He was the love of my life and I was head over heels in love with him, even after 8 years I never lost that passionate excitement for him.
Then one day during a phone conversation I could hear there was someone with him, and asked him brezily who it was, expecting it to be his brother or a neighbour, someone innocent.
He said it was a woman, and that he'd been having secret sexual encounters with her for four months. I went into freefall, it was the most horrible moment, I felt sick, shakey, faint, bewildered, and starting blurting out questions about where, when, who, that sort of thing. He answered me honestly and without a smidgin of apology. In fact he sounded cold and self-entitled.
And then, whilst I was still obviously in shock, sobbing in disbelief that this man I'd adored for years could be so cruel, he said, still on the phone, that there was no reason for this affair to affect our relationship at all. After all, he'd been conducting it for four months and it had not changed anything between him and me. Now it was better that things were out in the open, he didn't have to sneak about any more, he could honestly let me know when he was going to be seeing her and no longer had to worry about me finding out.
My jaw hit the floor (metaphorically, of course). My brain could barely process what he was asking of me. I told him to fuck off and slammed down the phone, sobbed my guts out, and then became utterly furious with rage that he actually thought our relationship was going to continue, with him having sex with her and with me alternately. The thought of that also made me feel physically sick. Plus the knowledge that he'd already been doing exactly that for four months! As we were long term partners and I was post menopause, we never used any condoms, either. The thought of it all still turns my stomach.
Reader, I dumped him and have never set eyes on him ever again. I engaged friends to sort out who owned what so that I never had to actually meet him in person. At the time I thought it would kill me to see him in the flesh.
Nobody has ever hurt me as much as that, in my whole life.
I spent a long time wishing he would drop dead. Literally.
If I ever bump into him I don't know how I would react. I'd probably totally lose my rag, scream abuse at him and show him up in public. He would absolutely hate that.