TIFU by planning my dream wedding while my fiance was already somebody else husband. My name is Renee and I am thirty one years old. I met Marcus two years ago at a friend party. He was charming, successful, and told me he was divorced with no kids. We fell fast. Within eight months he proposed at a rooftop restaurant with a ring that cost more than my car. I said yes without hesitation. We started planning our wedding for the following spring. Marcus handled most of the venue details since he said he wanted to surprise me with something special. I trusted him completely. About four months before the wedding, I decided to surprise him at his office with lunch. His assistant looked at me strangely and asked if I was his sister. I laughed and said no, I am his fiancee. She went pale and said she needed to check something before letting me go up. Ten minutes later a woman walked into the lobby holding a toddler on her hip. She looked at me, then at the assistant, then back at me. She asked who I was. I told her I was Marcus fiancee and asked who she was. She said, quietly, I am his wife. My stomach dropped to the floor. I thought she was joking, some cruel prank set up by a jealous coworker. But she pulled out her phone and showed me photos. Wedding photos. Anniversary photos. A photo from three months ago of the three of them at a birthday party. The date stamp was undeniable. I felt the room spin. She explained that Marcus told her he traveled for work often and that their marriage had been rocky for years but he always came home. She had no idea about me. We both stood there in that lobby, two women completely blindsided by the same man. Security eventually called Marcus down because the assistant did not know what else to do. When he stepped off the elevator and saw both of us standing together, his face went through about five different emotions in three seconds. He tried to laugh it off first, saying this was a huge misunderstanding. Then he tried anger, accusing his wife of following him. Then he turned to me and tried the saddest tactic of all. He said he was planning on leaving her for me anyway and that timing was just bad. His wife slapped him so hard the sound echoed through the lobby. I did not slap him. I just started laughing, the kind of laughing that comes from shock rather than humor. Two years of my life. A ring. A wedding dress already ordered. A venue deposit already paid. All while he had a wife and a toddler at home waiting for him every night he claimed he was traveling. His wife and I ended up sitting together at a coffee shop two blocks away for almost three hours. We compared stories, dates, gifts, even vacation photos. It turned out he had used almost identical language to propose to both of us. Same words. Same rooftop restaurant, different rooftop location in a different city, but same script. We realized he had built two entire parallel lives, both funded by the same company salary, both women completely unaware of each other. She admitted she had noticed money missing but assumed it was gambling. It turned out the missing money was hotel stays, ring payments, and wedding deposits for me. We decided together to confront him one more time, this time with lawyers present. Marcus tried to charm his way out again, but the evidence was overwhelming. Emails, hotel receipts, matching gifts purchased on the same days for two different women. His wife filed for divorce within the week. I canceled the wedding, got my deposit back after threatening legal action, and blocked him everywhere. The strangest part is that his wife and I still talk sometimes. We joke darkly that we should send him a joint bill for emotional damages. I keep asking myself how I missed every single sign for two years. Looking back, there were moments, sudden trips, vague explanations, phone calls he took in another room. I ignored them because I loved him and trusted him completely. Now I wonder how many other women might be out there with the same ring, the same rooftop proposal, and the same broken heart. Would you have seen through him sooner, or was I set up perfectly to fail from the very beginning.
