My mother-in-law called my husband up to ten times a day, and I had to put up with it. But one day I accidentally saw his conversation with his “mother” and realized with horror that this was far from a normal relationship between a mother and her son 

My mother-in-law called my husband every single day. Not once or twice, but ten times—sometimes even more. Early in the morning to wish him a good day. Then during the day to ask what he had eaten and how he was feeling. In the evening to find out how work had gone and why he was taking so long to reply.

At first, I tried not to pay attention to it. I told myself it was just normal maternal care, that she would calm down with time. But time passed, and the calls only increased. They could start early in the morning and didn’t stop until late at night.

The phone rang during dinner, while we were watching movies, on weekends, and even when we were alone together. My husband always answered calmly and in detail, as if he were reporting on everything. I sat next to him and felt like an outsider in my own family.

I tried to talk to him. I explained that it was impossible to live like this, that we needed boundaries. We started arguing more often, but every time he found excuses. He said he didn’t want to hurt his mother, that she was alone, that things were hard for her.

Almost a year passed like this. The constant calls and messages poisoned every day. The tension grew, trust faded, and I caught myself more and more often thinking that in this marriage, there were not just two of us.

One day my husband rushed off to work and forgot his phone at home. It was lying on the table when it suddenly started to vibrate. A message from my mother-in-law appeared on the screen. I had no intention of reading it, but my eyes caught the first lines.

I opened the chat. And at that moment, my blood literally froze. What she was writing to her “son” had nothing to do with normal maternal care. When I finished reading the messages, my hair stood on end…  Continued in the first comment 

I opened the conversation without any particular expectations. At first, everything looked completely harmless.

“Good morning,” “How did you sleep?”, “Did you get to work safely?”, “Don’t forget to eat.” Ordinary messages—exactly the kind a mother might write.

I scrolled down. Then further up. And suddenly, I felt something strange. In every message, my mother-in-law addressed him affectionately. Not just “son,” but differently.

“My dear,” “my love,” “my sunshine,” “my sweetheart.” Far too intimate.

I stopped and reread several messages in a row. And the more I read, the stronger that feeling of discomfort became. To an adult man. A married man. This is not how a mother writes. This is how someone else writes.

I decided to scroll even further back, to the older messages. And that’s when my attention caught the photo icon.

I opened it—and literally lost my breath. On the screen were explicit photos of a young woman. She looked nothing like my mother-in-law.

In that moment, everything fell into place. All those endless calls. Those “maternal” messages at any hour of the day or night. His tension whenever the phone was nearby. His habit of stepping away when she “called.”

It suddenly became clear to me how terrifyingly simple and cynical it all was. All this time, it wasn’t his mother who had been writing to him and calling him.
It was his mistress. And the number was saved under the name “Mom” so that I would never ask any questions.

I sat there holding that phone and understood that for an entire year I had been living in a marriage where I was being deceived every single day.