I Discovered My Husband With My Son’s Fiancee Days Before They Were Supposed To Marry…

A Life Built in Sedona

My name is Adelaide and I’m 62 years old. People say that’s when you’re supposed to slow down, enjoy retirement, maybe take up gardening or something, but I’ve never been that kind of person.

Right now I own a boutique hotel in Sedona, Arizona and honestly I’ve never felt more alive. Well, at least I did until recently but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me start from the beginning. I wasn’t always a hotel owner; for most of my life I was just trying to figure things out like everyone else.

When I was 35 I went through a really bad breakup with a boyfriend I thought we were going to get married, have kids, the whole deal. Instead, he left me for someone younger.

I spent months in my apartment barely eating, barely functioning. My friends got worried and they dragged me to a concert one night.

I didn’t want to go. I hate concerts; too loud, too many people.

They dragged me to a concert one night. I didn’t want to go.

I hate concerts; too loud, too many people, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer. That’s where I met Henry.

Meeting Henry

He was at the bar laughing with some people, acting like he owned the place. He was 37 but looked younger.

He had this energy about him like nothing could touch him. My friends went to get drinks and he started talking to me.

He asked: “Why I looked so miserable at a concert.”

I told him: “I didn’t want to be there.”

He said: “Neither did he.”

Which was obviously a lie because he went to concerts all the time, but it made me laugh. That was the first time I’d laughed in months.

We got married a year later. At first things were good; Henry was fun, spontaneous, everything my ex wasn’t.

The Struggles of Marriage

But after a while I started seeing the downsides. He didn’t want to grow up.

He was almost 40 and still acting like he was in his 20s. He’d go out with friends, come home late, sometimes not at all.

I found out he was cheating. We separated, then we got back together, then we separated again; it was a mess.

Then I got pregnant. I was 39.

We hadn’t been trying but there it was. We had a son, Bill.

Henry changed after that, at least a little. He was still immature sometimes but he tried.

I could see him trying so I tried too. I learned to ignore some of his behavior.

The little flings that didn’t mean anything, the nights out. As long as he came home and was a good father I could deal with it.

Building the Dream

When Bill was five Henry came to me with an idea. He wanted to start a business.

A hotel. Not just any hotel, but something special; a boutique hotel in Sedona.

I thought he was crazy as we didn’t have that kind of money. But Henry was good at convincing people.

He showed me the numbers, the projections. He said we could make it work so I agreed.

We bought a piece of land that was basically empty, just dirt and rocks. We had to build everything from scratch.

It took years. Henry handled the construction and design; I handled the finances and paperwork.

We fought constantly about money, about decisions, about everything. But we kept going.

We had to. We’d put everything into this.

It took 15 years. 15 years of scraping by, of barely making payroll, of wondering if we’d made a huge mistake.

Success and the Chef

We had to build up the hotel’s reputation slowly, get good reviews, attract the right clients. Sedona is a tourist town but there’s a lot of competition.

We had to stand out. Eventually we did.

The hotel started making money, real money, stable income. I could finally breathe.

Meanwhile Bill grew up. He was a good kid; smart, hard-working, nothing like Henry had been at his age.

When he was 18 he said: “He wanted to be a chef.”

Henry and I talked about it. We came up with a plan.

Bill would go to culinary school in France, get the best education possible. Then he’d come back and open a restaurant next to the hotel.

A family business; Henry, Bill, and me all working together. It sounded perfect.

Bill went to France. He did well in school, he called us every week, he seemed happy.

Betty Enters the Picture

Then about 2 years ago he told us he’d met someone. A girl named Betty.

She was a chef too. They were dating.

Henry and I were happy for him. Bill brought her home to meet us twice.

She seemed nice, polite, smart, ambitious. I liked her.

She fit right in with our family. Bill said they were thinking about getting married.

I had no objections. She seemed like a good match for him.

A few months ago Bill finished his master’s degree. He and Betty came to Sedona to celebrate and to start planning the restaurant.

I remember feeling like everything was finally falling into place. The hotel was successful, my son was educated and ready to start his career.

We were going to build something together, the three of us. I felt like I was living my best years, I really did.

Something Changes

But then something happened. Something that changed everything.

It started small, little things I didn’t think much about at the time. Bill seemed nervous during dinner.

He kept checking his phone. When I asked if everything was okay he said it was fine, but he didn’t look fine.

Henry seemed normal though. He was in a good mood, joking around, pouring us wine.

Betty was quiet but smiled when spoken to. The next morning I woke up early.

Henry wasn’t in bed. That was weird.

He’s not an early riser. I usually have to drag him out of bed.

The Betrayal Discovered

I got up and walked through the house quietly. I didn’t want to wake Bill and Betty.

Then I heard voices coming from the living room. One was Henry’s voice.

I was about to call out to him when I heard the other voice. It was Betty.

I stopped. Something about the way they were talking made me pause.

I moved closer to the doorway, staying out of sight. I heard Henry say something about timing.

Betty said: “They just needed to wait a little longer.”

Wait for what? I peeked around the door frame.

Henry had his arms around Betty. Not like he was comforting her, like they were together, like lovers.

I didn’t make a scene. I went back to bed and pretended to be asleep.

Suspicions and Secrets

When Henry came back my mind was racing. What did I just see?

Was Henry cheating again with Bill’s girlfriend? It didn’t make sense.

Why would Betty do that? Why would Henry?

I spent the whole day acting normal, smiling, talking, cooking. Inside I was falling apart.

I needed to talk to Bill alone. I waited until Henry and Betty went out to look at potential restaurant locations.

Then I sat Bill down. I told him what I saw.

He didn’t look surprised. He looked tired.

He said: “He’d been wanting to talk to me too.”

He had his own suspicions. I asked him what he meant.

He took a deep breath and started talking. Bill told me that Betty had been acting strange for a while.

The Private Detective

It started a few months after she met us, after that first visit to Sedona. She’d disappear sometimes, make phone calls in private, get text messages she wouldn’t explain.

At first Bill thought maybe she was planning a surprise for him, a birthday party or something. But it kept happening and she’d get defensive when he asked about it.

Bill said he tried to ignore it. He loved her, he trusted her, but the behavior got worse.

She’d leave their apartment at odd hours. She’d lie about where she was going.

One time Bill followed her. She went to an office building downtown.

He asked her about it later. She said it was nothing, just meeting a friend.

But Bill didn’t believe her anymore. So he hired a private detective.

He felt bad about it but he needed to know what was going on. The detective followed Betty for 2 weeks.

A Web of Lies

What he found was shocking. First of all, Betty wasn’t actually a chef.

She’d created a fake background. She had friends who worked at restaurants who vouched for her.

She’d taken some cooking classes, enough to seem legitimate. But she’d never gone to culinary school.

She’d never worked as a professional chef. It was all a lie.

I interrupted Bill. I asked him what she actually did for a living.

He said: “She worked in real estate.”

But not normal real estate. She worked for some corporation that the detective couldn’t find much information about.

No public records, no website, nothing. The detective suspected it was involved in scams, fraud, that kind of thing.