Davina and Jason had been happily married for three years, until Jason’s long hours cause Davina to question his actions. But one day, Jason’s buzzing phone reveals an empty bank account and an even bigger secret.

When Jason and I met, I thought that for sure, I had found my soulmate in the techie world. I worked as a website designer and Jason worked for an IT firm as their IT security specialist.

“It’s like fate, Davina,” Jason said. “We’re from the same world.”

And we were. We were entirely in-sync for the three years we had been married. And I was convinced that children were on the horizon for us — but I wasn’t in a rush.

But then Jason started to change.

He began working later than normal, claiming that the overtime was necessary for our future plans. Usually, tired of looking at screens, we went on some hiking adventure during the weekends. But now, even those were consumed by his job.

I tried to understand. I tried to be easy on him because he always said that everything he was doing was for our dream of building a family.

One night, Jason came home late again. I didn’t know what time he came in, just that he was too exhausted to make it past the couch.

In the morning, I found him soundly asleep, still in his work clothes. I thought that a good breakfast would be exactly what he needed. My father was staying with us for a little while, so a family brunch was in order.

As I was about to go into the kitchen, Jason’s phone began to buzz nonstop.

I found it on the floor, thrown next to his watch and belt, discarded from the night before.

The buzzing was an alert from our bank:

Transaction declined due to insufficient funds.

My skin crawled.

Confused and worried, I checked our banking app only to discover our savings had vanished. But there, revealing the truth, was a record of large transfers to an unknown account.

I woke Jason up, desperate for answers.

“Where’s our money?” I said, louder than I intended.

Jason went pale. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, refusing to meet my eyes.

“I can explain, Davina,” he said. “It’s not what it looks like.”

His voice trailed off as my father walked into the living room, and sat on the couch across Jason.

“Tell her,” my father said. “Or I will.”

Jason looked back and forth between the two of us.

“Come on, Jason,” my father said. “Tell Davina about how you saw me last weekend. You know, when you got into the car with that woman and she drove you both away.”

I wasn’t prepared for the can of worms that was about to open.

It turns out that Jason had an affair.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you. Months ago, I made a terrible mistake and had a brief affair with someone from work.”

I felt like I was living a nightmare.

“What does that have to do with the money?” I asked, trembling from the unspoken anger welling inside me.

“The woman. Davina, she got pregnant,” Jason stammered. “Her brothers are powerful people. They’ve been threatening to expose us unless I paid them.”

“Paid them for what?” I asked.

“For the baby. She’s keeping the baby, and is due in a month.”

I looked at Jason, sitting pathetic in his crumpled clothes.

“I was scared of losing you. I didn’t want you to find out from a stranger. And those guys are intense and imposing. So I transferred all the money in the hopes of keeping it all a secret. I’m trying to move things around to get most of our money back.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I felt betrayed, hurt, angry — all of it.

My father was furious, insisting we call the police and claim on the grounds of extortion. We did, but as the investigation began, I was left with a shattered marriage and a broken heart.

My husband was having a child with another woman, and in that pursuit, he had drained our savings.

I knew that I couldn’t recover from that. Who could?

“You will divorce him, Davina,” my father said, making me a cup of coffee one evening. “There’s no point staying with a man who has betrayed you like this.”

My father was right. Even if Jason and I tried to make things works, I knew that I would never trust him again.

He kept apologizing, stuck in a constant loop of the same words.

But can a marriage survive such a deceit and betrayal?

What would you do?

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