My wife and I had a long unemotional talk this morning at a neutral location. I called my church and asked if I could use a conference room, they said yes. I knew that in this location voices (both) would be kept in check and soft; they were. My wife in a sort of calm manner told me details that she thinks went on in her and our life. I thought I would be an emotional wreck; I wasn’t. I listened with some degree of emotional detachment. After the things I found out which were allegedly true, how much worse could it have gotten? I have been telling myself it’s not my fault and I’m in control. I may be deluding myself, but it seems to be working. I’m not going to be one of those people that get walked all over, or cower in a corner; I’ve always faced problems directly and dealt with them. After reading many posts from you (friends) and the other stories at this site I believe I’m OK. There are others with far worse trauma to them and their families than mine. I’m not minimizing my emotional stress at all, it’s there. I know that in 5 years all of this aggravation won’t mean a thing. I will have accepted my wife for whom and what she is, or I will have moved on. Tomorrow is IC day.
We were at the church and talked for a long time, it seemed like hours. It’s not possible to state everything we talked about. She said that for years she had been and was a drug user; it started in college. That there had been times she was so “out of it” (her words) she couldn’t remember things; that’s why she dropped out of college. She had posed for nude pics and was a nude model in art classes at school; she did have her pictures on exhibit at art events. It was in that art class she met my BF. She believed they lived together for almost a year. He was the one who introduced her to drugs; it started out with occasional use of marijuana and other drugs that made her feel good; their usage was recreational and usually on the weekend. She wasn’t content with the occasional usage and started using daily. She said she took a cocktail of drugs (I have no Idea what that is.) in order to feel good. She said she didn’t have money to buy her drugs so she started sleeping around with guys who would share their stuff with her when she was with them. She eventually became pregnant. She said she didn’t know who the father was, there were just too many men; she doesn’t know. My BF told her that she needed help, being pregnant, a drug addict; he wanted to see that she got help that he was sorry he introduced her to drugs and it got out of control with her. She told him she didn’t need his help, she was fine, and left him. When she said all that to him he didn’t take it well. She said he loved her and really was sorry for what happened to her.
She said that after she left my BF, she went to NYC and lived in a battered women’s’ shelter, abortion was out of the question, too much time had passed. She added that she always thought he had been the father. The baby was given up for adoption immediately. She said she wasn’t on drugs while at the shelter. They had procedures to deal with her drug use and pregnancy. After the baby was born she got a job as a stock clerk in a grocery store and was back on drugs and started sleeping around for money and or drugs. She said she didn’t remember much, every day was just the same. She isn’t sure how she got to Puerto Rico; she thinks she went there for a vacation with some girlfriends. While there she met some guy when she was trying to buy pot. They hooked up and she lived with him. While she was working for him he supplied her with drugs. Most of this time is a blank. She does remember being physically abused during this time and having to go to the emergency center for burns and cuts. What she does remember is her women friends (women she worked with) telling her the stuff she did; other than that is blank (She still may be keeping things from me. When you’re taking drugs can you lose your memory? I thought only alcoholics had black outs.) She had twins and did call my BF for help. She remembered him offering to help her, that’s why she called him. I thought someone here had said twins were delivered by cesarean section, I asked her; she said it was regular delivery, said the babies weight was low but they were ok. Before she and BF left PR a friend told her that she thought her boyfriend (hospital thought he was her husband) had taken the babies and given them to a couple; sold them. (Whatever the truth is, I don’t know.)
She only remembers some things that happened to her in PR. I asked what drugs she used. She said whatever she could get and named these; heroin, meth, ecstasy, valium, roofies, she named others. (I don’t know anything about these drugs or any drug. What do they do to a person taking them? Is it possible to lose your memory?) I asked her why her doctors never said anything to me about her previous child births and drug usage; she said she told them not to. Some of you stated I should have seen things about her body that would have told me about pregnancies or her past. She was in good shape when I met her and what did I know about the female body; she looked ok to me.
She did go through rehab. It was at this time she reconnected with my BF since he helped her and was part of her support structure. It was after she was released from the facility that she and my BF got back together for a while with a physical relationship. This ended agreeably for both. My BF told her to get in touch if she needed too. She returned to community college. She was working as a computer tec. when I met her. She was off drugs by that time, but she was using pot, I didn’t know that. As our relationship grew and she found out that my BF and I knew each other she told my BF not to say anything about her past and their relationship. Everything related to the Adonis guy was true. She was physically with him when I proposed, and slept with him many times after we were engaged. Their relationship lasted up until a month before we were married, she thinks; not sure. I asked why? She liked his domineering control, his physical power over her; she wanted to please him. Her details did get me sick at this point.
I think Adonis went back to school, I’m not sure now. After Adonis left she contacted my BF; she said she needed his help and support, she felt guilty. She also told him she didn’t want me to know anything, it was to be a secret. A few months after we were married she felt like she wanted to get back on drugs to make her feel good, being married was stressful. She called my BF and he would talk her out of using again. They also met to talk and one of these times they connected sexually. This friendship between them lasted about a year until his wife found out. No one said a thing. I asked if my children were mine, she said yes they are. She said she wasn’t with anyone during the time they were conceived. (After all these years does it matter, they are my kids! I wouldn’t love them any less if they weren’t.))
She did tell me she and my BF did reconnect a few times over the years. She also said she connected with a few of my children’s fathers. She said she was still using pot. She got it from the fathers she slept with or bought it. (Old habits just don’t die!) I asked her if she ever reconnected with the Adonis guy. She said yes, it was a few months before our 5th anniversary. She had gone to a facility for an MRI and he happened to be working there (This place was connected to the hospital he worked at.). He acted as if time had stood still and reminisced about their time together, she said he was flirting with her. They got physical in a room at the hospital and she saw him a few times after that. She called my BF to talk to him. The Adonis guy had given her some drug to use and she was having second thoughts. My BF got her back to someone to help her. She has been seeing this doctor for the last five years. She said she has only been with me and no one else all this time. She said she loves me and wishes her past never happened and she is sorry.
After listening to what my wife has just told me I need to apologize to you all. Your perception that her story might be bogus was right on. Phantom Limb said that “you all take time out of your lives’ to help…and this is a sacred place.”, it is. What I wrote originally was not completely true; I believed what my wife had said. I believe she was a desperate woman creating something she thought would salvage her reputation as a wife. Do I believe what she just told me, I’m not sure? Having been lied to already, I’ll show this th the psychologist tomorrow. I decided to write this all out so I could bring it with me tomorrow as well as the other posts.