Notes: This chapter, written in the POV (point of view) of the mother will retell the events found in Ch.01 and Ch.02. However, she will also describe an event that happens to her afterward, which isn't found in either of the above chapters.
*Ch. 03 does not have incest. Ch. 04 WILL have incest.
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Angie's Perspective
My name is Angela and I have been married to my husband, Daniel for close to 25 years. It has been a long marriage, but it was not a happy one. It wasn't the worst marriage ever in the history of mankind, though. For starters, I was never physically or sexually abused by him. However, he always tried to control me, usually through the use of put-downs. I stayed with him because of my kids. I didn't want them to have a broken home. Yes, I have made my own mistakes, but I don't regret staying for them. I've sometimes regretted marrying the man but I've never regretted having the kids that I love so much.
My husband started cheating when our son was just two years old. When I first confronted him on it, he told me that he was just having fun and he wouldn't do it again. When I caught him a second time, he said that he was still young and didn't want to waste the time. The women meant nothing to him, apparently.
I began to believe that his cheating might have been because of me. Because he had always been insecure about himself, he wanted to prove to others that he was someone important. He enjoyed putting this faΓ§ade to everyone because of the 'respect' he was given. I didn't respect him though. There were times when he tried so hard to impress me, but it couldn't be done and he hated me for that. It wasn't that I didn't support him - I did - but he wanted me to worship him. I couldn't do it, so he must have given up on me. He even told me one time during an argument that I could go find another man to sleep with, just as long as he doesn't find out about it! I was never a cheater and I wasn't going to start! I told him that.
Still, I wasn't ready to break the family up yet. I naively hoped that he'd eventually change, but he never would. In fact, he even became cockier as he met more women and made more money.
Eventually, it got to the point that I told him that I wanted a divorce but he accused me of marrying him for immigration purposes and 'trying to break up a happy home'. I was hurt, but I was also guilty.
It was true that I really needed to stay in the country because my student visa was about to expire. I couldn't risk applying for another visa and have them reject me. I had sacrificed everything to come over here and I didn't want to go back to my home country empty handed. Back home, we were very poor, barely able to make ends meet. Our living space was a joke. It was basically the size of a small apartment and since we shared it together with my siblings, as much as four people were there. When we came over here, the money was surprisingly able to work harder for us. Marriage would have been a convenient excuse to stay here.
That being said, I married him because I wanted to start a family of my own. I came from a broken family myself and I wanted to break that cycle. Most importantly, he seemed to be the most suitable of the men that I met over here. Though he was short and not the best looking, we really got along. He was a great conversationalist. And while he wasn't rich or wealthy by any means, he was still willing to be generous. I wasn't looking to leech off him though. I just needed him to help start a family with me. In addition, he seemed to love his mom very much because he lived with her when he could've moved out like his other brothers. I figured that he couldn't be a bad choice.
After marriage, I had my siblings come over here too, so that they could avoid the poor living conditions. The good news was that they were able to adapt to their new life fairly well. The bad news was that after they had their own families, there was a large, complicated feud which seriously damaged our family's cohesion. One terrible trait of my family was their stubbornness. Unlike my husband's family, this was the opposite. Any feud was resolved promptly.
Since I didn't want this family to break up like mine did, I had to fight to keep it together. I had to prove him wrong. I wasn't marrying him for reasons other than love. In addition, our children were young and I'd struggle as a single mom. I was scared to see the world like this. Ironically, as I later found out, staying together with him resulted in me raising our two kids alone, for the most part because he never wanted to bond with any of us. He primarily kept his money so that he could go out and party with his friends.
Time after time, I wondered if his cheating had to do with me. Maybe I pushed him away. Maybe I didn't support him enough. There was also the time when I really wanted a second child, preferably a son this time, but he didn't. I believed wrongly that he could change his mind. So, I lied about being on birth control.
After I became pregnant again, he didn't take the whole situation too well initially, but he never once demanded for an abortion of some sort. I thought we reconciled our differences; however, after my son was born, I discovered that he was cheating! The first hint was that he always seemed too tired to have sex. The confirmation was when I accidentally overheard his voicemail messages from another woman. Regardless, I learned my lesson. I had a tubectomy shortly afterward, so there would be no more 'unexpected' kids.
I've tried a lot to get him to treat me better. Talking to him many times about it didn't work and I've tried pretending that he wasn't cheating. No matter what I did, it didn't seem to work. There was even a short period of time when I openly accepted (but not approved) that he was cheating and I still had sex with him, whenever he wasn't tired or whenever it was convenient. Regarding convenience, sometimes, the kids being in the house played a factor as to why we couldn't have sex, even if we both wanted to. If he went out, he could get it without the worry. Make no mistake, I never once blamed the kids for any reason. I knew that my problem was with the other women and I wanted my husband back.