Shattered Trust: Soldier Comes Home to a Life of Lies and Deception
Chris’s breath caught in his throat, his heart pounding mercilessly. What was happening?! The horrifying truth unveiled before him; his wife had been deceiving him from the very start. Shame coursed through his veins, rendering him speechless. For months, she had expertly woven a web of lies, leaving him completely in the dark. He desperately wanted to confront her, but his voice failed him, his body paralyzed by shock. How could he have been so blind?
During his deployment, her voice had echoed through countless phone calls, feigning innocence and love. Her face had filled the screen during video chats, a masterful performance of normalcy. And yet, behind the facade, the world he knew had crumbled.
A torrent of emotions threatened to consume Chris. His eyes met hers, and a surge of tears welled up, only to be hastily wiped away as he tried to retain some semblance of dignity. But it was futile; the prying eyes of the onlookers bore into them, mercilessly exposing the humiliating truth of his wife’s double life.
Back in January 2017, when Chris had left home, he had braced himself for a five-month absence. But fate had other plans, extending his deployment and keeping him away even longer. Little did he know, a far more devastating revelation awaited him upon his return, one that would shatter the very foundation of his world…
Chris’s instincts had been gnawing at him ever since he left; something about Natasha felt off. He struggled to pinpoint the source of his unease, but he couldn’t ignore the subtle changes in her demeanor. Her once tender words now rang hollow, lacking the warmth and sincerity they once held. When he professed his love, hoping for reassurance, her eyes would dart away, her response evasive. Was her love fading, or worse, was there someone else?
Desperate for answers, Chris confided in one of his closest friends at the basecamp, someone who had known Natasha for years. His friend brushed off his concerns with a laugh, assuring him that a little jealousy was natural after so long. But deep down, Chris couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it wasn’t merely jealousy gnawing at him. Was there something more sinister brewing beneath the surface?
Despite his misgivings, Chris forced himself to set aside his doubts during his deployment. However, the moment he returned home, the bitter realization struck him like a bolt of lightning – his suspicions had been justified. It wasn’t jealousy that had been eating away at him; it was betrayal. “Why would she lie to me?!” he seethed, rage simmering beneath his disbelief.
Gazing at his wife Natasha, Chris reminisced about the countless times they had reassured each other that nothing could tear them apart. Nothing could change right? They were well aware of the stories of Marine marriages crumbling under the weight of the challenges they faced. But not them. Chris and Natasha believed they were strong and different. Weren’t they?
Together, Chris and Natasha had built a family, raising three beautiful children as living testaments to their unwavering love and commitment. Over the years, the Daugherty family had faced the hardships of Chris’s demanding military career, with numerous prolonged separations as he was called to serve his country. Yet, each time they were reunited, it was as if their love had been forged anew, stronger and more resilient, defying the odds that threatened to tear them apart. But this time everything was different…
Their once impenetrable bond now felt fragile and brittle, threatening to shatter under the weight of a truth Chris never could have anticipated. Beneath the facade of their picture-perfect life, a storm had been brewing, invisible yet relentless. And now, Chris faced the eye of the storm. He held his breath as he walked towards his wife.
When Chris received orders to depart for Korea in early 2017, the couple believed they knew what to anticipate. They had mentally prepared for the challenges that lay ahead – the long-distance relationship, late-night phone calls, video chats, and more. Chris was confident that he understood what to expect during his time away, and even Natasha felt certain she knew what was in store.
However, a few months later, everything changed. The unexpected turn of events took both Chris and Natasha by surprise, leaving them to navigate uncharted territory. Chris felt emotions he had never experienced before. How was this even possible?!
When Chris Daugherty departed for Korea, Natasha bid him an emotional farewell, filled with heartfelt hugs and tender kisses. She deeply loved her husband and knew she would miss him dearly, as she always did. However, she soon realized that her feelings were different this time.
Natasha began to experience loneliness without her husband by her side. Although she cherished her three wonderful children, there were moments when she craved a hug and some affection from a partner. As the weeks went by, her sense of unease grew stronger, leaving her to wonder in frustration, “What on earth is wrong with me?”.
After a while, it could no longer be ignored. Even her closest friend noticed that she was behaving differently. It began with small changes that only Natasha noticed, but after a while, they became more and more difficult to hide.
Natasha started attending secretive meetings that no one knew about. She kept them to herself. When someone asked, she simply lied and made something up. However, she couldn’t help but wonder if keeping this secret was worth lying to her children?
Gradually, even her children started to notice that something was amiss. Her eldest child, a perceptive 10-year-old boy, was particularly observant. She often described children his age as sponges, absorbing information and cues from their surroundings. Nothing escaped their notice.
She knew that if she confided in him, he would do his best to keep her secret, at least for a while. However, she couldn’t bear the thought of burdening him with such a responsibility for an extended period. That wouldn’t be fair to him. Moreover, her biggest concern was whether her younger daughter could – and more importantly, would want to – keep the secret as well.
What preoccupied Natasha even more was the thought of her husband, who was far away in a foreign country, completely unaware of her situation. As she grappled with what to do, she chose to keep the secret from him for the time being.
Her days were mostly consumed by household chores and caring for their children. Nevertheless, she made sure to maintain regular contact with her husband, as they had always done. She knew that if she changed her behavior, he would notice right away, so she did her best to act as if everything was normal.
The seemingly carefree couple spoke on the phone almost every day, and sometimes they even video called. However, video calls were more challenging for Natasha. She feared that her husband might notice the changes in her through her facial expressions, which often betrayed her true emotions. Chris, after years of marriage, was well-versed in reading her expressions.
As Natasha video called him, she hoped he wouldn’t discover her secret. The mere thought of Chris finding out that she was hiding something was too distressing for her to even contemplate.
There were moments when it became incredibly difficult for Natasha to keep her secret. She longed to tell Chris, as she had never kept anything from him before. But she knew that revealing her secret while he was in another country might be disastrous. She couldn’t predict how he would react.
In the beginning, the burden was particularly heavy. Just a few weeks after he left, she nearly told him everything. However, at the last moment, she decided to keep her secret, and from that point on, she resolved to conceal the truth from him no matter what.
But it wasn’t just Chris whom she was keeping the secret from. She also hid it from her in-laws and even her own family. This became increasingly challenging with each passing day, as she had numerous perceptive relatives who could easily find out that she was hiding something.
Natasha increasingly found herself distancing from her relatives in an effort to conceal her secret. At times, the burden weighed heavily on her, and she would question whether she should persist with this approach. She wondered if her actions were genuinely for the best or simply a justification she kept repeating to herself. Was this really for the better or was this what she kept telling herself?
Not only was Natasha’s situation growing increasingly precarious, but Chris, who was stationed in Korea at the time, found himself in a dangerous position as well. The North Korean government had been conducting nuclear weapons experiments, and Chris happened to be in close proximity to the testing site.
As tensions between the two nations escalated, so did the risks for Chris and his fellow Marines. They were constantly on high alert, ready to respond to any potential threats. The stress of being in such a volatile environment weighed on Chris, making it even more challenging to be away from his family during these uncertain times.
Meanwhile, Natasha, oblivious to the mounting danger her husband faced, continued to grapple with her own secret back home. The parallel challenges faced by the couple only served to emphasize the growing rift between them and the immense obstacles they would have to overcome to maintain their relationship.
Living in uncertainty about her husband’s fate, Natasha faced the daunting challenge of making ends meet. Juggling two jobs while caring for their three children left her with little time for herself. The long hours and constant stress took their toll on her, both mentally and physically.
Despite her exhaustion, Natasha did her best to maintain a sense of normalcy for their children, keeping up with their activities and schoolwork. She tried to be the rock her family needed in Chris’s absence, even as her own world seemed to be spinning out of control.
As the days turned into weeks and months, Natasha’s resilience was tested to its limits. But she continued to push forward, driven by her love for her family and the hope that one day, she would finally be reunited with her husband again and freed from the secret she had been carrying for so long.
Five months had passed, and Chris was supposed to return home. At least, that’s what they thought. In reality, Natasha was at home, but Chris was nowhere to be found. What was happening?!
When Natasha received that daunting phone call, she could barely hold back her emotions. Chris informed her that his mission would be extended by another month. Under normal circumstances, she could manage another month apart, but this time was different. She had already been keeping a significant secret for nearly five months, and now she had to do so for an additional month?!
As the days passed, Natasha struggled to maintain her composure. The pressure of keeping the secret and worrying about her husband’s safety was taking its toll on her. She had trouble sleeping at night, and her appetite was almost non-existent. She was constantly on edge, waiting for any news from Chris, but the silence only made things worse.
Every day she doubted whether or not she should reveal the secret. What if her husband died? Could she ever forgive herself?
To make matters worse, she had to keep up the façade of normalcy in front of their children. It was a struggle to keep up with the daily routine and not let her worries show. She had to be strong for them, but every time she looked into their innocent eyes, her heart broke a little more.
The additional month felt like an eternity, but finally, Chris was on his way back home. Natasha was both relieved and anxious at the same time. She couldn’t wait to see him again, but she was also scared of what might happen once he found out the secret she had been keeping from him for months.
In June, six months after he had left, Chris set course back to his home in America. Not knowing that in those six months, everything had changed. It was June 23 when Chris’s family gathered in San Diego on a hot summer’s day. There they would be reunited with the man they had been missing all along.
Natasha’s thoughts were racing as she waited for Chris to arrive. She wondered if he would be able to sense that something was off. Would he be angry with her for keeping the secret? Or would he understand why she had to keep it to herself? The uncertainty was almost too much to bear.
As she saw Chris walking towards her, she felt a mix of emotions. Relief, joy, and fear all rolled into one. She tried to compose herself as he approached, but she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face.
As fast as they could, Chris’ children ran towards their father. Behind them stood Natasha. She was holding a large sign. When Chris was done hugging his kids he looked up at her and then at the sign and his facial expression changed from laughter into shock.
“Welcome Back, Baby Daddy” the large sign said. Chris walked towards her and Natasha dropped the sign. For a minute it was quiet, too quiet. Maybe the moment didn’t even take so long but for Natasha it was nerve-wracking. Then Chris opened his mouth.
“Are you kidding me? Seriously?”, Chris said when he saw what appeared from behind the sign. Hidden behind the sign was a text written on Natasha’s shirt: “I am the present Dad left behind before he left”, it said. And under the shirt? Natasha’s big old baby belly.
Chris couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as if his heart skipped a beat, and he felt tears welling up in his eyes. “I looked at her and poked her stomach,” he said afterwards. “I thought she was kidding me,” he laughed.
As he looked at the big belly of his wife, his heart was beating so fast that he could feel it in his throat. It felt like he was in a dream and that she was just playing a trick on him. But it wasn’t a dream at all. This was the secret Natasha had been hiding for him all this time. And Chris wasn’t expecting anything.
The day became even more special for Chris, as it coincidentally turned out to be Father’s Day on the day he returned. It almost seemed too good to be true. What he didn’t know, however, was that an even bigger surprise awaited him.
Natasha had tried her best to conceal her pregnancy from the rest of the family, but at one point, she could no longer hide it. That’s when they discovered her secret. They could have told Chris or confronted her for not sharing the news, but they refrained. Instead of revealing the news to Chris, they opted for a truly remarkable surprise.
The entire family chose to support her. One of them even recorded Chris’s return when he first saw his children and his pregnant wife, Natasha. The reunion was incredibly heartwarming, giving everyone goosebumps. That’s why they decided to share it online, where it quickly gained popularity on YouTube and Facebook.
It was such a heartwarming, feel-good moment that it almost seemed too good to be true. People often compared it to a scene from a typical romantic film. Everyone wanted to learn more about the charming couple and their secret pregnancy.
Natasha shared that concealing her pregnancy had been quite a challenge, especially since she had been in frequent contact with Chris throughout her pregnancy. It’s difficult to hide a growing belly for weeks on end; at some point, it becomes too large to conceal.
To keep her secret, Natasha often placed one of her children on her lap to hide her belly. She even went to greater lengths to maintain the ruse, sending her husband pictures that would throw him off the scent. For instance, she would pose with a beer in hand, pretending to drink it, while in reality, she didn’t consume any alcohol. And her tactics worked! Chris never suspected a thing.
Concealing the truth from Chris, who was thousands of miles away, was one challenge, but hiding it from her children was another. Natasha had to persuade her kids that nothing out of the ordinary was happening. “When my eldest daughter started noticing, I just said I was getting fat,” Natasha joked afterward.
Then, there was her own impatience to contend with. Natasha was incredibly excited and could hardly keep the secret to herself. On more than one occasion, she felt the urge to call or email her husband to reveal the big surprise. Nonetheless, she managed to restrain herself time and time again.
The decision to keep the secret was made with deep consideration. Natasha knew that if she told Chris, he would constantly worry about the milestones he was missing and be unable to focus on his mission. She didn’t want to distract her beloved husband, believing it was for the best. Moreover, how delightful would it be to surprise him with her significantly pregnant belly?
Upon his return, she was thrilled to finally reveal the secret. However, that wasn’t the only surprise awaiting Chris… there was even more in store!
Not long after, Natasha took Chris to the hospital. She didn’t yet know whether they were expecting a girl or a boy. Together, they went for an ultrasound. Both were relieved to learn that they were having a healthy baby. However, the burning question remained: was it a boy or a girl?
Natasha and Chris wanted to make the occasion extra special, so they decided to host a gender reveal party. They invited all their friends and family to celebrate this significant moment. The couple had hung up balloons filled with confetti, and everyone was eager to find out the baby’s gender. Some guests even secretly placed bets, with some believing it would be a boy, while others were convinced it would be a girl. The suspense ended when they popped the balloons, and confetti of a specific color showered down, revealing the baby’s gender to everyone.
As the couple popped the balloons, pink confetti fluttered to the ground. Natasha and Chris were expecting another daughter! They couldn’t have been happier and felt incredibly blessed to be anticipating the arrival of another child.
In the following weeks, Natasha and Chris had their hands full. From buying diapers to setting up the baby’s room, they had plenty to do. Despite their busy schedule, the couple cherished the time they were able to spend together.
However, they couldn’t fully savor this time together, as there was a cloud of uncertainty hanging over them. Chris could be called for a mission at any moment, which might mean missing the birth of his daughter—a thought that seemed both impossible and heart-wrenching. So, each time the phone rang, the couple anxiously awaited a message from the army.
One morning, the phone finally rang. Natasha held her breath as she watched Chris answer the call. He would now learn when his next mission was scheduled. It was a brief conversation, and she couldn’t quite tell if the news was good or bad. As he hung up the phone, she nervously inquired, “Well?!”
Chris then shared the reassuring news. It turned out to be a massive relief. His next mission was scheduled for early 2018, which meant that he would be present for the birth of his daughter, expected around August 2017, without any complications.
Overjoyed, Chris and Natasha embraced, relieved by the news. What they didn’t know then was that things wouldn’t go entirely according to plan, as baby number four would take longer to arrive than anticipated.
Their daughter bypassed her expected arrival in August. Chris and Natasha waited with growing impatience. How much longer would it take?! Then, finally, on September 2, 2017, their beautiful daughter Anara Rose was born. The couple was overjoyed and instantly smitten with their baby girl.
Reflecting on the entire adventure filled with secrets and surprises, they agreed that they were glad Natasha had kept her secret. It had been an emotional roller coaster for her, but now, she was happier than ever.
After all these twists and turns, there was one more surprise awaiting them. Their story had gained so much traction on social media that they had become something of minor celebrities. That’s when they received an invitation to appear on television.
Natasha and Chris had the opportunity to share their story during a CBS broadcast. “It was an incredible experience,” Chris remarked at the time. “Of course it would have been nice if she had told me over the phone, but the way she did all this was very special”.
