User Submission: “A Friend’s Betrayal”
My best friend of sixteen years, Sam, and I have shared many secrets. I recently told her that my husband Jeff was not the true father of our 4yr old son Timothy. I explained to her that as his god-mother I felt she deserved to know. My husband knows that he is not Timothy’s father, yet he chose to stay with me and take care of him as if he were. He was able to forgive me for cheating on him and still raise my son as if he were his own. I have always been grateful for that. I explained all of this to Sam and she seemed OK with it. She told me she always suspected and was waiting for me to tell her, but other than that she seemed OK with it. I asked her not to say a word to anyone, and she promised me that she wouldn’t. I thought after 16yrs of friendship I would be able to trust her. Sam was the only person outside of my fa mily that I trusted with Tim’s secret. Several months past since I told her and I recently found out that she told her husband about Tim and Jeff. Her husband is Timothy’s god-father and a close friend of Jeff’s. One night Jeff comes storming in to the house drunk, and starts screaming at me. He called me a “good for nothing whore” and said “you can’t keep your legs closed, how could I expect you to keep your mouth closed.” I tried to calm him down, so he could tell me what was going on. He told me that Sam told her husband everything about Tim. I couldn’t believe it. I trusted her with a secret that could have very-well torn my family apart, and she turned around and told her husband. I understand that he is a mutual friend of the family and as the god-father he has a right to know as well, but she had no right to say anything. I haven talked to her once since that incident happened. She has tried to contact me and apologize, but I told her I can not forgive her for what she did. She violated my trust and our friendship. It was not her place to say anything. She had absolutely nothing at all to gain. She explained to me that she is stressed because she thinks she might be pregnant and it slipped out while her and her husband were talking about the baby. I find it hard to ever forgive Sam for what she did. I do not care about her reasons. Reasoning does not change the fact that she did it. Although she has assured me that she will not tell anyone; I find it hard to believe her or forgive her. I have told her we can no longer be friends after such a betrayal of trust. Although, no real harm was done; My family does know what happened and my husband is still going to be a part of Timothy’s life. As far as I am concerned Jeff is Timothy’s father, and nothing is going to change that. We have decided not to tell Timothy anything about his real father because he is still young. We are still not even sure if we are going to tell him at all. What is the point in confusing him if he already has a great father in his life? I have not spoken to Sam in weeks. Should I forgive her and salvage our friendship? Or should I continue to ignore her? What is the right thing to do?
Story Shared by “School Girl”