Everything was perfect with my boyfriend, Shawn, except for one mystery: He only talked to his Mom when I wasn’t around. Something felt amiss. So, I discreetly followed him one day, and what I saw made my skin crawl.

The scent of chamomile tea lingered in our house as I overheard Shawn whisper into his phone, “Alright, Mom… I’ll be there.”

I knocked on our bedroom door and asked, “Can I come in now? Done talking to your mother?”

“Come in, babe!” Shawn, engrossed in his phone, barely looked up.

“I need to visit her,” he announced.

“Shawn, shouldn’t I meet your Mom by now?” I probed, noting the grimace on his face.

“We’ll talk about it, just not today,” he dismissed, avoiding my gaze. “It’s complicated.” That was no excuse. I didn’t know if he was embarrassed or hiding something. So, without him knowing, I decided to follow him one day.

Driving behind Shawn’s motorcycle, I reached a secluded house where I saw him intimately greet a young woman. I knew he wasn’t meeting his “mother” at all, but I still felt betrayed and heartbroken. Regardless, I stayed and watched, containing my anger until I got the answers I wanted.