AITAH for leaving my wife, stepson, and everyone behind to start over?
He stood shattered in the ruins of a love once whole, betrayed not once but twice by the woman he vowed to trust.
The weight of her lies crushed him, twisting his reality into a relentless storm of doubt and despair, while his heart desperately clung to the family they had built despite the fractures.
Now, caught between the fragments of a broken marriage and the responsibility of a son who calls him dad, he faces a cruel paradox: to protect the life he’s given or to free himself from the chains of in***elity and pain.
The future is uncertain, but his resolve to no longer be a pawn in her game burns fiercely within him.
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The original poster (OP) is grappling with intense emotional fallout, including depression and anxiety, stemming from his wife's repeated in***elity and subsequent gaslighting.
His central conflict is the desire to completely sever ties and seek a new life abroad versus his wife's expectation that he financially support her and their son in their current lifestyle while remaining geographically close, despite her actions.
Is the OP justified in planning a complete exit to another country to preserve his mental health and dignity, or is he morally obligated, given his role as a father figure and higher earner, to remain nearby and continue underwriting his wife's lifestyle during an informal separation?
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