I found out my wife cheated on me by reading her secret journal, and when I asked for a divorce, she didn’t beg me to stay—she kidnapped our dog and disappeared. I spent days calling her friends,…

I never thought I’d be the kind of guy who reads his wife’s secret journal. But she’d been quiet for days, the kind of quiet that meant something was eating at her, and she kept telling me she was fine. So I went looking for answers where I knew I’d find them. The first entries I read were recent.

She wrote about how she’d started talking to Dan again. How her old feelings were coming back since their “incident” nearly a year ago. I knew Dan. He was a college classmate of hers, a decent guy I’d liked every time we met.

I never suspected a thing. I went back further. It took three full journals before I found the entry about their drunken mistake. She’d met up with old college friends for a reunion.

I didn’t go because I didn’t know them well. She drank too much, and before she knew it, she and Dan had sex in his car. I read that paragraph maybe ten times. I felt sick.

This had happened a year ago, and I’d been completely oblivious. When she got home, I sat her down and admitted I’d read her journal. She was furious about the privacy violation, and I let her have that. But I didn’t let her make it the main point.

She cheated on me. She said it only happened once. They were both drunk. It never would have happened sober.

I told her I saw her recent entries too. She was talking to Dan again. Her old feelings were coming back. That didn’t sound like just alcohol behind her choice.

That’s when she admitted she’d had a crush on Dan in college. They’d hooked up a few times, but he wasn’t ready for a relationship. I pointed out the obvious. We were dating during that time.

So she cheated on me back then too. She went completely silent. No explanation. No excuse.

It was true. And she’d been hoping I wouldn’t catch it. Her thing with Dan wasn’t a one-time mistake. It was a pattern.

And I’d be a fool to think she wouldn’t do it again. I told her I needed space. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a divorce yet, but I needed time to think. In the meantime, I’d stay at a friend’s place.

That’s when she flipped out the first time. She threw herself at me, grabbed my shirt, and begged me to promise it wasn’t a separation. I told her the truth—we were separated until I could think things through. Her face went from desperation to rage in an instant.

She screamed about how I was abandoning her over one little mistake. Anyone could slip up when drunk. I pointed out that I’d been drunk before and never slept with anyone else. She wasn’t listening.

She kept insisting it only happened once, completely ignoring the college incident. She even tried to convince me I’d have done the same thing in her position. I told her I never would have ended up in that situation because I’d never let myself get drunk around someone of the opposite sex. I respected my marriage too much for that.

She accused me of looking for an excuse to leave her, then stormed off and slammed the bedroom door. I packed a small bag and left. I didn’t even grab a change of clothes—they were in the bedroom, and I wasn’t going in there. By the time I reached my friend’s place, I had a dozen missed calls.

When I called her back, she screamed that I was supposed to follow her to the bedroom if I really loved her. I told her I was done playing games. This wasn’t a silly lover’s argument. Our marriage was probably over because of what she did.

She refused to listen. I ended the call and put my phone on airplane mode. We didn’t talk the next morning. It took another full day before I forced myself to call her, and only because I was worried about Oreo.

He was our dog, but I was the one who really took care of him. I handled his vet visits, his food, his exercise. She took him on five-minute walks. I took him on long runs and to the park.

When I called to say I was ready to talk, she didn’t pick up. I drove to the house. She wasn’t there. The place was destroyed—furniture flipped over, things thrown everywhere.

It looked like a crime scene. I called again. She answered on the third attempt. I asked about the house.

She said it was just a small mess. Then I asked the important question. Where was she, and where was Oreo? She said she’d taken him with her.

When I asked where, she refused to tell me. She claimed I abandoned both of them when I left, so he was her dog now. I was shaking with rage. I loved Oreo.

She’d gone too far. She said she and Oreo would come home if I changed my mind about the divorce. But if I insisted on going through with it, I’d never see him again. What kind of person kidnaps a dog over a divorce?

I told her I wouldn’t give in to her messed-up ultimatum. I said I’d call the police. She said she wasn’t worried—it was her dog too. I told her that wasn’t how it worked.

I adopted him. My name was on all the vet bills, the food receipts, the toys. On paper, he was my dog. She stole him.

Nothing got through to her. She sounded hysterical, and I started to worry she might hurt him. People hurt children to get back at exes. I didn’t think hurting a dog was out of the question for someone in that state of mind.

I called the police. They said they’d investigate the theft. Then nothing. They contacted me a few times for details, but nothing came of it.

I was worried sick. I called her friends and her family. I told them everything about the affair and the kidnapped dog. I said things would go easier for her if she just brought Oreo home safely.

Nothing turned up. She mostly ignored my calls. I seriously considered calling off the divorce just to get Oreo back. I knew it was wrong, but I wasn’t thinking straight.

I was so scared for him. Then I decided to play her game. I called her and told her I was willing to call off the divorce. I said I’d moved back home and was waiting for her.

I fed her some crap about how she was right and I hadn’t given her a chance to make up for her mistake. I’m not a great actor, but somehow it worked. She said she’d come home that same evening. I had three friends follow me home.

We took my car so it wouldn’t look like anyone else was inside. They waited in another room while I stayed in the living room. When Elaine walked in, Oreo came with her. He was so happy to see me he bolted straight for me, ripping the leash out of her hand.

Before she could react, my friends came out. One grabbed Oreo and hustled him out the back door. Another blocked the door after them. The third started recording.

Elaine was furious. She asked what I thought I was doing. I told her I was getting my dog back. And I’d lied about calling off the divorce.

She would still be served papers any day now. The police hadn’t done much about her kidnapping, but the court would see it differently. We left her screaming in the house and drove back to my friend’s place, where Oreo was waiting. He leapt all over me again.

But he didn’t look right. He wasn’t sick, but he was leaner than normal. I knew him better than anyone. Something was off.

The vet confirmed it. Oreo was slightly malnourished. The vet said his health looked more like a dog that had been lost, not kidnapped. This was a dog who was always the picture of health.

I brought records of his previous vet visits to prove it. In court, that was enough to convince the judge I was the better fit to care for him. I got sole possession of Oreo. Her infidelity and her stunt hurt her badly in the asset division.

We split what was left fairly, and I didn’t pay a cent in alimony. Even the court agreed that wasn’t fair after everything she put me through. She still thinks I overreacted by divorcing her. She says her feelings for Dan came to nothing and she hasn’t spoken to him in months.

I told her the issue was never about her talking to Dan. The problem was she slept with him twice while we were together. And when she went full psycho after I talked about divorce, that sealed it. I filed a lawsuit over her kidnapping Oreo.

It’s still ongoing. He’s back to perfect health now, but I wasn’t going to let her get away with abducting and mistreating him to trap me in a marriage. Elaine still doesn’t think she did anything wrong. She says she was just fighting to keep her family together.

Well, now my family is down one member. But it doesn’t feel like a real loss. Between a cheating wife and a loyal dog, I’d take the dog a thousand times over.