Woman Discovers Dark Truth About Husband's Tattoo

The story, posted to an anonymous forum, involved a tattoo and a secret she uncovered leading her to decide on ending her marriage of nearly 20 years.

The woman's post instantly garnered thousands of upvotes from riveted Redditors in the TwoHotTakes community -- check out the full post and how readers reacted, below!

"A year and a half ago my husband got a tattoo," OP (original poster) began.

"I don't have a problem with tattoos or anything like that but [he] had never gotten one before or talked about getting one," she explained. "He said he started thinking about it because one of his sisters married a man who had several tattoos. It made him realize he wanted one."

The woman went on to describe the tattoo her husband got.

"He ended up getting a lily tattooed on the left side of his chest. I didn't really like it but I didn't comment because he is free to do what he wants with his body," she continued. "A little over a year after he got the lily done he went back and had some ivy added around it."

At first, the tattoo and its meaning seemed innocuous enough, but things swiftly took a sinister turn. The woman was soon led to a series of revelations that would change her life forever. Giving some background, she explained how she came to realize the inking's true significance.

"I used to go to certain [of my husband's] work events and parties with him because it was normal to go," she stated. "He started telling me I couldn't because of the pandemic which made sense a few years ago but things began opening back up and events were more normal. He finally relented and brought me to one. I met one of his colleagues. She works in the same department as him and they have the same title so they work together a lot. Her name was Lily."

This was the moment the woman's fellow Redditors felt their collective Spidey Senses tingling.

"My husband swore it was a coincidence. I had tried to ignore my feeling about him suddenly wanting a tattoo," OP recalled. "He eventually admitted they have been having an affair for the last two years."

"I was so shocked I was not even thinking about the ivy but my husband said that Lily had a baby she named Ivy and he got the tattoo a few months after the birth."

"He begged me not to get a divorce but I can't forgive this," she wrote. "We have to be separated for a year before we get divorced. Our daughter is turning 18 next month. There will not be child support ordered for either of us by the time we are divorced. The divorce should not be complicated. We both work so the attorney I consulted said there will not be spousal support ordered for either of us and our assets will be divided."

"Part of me is still in shock," she said, concluding her post. "He wants to go to counseling but I can't. We have been married for 19 years and I let him convince me my feelings about his tattoo were wrong. I never thought I would be 43 and getting a divorce but here I am."

What else can really be said? Outrage and jokes, apparently.

The best, quoted above as well, was the most highly rated comment on the entire post: "He seems pretty proud of his extracurricular activity."

Most, meanwhile, resorted to calling the dude a "piece of sh-t" and delusional, while others noted how appalling the whole situation was.

Another Redditor, a child from a family ripped apart by cheating, wrote: "Can I just say, from a daughter who watched her dad cheat constantly on her mom, that I hope you are proud of how you are handling this situation. I was so angry at my mom for staying with my dad. The disrespect he showed my mom stayed with me for years, it even affected my relationship with my mom."

"You are showing your daughter that you know you deserve better and that you will not accept any form of disrespect," the Redditor added. "Keep your head up and know that you are amazing!!!"

Others simply commended her for making the decision to divorce, advising her to tell everyone the truth about why they are splitting, with one commenter noting: "Don't protect him. Tell everyone the factual truth of why you are divorcing him. Women tend to shield info outta nurture reasons, and he doesn't deserve an ounce of empathy or grace from you given the layers of betrayal at fault here."

What do you think?