The Strawberry Letter: He Stole My Wife From Right Up Under Me

Dear Steve and Shirley,

I am a hardworking, faithful man. I was married for 15 years to my college sweetheart. I never had any problems in my marriage until I tried to help out a friend. Here's what happened.

My wife had a best friend, and the friend was married to a big-time cheater. We were always there for her if she was going through drama with her husband. Their marriage finally ended when her husband got her cousin pregnant. She put him out of the house, and he didn't have anywhere to go. So I talked my wife into letting him stay with us for a while so he could sort things out.

Shirley, I am a hardworking, faithful man. I was married for 15 years to my college sweetheart. I never had any problems in my marriage until I tried to help out a friend. Going into the third week, I sat down with him to see if he'd made other living arrangements. He informed me that he was very comfortable in my house, and he said my wife loved having him there. He told me that he could tell my wife needed to be loved properly, so he seduced her, and he's been making love to her almost daily for the past two weeks.

You can guess what happened next. I grabbed him and slung him to the ground, and my wife rushed in and yelled for me to stop. She said it was all true and she apologized to me. Fast forward to the present, I have a new house, he's in my old house with my wife, and they are getting married when our divorce is final. He took my kindness for weakness and stole my wife from right under me.

I still want to put hands on him. But there's no use in it because he already got my wife. It's going to be hard for me to trust another female. How could I move past this and find happiness again?