The OW in my situation wrote to me that i "should summon all my strength to deal with a painful situation." In other words, "you will need strength to get over the fact that your h is with me and that's it." EGO
She did for sure say "you poor baby, you aren't understood at home. I hate this job too. Let's leave our free-loading spouses and be together. Your W is sweet, but backwards and not sophisticated like us. You have nothing in common with her. She'll find someone in church. You and I will travel. I don't get as overly involved with the kids like your W does." OW found the attorney, and said that an affair was not fair to her own H, and that they should get divorces at the same time. She was sure her H would give her no trouble in divorce (actually he was happy to give the divorce it turns out, but sued her for every dime), and she was going to move my H in her house with at D15 within 4 months of a divorce.
EGO
she manipulates and likes men she can control, but then doesn't respect them when they don't stand up to her. She later said my H could not set foot in my house when he visited. She called him "weak" and feared I'd manipulate him. a picture of him with his arm around me on FB at my D13 birthday party made her lose her temper and throw things at him at the office. The she broke down and started crying and blamed it on PMS. She kept crying "you still love her??? no you don't!!! You just feel bad for her. You feel guilty, that's not love. You'll be sad again..." Then. later, "You must feel good knowing she wants you, my H was happy to go..." (awe poor thing. ie, "commiserate with me").
Knowing her ego and her way of thinking did help me deal with my H. Knowing what she offered and my way of poking holes in it worked as I hoped. I chipped at her ego. I acted in ways that were opposite of her predictions. She didn't understand why I would file for divorce but still stand for the marriage. She didn't understand why I didn't kick him out and nail him to the wall. She didn't understand why I didn't blast her. She didn't understand why I let him in the house like nothing happened. She started to think i was pretty (she thought I was ugly) now that I was FB. I wasn't at all what she thought. My H seemed concerned that he thought men were circling around me. My Standing yet Detached attitude confounded her. She said I just wanted the security of his money. But i said that if should we get divorced "i wasn't worried," and i smiled as if I wasn't concerned with that at all. She met my H's cousin and insulted me to them, prompting an ugly curse-word from her son. Then OW made a terrible mistake. She made fun of our D13's looks. She thought this was an insult directed at me, but this bothered H alot. She didn't know me. She didn't know our family. So how can she offer him all the things she offered? Maybe she everything she said was unreliable.... H started to break away.
fast forward to when he dumped her. He said, among other things, "i have to got back to my family." She said, "you planned this the whole time, didn't you?" She threw his stuff out of the car and called him "too weak" and that he and I were crazy and "deserve each other."
my H joined us on Vacation (he wasn't out of the tunnel, but he was dedicated to being back). Then, after we all returned, and he went back to work, where OW was, and the other coworkers were clearly eyeballing him and walking on eggshells. H didn't call OW.
OW sent an email after three days and said, "you obviously aren't going to talk to me, so that's your answer. You have no soul and you used me. You will use other women and well and you will never be happy. You and your W are fools and you are setting a poor example for your D's."
She said more, but my H won't tell me that. (OOOO i wish i could see that email)
He tried to answer "i'm sorry...i was going through something...maybe one day we can be friends again..." (Oh c'om. Really???" She and I agree on this one: NO WAY!)
You know what's coming....
OW writes back that he is a bullsh**ter and is never to contact her again and then more stuff my H won't tell me. (I told him to take whatever she threw. Let's face it. he deserves it)
OW said to a co-worker she cried her eyes out and her family was right about him. They warned her he was a man in MLC and would eventually go back to his wife and she's lucky it happened now. But all she kept saying is that my H left her "holding the bag."
Did H assure her he'd be there in their Adventure in leaving their spouses? She is very controlling type (described by others this way), so did she move him in that direction? H says he tried to tell her, "don't get a divorce and count on me being there. I'm not sure I want this." I said to H, "did you really say that, or did you think it and say something like, 'I'm not sure I like being a vegetarian' or some other disconnected phrase like you spoke to me before BD?" Let's just say, direct, honest clarity is not his way of speaking. H admits his memory is distorted, missing and altogether unreliable during that time. He does feel guilty at having hurt everyone.
H is responsible for his actions. He strayed, he was a big baby who, boo hoo was bored, unhappy, didn't like the stress, hated getting old and wanted the same attention our teenage D's get. He owed a duty to us, not her. So the buck ends there. But OW's personality played a role too. Knowing her personality gave me a tool, a clue.
This still intrigues me.
angelgirl