My husband and I have been happy together for 8 years. This is literally the best relationship I’ve ever been in. Alex is an ideal partner, and we never had any problems and arguments, except for his brother’s wife. Her name is Ashley and my husband’s brother, Sam, has recently got married to her for the second time.
Their relationship story is quite turbulent, as they divorced when Alex and I just got married. Nine years ago, Ashley cheated on Sam. He tried to forgive her, and they stayed together for almost a year after her infidelity, but even the family counselling didn’t help, and they ended up parting ways and going to no contact with each other.
I didn’t have a chance to meet Ashley before she and Sam split up. Recently, they met each other and felt this spark between them again, so Sam decided to give this relationship a second chance and he and Ashley remarried.
I first met her right before their second wedding. I totally wanted for us to be good friends, but things have been developing in a totally different way.
Literally, the first time I met Ashley, I instantly felt humiliated. She was wearing a very provocative dress. Alex and I were visiting them at their place, and she came out of the bathroom, half-dressed, specifically went to my husband and casually asked him to zip her dress up.
I thought it was inappropriate, but we’d just met, so I didn’t make a fuss about it. Before I’d met Ashley, my husband once spoke about her as his ’relationship guru.’ He said that he told her a lot about me and our perfect relationship.
The relationship between Alex and Ashley has been very weird since that first meeting. Ashley regularly makes me uncomfortable.
She often pulls my husband away to talk one on one. She touches Alex regularly, and what is even more annoying is that they both have that small inside jokes, so I just sit there like a fool, because I don’t really get them. Ashley often makes silly voices to Alex and they both laugh, this woman just straight ignores me, though I always act super friendly towards her.
This situation is getting exhausting. One of the last times I saw her, she dared to complain that in ’good old times’ she and Alex were talking every day about different things and were literally best friends. She said they don’t talk as much now, because now Alex is married and ’has obligations’.
I confronted Alex about this awkward relationship many times. He keeps saying that I’m overthinking and that he’s just ’being friendly’ with his brother’s wife. He explained that he knows how much Sam loves Ashley, and he just wants to make sure that she smoothly fits into the family again. Alex says that by being extremely friendly, he tries to show Ashley that he doesn’t blame her for breaking his brother’s heart in the past and that all her bad deeds are forgotten and forgiven.
When I asked Alex if he and Ashley had any special relationship in the past, he said that they weren’t friends and that Ashley was exaggerating when she told me that they used to talk a lot. He says that once she helped him get over some unfortunate relationship with some girl he dated, and she was his help and support in that situation, nothing more.
But I feel like everything is wrong between Alex and me, and, specifically, between him and Ashley. I even thought of it being an emotional infidelity, and now I’m considering taking a pause in my marriage. Sometimes I think about a divorce. What should I do?
Source: brightside
