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The original was posted on /r/bestofredditorupdates by /u/Direct-Caterpillar77 on 2025-05-02 04:07:28+00:00.

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I am not The OOP, OOP is u/ThrowRASunflowerBuff

My wife returned from a work retreat with a hickey. She swears it’s a bug bite but I’m not convinced. I’m at loss. How do I move forward?

OOP Originally posted to r/Marriage & r/relationship_advice

BoRU 1 BoRU 2 BoRU 3 BoRU 4

TRIGGER WARNING: infidelity, child neglect

MOOD SPOILER: grim

Thanks to u/funsizerads & u/Creepy_Addict for suggesting this BoRU

Thanks to u/Bonanza86 u/Choice_Evidence83 & u/EyeGlad3032 for letting me know this updated

Original Post Feb 21, 2025

I’m (27M) in a fight with my wife (28F). We’ve had fights before but not this bad. I’m at a loss on how to proceed.

For context, we’re college sweethearts married for almost 6 years. We have a daughter (4F). Our relationship was never perfect or without challenges.

We’ve faced some family opposition with cultural differences, but we’ve made it work. She’s my first love and my best friend.

My wife works in corporate. Her job has annual work retreats that last for about a week. This year was in Vegas.

I usually arrange my work schedule and tag along with her, and we make our own trip out of it.

We couldn’t this year. Our daughter gets major anxiety traveling long distances. We’re working on it but she wasn’t budging, and we decided to choose our battles.

So I stood behind and held down the fort at home. The change of plans was a bummer because the trip was part of us reconnecting as both a couple and as a family.

My wife’s work hours have taken a toll, and her work/life balance leaves much to be desired.

We entertained the idea of her skipping the retreat. Attendance is optional, but it’s generally frowned upon if you don’t, and my wife’s making connections in her field.

She grew increasingly weird. We have a system if either of us is away for extended periods. We keep in contact.

For the first day or so, she was herself, but she grew distant. I’d even text her about important stuff and be left on read while she claimed she never saw my text.

Whenever we talked, she was rushing me or our daughter off the phone. These were all times she wasn’t involved in retreat activities.

We were supposed to have a mini birthday celebration for our daughter over FaceTime.

Our daughter was excited. It was something my wife promised her because the retreat overlapped her actual birthday.

But my wife backed out because she had people up to her room after a seminar.

It was like she wanted my permission to break her promise to our daughter. I told her I wasn’t offering that nor making her keep her word.

She said I wasn’t being fair, and this was a networking opportunity. They were business-oriented and wouldn’t understand her stepping away for family time.

I said her decision is her decision, but she’d have to explain it to our daughter. She promised her that she’d raincheck the following day.

Our daughter didn’t understand and cried. My wife ended up hanging up and leaving me to comfort our daughter alone.

That whole incident rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t like it. She didn’t keep her word for the rain check either.

She was documenting the retreat on social media. One coworker (23M) was almost in every pic/video attached to her hip. In one pic he had his arm too comfortably around her imo.

He’s a recent hire in my wife’s department. She was asked to oversee him. I don’t like the guy. He doesn’t know boundaries.

Once, in response to a work assignment, he texted my wife that she’s exactly the kind of woman he needs to keep him in check.

My wife had brushed it off. She feels bad for him because he’s not fitting in. She took him under her wing during his first retreat with the team.

If I’d questioned, she’d say she was tired or networking. There was always something. But I’ve seen her at these retreats. This wasn’t like her. She was just off.

The day before her return home, she complained about a bruise on her neck. She stressed it was a bug bite.

I didn’t actually see the bruise until she came home. I instantly thought it was a full-on hickey.

She kinda brushed it off after making a big deal of it over the phone. I didn’t push because our daughter was present.

But when I was able to confront her, she clung to her bug bite claim. When I kept pushing, she asked what I was trying to imply.

I outright said I believed she had a hickey, and I didn’t believe she was being honest with me. We had it out then.

She was offended and pissed at the accusation. Infidelity has always been a sore topic. Her family has a history of infidelity.

So we had a pretty bad fight, and she accused me of looking to pick a fight due to the incident with our daughter’s birthday.

I told her it had nothing to do with that and everything to do with a hickey on her neck.

The fight ended in an impasse. We’re still not recovered. She swears it’s a bug bite. But I’m not convinced.

I’ve always trusted my wife. I never doubted her, but this bruise doesn’t look like a bug bite. It looks like a hickey.

I only feel more strongly when I consider how distant and weird she was during the Vegas retreat.

Now she’s wearing turtlenecks ever since, and we’re caught between arguing and her dousing our daughter and me with affection.

Communication usually prevails for us, but not now. I think my accusation pushed us to a new level of argument.

I’m at a loss here. I really need outside perspectives. How do I move forward?

RELEVANT COMMENTS

futbol10fan

I’m not saying it’s impossible but I’ve never gotten a bug bite that looked like a hickey. Did she show you her phone or provide any proof that could support her innocence or just dismiss you? The extra affection is a common move from guilt-ridden cheaters. Even if we stretch the imagination and believe it is a big bite, she wasn’t acting trustworthy nor was she a good mother while the was in Vegas and she needs to address and correct that.

OOP

No, I haven’t had access to her phone. We usually have an open phone policy but it’s not something we’ve ever really done. I’m sure it’ll be another argument

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Japetchy

Why did you go on work trips with her in the past? Did she want you to, or did you not want her to go alone. What is (and why is it necessary to have) the system when one of you is away? Whose idea was the FaceTime birthday celebration? Did she not talk to the daughter at all on her birthday or just couldn’t do the FaceTime celebration?

OOP

Work/life balance was an issue, so she’d invite me on the retreats. The system is for an extended periods away from each other like how long the retreat was. Especially since we have a child now

The birthday FaceTime was my wife’s idea. She promised our daughter and got her excited about it. No, she didn’t talk with our daughter until she was calling to cancel. That’s another reason the birthday stunt rubbed me the wrong way

OOP responding to a deleted comment

Yeah, you don’t get to disconnect from being a parent, especially to a minor, for extended holidays. You certainly don’t ghost them on their birthday and when you promised to do something special for them and got the child excited about it or hang up on them while they’re crying

I’m not insecure. My wife’s gone on the retreats before. We both work outside the home and have the caring for our daughter. So it’s not an imbalance. My wife’s work/life balance is out of sorts. She’s in the company of other adults plenty

I’ve been with my wife on these retreats and other social events. I know how she is. She was off this entire trip nor was it appreciated her entertaining a coworker, who ignores boundaries, having his arm wrapped around her waist like he was claiming her or something

I trusted her when she said she had a bug bite. I got things to help her treat it for when returned. It was only after I saw the bruise in person that there was no mistaking it was a hickey for me, and I questioned her on it

Update Feb 28, 2025 (7 days later)

I (27M) wanted to give an update and thank everyone who reached out. The outside perspectives helped.

Things are a rollercoaster. I’m trying to process. It took a while for my wife (28F) and me to have any real conversation about the bruise on her neck.

We were stuck between arguing and her showering our daughter (4F) and me with affection.

I rarely saw the bruise because she was turtlenecked up. But I did note the healing process from reddish purple to yellow.

There wasn’t any more discussion about the Vegas retreat. She made it clear she was done talking about it and that she…

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