What a wild story.
A 26-year-old woman took to Reddit to share a potential discovery about her 34-year-old husband that had her “absolutely shaking.”
Here’s the gist: the couple had known each other for three years and had been married for six months. Everything was going swimmingly until they stopped at a gas station on a road trip and the woman noticed her husband had Instagram on his phone—something he had adamantly never wanted.
“I opened up his phone and decided to check what it was,” the woman wrote. "Upon opening it I found messages with a teenage girl.”
The poster added that while she only saw a couple of messages sent by her husband, the ones she did see were "I love you,” "I can't wait to see you again," and telling the girl, obviously between 14 and 16-years-old, that she looked "beautiful."
Fearing the worst, she concluded, “The fact he was cheating on me didn't even register in my brain and it was more so the fact that he was texting these things to someone underage. I did not have the chance to look further because he came back within 10 minutes. I don't know what to do. I am terrified, betrayed, and disgusted.”
Readers seemed to only add to her alarm with less-than-sound advice, suggesting she secretly take photos of the messages before he came back, or even going so far as to steal his phone and drive off in the car without him.
No one wants to be in this situation.
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Perhaps the more rational tip was to not confront her husband until they had made it to a safe (public) location, which she did end up following, though it was excruciating. They sat together for a full four additional hours on the road, as she faked being sick to avoid being affectionate with her husband.
“I know I should go along with it and pretend for my sake, but I physically can’t bring myself to,” she lamented.
Finally, after not being able to take it anymore, the woman confronted her husband in their hotel room. And here’s where our story takes a more uplifting turn.
“I told him I found his messages on Instagram,” wrote the original poster in an update. “He immediately started apologizing and saying he wanted to tell me sooner but couldn't find the time. He was apologizing but not as intensely as what he could have done. So I confronted him about that and said ‘what a lousy apology coming from a pedophile.’”
Shocked, and more than a little hurt, the husband then revealed that the 15-year-old was his daughter.
She had even sent him a "Happy Father's Day" message
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Apparently, the teen (named Sarah) reached out to the man a year prior via Facebook saying that he was her father—her mother being a woman he was in a brief and fleeting relationship with at 18 and who had one day disappeared.
Six months later, the man confirmed he was in fact the father…just as the couple was getting married. Not wanting to stress his partner out with the news and wanting to protect his daughter from her “strict” mother, he forged their relationship in secret on Instagram. He even showed his wife moments when Sarah called him “dad” and wished him a “Happy Father’s Day.”
Granted, this Reddit story is impossible to prove as true, but as wild as it is, it’s not hard to see how such a misunderstanding could occur. We don’t want to assume the worst of our loved ones, but it is human instinct to detect any possible danger. That, combined with unbridled imagination, makes it easy to jump to conclusions. Plus, the advice she received in the comments probably only added to her paranoia.
Similarly, though honesty is paramount to keeping a healthy relationship, there's no easy way of breaking that kind of news. So, while it might have been best for the husband to come clean early, it's also easy to see how the anxiety of not wanting to ruin a marriage that had only just begun might have prevented him from feeling brave enough to do so.
In other words—if we are to assume this situation did actually happen, mistakes were made on both sides, but a compassionate view can see where each side is coming from.
Luckily, the woman concluded the saga by taking accountability and showing true remorse for her actions. Both partners ended up showing empathy for the other, and understood “why the course of events played out this way.”
Whether or not this story did happen, it’s easy to see how it could happen. And it still contains a valuable lesson about transparency, discernment and above all, forgiveness.- People are sharing the marriage advice that 'sounded absurd' but is actually really helpful ›
- 'Why women leave’: Wife who 'does everything' shares why she left her husband who did nothing ›
- One person has crowdsourced the very best life advice from over 20 million people online ›
- It's getting harder to deny the damage that social media is doing to teenage girls ›
"Now your fishes will be warmed."
"To have one’s eyes lined with ham."
"To lay your head in water."
"Repetition teaches the donkey."
"I only understand train station."
"To speak directly from the liver."
"Horse horse, tiger tiger."
Beaver in water. Photo by 
An actual beaver dam on the now-thriving Price River
Medusa image of giant squid in Gulf of Mexico off of Mississippi Gulf CoastPhoto credit: 
Sign warning against feeding alligators next to alligator in Mississippi marshlandsCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
Mississippi Gulf Coast beach in BiloxiCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
2009 photo of giant squid caught in Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi GulfPhoto credit: 
Thank goodness this story has a happy ending.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."