A Deceptive Affair: The Story of How My Husband’s Affair Saved My Life

By Carrie Clark

In 2016, my life changed forever when my husband made the choice to have an affair. What I thought was the end of a happy life turned out to be the greatest blessing in disguise. When I started this journey of recovery, my only goal was to stop hurting. What I didn't realize at the time was that this journey would lead to a life I never dreamed possible for myself. Even though it started as a nightmare, this event ended up being the catalyst I needed to transform myself and my life into what I really wanted it to be. Today, I am grateful for the choice my husband made and the path it lead me down, to finding true happiness and self-love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Sep 10, 2021

Book preview

A Deceptive Affair

The Story of How my Husband’s Affair Saved my Life

_____By Carrie Clark _____

Table of Contents

Why You Should Give This Book a Chance            3

From the Beginning                              5

A Living Hell                                    12

Single Mom, Now What?                        18

Acceptance                                    24

Believing                                    31

Turning it Over                                    36

Self                                          42

Accountability                                    49

Out with the Old                              54

In with the New                              65

Forgiveness                                    72

Finding Peace                                    82

Coming Full Circle                              85

Why You Should Give This Book a Chance

You can’t be in love with someone you resent. I’ll never forget hearing my husband say those words out loud to me when I asked him if he still loved me. My heart broke into a million pieces that I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to pick up, much less put back together. It was at that moment that I knew my marriage was over.

If you have found yourself with this book in your hands, I’m willing to bet you are going through something I myself have been through—an affair; wondering how to get past it and move on. Or maybe you just want to know that you are not alone in what you are going through. Regardless of the reason, I’m here to tell you that you are definitely not alone. I have been where you are right now. Life does get better. My wish as I share my story is to spread hope, courage, and strength; to show you that life does get better and can be amazing again; that it’s even possible to love life even more because of this traumatic experience. 

While it may sound strange and impossible — to be thankful for an affair to happen— that is my story and my experience. In this book, I’m sharing my experience, as well as my found strength and hope after my husband's affair, and why I am so grateful for it. I’m sharing how I was able to find a freedom I didn’t know was possible through heartbreak and betrayal; I’m showing you my road to true peace and happiness. I hope that you will join me on this road to recovery and that you will give yourself a chance and a much-needed break. 

I’m not a therapist, a psychiatrist, or even a licensed professional. So why should you listen to what I have to say or give this a chance? What I’ve learned throughout life and this journey is that only someone who has experienced what I’ve gone through truly understands. That isn’t to say that professionals can’t help; they exist for a reason after all, but I have a hard time relating to or even conveying certain feelings to someone who hasn’t lived through what I’ve lived, or been where I’ve been.

I will walk you through every step of my journey, from start to finish. My hope is that you will see the similarities and find the hope you need to keep moving forward in life with your head held high and with a new perspective on life. We all have different details in our stories, but the underlying feelings are the same. When I was left with the truth of my husband’s affair, it was the lowest I ever felt in my life. In the beginning, there was no hope for me, just pain and misery. If you’re in that place right now, I beg you to just give yourself a chance, take a leap of faith and give this a try. You deserve happiness and peace; you are worth it.

From the Beginning

Ever since I was a little girl, I had always dreamed of getting married, starting my own family and living the picture-perfect life with that one special person. After all, that’s what I grew up seeing from my own family. I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood. My dad is a successful lawyer who still managed to make his family the top priority in his life. My mom was a dental hygienist who later retired to be a stay-at-home mom to care for my sister and me. My parents made sure that we were well taken care of, but most of all, loved. It was obvious that my parents loved each other, it showed in everything they did. Every year, we went on family vacations to the beach, the mountains, and trips to see family and friends. We spent quality time together as often as we could. Every Friday night we went to Blockbuster, rented a movie, and got as much candy as our dad would let us. We were an active family and loved swimming, tennis and just being outside. I will always remember the love and happiness that was my family. And that is what I wanted in life. To create a family of my own with whom I would share these kinds of memories and love. 

I thought that true success in life was a family with two kids, a dog, and the white picket fence around a beautiful house; that to be happy, I had to have the picture-perfect life that society pushed. If I could just find the right man, all my dreams would come true. If I could find the right man, all my problems would be solved, and I would be whole. So many of my friends had found their special person during college and were planning weddings or baby showers. They made it look so easy. So why was this so hard for me? Why couldn’t I find my right person?

More importantly, why does any of this matter? If you are anything like me, you just want the answer, hurry up and tell me how to get past this and get to where you are. I promise we will get there. But first, I need you to understand what happened, so you can follow my logic and reasoning. I know it’s hard, but you must trust the process.

Something you should know about me is that I have not always made the best choices in life or been the most responsible person. Especially with men. I was the queen of partying in high school and my first year of college. I wanted the quick and easy way with everything. So, most of the men I chose had the same mentality as myself. If he had money, liked to party or looked good, that was enough for me to be interested. No wonder none of my relationships worked out. They were doomed from the beginning.

At this point, I was 21 and knew that I wanted better for my life. I knew that I had