Almost four years ago, my father, who was 54 years old, began having an affair with a 23 year old girl- Simran Jain (Simi Jain). At the time, I was 19 years old, just four years younger than my father’s girlfriend. Ever since the day that I found out of their affair, the amount of devastation, heartbreak, agony, and anger that has consumed my family has passed the point of unbearable and has now just left me and my mom numb. Up until when the affair began, back in the summer of 2012, I had been blessed with an inseparable bond with my parents. My mom and dad had been happily married for 23 years, and I was proud to call both of them my very best friends; so when it came to light that he, a loving husband and father,, had been cheating on his family with a 23 year old, our life as we had known it was over. My mother found out in October 2012, but I was not aware of the situation until that winter. Immediately after finding out, my heart broke. Overwhelmed with anger and sadness, I forced my devastated mother to kick my father out of our home and picked up the phone to call the girl who, in my eyes, stole my dad from our happy family. Looking back on this situation, I understand that it is my father who betrayed his family; yet, I still can’t help but to place an equal amount of blame on the girl who knowingly pursued a relationship with a married man, a father and best friend to his wife and daughter. Simran Jain, at 23 years old, worked at a marketing agency with my dad. She saw the innumerable pictures of me and my mom in his office, sat down to chat with me when I came to visit him, texted him about his family, and had the audacity to not only pursue a relationship with him, but to ask him to leave us to be with her. To this day, I am still unable to comprehend the amount of inhumanity, self-centeredness and selfishness in that girl’s soul…
Back to the phone call- Two rings and my heart stops when I hear a cheerful hello. Shaking with fear, I begin to tell her who I am, but before I can finish my sentence she hangs up the phone. Consumed with anger, I call back demanding that she meet with me unless she wants me to show up at her workplace and cause a scene, We met up in a commuter parking lot 30 minutes later. I remember driving there, so angry that I began to cry and had to pull over. I was prepared to fight her, to scream at her and tell her what an awful disgusting person she was; but when she got into my car, and I stared at a girl just 4 years older than I was at the time, all the anger inside of me just turned into sadness. I fought back tears as I begged her to leave my father, and my family alone. I asked her, “How would you feel if I did this to you and your family?” “How could you ask him to leave me?” “Do you know how much pain your fling has caused my mom and me?” After all the pain, heartache, and suffering my mother and I had been through, I thought that she would realize that the affair with my father was a huge mistake and leave us alone. Unfortunately, the affair continued for the next 3 and a half years, and since speaking to Simi that day, she has met up with my father innumerable times- taken his money, dignity, and family. She has emailed my mom, threatening and insulting her. She has stalked my social media, accidently liking photos. She has continued to reach out to my dad, telling him, “Don’t worry, your daughter will come around.” I always wonder why she did it though- why would someone want to be that cruel? And for what? Does she plan to introduce her 57 year old cheater boyfriend to her family? As soon as my mom and I kicked my dad out of the house, he relentlessly apologized and lied his way back into our lives. For three years he begged us for forgiveness, lying through his teeth about still seeing Simi. I kept telling myself, ‘he would never betray us again… he knows what is at stake’.
But, like clockwork, about every 6 months, Simi lets it be known that she is far from out of our lives. My mother has spent years in pain watching her best friend and husband of almost 30 years disappear with a girl my age. Looking back on my dad’s endless excuses and lies used to try to reap the benefits of having a family and a slutty mistress, I can’t even separate what was true and what was a lie anymore. What I do know, is that I would not wish this on any daughter- It breaks my heart every day to know that my mother, the most amazing, strong, funny, beautiful and KIND woman in the world, has had to go through this nightmare day in and day out. Even more, it breaks my heart that once upon a time I had a father- and a good one at that. It is so disheartening to know that women like Simran Jain exist in this world. Before the affair, I was truly blessed. My parents and I had what I believed to be a perfect family. I was best friends with my parents, and they were best friends with each other. Do I blame my dad for what has happened? Of course I do, and for that I will never speak to him again. But Simran Jain goes far beyond the term ‘mistress’. She encompasses everything it means to be a home-wrecker. She has used the past three years to break up my family, ruined my life, and left my mother and me completely heartbroken and ashamed of the person we once loved most in this world. I no longer have a father, and he no longer has a family who loves him.
Given everything, I think the person I feel the worst for though, is Simi. I cannot imagine her life as the other woman- the one who pursues a man older than her own father, waits for him to finish having dinner with his family so that she can sneak him into her parent’s house, stalking his daughter on social media and begging him to not text his family when he’s with her. She is completely content being someone’s dirty little secret for years. She clearly has no moral compass or compassion. She has no dignity or respect for herself or others, and I have never met anyone who could be so intentionally cruel. She knew from the very beginning that my father was married and had a family, yet she pursued him to the point of asking him to divorce my mother and come out as a couple. She insulted and threatened a heartbroken woman after wrecking her life… I don’t know how she can sleep at night. The solace that I find from this situation is that I know that my mom and I will be okay. She is, and always will be my best friend, and I am so lucky to have her to guide me in the right direction- because no matter what we have gone through in the past, we could never do what Simi Jain did to us, and we will not be broken down ever again.
