I’ve been with my fiancé for six years, and we were supposed to get married next month. But during a visit to my parents, he discovered their secret lifestyle, causing him to question our relationship too.
I’ve been with my fiancé for six years, but we’ve known each other for nine. We were supposed to get married next month, but then everything changed the course of our wedding journey.
We went to visit my parents to introduce him to more of my extended family before the wedding. My parents offered to host us, and we’ve been staying in my old room for the sake of nostalgia.
My fiancé, Adam, wanted to stay at a hotel, but I thought it would be fun to just have him share my old room with me.
“I don’t see why staying in your childhood home is going to change anything,” Adam told me when we were packing for the trip.
“Because it’s going to be my last time with my parents under their roof before I become a married woman. It’s going to be a sentimental moment,” I replied.
“If it gets uncomfortable, I’m just going to check myself into a hotel,” he said casually.
Of course, I didn’t expect what would happen next.
We got to my parents’ home, and everyone was excited to see us. My mother and aunt had cooked up an elaborate meal for us, ready to just sit down at the table and get to know Adam better.
All through dinner, everything went as well as expected, and Adam happily enjoyed having the attention centered around him.
“This is new for me,” he said as we did the dishes in between the mains and dessert. “I’m not used to having people pay attention to me like this.”
“It’s a good thing,” I said, handing him a plate. “You’re supposed to feel welcome and at home with my family, too.”
As the night died down and we all went to bed, ready for a good night’s sleep before the following day’s family outing to the local theme park, Adam kept disturbing my sleep.
“What’s going on?” I asked, turning to face him.
“I just can’t sleep, Sasha,” he snapped. “It’s not my bed, and I’m not used to sleeping in beds that aren’t my own. And your bed is lumpy and uncomfortable.”
“Just go and take a walk outside,” I grumbled. “The fresh air should make a difference, and you’ll come back and fall asleep.”
“Fine,” he said, getting out of bed and leaving the room.
I was just about to fall asleep again when Adam’s scream pierced the air. I bolted upright in bed with my heart racing.
What on earth was going on? Was there someone in the house? Were we in danger?
While my brain was moving a mile a minute, trying to decide what to do next, Adam stormed back into the room.
“What happened?” I blurted out, uneasy.
My fiancé’s face contorted in a mix of horror and anger, and he paused for a minute before he started yelling.
“I cannot believe it,” he yelled. “Your mom! Sasha! Your mother! She’s kissing another man in the foyer!”
My heart sank. I had hoped that we would have gotten through this entire visit without this.
If anything, I had always dreaded this moment, the time when my parents’ unusual and unconventional marriage would come to light.
I tried to explain, to calm him down, but he wouldn’t have it.
“Call your dad, Sasha,” Adam demanded. “Tell him that your mom is cheating right here in your own home.”
It seemed logical, simple even. And I understood why Adam would think that having my father involved would solve everything.
But he couldn’t be further from the truth.
Before I could react and begin navigating the explanation, my mom walked in, still straightening her clothes.
“I can explain,” she started, but my fiancé cut her off.
“Explain? What’s there to explain? You’re cheating on your husband in his own home!”
“It’s not cheating, darling,” she said softly. “Sasha knows, and she’ll explain it all to you. Shaun and my marriage is different. Very different. It’s unconventional compared to your usual marriage. You need to understand that, Adam, before you judge us.”
Adam turned to me, eyes wide.
“You knew? You knew about this, and you didn’t tell me?”
I tried to reach out to him, but he recoiled.
“I didn’t know how to tell you, and I’m not proud of keeping this secret. But it wasn’t mine to tell.”
“Sasha!” he said, his hands in the air. “You should have told me! This isn’t something that you just keep hidden from the person that you’re going to marry. I don’t know if I can trust you now. This was a setup, wasn’t it? You wanted to introduce me to this lifestyle, isn’t it?”
By this point, I was overwhelmed, and I couldn’t understand what Adam was getting at.
I was taken back to a memory from my youth. I was 16, and my friends were planning a sleepover at my home.
“You have the biggest room, Sasha,” my friend Brielle said. “Let’s have it at your place.”
“That’s perfectly fine with me,” I said. “I don’t think my parents will mind at all! And we can watch movies in the living room because my parents have a TV in their room now, so they won’t disturb us.”
“I’ll bring my cotton candy machine,” Brielle said excitedly. “We can have that and popcorn!”
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I remember going home after school and telling my mother all about our plans. She smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
“Sure, honey,” she said. “You girls can take care of yourselves. Dad and I have a dinner that evening.”
Little did I know that later that evening, I would discover the truth about my parents’ marriage.
My friends and I were all sitting on the couch when my parents walked in with another couple. My mother was holding tightly onto a man’s hand as she kicked off her shoes. My father was kissing the other woman.
When they saw me, they were shocked. And they had no choice but to explain the situation to me.
“We are married to each other, and we love each other. We’re committed, honey. But we’re also allowed to see other people if we want to,” my mother explained gently. “There’s nothing wrong with the way we are. And you need to understand that.”
Now, listening to Adam, I was taken back to the same flood of emotions.
“No, it’s nothing like that,” I said. “I am dedicated to you. I don’t want that lifestyle.”
But Adam wasn’t having it. He just wasn’t listening. Instead, he began to speak about his mother’s infidelity which had led to his parents’ divorce. It all made him see betrayal everywhere.
“Everything is a red flag for me, Sasha.”
He packed a bag and left for a hotel, saying that he needed a moment to reevaluate our engagement.
I spent the rest of the night crying, feeling the weight of my parents’ choices crashing down on my own relationship.
“You need to talk to him,” my mother said, giving me a cup of coffee. “Just go to him.”
I joined him at the hotel. We barely spoke, the silence heavy with everything left unsaid. I didn’t know if Adam still wanted to be together or not. I suggested that we move to my grandmother’s house for the rest of our stay so that we could talk about everything while still being comfortable.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s okay with me because this hotel is too cold anyway.”
There was a coldness between us that hadn’t been there before.
“I’ve never kept secrets from you,” I told him. “I didn’t know how to bring it up. It’s not something that I like talking about because I struggled to understand it myself.”
Adam sighed, rubbing his temples.
“I get it. But this feels too close to home, Sasha,” he said. “I just need some time.”
We spent the rest of the week at my grandmother’s house, trying to finish the family visit in the best spirits we could muster. My parents apologized to Adam, but it didn’t matter anymore.
It wasn’t about them. It was about the fact that their actions had triggered my fiancé. On the drive home, Adam and I decided that we wanted to stay together and see where life took us.
“But I think we need to go to therapy,” I said, handing Adam a drink.
“I think that’s a good idea,” he said, biting his lip. “Because I need to uncover my own trauma before accepting your parents.”
Now, Adam and I have started talking about everything. From his fears, my shame, our future. We could only heal from this.
What would you have done?
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When Carina’s parents kick her out after high school, she has no choice but to navigate her way around life. Years later, after making a success of her life, and her wedding is around the corner, she reaches out to them, only for them to storm into her life, trying to take ownership of what she has worked so hard for.
After A Successful Surgery, This Black Lab Born With A Cleft Lip And Cleft Palate Can Finally Enjoy Playing In Water
After a successful surgery, this black lab born with a cleft lip and cleft palate can finally enjoy playing in water: If you’re a frequent lurker on Imgur, you’ll have meet the adorable face of Felix. Probably the most-loved dog on the social media platform, Felix sure has captured thousands of hearts with his delightfully charming face.
Born with a harelip and a birth defect, Felix has had his justifiable share of struggles. Fortunately, this January, he had surgery to repair his mouth and it had been successful! Now, Felix is as happy and healthy as the other good boy out there, and he even had his first splash in the river recently, which wouldn’t are possible a year ago! “I got Felix as an 11-day old puppy. I used to be the rescue worker who was called in by the breeder after they noticed that one among the puppies from their litter wasn’t thriving, and was, in fact, dying because he had a severe birth defect and harelip, and wasn’t ready to nurse off of his mother properly,” Jamie, Felix’s rescuer and then the owner shared with Bored Panda. “He had developed bronchopneumonia at now and wasn’t getting to live another 24 hours. I took him home with me and tube-fed him for subsequent 7 weeks. I treated his pneumonia also . he’s now a 14-month-old adult Black Lab!”
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the explanation for a harelip and palate is unknown,” Jamie told Bored Panda. “It may be a birth defect found in animals and humans, and is assumed to flow from to improper nutrition within the mother, or exposure to chemicals during gestation.” Sadly, the hare lip and palate aren’t the sole medical conditions that this adorable boy has. But he doesn’t let catch on in the way of his happiness! “Felix also has some digestive issues because his colon formed on the precise opposite side of his body that it had been supposed to! Weird but it works. He only has one functioning eyeball, his jaws don’t match up, and therefore the right side of his face seems like a melted candle, but aside from that he’s ok I suppose,” Felix’s owner told us. “None of his teeth match up either, so he has got to mostly eat canned foods. Sometimes I give him hard food so he can desire “one of the gang” but it’s quite hard for him to scoop it up. Keeps him busy though.”
Image credits: thevaiobandit101
“Felix had corrective surgery on January 31st to correct his clefts,” Jamie, Felix’s owner shared with Bored Panda. “He features a unilateral birth defect that involved both hard and soft palates. His Doctor was ready to reconstruct the roof of his mouth using his own tissue, and even rebuilt his taste bud, because it was nonexistent. Ever since his surgery, probably thanks to his skull shifting, he suffers from a neurological tic now that causes him to spin and bark at the air occasionally. We try new medications to assist him out thereupon .”
Felix’s owner told Bored Panda that the bomber was unable to eat and drink normally before his surgery. “I had to use a specialized tool that I made to wash the food out of his cleft whenever he ate,” she explained. “He also had to be regularly sedated so it might be cleaned and flushed at the vet. Just one occasion there was a whole salmon skin up there (we sleep in Alaska), and once more there was a plastic dental floss stuck up in there. He was quite a multitude .”
Fortunately, for Felix, he lives during a big and loving family. “Felix has 4 siblings!” Jamie told Bored Panda. “I have another dog with a cleft (not as severe and didn’t require surgery). His name is Sammy and he’s an Australian Cattle Dog. I even have a miniature dachshund named PB who is 12 years old. I even have daughter, a terrier from Bethel Alaska. And eventually , there’s Meera, who seems like a 20-pound brindle whippet. they’re an odd bunch, and everyone from the rescue. I work for a veterinarian who does exclusively rescue work. He’s an excellent man. Felix gets along great with all of his brothers and sisters, also as his cat friend, and any and every one fosters that I bring home. I even have fostered overflow 400 dogs since 2013.”
Apparently, Felix is feeling happy and safe living with his loving owner and siblings. “Felix is that the happiest dog I’ve ever had,” Jamie shared. “He is blissfully unaware of his health problems, and he has more energy than he or I do know what to try to to with. i used to be ready to take him swimming for the primary time in his life this past weekend, and he did great. I hope to be ready to train him to be a “real retriever” this summer. If I might have tried to need him swimming before his surgery, he would have drowned in seconds.”
Image credits: thevaiobandit101
If there’s one thing that this happy and energetic goofball likes to do, it’s certainly playing! “Felix likes to play ball – he will roll in the hay allllll day if you’ll throw it,” his owner told Bored Panda. “He is in a position to eat and drink normally now, and he’s the strongest dog I’ve ever known. After his surgery, he had a feeding tube beginning of his neck and that i had to push liquid petfood through it for a couple of weeks. He never complained and stood so still while I did it. He couldn’t have anything in his mouth, which was difficult, because he likes to have something in his mouth in the least times! He has been a true trooper, and that i hope that the remainder of his life are going to be great!” Obviously, Felix is extremely loved in his house. There, he gets to play with other dogs, cats, and his favorite stuffed animals. In fact, he loves the stuffed toys such a lot , he recently ate two of them and had to possess surgery! So, this adorable lab is not any different from other good Labrador boys
“Seeing him like this after his surgeries is that the best reward. What a man ,” Felix’s owner gushes. “He may be a happy boy.” Jamie is quite glad that Felix is a part of her life. “I have had people say that I should have put him down, but I’m glad I didn’t,” she told Bored Panda. “He may be a great advocate for overcoming challenges, looking a touch bit different than your friends, and for having your pets spayed or neutered!” Make sure to see out the Imgur account where Felix’s owner posts his photos and videos! Promise, you won’t be disappointed but rather rewarded with daily heartwarming content!
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