Man, who abandons his family for a mistress, now expects his wife to take him back after he falls ill

Family fights can be challenging to deal with. They are emotionally draining and intensely painful. While some fights are resolved without repercussions, others can leave lasting scars. Recently, a woman, u/DrinkOk538, shared a complex family situation on Reddit, which took many people on the internet by surprise.

"My husband’s brother went abroad for a job six years ago. During the pandemic, his wife discovered that my brother-in-law had been cheating on her with another woman. They have a 10-year-old child," the woman wrote at the beginning of the post.

The woman's brother-in-law had been staying with his mistress away from his wife since the pandemic. "I'm not very close to him or his wife, but we get along and have casual conversations from time to time since they've been married, and we've known each other for over 10 years," the woman added.

The woman shared that she had no idea that her brother-in-law was cheating at first and learned about the whole situation last year. "I found out that my brother-in-law had been with this mistress during the pandemic," she wrote, adding that her brother-in-law's wife had reached out to her because she was seeking help from her husband.

"My brother-in-law has not been supporting her or their child for years, and she confided that all his support goes to the mistress," she wrote in the post.

She then talked about how her brother-in-law had fallen ill and was now expecting his wife to take him back to their conjugal property. "However, my husband informed me that his wife disagreed with this, which I completely understood," the woman wrote. Her decision not to take him back disappointed the family, but the woman thought that the wife made the right decision.

"I told my husband, 'No sugarcoating—if I were your brother's wife, I wouldn't accept him either.'" She added that she might be at fault for not being able to read the room. "However, my point is that they haven't been functioning as a married couple for years. He didn't return for years, got a mistress, and now that he's ill, he thinks his wife is still waiting for him," she concluded her post. 

Many took to the comments section to talk about the complex situation.

"Tell your husband if he and his family had any integrity, they would have kicked [the] cheating brother-in-law out and made sure he supported his child and wife, and stopped cheating or gone through a proper separation and still continued to support his child. Absolutely no way in hell can they expect her to take him back after what he did, and should hang their heads in shame for supporting his treatment of her," wrote u/MapHazard5738. "The way my husband reacted makes me wonder what he has to hide in his past. OP needs to seriously rethink that marriage," shared u/NeartAgusOnoir. "Oh, cry me a river. Jesus! The guy, a dirtbag, who left his wife and kid to fend for themselves. He can kick rocks, and so can your husband," added u/Jyslina.