DG,
I want to add a few things for you to contemplate
The Past Trauma Excuse
Again, as your ex wife is a coward Narcissist, let me tell you something about her past traumas. Your Ex's dishonesty was not a one-time thing but she's cultivated that frame of mind over a long period of time and many decades. Cheating does not come out of the blue but as I explained on another thread as every other action it is a result of a certain mindset that goes hand in hand with intentions. Those intentions and this mindset is what makes us tick as a person. Why most people have other and better coping mechanism than your wife with her cheating? It's because they worked on their mindset and cheating as response to life's problems is not in their repertoire. Everyone has problems, most of us have most probably experience that or the other traumatic event (=experience) in our life. It's inevitable and part of life. Yet, most of us do not cheat. She was lying and deceiving, whether by omission or not, with her past as all of her stories with the past traumas suddenly arose out of the blue once the cheating shit hit the fan. Until, then by her own statements she was happy and couldn't be more than she was. So, she was lying to your face and was dishonest with her "past traumas". She should have told such a crucial part of her personal history to you even if there were apparently no visible problems. In the same way that she was lying to you about her cheating with the first guy which made you to fire him because you had not enough information, I'm almost 100% sure that her omitting the truth, deceiving you and withholding information about her past made you to give her false advise and this caused her current trauma. Unless, she comes to SI and stops cowardly hiding behind other people's back (typically Narcissist move) we can't scrutinize her Bullshit and point directly to where she brought this on herself.
As I told before I call Bullshit on the past trauma excuse! Not only your wife hasn't done anything about it but she was deceiving and lying to you about it. Her past traumas and "breaking points" in the context of cheating are nonsense and a complete pseudo-psychological mumbo jumbo to deflect the responsibility from her shoulders to yours simply because she's a woman and you're a man. You are not a doctor and even if you were you can't help anyone that is lying to your face. Don't believe me? Ask yourself again if you would have been getting the same treatment and your wife the same advice from her white knights if you were cheating on her and she was in your place. Would she have been told to protect you until you can protect yourself; would she have been told to consider your past traumas as an excuse and the "why" for cheating; would she have been told that you're such an amazing man and how lucky she was to marry you. No, she would have been told that you're a jerk, an asshole, a cold hearted and a vindictive abuser. She would have been told to kick you to the curb, file a RO order and divorce you. Well, despite obvious differences I do believe in equality. Your wife shouldn't get any other privileged treatment other than the same that you would have been getting in the same situation. Past trauma is important for understanding one's own suffering and healing from it. It's about self growth. It is not meant to be exploited as an excuse for cheating and inflicting more pain upon other people. Especially if they are your loved ones!
Your Ex Wife as an Expert Narcissist Manipulator
The most astounding things to observe is your Ex's actions and the dynamic that motivates them. You can see that she acts right now with the same frame of mind that motivated her to cheat. It is after an year long therapy which proves in my mind how deep her Narcissism pervades her personality at the moment. I gave you the example of her dishonesty that was not one-time thing but an integral part of her mindset. Another one is how she instigates everything, manipulates everyone and is doing this like in a puppet show from behind the scene without being associated with this. As she herself stated this it was the exact "power play" that she enjoyed with the other man (and naturally over you). Her need for power, control and ego stems exactly from this Narcissist mind frame. Now, she's doing the same. Instead, of coming to SI, she whispers that or the other detail to other people, avoiding those who could call her out on her Bullshit, is misusing them (and you) to portray her as a victim and is such an expert manipulator that according to their own statement she makes them believe her Bullshit even without telling them all the details of what happened (which once again is lying by ommision). This dynamics of manipulation, playing with people is exactly the same dynamic through which she manipulated and played with the evil turd, which is so obvious from her conversation with the imbecile (that you posted on the first thread) as well as everything coming out of her mouth and it quite explains how she could manipulate you and others believing she's the victim and you're the abuser. A master manipulator and a Narcissist!
The White Knight Syndrome
Stop believing the nonsense that you should have protected her until she can protect herself because a lying and deceiving person does not deserves, is not worth and can be protected unless he's willing to stop the lying and is willing to be helped and be protected. The only destruction brought into your Ex's life is the one she brought upon herself by her own behavior. If she wants to stop adding destruction to destruction she should truly and honestly face herself, look in the mirror and recognize the Narcissist she is. Then, she should seek help, work on herself and this is the only way she can stop adding more destruction to her self-created and pre-mediated disasters. Not your fault; not your responsibility; not your Job to do ; not your issue to bother with anymore (as you are divorce) and nothing to protect there
Listen to IGOTTHIS advice and not this one. He is a wise man and knows what he's talking about. As he said many, too many, men are serving sentences because of playing white knights to women who were not worth of their protection. Most women are not like that; they do deserve our love and protection as they are decent and good human beings. In this case I'm all for this. A small percentage does not. And your Ex surely belongs to those that do not deserve it. Listen also to Iver in his last post. There are very strong points but on this maybe in another post. You have to do this if you considering to reconile with her. A reconcilation is impossible with a Narcissist and if you believe a Narcissit can change you must be aware that it is you that must be protected, not her and that it takes alot, but really alot, for such a change
Edited to add: the path to healing (for both of you)
Your work right now is not making amends to your abuser. You work is now to forgive yourself. No one else! To forgive yourself for not seeing your ex wife for what she truly is; to forgive yourself not recognizing fast enough and preventing the abuse. To forgive life, the universe, whatever, that you were inflicted so much pain in life! It's to forgive your human vulnerability that was exploited. Your healing will be possible when you'll accept, forgive yourself and let go of this. You will not heal by blaming yourself, hating yourself and appeasing your abuser. It's not how healing
works.
By the way, once your ex has worked through her issues and fixed them, she'll need to go through the same process of self forgiveness. Right now it's simply to early for her on this path. She doesn't have enough insight and wisdom into her problems that's she's able to forgive this all for herself. Right now without this work self forgiveness is nothing than self delusion and rugsweeping. Let her do her work. don't intervene into this process as it is crucial for her. Later, after she's finished this path and it is stil relevant for both of you, then and only then (given the specific circumstances of your story), you'll be able to reconsider your decision. Right now it's wrong
[This message edited by MrSpock at 4:10 AM, March 29th (Tuesday)]