Back in April, TikToker Jess (@jessannmcleann) and her husband Scotty bought their first house. Their son had just turned two. She never thought her husband would cheat on her, but she saw signs and detected the exact moment when something just felt off to her.
One day in April, they were lying in bed, and he was telling her a story about someone at work. Her head was on his chest as he was telling the story.
He had said something about how he used to be a bad guy. She joked about him still being a bad guy. But when he replied that he wasn’t, she felt his heart rate change.
“At the time, I did not think necessarily anything of it, but I just remember feeling panic, and I remember thinking there was something that I didn’t know, and I didn’t know the extent of that,” said Jess.
She brought up having a lot of anxiety when he said that, but he just comforted her the way he always did. Later, he went to sleep, but she was up all night experiencing the worst panic attack.
This uneasy feeling continued for about a month. During that time, she didn’t notice anything different about him.
Jess began to believe that something was wrong with her, and she wanted to see a therapist. The panic in her was overwhelming and unbearable, and she could not figure out why she felt that way.
Scotty helped book her an appointment and acted like the perfect husband, trying to get her the answers she needed.
One time, she started randomly sobbing, but didn’t know why. He got frustrated with her for being upset and was getting defensive, so he left to go pick up their son.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
“It was almost like he was annoyed that I was feeling something,” said Jess. “Like, my feelings that I was trying to get to the bottom of were bothering him. And I was the burden. I truly felt like I was the burden for having emotions out of nowhere.”
She blamed herself for those feelings because she did not yet have a reason to think that Scotty could be the problem. The next day, he sent her a long text, saying that he wanted to talk and that something was wrong with him. He called himself a narcissist and stated that he was having a hard time connecting.
Jess was really confused. She decided to ask if he was cheating on her. She stared at the phone, waiting for his response. When he said yes, her world came crashing down around her. Scotty was her best friend, and they had been together since they were 17.
She fell to the floor because her legs buckled and started screaming. In an instant, nothing made sense to her anymore. It felt like her entire future had been ripped away from her.
She knew that her next move would determine how her and her son’s future went.
So, she put on a brave face and spent the day with Scotty and her son. They finally sat down and had a talk after they put their son to bed. In the end, they decided to get divorced.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
