This is a story about me 45 year old man and my 22 year old girlfriend Hellen. But first i need to give you some background
I am a 45 year old successful business owner who married my 21 year old girlfriend when I was 19 years old and have been unhappily married ever since. I was young and she was pretty and she was a classmate of mine and in need of a green card and it seemed like such a simple sacrifice for me. I never thought past next week let alone forever back then. I never dreamed that this one simple act would become a lifetime sentence for me. I worked my way through school and she turned into a very very very abusive alcoholic. I should have left but as crazy as it sounds, I never felt I could. Then 11 years ago we had a set of boy girl twins and then a year later a boy. She stopped drinking a few years ago and started taking anti-depressant medications and has converted from the DEVIL into a very nice person. Maybe I should not hate her like I do, but I do. Only now I don't have her abusive and outrageous behavior to blame. We manage to get along well. I have built a successful business and we have the thee children whom I adore.
About 18 months ago I met a 21 year old college student Hellen at a business conference and I was immediately smitten. Throughout my marriage I had always been faithful to my wife and never set out to be a cheater. I began by just befriending this woman. She was attracted to older guys. Not old men but older guys who were smart and successful. She had dated men my age at the time I was 43. I must admit that my ego was in overdrive at the thought of a young beautiful woman who did not appear to be after my money per se, being attracted to me. I am a very fit guy so yes I get attention, but this girl was different. So we exchanged numbers and had lunch, then another lunch then breakfasts, then she wanted to learn ho to surf and I taught her to surf then we became lovers.
At first it was great. Her sex drive was like none I had ever experienced. She was fun and smart and ambitious and could hold long conversations about things that I was interested in. It was really a friendship that included sex, and it went on like this for months. Until one day I woke up and realized I was in love with her. We had always agreed that our relationship was only a friends with benefits no strings attached relationship. I was married and while not happily married, I love watching my kids grow up every day and that in of itself was worth sacrificing my happiness to stay married. I kept my feelings a dark secret then one day in bed she tells me "I know we promised not to fall in love, but I am in love with you and I believe you are in love with me too. I know you wont leave your wife because your kids are so small, but they are not always going to be so young." I told her that she was right, I had fallen in love with her and someday when my kids were older I would leave my wife and her and I could be together.
Shortly after this she started to act jealous of my wife; this was probably 6 months into the relationship. Then she started to put real pressure on me to leave my wife. I loved her, but I was not ready to leave my wife of 25 years. I would be ready eventually but right now the kids were young and I was just not ready. She got upset with me and broke up with me and immediately jumped in bed with another man then a week later she called me up and wanted to get back together. She told me about the other man, that she was mad and jealous so she wanted to find someone to help her get over me but after a week she missed me too much.
So i took her back then a few months passed and she goes to visit her grandparents in Ecuador for 2 weeks. When she returns everything is going well then some fight starts about my wife. I don't remember what the fight was about but she gets mad at me and tells me that while in Ecuador she hooked up with some stranger she met at a club one time and another stranger at the hotel another time. I was completely shocked. I could not believe that she not only did this, but that she was telling me in an obvious attempt to hurt me. When I got upset she said "You don't have any right to be upset, you are married. You sleep in bed with your wife every night and I'm faithful and loyal to you, if you are not going to leave your wife, then I am not going to feel so compelled to be loyal to you" This made me so mad because she was right yet I still felt so betrayed.
We dated for a few months and things were going well then once again we got into a fight over my wife and she broke up with me and within a week was sleeping with some other man who was my age, and on my economic level, and like me was a bodybuilder but even in better shape than me which not only hurt my heart, but was a dagger to my ego. I knew it was purposeful and she admitted that she was just trying to make me realize what I was going to lose. Well this time I broke up with her and that was 6 months ago. I understood what she was trying to do and I get that she did not like the dude and she is not with the dude, but it was so over the top and mean. I felt I could not trust her again.
My wife and I have since separated and I am single now. I want to reach out to Hellen so badly because I do love her and I do miss her. My fear is this: Can this woman be trusted? Yes I cheated on my wife but I was terribly unhappy and I was faithful for 24 years. I feel I did something ethically wrong, but I don't feel I have bad character. Does Hellen have bad Character? or was she playing fair with me and her behavior is no indication of how she would act if I was giving her what she needed which was some feeling of security? She was young an young people do dumb things, but the way she told me about what she did was in such a mean and hurtful way. Can I trust her not to hurt me when I'm 63 and she is only 40? My heart really aches for this woman and she messages me often so I know if I said the word, we would be back together. love her but I don't fully trust her but is that mistrust misplaced??