I told the OM's wife about her husband's relationship with my WW. You'll be shocked, shocked to find out she knew of multiple affairs he had had, but not this one that lasted almost a decade.
This news was a cannonball to the gut for her, but we ended up meeting face to face. She was quite open about her struggles with her WH. And at the end of our conversation, she had a request: she wanted to meet face-to-face with my WW.
I told her that even though my WW owed her a face-to-face conversation, and so much more, there was no way she would do that. My WW has a strong love of personal comfort and hates open conflict (which is part of the reason she would love nothing more than to have me forever drop the subject of her infidelity). I did tell her I'd ask the WW, thinking this would be just a formality.
However, the WW actually agreed to meet her. So we met at a coffee shop and started an incredibly awkward encounter. Thankfully, the OM's wife didn't scratch my WW's eyes out or disembowel her on the spot, but she mainly wanted to know why the affair occurred. My WW explained multiple times that flirting gradually turned into heavy flirting, and that turned into a PA. And the WW emphasized that the cheaters were the only people at fault, and their spouses did nothing to deserve the pain they have. And my WW repeatedly apologized for her actions, and acknowledged that saying "Sorry" doesn't alleviate the damage. The three of us had this conversation for more than an hour.
It turns out that the guy my WW saw as an alpha male has fallen a few letters down the Greek alphabet. The stud with the six-pack has turned into a dud with a spare tire, and the life of the party now lives with his parents, keeps getting fired from his jobs, and needs rehab. And, oh by the way, his addiction and treatment of his wife has led his teenage children to openly call him a loser to their friends.
And that was when the meeting turned surreal.
The OM's wife grabbed my WW's hand, cried more, looked her in the eyes and said, "I forgive you." (After more than five years since D-day, I myself have never uttered the words "I forgive you" to the WW.) And she added, "You need to fight for your husband. You don't deserve him."
As a bonus, the OM called, and his wife decided to talk to him. And she got to tell him, "Guess who I'm having coffee with right now! Your girlfriend of nine years and her husband!" He spent the next five minutes swearing it was all lies and he had never done anything with my WW. And he spent another ten minutes proclaiming it was all my WW's fault.
My WW has a long, long way to go if she wants to be anything but a temporary live-in nanny that I sleep with. But I cannot deny that when she actually met the OM's wife, she showed a lot of courage. Maybe this can be a turning point.