**Diary Entry**
My husband left me for my best friend after my miscarriagethree years later, I saw them at a petrol station and couldnt stop smiling.
When my husband first started pulling away, I turned to my closest friend for comfort. She said I was overreacting. Turns out, I wasnt. But three years later, fate let me see exactly what their betrayal had cost them.
I used to think affairs happened to other peoplesomething you read about in dramatic online stories or heard whispered over dinner. Not to us. Not to *us*.
For five years, James and I built a life together. It wasnt lavish, but it was oursfilm nights on the sofa, lazy Sunday mornings with tea, silly jokes only we understood.
And through it all, there was Emilymy best friend since school, my sister in all but blood. Shed been there for every milestone, even standing beside me at my wedding, squeezing my hands and crying happy tears.
When I got pregnant, I thought it was just the next chapter of our perfect life.
But then James changed.
At first, it was little thingsworking later, his smile never reaching his eyes. Then it got worse. He barely looked at me. Our conversations became one-word replies. Nights were spent with his back to me, as if I wasnt even there.
I didnt understand. Exhausted and heavily pregnant, I desperately tried to fix whatever was broken between us.
So I turned to Emily.
*”I dont know whats happening,”* I sobbed into the phone, curled up in the dark while James slept soundly beside me. *”It feels like hes already gone.”*
*”Charlotte, youre overthinking it,”* she said gently. *”He loves you. Its just stress.”*
I wanted to believe her.
But the constant tensionsleepless nights, the crushing loneliness despite having a husbandwas destroying me.
Then one morning, I woke to a dull ache in my stomach. By evening, I was in hospital, watching the doctors lips move but hearing nothing.
*No heartbeat.*
*No baby.*
They say grief comes in waves. Mine was an avalanche.
The miscarriage shattered mebut James? He was already gone. He sat beside me in that hospital room, cold and silent, never taking my hand, never saying a word of comfort. Just waiting, like a man bored at a bus stop, not a father mourning his child.
A month later, he finally said the words I think hed rehearsed for weeks.
*”Im not happy anymore, Charlotte.”*
That was it. No explanation, no emotion. Just an empty excuse.
The day James left, there was no shouting, no tears. Just icy silence.
*”Im not happy anymore, Charlotte.”*
I blinked at him across the kitchen table. His words hit like a stone to the chest.
*”What?”* My voice trembled.
He sighed, rubbing his temples like *I* was the problem. *”I just dont feel anything anymore. Its been like this for a while.”*
*For a while.*
I swallowed hard. *”Since I lost the baby?”*
His jaw tightened. *”Its not about that.”*
The lie was almost laughable.
I searched his face for any flicker of remorse, guiltanything. But he just sat there, eyes fixed on the table.
*”Thats it? Five years, and you just walk away?”* My hands clenched under the table.
Another sigh, this time impatient. *”I dont want to argue, Charlotte.”*
I let out a brittle laughthe kind that slips out when youre teetering on the edge. *”Oh, you dont want to argue? Funny, because I didnt get a choice in any of this.”*
He stood, grabbed his keys. *”Ill stay at a mates.”*
Before I could speak, the door slammed.
Emily, my best friend, followed soon after. Shed been my lifelineuntil she wasnt. Calls went unanswered. Messages ignored. Then, one day, she blocked me everywhere.
I didnt understanduntil I did.
Mum found out first. One evening, she called, her voice tight. *”Charlotte, love look at this.”*
She sent a link to Emilys Instagram.
And there they were.
James and Emily. Arms around each other on a beach, laughing like theyd been in love for years.
I scrolled further, hands shaking. Picture after picture, week after week. Fancy restaurants, ski resorts, cosy nights by the fire. Posted freely, openlywhile I was still his wife.
The betrayal burned like acid. But if they thought Id crumble, they were wrong.
I took my pain and turned it into strength. James had been careless, too wrapped up in his fantasies to cover his tracks. In court, his affair became my leverage. I walked away with the house, half his savings, and the satisfaction of knowing hed have to start over.
He took my trust. I took what was mine.
Starting over wasnt easy. But life rewards persistence.
A year later, I met Oliver.
He was everything James wasntkind, attentive, never once making me feel like my emotions were too much.
We built a life. A real one, not just for show. And soon after, our daughter was bornmy mirror image with his smile.
Then fate handed me the perfect ending.
One evening, I stopped at a petrol station. And there they were.
James and Emily.
No designer clothes now, no happy photos. Their cara rusted wreck, an argument loud enough for the whole shop to hear, a crying toddler, a declined card.
*”We cant even afford petrol now?”* Emily hissed.
*”You knew money was tight,”* James snapped back.
Emily laughed bitterly. *”Looks like Charlotte won in the end.”*
I started the car and drove home. To my real happiness.
**Lesson learned: Karma doesnt need your helpjust your patience.**
