The inspiration for my contemporary romance novel, The Deception, began a few years ago when I happened upon a psychic’s blog. She was discussing the questions her clients asked the most often. One question was, “When will he leave his wife for me?”
Needless to say, her post had a lot of comments, and I noticed a trend. Everyone believed the other woman knew he was married, and that she was lying if she said she didn’t know.
Being single for most of my adult life, I’ve noticed there are actually two kinds of other women out there. One is the aforementioned mistress. The other is a good woman who’s been deceived.
The good woman who’s been deceived
Typically, this is a woman looking for meaningful long-term relationship, or marriage. She happens to meet a seemingly nice man who appears to be single. He’s not wearing a wedding ring. He’s never mentioned a wife or girlfriend. In some cases, a mutual friend may have he was single. He asks her out. Believing he’s single and available, she accepts, and they begin dating.
Sooner or later, one way or another, she’ll find out he’s married. When it happens, she’ll feel shocked and betrayed. However, she gets a double whammy. Everyone will side with the wife, and the wife is most certainly an injured party. However, just like in the psychic’s blog, everyone will condemn deceived woman for being the other woman. If she says she didn’t know he was married, (and she honestly didn’t know), they’ll accuse her of lying. So where is the condemnation for the man? After all, he’s the one who lied to her. He’s also the one who duped her into thinking he was single.
This can be extremely devastating for the deceived woman. It can do untold damage to her sense of self worth. She’s being accused of setting out to intentionally hurt the wife when she honestly didn’t know there was a wife. This can leave her with some serious trust issues.
The Deception
The Deception is the story of Carrie, a good woman who, unknowingly, becomes involved with a married man. A mutual friend has told her he’s single. The married man has also led her to believe he’s single. It doesn’t take long, however, for her to realize that thing aren’t adding up. She then ends the relationship, but by then the damage has been done. As a result, she’s left to deal with the unintended consequences.
While my story may be fiction, real-life versions of it happen everyday, so perhaps we shouldn’t judge others too harshly. After all, none of us are mind readers, and there really are people out there who lie and deceive others.
Marina Martindale
The Deception is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.