For Three Weeks, I Heard My Husband Whisper Another Woman’s Name in His Sleep — So I Finally Made the Call He Never Saw Coming

For three weeks, my husband was coming home late, falling asleep without saying much, and whispering another woman’s name in the dark. He insisted he didn’t know her, but when I found her number in his phone, I called her — and what I uncovered was a secret that could have destroyed our marriage.

Jake and I had been married for two years. We used to cook dinner side by side, go to bed together, and he’d text me during the day just to say he missed me.

Then the messages slowed, and the late nights began.

At first, I brushed it off. I shouldn’t have.

One evening, Jake walked through the door looking completely drained.

“Working late again?” I asked.

“We’re wrapping up a big project. You know how it is.”

I didn’t — his job had never demanded this much from him before.

Still, I nodded. That’s what you do when you want to be supportive.

The weeks blurred together, filled with late arrivals and short, distracted answers.

One night, I slipped into bed after he’d already fallen asleep. I closed my eyes — and then the silence broke.

“MARLENA.”

I sat straight up and stared at him. He was deeply asleep.

“Jake?”

Nothing.

I lay back down, trying to convince myself it was nothing.

Then, less than a minute later:

“Marlena. Marlena. MARLENA!”

This time it wasn’t soft. It sounded urgent. Intimate.

I shook his shoulder. “Jake. Wake up. Jake!”

He groaned, blinking in the dark. “What? Rose? What’s wrong?”

“Who is Marlena?”

He stared at me like I’d spoken another language. “What are you talking about?”

“You just said her name three times.”

He rubbed his face. “I didn’t say anything. You had a bad dream.”

“I was awake.”

He sighed, rolled over, and pulled the covers up. “Go back to sleep.”

But I didn’t.

It happened again the next night.

And the next.

I tried bringing it up in the morning.

“You were talking in your sleep.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“You said a woman’s name. Marlena.”

He snorted into his coffee. “You’re imagining things.”

His dismissals hurt more than the name itself.

I told him I’d drop it.

I didn’t.

For the next few nights, I became hyperaware of everything.

He kept his phone face down. Ate quickly. Fell asleep fast.

And almost every night, he whispered her name.

Sometimes softly. Sometimes like he was asking a question. Once like he was afraid.

Three weeks of it.

Three weeks of hearing another woman’s name in the dark.

I stopped pretending it meant nothing.

One night, after he fell into deep sleep, I did something I’m not proud of.

I picked up his phone.

My heart was pounding as I scrolled through his contacts.

And there it was.

Marlena.

She was real.

He had lied.

I copied her number and put the phone back exactly where it was.

The next morning, as soon as he left, I sat at the kitchen table and called her.

She answered after three rings.

“Hello?”

“Hi. I’m Jake’s wife.”

Silence.

“How do you know my husband?” I asked.

Her voice was calm. Controlled. “We work in the same office. That’s all I can say.”

“That’s all you can say? Then why has he been shouting your name in his sleep for weeks? Why is he coming home at ten every night?”

“He’s been saying my name?”

She let out a short laugh. “You should talk to your husband.”

Then she hung up.

If she were his mistress, she’d have denied knowing him.

If she were nobody, she’d have sounded confused.

Instead, she sounded… careful.

I knew then I wouldn’t get answers over the phone.

So I drove to his office.

I brought lunch as an excuse.

The receptionist let me through.

My stomach twisted the whole elevator ride.

I knocked on his door.

“Yeah?” he called.

I opened it. “Surprise.”

He froze.

He was buried in paperwork, tie loose, hair a mess.

“Rose? What are you doing here?”

“I brought you lunch.”

He forced a smile. “That’s nice… but this isn’t a great time.”

Before I could respond, the door opened behind me.

“Jake, I need you—”

I knew that voice instantly.

Marlena.

She stopped when she saw me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company.”

Jake swallowed. “This is my wife, Rosaline.”

She stepped forward. “I’m Marlena. Internal compliance supervisor. I need Jake to sign off before the review meeting.”

Compliance?

I turned to Jake. “Are you under review?”

He laughed nervously. “It’s nothing. Just a misunderstanding.”

Marlena raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.

“Don’t lie,” I said. “How serious is this? Could you lose your job?”

He gulped. “There were… discrepancies on the Johnson project. Numbers that didn’t line up. I’ve been trying to fix it.”

Marlena set a folder on his desk. “I’ll give you privacy.”

She left us alone.

“You lied to me for three weeks,” I said.

“I was protecting you,” he pleaded. “I didn’t want you to worry. I thought I could fix it.”

“Protecting me? I thought you were cheating on me! I spent weeks thinking our marriage was over.”

“I’d never do that. I was scared.”

“This isn’t better,” I said quietly. “You shut me out. You let me imagine the worst because you didn’t trust me with the truth.”

He had no answer.

I walked out of his office realizing something heavy:

“Marlena” wasn’t another woman.

She was the name attached to the lie he hid behind.

He hadn’t betrayed me with an affair.

He’d betrayed me with silence, fear, and dishonesty.

And I didn’t know if our marriage could survive that either.