This Toxic Jerk is All Yours, Sweetie

During the first month of my marriage, a girl claiming to be another victim added me on SnapChat.

She sent me screenshots of her chat history with my husband, along with some highly explicit photos of them together, warning me to run away from this toxic jerk as fast as I could.

Two weeks later, I caught them redhanded in our brandnew apartment.

The girl clung to his arm, looking like she’d just done the world a massive favor: "I'm taking this trash off your hands.

Aren't you going to thank me?" It was our onemonth marriage anniversary. I walked home carrying a small cake, ready to surprise my husband. "Chloe, my mom took a nasty fall.

I need to head back upstate to check on her." Just as I finished setting up the candlelight dinner, a message from Austin popped up. "But... do you even know what day it is today?" I typed it out, but deleted it right before hitting send.

Instead of demanding answers, I changed my tone: "Is it serious? Do you need me to come with you?" "No need.

Just watch the shop." To play the part of the perfect, understanding wife, I sat alone and ate the entire cake by myself, then cleaned the house top to bottom.

Just as I was getting ready for bed, my phone screen lit up. A stranger had sent me a friend request.

Her profile picture was a soft, gentlelooking girl with long hair, holding a fluffy gray cat. She looked completely harmless and sweet. "Who is this?" I messaged her first.

I hated having random strangers sitting in my contact list. "I’m Austin Vance’s girlfriend. We need to talk." Austin was already married. To me.

How on earth did he have a girlfriend? Curious, I accepted her request. "I saw your contact info on Austin’s phone. I'm adding you because you need to know the truth.

You need to get away from him. He’s been playing both of us this whole time. I only found out recently. I was scammed by him too," she said, getting straight to the point.

I tried my best to keep my voice steady as I typed: "What's your name?" "Melanie Frost. You’ve probably never heard of me.

Just like I never knew you existed in his life, let alone that you two were married." Her words instantly piqued my interest.

So, she was the girlfriend Austin kept back in his hometown? Right after that, Melanie sent me a massive batch of chat screenshots. It turned out she knew everything.

She knew Austin had quit his corporate job to start an escape room business. She knew his entire family background. She even knew the passwords to his laptop and phone. ...

As we compared details, I realized Austin had been meticulously using time zones and schedule gaps to text her. They talked about literally everything.

I was certain now: my husband was hiding a massive double life, and this girl on the other end was no amateur either.

Austin used to tell me that even in a marriage, couples need private space. He said trust was the foundation of a lasting relationship.

As it turned out, that "space" wasn't to build trust. It was just a convenient way for him to cheat without getting caught. What a calculating snake.

Before I could even process all of this, Melanie sent over a highly explicit photo.

She was snuggled up in Austin's arms, looking just like the sweet, obedient cat in her profile picture.

On my phone screen, that photo flashed on and off in the dark room, burning my eyes. My chest tightened, and hot tears slipped down my cheeks.

According to Melanie, they had been together for years. Was I... actually the other woman?

The next afternoon, Austin came home. "Back so soon? Is your mom okay?" I asked casually, acting like absolutely nothing was wrong.

His eyes darted to the right, a classic guilty tell. "Yeah, it wasn't a big deal, so I came back. The shop just started making a profit.

This is a critical time." "Do you know a Melanie Frost?" I threw the question out raw, breaking the silence. Austin froze for a second, then forced a laugh. "Never heard of her.

Why?" "Melanie added me on SnapChat. She says she’s your girlfriend." I toyed with my paintbrush, desperately keeping my emotions under wraps. "Oh, her!

If you hadn't mentioned it, I would’ve forgotten. Yeah, she’s my ex. But we haven't seen each other in forever. Why would she suddenly add you?" I didn't answer.

Austin started to panic and quickly scrambled to cover his tracks: "She's a bit unstable, honestly, and a compulsive liar.

I broke up with her a long time ago, but she’s been obsessed with me. You have to believe me, Chloe.

You’re my wife now." He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my waist, his breath brushing against my neck. It made my stomach turn. "I’ll believe you for now.

But if you play games with me, you won't like what happens next," I said, turning around to stare directly into his eyes.

Maybe it was his guilty conscience, but right after agreeing, Austin rushed straight into the kitchen.

He began prepping some fresh shrimp he’d brought back from upstate, promising to make me his special shrimp ceviche. I couldn't lay all my cards on the table yet.

I couldn't tell who was lying and who was telling the truth, nor did I know how many more secrets this man was keeping. Screenshots can be faked. Photos can be photoshopped.

So, I decided to play along. I wanted to see exactly what Austin was hiding and what kind of game these two were playing.

But over the next few days, Austin was suffocatingly attentive, and it only made my skin crawl even more.

Ever since Melanie crashed into my life, sleep had become a luxury. My mind kept drifting back to how Austin and I first met.

During my senior year of college, I worked parttime as a scare actor at the most popular escape room in the city.

I usually played the creepy, bloody ghost because those roles paid the highest.

One night, after spending two hours on heavy FX makeup and slipping into a bloodred dress, I got to work. A couple entered the room.

I jumped out from behind a trick mirror and chased them to keep them from solving the puzzle. The girl was terrified.

She literally sat on the floor, crying and screaming that she wanted to quit. Since I had to finish my cue, I kept up the act. Suddenly, her boyfriend lost his temper.

He stepped forward and slapped me hard across the face, looking all heroic like he was defending his girl. That was when Austin stepped in.

He grabbed the guy, shoved him back, and snapped, "If you can't handle the game, don't play.

What kind of coward hits a scare actor?" After that incident, I added Austin on SnapChat, and we naturally became friends. He was five years older than me.

After working as a software engineer at a Silicon Valley tech giant, he grew tired of the corporate grind and wanted to start his own escape room business.

Since we talked about everything, we eventually fell in love.

He used his savings and took out a bank loan to open "The Honey Bunny." To help him out, I had thought about going back to my wealthy parents to ask for money.

But Austin told me that having me design the puzzles and concepts with him was more than enough.

Back when I was applying for college, my parents had secretly logged into my portal and changed my major to Business Administration.

They claimed it was so I could take over the family's hotel business later.

I ended up taking a double major in Business and Design, but I never took a single dime of their money after that.

When I married Austin, I had to sneak into my parents' house just to grab my birth certificate and papers so we could get a quick marriage license at City Hall.

As these memories flashed before my eyes, I couldn't sleep. I walked into the living room to get a glass of water and saw Austin's iPad resting on the coffee table.

I tried entering the password Melanie had given me. It unlocked instantly. When I opened his messaging apps, I saw a chat pinned to the top.

The profile picture was the exact same gray cat. The contact name was saved as "Momo's Mom." They didn't text constantly, but Austin updated her on every major event in his life.

While he was sweettalking his wife in one room, he was keeping his romance alive in another. Who knew my husband was such a master of time management?

A cold wave of reality hit me, and my fists clenched tight. Should I just confront him right now and accept that I threw my heart to a dog? No.

I needed to dig up all their dirty laundry first. I wanted both of them to pay.

"Did you confront him? Did you ask him about us?" Melanie popped up on my screen again. I intentionally played the role of a pathetic, lovesick wife. "No...

I love my husband too much. Even if he made a mistake, I’ll accept it. He promised he’d never do it again. I believe him." Melanie was clearly losing her mind.

She immediately fired back a screenshot of their latest chat: "This is what he looks like when he's 'ending things' with me? Wake up, girl! He's just lonely out there.

He's completely using you." "It's fine. My husband said he just needs some time to sort things out.

Maybe he’s just confused," I wrote back, deliberately calling him "my husband" in every sentence to rub salt in her wounds. "Stop lying to yourself!

Austin told me he only married you because of your design talent and your family's connections.

You're nothing but a stepping stone to him!" I stared at those words on my screen, my jaw clenching so hard my teeth ached.

But she wasn't done yet: "Austin said as soon as he makes enough money, he’s going to bring me over. He said you're too proud and stubborn to stay.

Once you find out about me, you'll demand a divorce anyway. "Instead of losing embarrassingly, why don't you just sign the papers now and give him back to me?" Pushed by my reverse psychology, Melanie had spilled everything.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After taking a deep breath, I typed back: "The man you love sleeps in my bed every single night. Can you actually handle that?

If you want my trash, you'll have to wait until I'm done playing with it." Dealing with someone like her, I wasn't about to lose. Melanie was completely speechless.

She didn't reply. Later that day, I saw she posted a new photo of her cat on her Instagram story.

The caption read: Momo seems to be saying: "I miss Daddy." Since her profile was set to only show the last three days of posts, I hadn't seen her updates before. Days went by.

I kept turning Austin down whenever he tried to get intimate, and he was clearly getting annoyed. I ignored his attitude.

I started looking for a fulltime job while taking on freelance design gigs on the side.

Austin still tried to extract ideas from me, acting like we were partners discussing business strategies.

To be fair, though I didn't put cash into his escape room, almost every puzzle design and storyline had come out of my brain.

Instead of a messy, rushed divorce, I wanted to make sure I walked away with a heavy bag of cash.

One afternoon, while I was sitting by the bay window working on a design draft, Austin burst through the front door. "Another shop copied our puzzle concept.

Our customer numbers are tanking. If this keeps up, we won't even be able to pay rent next month. Chloe, we're a married couple.

You can't just sit at home eating for free and doing nothing." Was he seriously trying to lecture me?

From dating to marriage, this was the very first time Austin had ever taken a shot at me.

Before, he used to shower me with compliments, calling me a brilliant designer and a strong, capable woman. His sudden shift made me snap. "Is it my fault the business is failing?

I give you brilliant ideas every single day, and you just sit back and reap the rewards!" Still furious, I fired back: "If I'm just sitting here eating for free, where did all your business concepts come from?

Go ahead and hire a professional designer outside.

See how much that costs you!" "That's not what I meant," Austin quickly backtracked, walking over to wrap his arms around me and smoothing my hair.

He was clearly terrified I’d actually stop helping him. "I just wanted to remind you that we need a killer concept to turn things around." His calculated affection only made me feel sick to my stomach.