After Knowing His Lies, My Heart was Broken

My name was Tracy Currey. My husband, Stephen Chandler, blamed me for not helping him fix his sexual needs during my pregnancy, so he cheated on me with his student, Joy Frost.

After I gave birth, he brought Joy home to take care of my baby.

I was unaware at first and worried that she was young and inexperienced. However, Stephen said, "She has studied scientific feeding, and you're just a housewife. Just listen to her."

However, she openly flaunted it on Twitter.

"My darling gives me 100,000 dollars every month to take care of his wife and baby after she gave birth. It's easy money, and it's a lot!"

1

"Please! Please help me!

"My husband hired a college student who was born after 2000 as a maid for me.

"But she doesn't allow me to give my baby water or calcium supplements. She says there's no need to add clothes to the baby if the back of its neck doesn't feel cold, and using the air conditioner would be too cold for the baby!

"I'm so worried about my baby. What should I do?"

I sought help on Twitter.

Stephen said he knew Joy. She loved learning and was educated, and I shouldn't think too much.

My mother-in-law, Andrea Bacchus, also criticized me for not cherishing my life, saying that in their time, they didn't have these great conditions.

It seemed like it was all my fault, and I started to doubt myself.

I could only go online and ask for other people's opinions.

All the netizens criticized me, too.

[If you're breastfeeding, your baby doesn't need water, or it will increase the burden on your baby's kidneys. The maid is right, and you're wrong.]

[Why supplement calcium for such a young baby? Supplementing calcium before six months can easily cause premature closure of fontanel. Don't you know?]

[Please! Read more books! Don't let your lack of education ruin the baby!]

[I really feel sorry for your maid. Ignorance is so terrifying.]

I felt speechless.

In fact, as someone who was mocked by netizens as "uneducated", I graduated with a full scholarship offer for a PhD from Stanford at the age of 25.

Before going abroad for further study, I found out that I was pregnant.

I didn't hesitate between my future and the baby.

Because of morning sickness, I had to stay at home during the entire pregnancy, feeling dizzy and vomiting every day.

Fortunately, I married the right person.

Stephen was recognized as a model husband, caring and considerate. He did the laundry and cooking and massaged me during my pregnancy. He would bring me a bouquet of flowers every day after work.

Andrea often called to ask about my well-being, even more caring than my own mother.

Although the pregnancy was difficult, I felt very happy.

But after the child was born, something seemed to have changed.

Andrea no longer asked about my situation. She directly called Joy and only cared about her grandson. For example, how many meals he had and how long he slept.

Stephen became impatient especially when it came to scientific feeding of the baby.

As for Joy, she commanded me every day to cook, do laundry, and clean. I was so busy.

I had given birth, but I was much more tired than during pregnancy.

Joy said that she was only responsible for taking care of the baby, not me.

I didn't argue with her about this but insisted that she should feed the baby 15 milliliters of water every day, mixed with a little calcium supplement.

Joy toughly asked Stephen to be the judge. Who knew scientific feeding better?

I found papers and data to support my theories, but he frowned and got angry.

"The baby cries every night, and I can't sleep well. Besides, I'm busy in the lab during the day. Can you stop making things difficult for me?"

I stubbornly pointed to the page printed from the paper. "Look here."

Instead of looking, he tore it all up and threw it in the trash can.

"What's the point? You have already graduated. Can you still understand any of this? Your only task now is to feed the baby."

If I remembered correctly, this was the first time he got angry with me.

Joy just graduated from college and specialized in scientific feeding. She was the person who knew best how to take care of babies.

The whole family thought every word Joy said was absolutely true.

And I seemed to be just a stupid woman whose only use was to feed the baby.

2

Joy was young and pretty.

I had seen her grades, and some of them were very good.

I was curious about why she would be willing to graduate and become a maid.

Joy told me that she liked children very much, and she minored in child health in college.

She couldn't find a job after graduation, so Stephen asked her if she wanted to come to our house.

" I trust Joy the most when it comes to taking care of our baby."

This was what Stephen said.

After Joy came, she really cared about the baby.

She held the baby, comforted the baby, and played with the baby.

Only when the baby was hungry, she'd bring the baby to me.

At other times, it seemed intentional that she and the baby never appeared in the same room as me.

I asked her if she had a problem with me.

She explained that it was for scientific feeding. She wanted to reduce the baby's dependence on the mother and cultivate its independence.

I wanted to be with the baby all the time, but my family strongly supported Joy.

Every day when Stephen came home, he would be in the living room and play with Joy and the baby. I constantly heard laughter.

When someone came to visit, they even accidentally took Joy as the hostess.

And I became the "maid" who buried herself in work.

I even slept alone in the smallest guest room in the house so that Joy could easily come over and feed the baby at midnight.

"I shouldn't be here if Mr. Chandler is here at night," Joy said shyly in her pajamas.

"Then I'll sleep with the baby at night," I suggested but it was unanimously opposed by the family.

Andrea said, "Joy knows scientific feeding. Do you know what's the right sleeping position for the baby? Have you systematically learned how to put the baby to sleep? Professional matters should be left to professionals!"

Stephen said, "Everything works great now. Don't make trouble. Let's do as Joy says."

Joy also advised me, "Mrs. Chandler, don't worry. I'm doing all this for the good of the baby."

Stephen and Andrea loved the baby and fully supported scientific feeding.

I opposed Joy because I was ignorant.

I was the baby's mother, but even Joy, a maid, cared about the baby more than I did.

My family always said that to me, making me guilty.

Only Joy stood by my side and spoke for me.

"Mrs. Chandler's behavior is a protective psychology towards her baby. This is the mother's strong protective desire and dependence on the newborn baby after birth as well as the anxiety and fear of the baby's rearing process. Although this is an illness, it can be cured. We must believe in science."

Now I had a mental illness.

They were even more guarded against me getting near the baby.

Every time I fed the baby, I always felt that the baby was not as lively and active as before.

I couldn't sleep at night, and accidentally, I found Joy's Twitter alt account.

I clicked on it and saw her latest post.

"My darling gives me 100,000 dollars every month to take care of his wife and baby after she gave birth. It's easy money, and it's a lot!"

In the photo she attached, she was full of joy.

3

I wanted to die.

The more I saw her posts, the more I wanted to die.

When I complained about feeling nauseous and unable to eat, Stephen, who was "working overtime", went to the most expensive restaurant for a candlelit dinner with Joy.

On the day when I had a cesarean section and was given anesthesia to go on the operating table, Stephen, who was "on a business trip", was drawing heart shapes on the beach with Joy.

I flaunted that he brought me a bouquet of flowers home every day after work no matter how busy he was. Actually, it was because Joy's family owned a flower shop, and she lived upstairs from the shop.

I used to be proud of his meticulous love for me, but now I realized he was just casually brushing me off.

It came to me that when I just became pregnant, he complained that he wanted to have sex but couldn't. He never brought it up again afterward.

Tears blurred my eyes and the screen of my phone.

I typed desperately to seek help online, hoping to grab a life-saving straw.

"My husband cheated on me with his student during my pregnancy.

"She came to my house as a maid, and now my baby is closer to her than me.

"What's the point of living such a life?"

I stared blankly at the phone screen.

It seemed like the netizens who scolded me had changed.

[If you really don't want to live, then I can only say that you deserve it!]

[It's fine. Your baby is still young and won't remember you when he grows up. He will consider the mistress as his mother and be bullied by the children your husband and the mistress have in the future. How nice.]

[I think I know the woman. I am her classmate. She wanted to seduce your husband when she was a freshman, but at that time, you were so outstanding that your husband didn't even look at her. Guess how she got her way later?]

[You chose to get married and get pregnant. You stopped reading and don't have a job. And now you wanna kill yourself? You're a fool in love. You deserve it.]

There were so many comments.

I sat alone in the small room and read them all night.

Thank you for scolding me.

You woke me up with your scolding.

4

I became clear-minded overnight.

I suddenly realized that it wasn't a perfect marriage at all.

I seemed to have returned to the state of studying, diligently, silently, and calmly picking out logical loopholes in the paper, making modifications day and night.

It was just that now the loopholes I found were in Stephen and Joy's behaviors.

I used the same determination I had for my thesis to search for evidence of their affair.

First, I took screenshots of every tweet that Joy posted and saved them in a folder.

Next, I synchronized Stephen's electronic communication information, including text messages, phone calls, emails, and chat records, and saved them as electronic evidence.

Then, I checked his billing records, including hotel stays for business trips, treating colleagues to meals, ordering takeout, and online shopping orders, and verified them all.

In addition, I also found a lot from his photos, memos, and dashcam.

He had no idea that I had found everything about his affair, and his true colors were gradually revealed.

He no longer bought me food when he came home, but instead, he bought all kinds of delicious food for Joy every day, like coffee, barbecue, and seafood.

"Joy works hard by taking care of the baby. She deserves to be rewarded.

"You need to breastfeed, so you can't eat these. Go into the room, otherwise you'll get hungry."

Joy drank the coffee loudly as if she deliberately wanted me to hear.

She did it on purpose, but I didn't mind.

When Stephen peeled a crab and fed it to her, I secretly took a photo with my phone from under the door crack.

5

Joy was becoming more and more unscrupulous.

She walked around in her pajamas in front of Stephen and often left the door open when using the bathroom.

I didn't eat a single bite of the precious nutriment that my parents sent in the refrigerator. She ate it all.

She locked me in a room without air conditioning on the hottest day, saying that since I had just given birth, I shouldn't be in such an environment.

She broke my expensive skincare products and didn't let me put anything on my face so as not to affect breastfeeding.

If Stephen knocked on my door and said something to me, she'd immediately come over and separate us.

She often messed up my wardrobe.

She liked one of my dresses and asked me to give it to her. She said that since I had gained a lot of weight, and I couldn't wear it, she could wear it and accompany Stephen to socialize.

"OK."

I agreed to everything.

I asked her, "How about I give you Stephen, too?"