I genuinely do not even know where to start. We met in 2010. Her (F37) I (M43) Have 3 children, twin 14 year old and a 15 year old, girls.
We have a decent life, renting a large 5 bedroom home, have chickens in backyard, cats a dog, everything you would need to be happy.
There is just one major underlying issue.
I found out about 5 years ago she was cheating on me for 7 years. I knew of 1 man prior. A wife of one of the men found me on facebook and told me everything that she had been doing with her husband. And the group of women she was in a chat with that my wife had slept with their spouses.
I was a stay at home dad at this time, as finding a job where we were at the time was difficult, and she had already established a good position where she was.
Fast forward to now (6 years) we are still together, but I have zero feelings for her. I actually resent her entirely. And it's turning into depression at this point. We moved across country and she now is the major bread winner between us. (I actually work under her now). While she has been Faithful the past 7 years, I have full access to her phone and location, everything, by her own accord, she is cold, callous, calculated, manipulative and overall just not a pleasant woman to be around.
She has this weird thing that she thinks about telling me or our girls something, and never tells us, but will say she told us and get mad about it. It's insane how prevalent it is with her. It's borderline driving me and my girls crazy.
She claims to love me, gives me the same diatribe once a year about how she will be better, will become better. That work gets to her. Well she starts a new job that doubles her salary in 3 weeks and I could care less. She is adamant it will change our lives. But I see no future with her at all. I want a divorce but do not have the finances nor means in order to do so.
It's been years of feeling like this and I just do not know what to do anymore.
To add context:
When she gave birth to our first, who is 15 now, she was in coma for 3 months on ECMO and nearly died from H1N!. We lost everything during that time, not as if it was a great time economically due to the 2008 financial crisis and years following.
We were homeless for a bit (No drugs, no Alcohol) as I am a veteran served 6 years prior to meeting her. We lived in HUD housing for the first year or so and moved to Cincinnati in 2013. Our relationship was strong at the time. I thought for sure we would be getting married. But things really took a turn when we moved to Ohio from Oregon.
The texts started, her hiding her phone, saying she was going out with friends. This is where it is hard to explain to people who do not get what someone goes through. I was working, and got a good job quickly. It was 2 months of me working and she was at home with the girls. She ended taking a job behind my back (Same one she has today and has grown in) saying I needed to stay home with the girls because she cannot handle it and I raised my 4 siblings (I am the oldest by 6 years of 5 children) And told me to stay home while she worked. Childcare was and is still too expensive. Even if I worked during this time 90% of my paychecks would have gone to childcare. This was 2013/14. The next few years things seemed to be going well, we both started working making enough money to go on trips (twice yearly to Florida/Colorado) She claimed to only have talked to one guy and seemed to be faithful during this time. IN 2017 we got married in Colorado.
That's when everything came to a head. She began hiding her phone, was texting all the time, claiming it was her brother/dad/mother/cousin, I found she took vacation days without telling me. Her "best friend" finally came to me stating she said you are just staying there til you find a place to live (She played house with me during this time while portraying herself as single) and she told me about the trips to Missouri they took to meet a guy (That fell through) It got to the point of her neglecting her responsibilities as a mother that I had to get the state involved. We did do some counseling. And it led to a well rounded relationship in 2020. When we moved to Texas stayed there for a year and now live in Florida.
However in Sept 2020 I got a random dm from a girl in Cincy asking if I was so and so's husband.
Then came the flood of evidence, DMs, photos and messages from her to them about the cheating and consistent absolute narcissistic way she acted towards them and me. It lined up with everything I had. this woman added me to a group chat of 3 other women, who were with someone or knew about her cheating. Turns out she took the job in Texas due to these women wanting to come after her.
Since that day she has been this weird combo of I love you and will change everything and will do anything to this evil bitch (Lack of a better word) that has made up convos we have had, with me or the girls, made up scenarios that never happened (Somewhat grounded in reality) and gets angry something didn't happen. It's hard to convey what exactly it is. 6 years of staying for my girls (I did leave once in 2018 to Colorado) but came back due her wooing us back and our girls being very young at the time (5 and 6).
I know this is everywhere, just my thoughts as I type. My relationship is very very good with my girls, especially my oldest. They are my world and the ONLY reason I have stayed this long. But they are older now and want me to find someone else/be happy on my own.