing with things said by other commenters, especially secretsal.

Your editors missed one or two mistakes, the stand out one being the use of 'candidness'. The right word is 'candour', or to give it it's US spelling 'candor'.

Bob stood for no nonsense and dealt with his spoiled brat wife in the appropriate fashion but as another commenter said it was a bit of a slip up to have him take up with his secretary. Four stars.

I love this story but it just proves to me the same as what happened to my life A bit of strange and we no longer had a GREAT life together I hate cheaters with a passion (jaybee186)

A well written piece that was absolutely no fun to read. You might try to cut as many words as you can then only put back what it takes for the story to flow. And look into tenses.

Very well done. Another great story!

Another Powerful Story from Cindy. 10 Stars for Cindy! Heartbreak, many of us have known tremendous heartbreak. The heartbreak overwhelms you, making it hard to breathe. Complete and Total loss of everything that you hold dear. It is overwhelming. How to go on when you have lost everything? Buster2U

three stars. There was some unneeded repetition. In the fallout, you switched to first person and back to again. Then the plot holes, implausibility and unimaginative take on the story concept.....

Nice job!

Pretty good but wished there were more dialogue between his daughter and him who was on the cheating wife's side

The premise of the story is solid and executed well for the most part.

The random switching between first person POV and third person POV was chaotic and doesn't reflect too well on your editors, not to mention the numerous spelling mistakes.

All that being said, I enjoyed the story and thank you for sharing it with us.

She fucked a guy twice and lost everything, including spousal support due to a "new statute" put in place.

Seemed waay way way too much destruction to be really entertaining. It seemed like piling on.

I mean, if that's your thing...

" I hate cheaters with a passion (jaybee186)..."

Can you really hate and be morally superior? Seems contradictory and self-serving.

Good story, but i have to agree, you did repeat yourself several times often in sequential paragraphs. You could have edited that much better.

I'll give you an example. You repeated how devastated Bob was between almost every line of dialog as His wife confessed to the others. I know what you you were doing. You were trying to show profound emotion, one of the comments often made. It didn't work. You could have just had him shake a bit with distress and rage barely able to keep from cursing and then got on with the story. It would have made your point and then if the readers did not think it enough, too bad. I still gave you 4 stars for a good plot.

As a side note, was there a reason to switch the ending to third person?

Good story. I wonder what he would have done if she took the opportunity to confess her tryst and said they were even. Could Bob say OK even though hers was real? A few writers used the 'overheard' confessions and it never gets boring. thanks... Slick742

Excellent, as always.

You had a good, if very well-worn, premise to your story, but this became repetitious at a level approaching one of Cagivagurl's stories.

Great story. Thank you.

FYI, what’s wrong about over the top? 😎

I enjoy your stories. Thanks for a new one.

Your stories are always like a gut punch, but this one seemed a little telegraphed and was sloppier than normal in taking care of details.

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Stan's Non-Compete cannot deprive him of the right to practice his trade entirely, but it does restrict the scope of it and his ability to poach 'loyal' customers. He should be able to 1) work for a competitor at a lower level that precludes poaching; 2) wait out the 'cooling off' period of 12-24 months (normally) before opening his competitive business; 3) relocate to a place outside Bob's protected zone and opening a competitive business immediately; or 4) practice his trade in an undocumented fashion until the cooling off period ends.

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The problems for Stan with #2 and #3 are that the court (or the existing NCA) give Bob a safe time period or zone of territory to both grow and consolidate without having to fear their new rival. And #4 only works in a non-invasive field (like pool cleaning) where licensing and liability insurance are not critical

I liked the plot. But the paragraphs were weirdly repetitive, like you edited together a bunch of text prompts. And the sudden switches from First-Person POV to Third-Person POV and back didn't exactly help.

(Sorry) and #4 also is extremely foolish if Stan has already been sued for violating his NCA. He could no longer plead ignorance, so a judge would have no mercy.

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But as your story points out, Stan doesn't have enough of a business background to know his options or even ask the right people the right questions.

Good plot and storyline, but felt, sloppy, too wordy, and repetitive.

Why did Stan still have a job, anyway? That was a weird point for me.

Except where you changed from 1st person narrative to the 3rd, I liked it. Especially Bob putting the decision, whether to try and save their marriage, on to Laura

I love your stories, and this one was a definite step up! It flowed more easily, and the editing is a clear step forward. I especially loved the references to Poe, which were cleverly inserted! Could still use a bit more editing, as others have noted, but this is really outstanding!

Well done sequence of events. Very plausible

Okay, you mentioned you are trying to correct.

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Here are a few specific points:

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On the ‘reveal’ section, you spent several paragraphs describing his emotional pain and suffering BEFORE he heard the bad stuff. Maybe you were looking for an emotional build up but it was in the wrong order IMO.

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Next, if you start in first person, stay in first person. We know ‘I’ always = Bob. At the fishing camp, you went back and forth.

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(Caveat). When you went to the ‘Fallout’ section, it felt more acceptable to have an entire section in third person narration, but I would still cleave to either first or third person through the entire story.

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I am not trying to be a jerk here. I am giving well meaning tips to increase the emotional impact and improve readability.

I liked it. Your editors helped your story telling. Was the story totally fixed by them? No. But it was improved. I think some of the problems are small, such as, and this is only my opinion, your thought process is faster than your ability to get it written down. Everyone has a different style of writing, that is what makes each authors story their own. I think when authors collaborate on a story it strengthens them both. Read other authors stories and think, what added word or preface to a word would make it more descriptive or more accurately describe that feeling and its importance. To say something is devastating, tells you what something is, but add the word, [MOST] devastating, or it was the [LEAST] devastating, lets the reader know its ranking at least in your mind. I hope that makes sense to you. Keep writing and don't rush to post a story until you are satisfied it is your best. Some of the best writers on this sight are not the most prolific and only publish their stories after several re-writes and edits. Their scores prove it is appreciated by us readers. Good luck.

Another classic from one of my favourite writers 👍

For all of you that say my stories are too over the top, this is one of my milder contributions

It is your world, build is you want.

Exactly how it felt.

Good story, but I thought the language could stand to be a lot less flowery. It seems like the writing was trying to find ever-grander words to describe the feelings, but it would be a good exercise to try just telling it like you’d tell a friend.

Cindy, accept all the comments. As usual if you try you will some small mistakes anywhere. I enjoyed the story, even it had a sad ending. But could Bob do anything else? Not really. Keep on writing, most of your readers love you and will follow you. (I am a follower already)

Wonderful story, 10 stars! Laura had the world by the tail, and admitting her screw-up, cost her everything ever given to her. Maybe, had she worked for a living, she wouldn't have had time to screw-up her marriage. She should go find Stan, and if his bigdong still works, build a life with him, and maybe give him a kid...

This 4 page story was about 2 pages too long. The emotional descriptions were unnecessarily redundant and dragged on with a whole bunch of big words being thrown in. It might seem like highbrow writing to the author but for the audience we realize that people just don’t talk like that.

May be years of waiting by Laura can make Bibs heart heal to take her back considering he still have sex with others when situation arises.

Not bad but wish it had more dialogue. The narration seemed to take up most of the story. Nothing wrong with narration but it needs a balance.

Thanks CindyTV.

Well done!

Cindy I hated your first stories but you have grown so much ❤️

Regards,

Joe

I do not know how much the author will consider my criticism constructive, but, nevertheless, I will try to present my arguments. Everyone here probably met comments on the stories of other authors, which said that the main characters or characters are described as very emotionless, callous, cold. That the story lacks emotions, inner feelings, and heartache. So, in this story under consideration, everything is exactly the opposite - with a rather meager dynamics of the development of the betrayal itself and actions to expose infidelity, the author brings down on the reader a whole ocean of inner thoughts, emotions and emotional experiences of the characters. At the same time, not some new stages of understanding the depth of betrayal or new deep shades of pain are outlined, but two grievances are exaggerated from paragraph to paragraph: The first is the pain from, directly, physical betrayal; The second is mental images of sex with another that were present in their marital bed.

That's it! From phrase to phrase, only the words that conveyed the same thoughts changed. And there was an abundance of this for this particular story.

"You know our state just passed the new law favoring the injured party from adultery, don't you?" That's the fantasy here.

nice job, but way to overly descriptive. felt like I was reading a College Lit paper that was trying to impress the instructor with a high word count. 3*

Ego is a powerful thing. When asked about her affair, all she had to do was deny what her friend was asking about. Instead she brought it to life, bragging about the things that would destroy her marriage. If it was a mistake, never to happen again, bury it and never talk about it again. I loved the self righteous display she showed when Bob turned the tables on her. I really felt bad for both of the main characters. Another great story from CindyTV.

god i love when cheaters don t prosper

she got what she deserved ... not more not less

well written cindytv i felt his pain

when it comes to cheaters it s never over the top

5* 100s of hardons and a very satisfying orgasm

Another Martian Slut Ray plot. A loyal loving faithful wife, for over 20 years, then, Shazam, she becomes Stan's slut. And a Big Cock Queen to boot. And of course she LOVED fucking Stan, so why wouldn't she do it again some time in the future? She would. Her only regret was getting caught and having to suffer the consequences. Makes you wonder what Bob ever saw in this shallow selfish weak brainless bitch. Oh, but she wasn't, until she kissed Stan: so the Slut Ray affect. You can't have it both ways. Either she was a flawed human being that should have been discerned before they were married, or she suddenly went through some kind of character and personality denigration that left her a guiltless slut enjoying the memory of her betrayal. It wouldn't have been the last time.

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I found the writing style verbose, even tedious. You set up a statement like "What Laura said next was devastating." Then you dither and churn some internal turmoil, for another paragraph or more, THEN you, finally, describe what "Laura said next." It wasn't dramatic or suspenseful, just annoying. We know he's upset, why describe that upset in 5 different ways, often repeating the same idea just using different words. You must have worn out several Thesauruses.

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So a decent story with a reasonable conclusion, but way to wordy. And you can fix that with a little restraint.

Like it a lot. But the abrupt transitions from Bob’s POV to a narrator talking about Bob hits readers like a fingernail on a blackboard — especially bad in the scene where Bob beat on Stan and the other 2 guys show up and they all listen to the recording. You are getting to be too good a writer to do that 😎

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Loved Bob’s simple plan to let Laura hang herself. Was glad he dumped her. Not sure how the other marriages held together. I thought the afterward about Stan’s business was unnecessary….partly because no way he is able to jumpstart a business that fast and that well — with what resources? And partly because it was a too obvious mechanism to give Bob another revenge option.

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All said however….a very strong example of a very common LW trope.

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5 *****

So many emotions caused by her cheating. This happens way too often. Great story - 5 Stars. Not your best writing, but it's so easy to criticize someone else's work. I won't be like the other commentors and leave negative comments until I actually write my own story. Keep up the good work and thank you for your posting your stories for us to read. BH

Betrayal: been there, to know the person you trusted most casually stabbed you in the back is a hard thing to get over. Been 28 years have not spoken to her since court. But life does go on and you will heal.... To a point.

Mixed feelings. Good story and Bob and the rest of the husband's reactions were plausible and very realistic for most of us.

There were too many "plot holes" however to keep me from rolling my eyes throughout:

- You introduced Howard in the beginning but never mentioned him again. No reason to take the time and effort on explaining someone who doesn't play a part in the story.

- The women seemed to know about the affair so why did she explain it in detail at that particular moment?

- If it were me, going on the trip would have been a non-starter, especially if Stan was going.

- If Stan's collarbone was shattered, there would have been the need for immediate medical attention, not to mention the multiple blows to his nutsack. No way he's sitting up there for another two days in that kind of pain no matter how guilty he feels.

- Stan's already lost his friends, and embarrassed himself but he was clearly assaulted. He never would have returned to work, especially for Bob and with a shattered collarbone, not for anyone for several months. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point for calling the cops on Bob and filing charges for assault would have a no-brainer.

- Not an expert but I'm not sure a non-compete for a pool boy is a thing.

- Again, why would Stan go back to work at Bob's company? Why would Bob allow it?

- As others have pointed out, changing from first to third person was a distraction.

- You repeated the paragraph about fallout of Roger and his wife twice and just chaged it slightly.

- He now has major trust issues with women, not only his but with Roger and Scott's wives admission, why would he jump into another lon term relationship that early? He's relatively young and rich. He needed not to be in any hurry.

- Yes, Linda deserved what she got, but moving Becky in with Linda still in the house seemed like an extremely odd situation. What do they talk about at those odd meetings in the kitchen or other common areas? Why would Linda stay? Seems way too awkward for all three. Also, if hos company was that big, he'd have an HR and he'd be advised thatvdating your secretary is not a good look.

I did like the story. These are just meant to be constructive criticisms Looking forward to future writings.

You need to work on your creativity. Your stories are repetitive. Keep up the story telling. Hopefully, you will be a feature writer.

Trite

I enjoy your writing, so Thank You. However, please stay away from legal issues, particularly when they are actually wrong! Yes, I know I'm being pedantic but you use them as explanations for the husband getting either revenge or an asset position that isn't correct. eg. Transferring the Business (owned as marital property, secured by marital home equity) into a Trust, with only the husband as Trustee... Well, no lawyer would accept that, with the wife losing control. (I have been involved in "Trust Busting", breaking open Trusts and showing they were inequitable or a scam at initiation). The "Non-Compete" nature also wouldn't stand up either as part of an employment contract the way it was described here. (Restrictive trade without compensation)

However, I know what you were trying to describe in your story so I'll just shut up! I enjoyed it. Please keep writing. Cheers.

In that Laura regretted her fling with Stan and did love Bob one would think when Bob made his false confession she would have jumped on the opportunity to confess as well.

"Man, I'm sorry it just happened." - That might, MIGHT, carry some weight with the BJ, but inviting her to his apartment didn't "just happen."

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"I'm so sorry, you weren't supposed to find out." - NO! And here I thought husbands were supposed to find out their wives were cheating.

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"They no longer socialized with Laura or Bob and missed the good times they once shared." - Why wouldn't at least the guys still socialize with Bob?

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Too much narration.

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@SwordWielder, it's only sexual harassment if she complains about it.

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@demander, good point, the conversation was obviously just a plot device.

It reads as if it was generated in large parts by chatgpt or similar ai.

At least it wasn't a cuck story LW has been swamped with lately but it just seemed to be drawn out and plod along to the usual ending. Marrying his secretary?? Really?? Your proof readers should have called you out on the ending.

Cindy, not only would I love to bend you over your writing desk and inject a large hot load into your bottom but I have loved your writing. So you can imagine my surprise to see you collaborate with the other, current preeminent writer on this site, the AMAZING NTH!, to produce this subpar offering. As others have mentioned, it's extremely repetitive and stretching of one's ability to take as believable. I personally can't imagine how a husband hears that his wife will always be thinking of how her boyfriend fucked her whenever he attempts to be intimate? Noo, there's no coming back from that. Cindy, rest assured that your profile photo still gets my dick hard, this story left my literary desire limp.

As always, excellent writing deserving of more than the 5 stars allowed.

New and interesting twist to let the cheating spouse unknowingly sit in judgment of themselves.

A well written/good story. Though it was drawn out more than it needed to be.

Have to agree with 'Jensenslover', that it was too repetitive and "many paragraphs moaning about the same thing just with some slightly different wording". Kind of ruined a good story with so many paragraphs written down but not edited. We 'side-liners' usually moan about stories not having a proper ending, this one was ended in too many ways. And Stan- why was he not thrown out of the fishing cabin, and why was he not fired?

Laura made 2 mistakes - first doing the deed twice second bragging about it her friends - if she had to unload her guilt she should have gotten professional help

The pool party scene would have been more believable had it been presented as the 'bragging session' that it was.

The questions Laura's friends asked her made it obvious that they already knew a lot about what they asked, and that therefore, she would be revealing no 'secrets'!

Good story. It's hard to understand why he left for the weekend, but I suppose he needed support. And why he didn't fire the other man that same weekend is impossible to understand. Still, broken people do what they need to address their pain first.

Well put together story with a good flow of the telling. Thanks for your writing.

Good story with two problems, as a woman you probably don’t understand. Bob should have confronted and kicked Stan’s ass immediately. No way he would have went of a fishing weekend with him AND he should have fired Stan while laying on the ground after his well deserved as whipping. 4*

A bit verbose at times but a good story told. She got what she and other lying, cheating, worthless piece of shit adulterous whores deserve!

I will not have trouble sleeping on this one since you burned her so bad and Bob has found someone else!

LOL! The author told us early:

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"For all of you that say my stories are too over the top, this is one of my milder contributions."

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Well, I suppose that since you didn't have anyone actually killed, maybe. :)

'I found out.... In the most unusual way.' No you didn't, not according to loving wives authors.

It must be the most overused discovery method in the history of loving wives BTB stories. The conveniently overheard conversation or phone call, where the cheating wife not only gives the game away but actually goes into great detail describing everything she has done. Has that ever actually happened? Is it ever likely to happen? I think we all know the answer: Not in a million years.

It's lazy, cheap writing, in fact it'd probably help if it was categorised with a title so that it could be inserted into a story so that we all know what's happened without the effort of actually writing the words. After that rather predictable beginning I couldn't find the will to continue but I believe I can safety imagine what transpired. A shame really because I know how much effort and thought usually goes into a decent story, a pity Cindy couldn't be bothered to use that same effort and thought.

Non-compete clauses specify a distance from the original company, and the distance has to be within a reasonable range, 50 or 100 miles. Stan could have moved two cities away and started up a perfectly successful business.

It's an old, old LW trope that the wronged husband kicks the other guy in the balls, but that's really hard to do if the victim is conscious; even while down, men naturally protect their balls, in ways that make a targeted kick difficult.

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Men talk and women talk, and the notion that women should tell their husbands that someone else is cheating on her husband, if the woman was friends with the cheating wife, just doesn't work. That a man would consider divorcing his wife because she was titilated over another woman's cheating story, but did not cheat herself, is a statement that the man likes his friends more than he loves his wife.

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"Roger's anger was palpable, and he demanded answers as to why she had protected Laura and betrayed their best friend." That's just it: Bob was his best friend, but Laura was hers.

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You know, I get it: in the LW audience, there are a lot of readers who want to see a great, wonderful, perfect husband absolutely destroy the cheating wife and her boyfriend, but it's actually pretty rare that such can be accomplished. They're wanting to see the Washington Redskins utterly destroy the Dallas Cowboys, 70-0, but, in the real world, even a terrible team like the Cowboys are going to have some offense and some defense, and even if they lose, it's pretty unusual for it to be that much of a pasting.

Thanks, a few new insights into how it must feel to suffer such a betrayal.

@Reed Richards You are right on a couple accounts. A man does protect his balls. Which would make it better because his fingers get broken in the process. Yeah women and men talk but most do not keep quiet. They say "You can't tell anybody you know, but....."

I agree with you totally that Stan could have easily moved a short distance away to avoid the non compete clause. But as a non professional a year would have been max probably. He would not have have had to do the nebulous 'manual labor' described. Guess what...cleaning pools IS manual labor and not as fun as it sounds. generally in the full sun, sweat trickling down your asscrack. But most readers think of the pool and imagine it something else.

I liked the plot. I just did not like some of repetitiveness I addressed earlier.

Tough lesson there. Well told. Thanks

@ Karnevil So you hate the often used overheard conversation whether live or on the phone. And many people either talk in simplistic short statements or talk too much. Listen to a conversation sometimes. Since I began writing I listen to how and what my wife says. My wife is not hiding secrets so she says all kinds of crap.

So i guess you would rather the guy hear a few strange and hire a PI. Or go secret squirrel and hide in the wife's office plants to find out what she is doing.

If you have a way for the husband to find his wife is cheating that is new and unique, I would love to hear it. Write a story and use it.

You tell me, what are the signs the wife or husband is cheating? Something that has not been used before. Put it in a story or co-author one.

Now in this case, I would ask why the husband came home for ONE lure. He'd have had an idea and made a half dozen knowing full well he'd lose a few on snags. No commenter has mentioned that but dissected his other actions. Why was that not important? Because the guy had to have some reason to go home to listen in on a private conversation between some drunk women talking about sex.

Well done as usual, thanks for the effort. Ignore the Karnevil's of the world who criticize but never have the courage to try and write a story.

Really loved the story. Would have liked to have the daughter in the Courtroom for to hear her mother bragging about the affair. Getting her reaction to that revelation would have been interesting.

Thanks for the Story!

Enjoyed your story, we can only wish that the cheating spouse could truly realize what destruction they cause.

We’ll done

TL;DR: Well deserved 5 stars, very well written, a couple of minor gripes which were greatly overshadowed by a very well executed solid pleasing BTB.

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First of all to add to author's last page waring about betrayal, a lot of mental health professionals acknowledge that cheating victims suffer from symptoms equivalent to PTSD. So any of you who object to BTB stories, or make light of cheating like it's not such a big deal - it literally is. Here's one link but googling for "cheating PTSD" brings a lot other resources: https://www.choosingtherapy.com/infidelity-ptsd/. To the author - you are welcome to add a link like that to the end of your story if you feel it would enhance it.

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Second, when I started reading the story, the author scared me with "mild" prediction, which was reinforced bt a phrase "but I also felt a desperate desire to salvage what was left of our relationship. I didn't want to lose her". Sounded like a 1-star RAAC, or at best a 3-star "he divorces her and she wins by getting all his money and the kids against him and he's alone forever pining for the backstabbing skank" garbage flooding LW.

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And yet, the author managed to skillfully and miraculously avoid these mistakes, and delivered a powerful and moving BTB story (literally, the only thing it lacks to be a great BTB is the tag :)

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So **what's good/great?** First, of course the outcome on MC's side. [SPOILER ALERT]. He doesn't lose the business. He wins most assets (the author inventing the awesome punish-cheaters law was original and heartwarming, even if slightly heartbreaking to realize no such law will ever exist in current evil-rewarding man-hating US legal system). He gets a new woman who appreciates him. At least one of his kids is fully on his side. "Best revenge is living well" is fully realized. EVERYONE knows that he was a victim and not an asshole who divorced for no good reason.

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Second, the guilty parties are mostly punished, and justly at that. The cheating skank not only gets divorced, but loses most assets and doesn't get the business, ending her lazy-ass easy life at the expense of her hardworking husband. She sees him replacing her with better - both morally AND age/sexiness wise - woman. She loses the respect of at least one of her kids. She is shown to be remoresful and sad for pain she caused her husband (honestly, the most fantastical and hard to believe part of the story, but the author said so, so within the story it is true). She is publicly tarred as the cheater. BTB accomplished. The cheating helper loses social status, respect, gets hurt physically, and loses good future. BAM. Double BTB whammy. Additionally, at least one of the cheating-friendly wives gets divorced for good reason.

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Third, MC's approach (tell her about fictitious cheating and use HER attacks on him and decision to divorce, as basis to divorce her) was very karmic and solid (and also not often used in LW stories).

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And lastly, I absolutely hate LW stories where children side with cheating spouse and not the victim. Here, one child definitely sided with the victim; and the fact that the second so-called "daughter" sided with the cheater, was ameliorated by the cheater herself setting things more justly.

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For balance, there were a couple of things I disliked, but even added together they didn't detract enough from the story to either make me dislike it nor reduce my 5 star rating. First of all, the shithead "daughter" who betrayed her father wasn't punished at all. If not for "cheating mom talked to her and she changed her shitty tune" I would have taken a star off for this. Ideally, I would have liked to see him at least reduce his help to her now, and leave her like 10% of inheritance and 90% to his son, or at least as much spread as laws allow. Secondly, the OTHER two wives who condoned and enabled cheating, didn't get any punishment (talk from the husband isn't "punishment"). At the very least, ideally I'd liked to see a post-nup. Or, in a year or two, have someone (Bob maybe?) falsely tell them their husband cheated to let THEM feel how betrayal tastes. And the last thing I disliked, was that so much attention was paid to people who didn't deserve it. There were at least two different detailed explanations of how **Mary** felt badly; who cares what that cheat-friendly asswipe feels or thinks?

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Anyway, in conclusion, thank you to the author for pleasing, well thought out and rewarding story.

Wow - You sure brought out a vigorous response from readers this time! Please don’t apologize for your “strong” BTB storylines as long as they are credible and the reader can follow the dots. This story was pretty good despite being mostly driven by narrative. The last page or so was a continuous diatribe of reflection and remorse by Laura that was already established. You don’t normally make that mistake, so I was a bit disappointed. Keep being you and I 100% support your comments about the trauma. I’ll also add that couples with children should go to extraordinary efforts to reconnect their early marital commitment to each other as your children will always be a lesser subset of what they would be if you stayed together. I know it’s hard but also know there is a path forward. 3.9*

Hard to have much sympathy for the wife!

5