A stranger called and told me about my mom's affair

I woke up early one Saturday morning when I was 12, and overheard my parents talking about how to break their divorce to me.

Eventually, I crept downstairs. My mom told me that she "fell out of love" with my dad, and stayed with him "for your sake," then divorced him when she felt I was "old enough to handle it." My dad confirmed this story.

My parents couched it like they were the most woke, self-aware, emotionally controlled people ever, and were having a very mutual and agreeable split. It was for the best, and it was something we were going to do together as a family.

But I did think it was kind of odd that my mom had a boyfriend almost IMMEDIATELY. He was an artist friend of hers, and he was also going through a divorce with his wife, who suffered from bipolar disorder and had aggressive episodes (my mom was REALLY open with me about private details like this).

One night, just a couple of months after they started the divorce process, my parents were both out and I was home alone (only child).

The phone rang, and there was a strange woman on the phone.

"Hello, is this \_\_\_\_\_?" She called me by my name. I didn't recognize her voice, which sounded quavery, like she was scared.

"Yeah? Who is this?"

"This is a friend of your mother's, are your parents home?"

I told her I didn't want to tell her that.

"Oh it's ok, don't be scared. I just wanted to ask... Did you know your mom doesn't love your dad?"

"Uh, I don't think I want to talk to you."

"Don't be rude!" She snapped. "If you hang up, I'll tell your parents. Listen...did you know your mom's been cheating on your dad? It's been going on a long time. She doesn't love him. She's a BAD person."

I started to cry into the phone receiver.

The woman seemed to suddenly realize how fucked up this all was and tried to apologize, angrily demanding I accept her apology and promise not to tell my parents. I wouldn't reply, so she started begging me not to tell anyone. She also started crying at one point. I eventually realized I could hang up on her, so I did.

The phone rang almost immediately after I hung up. I didn't pick up.

But then the phone rang in the secret pattern that my mom and I used--two rings, hang up, and call back.

It was my mom calling because she is FRICKIN' PSYCHIC and it's SPOOKY.

When I answered the phone, all my mom said was "What happened?" She knew something was wrong before she even called.

I told her that a lady had called and told me that she didn't love dad anymore... I kind of managed to make a joke along the lines of "No duh, that's why you're getting a divorce!" I started crying again, but I told her I was ok.

My mom told me that it was probably her boyfriend's soon-to-be ex-wife, and she was just a "sad, bitter woman, acting out in the only way she knew how. But that doesn't make it ok."

My mom said she was coming home immediately, and hung up.

As soon as I hung up, the phone started ringing, and rang for the next five minutes straight. I knew it was the woman, calling back, I assumed to cry and beg me some more.

(I later found out from my mom's boyfriend, who passed along a message from her, that she was "very sorry" and knew that what she'd done was "wrong." Cool. Okay.)

My mom got home soon after, and I told her about the woman calling back. She told me we were going to look into reporting it as harassment and potentially getting a restraining order. We even went down to the police station. We got swept up in all that and I could never bring myself to tell her the rest of what that woman said.

We've been open and honest about everything else, but this. She even later came clean about the affair on her own, and I had to feign surprise.

She wanted to tell me when I was an adult so that I could more fully understand where she was coming from (there was a lot more going wrong in the marriage), so I wouldn't see her as 'the bad guy.'

What she doesn't know is that I've known since I was a child, and yeah... there is a part of me that sees it like that. But that would destroy her.

Edit: Comments made me realize I'd left out some details. It's a boatload of memories I hadn't unpacked in a while.