Woman Divorces Husband After Gaslighting Prank
Mia Morrison Losing track of time is not uncommon. People get busy, stressed out, or forgetful from time to time, but if you start to commonly miss important deadlines or show up late because you can keep time well, it could raise concerns that something much more serious is going on.
In a post originally shared on Reddit, then uploaded in a video to the “reddit_tyoro” TikTok account, one woman shared how her sudden and severe inability to track time led her to believe she was losing her mind — but the cause of her troubles turned out to be something much more sinister and diabolical.
RELATED: The 4 Behaviors That Cause 90% Of All Divorces
The woman explained how her husband's prank led her to file for divorce.
According to the 34-year-old woman, she and her 36-year-old husband have been married for six years. She explained that she had been out of work for a four-month period of time and after submitting hundreds of applications, was finally hired and expected to show up at 8:30 am on her first day.
She made sure her alarms were set after her husband reminded her, but woke up at 9:00 am the next morning to find herself late for work.
The first thing she noticed when she awakened was that her spouse had already left for work. “Mortified” that she was tardy on her first day at the new job, the woman quickly called her new boss and let them know she would be in as soon as possible. She was apologetic and promised her employer it wouldn’t happen again. According to her, they were “very gracious,” but her husband was upset over the incident.
RELATED: 4 Big Mistakes I Made As A Husband (Psst! I'm The Ex-Husband Now)
The second day of work went off without a hitch and she made it on time. That evening, she was to meet her husband for a date night at a restaurant at 7:30 pm. When he called to ask where she was, she assured him that he would be on time since it was only 6:30. Much to her surprise, her husband told her it was after their scheduled meetup time, and she confirmed that her phone was one hour behind.
Confused, but determined not to disappoint her husband, the woman rushed to the restaurant to meet him, but her tardiness had left an awkward energy in the air, and he barely said anything on the date. When they arrived home, she tried to show him the discrepancy between the time on her phone and the clock in the kitchen, but they matched.
Her husband accused her of lying 'like a child' and not owning up to her mistake. She attempted to explain, but her husband refused to interact for the rest of the evening.
After that, there was another instance of mistiming. She got up at the scheduled time, only to find the clocks pushed forward, making her late for work again. But once she arrived at work, the office was closed because all of the other clocks that she had looked at seemed to be hours ahead and it was just 5:00 am.
Unable to make sense of what was going on, the woman started to feel like she was “having a mental breakdown.”
She returned home and was surprised to find her husband’s car parked in the driveway after he had already left for work before she woke up. She told him what happened, but once again, all of the clocks matched, and the issue seemed to be in her head.
Photo: Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock
Her husband asked if he should get her “professional help.” She declined and decided to go to her parents’ house to work through what was happening. The woman’s husband agreed and drove her there, caressing her hand and promising to stand beside her all the way. He again suggested they start therapy when she was ready.
RELATED: I Left My Husband For An 18-Year-Old (And I Have No Regrets)
The woman's parents suggested she take action to figure out what was happening.
After telling her parents what had been going on, they suggested she install cameras facing her car and buy a new alarm clock to confirm that it was all in her head. As suggested, she ordered the cameras and replaced her alarm clock, pushing back the sneaking suspicion that her husband was involved. She set her new alarm clock to 6:30 am in front of her husband, and secretly hid the other under the bed, setting it to go off at the same time.
The cameras would not be arriving until the next day, but it turned out they would not be necessary. In the middle of the night, the worried woman woke up to “rustling,” opened one eye, and saw her husband changing the time on the new alarm clock before returning to bed as if nothing had happened.
Unable to sleep and “stunned” by his actions, she lay wide awake, pondering what she had just witnessed. When the new alarm clock blared at 3 am, her husband sat up, incensed that she had interrupted his sleep by setting the alarm incorrectly.
Unable to hold back any longer, she let him know she’d seen him tampering with the alarm.
Knowing his secret was out, he began crying and confessed that he and his friend had been pranking his wife for months. They had started by adjusting the time by five minutes and when that went unnoticed, they created bigger time gaps for her. He changed the time on her alarm clocks and his friend used a set of spare keys to set the clock in her car.
He put the onus on her for never noticing and claimed that had he been a murderer, his wife’s skin “would be on a lampshade right now.” “I was relieved at the fact that I was not going crazy but hurt that he would do this to me — put my job in jeopardy, carry on so far, and even [yell] at me, knowing he was the one who sabotaged me,” she said.
RELATED: The Harsh Reason Women Over 40 Leave Their Husbands
The hurt wife packed her belongings, went back to her parents’ house, and filed for divorce just two days later.
She reasoned that if he would go this far for a prank, there was no telling what else he might be capable of. Her parents agree with her decision, but her soon-to-be ex-husband and his family think she’s taking it too far over a prank.
Photo: Dikushin Dmitry / Shutterstock
When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
People who listened to the story wholeheartedly agree that something is amiss with her husband, and she should get as far away from him as possible. One person said, “The fact that he would yell at you for missing time, and you went crying to him freaking out and he said nothing!” Another woman wrote, “He drove her to her parents and suggested therapy…that is just evil.”
RELATED: Relationship Experts Reveal The #1 Complaint They Hear From Unhappy Wives In Therapy
A prank is supposed to be funny, not drive a person you claim to love to the point of insanity or put them in jeopardy. His behavior is indicative of gaslighting her by telling "little white lies," denying her reality, manipulating how people feel about her at work, wearing her down over time, and pretending to be supportive while working against her.
Marriages should consist of two mentally and emotionally healthy individuals coming together to enhance each other’s life. Where there is smoke, there’s fire, and it’s easy to imagine what other nefarious things this man might have planned for his unsuspecting wife. She should be grateful to have found out and moved on before he put her life at risk.
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington. She covers lifestyle, relationship, and human-interest stories that readers can relate to and that bring social issues to the forefront for discussion.
