David’s affair came out of nowhere. Or maybe I had been too blind to see the signs. We had been married for ten years, and I thought we were happy. But when I found the messages between him and Sarah, it felt like my world came crashing down. My heart broke into pieces, and the man I thought I knew became a stranger.

The confrontation wasn’t pretty. He denied it, of course, but the evidence was right there. I wanted to scream, to make him feel the same pain I was feeling. But instead, I stayed quiet, plotting my next move. I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me. If he could betray me, I could do the same.

I reached out to someone I knew David would hate—a colleague from work who had always been flirtatious with me. I knew it would hurt David if he ever found out, and that’s exactly what I wanted. We went out for drinks, and one thing led to another. I felt empowered, in control of my own narrative for the first time since the affair.

When David found out, he was shocked. He couldn’t believe I had done the same thing to him. The tables had turned, and for once, I held the power. It was a bitter victory, but it was mine.