This 34-year-old woman truly believed that she and her 36-year-old Husband had a picture-perfect life.

They both have careers they adore, and they have two amazing children: a 10-year-old Daughter and a 5-year-old son.

Back when she was pregnant with their son, they both nearly lost their lives due to some complications with her pregnancy.

So, she didn’t want to sleep with her husband during and after her pregnancy, as she was in an immense amount of pain despite being on very heavy medication.

She figured her husband was sympathetic to what she was going through, as he never tried to push her to do anything she didn’t feel up to.

“I thought it was because he understood my pain, but apparently, he was just getting it from somewhere else,” she explained.

“A few months ago, we were visited by Child Protective Services; I was terrified at first, frantically thinking of what we did wrong with our children to cause a visit. But no, as it turns out, some woman I’ve never met before died in a car accident, leaving behind a daughter, and my husband’s name was on the girl’s birth certificate, and he was named in the woman’s will as the father.”

“I thought it was a mistake at first until my husband told me the truth. As it turns out, while I was suffering my pregnancy and the after-effects of almost dying, my husband would go to a woman he knew at work and [sleep] with her. He said this as if he did me a favor.”

The woman from CPS informed them that her husband is the closest living relative who can provide for the 5-year-old little girl she never knew existed.

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The family of the girl’s mom had no interest in being in her life. After the woman asked if they would be willing to take the little girl, she said they would.

She understands the affair, and the little girl who is the product of that affair, is the root of all of her problems.

However, her husband had no problem dumping the little girl on her single mom for five whole years, so she didn’t want to give her husband the opportunity to get rid of her again in her time of need.

“She’s his responsibility, and now is ours,” she said. “I told him I’ll help take care of the necessary visits for wellness checks and help with whatever CPS wants us to do.”

“All he had to do was explain everything to our children. The fact I’m saying this tells you what he did. Yes, nothing.”

She cleaned out a room for the little girl, purchased new furniture for her, and even got her some toys.

Since their son and daughter attend a private school, she took it upon herself to get some more hours at work so she would have the money to afford to send the little girl to school with them.

She also had to tell her family and her husband’s family about his affair daughter since he didn’t feel like it. She was the one left doing all of the serious work, while her husband didn’t lift a finger.

Two weeks ago, the little girl came to live with them, and the first thing her son and daughter asked was who she was. It turns out her husband never bothered telling their children about her as he promised.

“Yes, I was the one who had to tell our children’s school, extended families, family doctors, and my workplace about my husband’s affair and subsequent addition to our family,” she added.

“But he couldn’t tell our children being he was “too ashamed” to face them. So guess who was the one who had to explain that they have a sister now as I’m trying to settle the poor girl into her new home and room? And shocker, our children didn’t take the news well as it was happening right in front of them.”

“My daughter was screaming while crying, causing my son and the little girl to cry. A situation that could have been avoided if my husband just did the one thing I asked of him and explained everything to them much sooner.”

In the two weeks that her husband’s affair daughter has been living with them, nothing has gotten better.

Her husband is refusing to help with the additional responsibilities that come with having a third child in their home.

They’re struggling to afford another child, and she’s humiliated having to take the little girl with her shopping or to run errands, as she very clearly is not her child.

She can see people judging her, and to add to that, her own daughter is not happy and won’t interact with the little girl. Her son doesn’t get what’s going down, as he’s too little, but he is lashing out with his behavior.

“And I don’t even know how to help the poor little girl because I know that if I feel like my life is falling apart, she must feel even worse,” she continued.

“I suggested family therapy, therapy for our children, even just marriage therapy so we can hopefully move past this and work together as a unit for all the children. He’s refused everything, saying that he knows he’ll be lectured by everyone when all he was doing was trying to help me.”

“I just don’t know how to fix this, please help me. I don’t want to divorce him because I just know that will make it worse for the kids, but that’s the only option my family is telling me. Meanwhile his family is begging me to make this work and to just…look past it.”

What advice do you have for her?

You can read the original post on Reddit here.