I'm certain that this is a time of crisis for you, but you can also look at it as a time to resolve a conflict that you and your husband have had for fifteen years. Let me give you a few opinions and observations, and then I will offer some suggestions.

First, I guarantee you that your affair is not the problem that you think it is. Instead, it is an issue that your husband has used over the years to get the upper hand whenever you and he have an argument. It may show up especially whenever you have been reluctant to have sex with him. It throws you off balance whenever he mentions it, and makes you feel guilty, wanting to make it up to him somehow. He may also bring it up whenever you are winning in a power struggle he is having with you.

Prior to the incident where a man was staring at you, you may not have been as sexually interested in him as he would have liked. A transcript of the discussion you had on the fifth day may have helped us fully understand what was developing between the two of you.

At the dinner you may have looked particularly appealing to your husband, and he may have felt inadequate. His intimidation may have sparked his argument with you, which was his attempt to put himself back into a position of control. But instead, you became angry with him and rejected him sexually by going to bed with your clothes on. That made him feel even more inadequate, and he felt he had to increase his abuse to try to regain control. He may have thought he needed to teach you a lesson so you would think twice about refusing him sex again.

But his abuse did not work this time. You met his aggression with your own aggression. By the time you got home, he had not yet won the battle and the fight continued to escalate. He decided to raise the stakes a notch and left you and the children. He also told the children about your affair to punish you for not giving in to him. Again, he was using your act of infidelity as a way of regaining control.

I think your husband wants to come back to his family, but he wants to come back with pride, with his head high and with you begging his forgiveness. He wants the children to believe it was all your fault, that he had every reason to leave, and to regain his position of control. He also wants you to assure him that you will never again hold out on him sexually.

The behavior of your husband that you describe to me in your letter is abuse, pure and simple. I'm sure you retaliated with your own abuse of him, and that's something you should learn to avoid, too. But there is no excuse for the way your husband left you and the children. There is no excuse for him bringing up the moment of weakness you experienced years ago. There is no excuse for him accusing you of wanting to go to bed with a man that looked at you -- or wanting to do anything for that matter. He is being disrespectful and abusive.

There's another side to the story, of course. His side. He would explain to me that you do and say things that hurt his feelings, and whenever you do, he doesn't believe you love him, or ever did love him. He thinks you do not agree with him enough, and that proves you don't support him. He may think that whenever you prefer not to make love to him it's evidence that you don't love him enough.

But I would point out to him that your love for him is HIS problem, not yours. You love him to the extent that he is meeting your needs and not hurting you. Granted, there are times that he has done an excellent job meeting your needs, but there are other times when he's been awful.

In your letter, you say you do love him and you want him to return home. He probably loves you too, and wants to be home. He has just shot himself in the foot and doesn't really know what to do next. He has painted himself into a corner.

Those are my opinions and observations. Now, what to do about it.

I would look him right in the eye and say to him, "Listen Buster, do you love me? Do you care at all about how I feel? If you do, you sure have a funny way of showing it! I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. But it sure will be unpleasant for both of us if you keep treating me this way. You are not doing things that I admire, you're doing things that I find disgusting!"

If he says, "Fine, then lets just get a divorce and end it all."

To that I would say, "It's up to you. I married you for life, but if you want a divorce, it's your call. If you want to be in a love relationship with me, however, you're going to have to treat me much better than you have been treating me. From this moment on you will never again bring up my affair, and if you are upset with me, you will have to treat me with respect until we can solve the problem. I will agree to do the same with you. If you are upset with our sexual relationship, I want us to discuss it as adults and solve it with mutual respect. I refuse to be treated like this, even by the man I love."

It may take him a while to digest what you say, and he may leave in a huff. But once it sinks in, he will probably agree with you that at least some of the problem is his.

Pay close attention to my section on Love Busters. You both need to work on avoiding Angry Outbursts. You probably need to work on avoiding Disrespectful Judgments and Selfish Demands as well. While you're at it, you may want complete my Emotional Needs Questionnaire to see if you are failing to meet any of each other's needs.

I think your marriage is secure, at least for the short run. Your husband, to his credit, still has your love. But he won't have it long if he gets away with this one. The most encouraging part of this crisis is that it may provide the catalyst to help you straighten your marriage out once and for all.