Receiving a marriage proposal from the person you love is supposed to be one of life’s great joys.
But for one woman, that triumph swiftly transformed into trauma as she learned of her partner’s infidelity just as he was popping the question.
Tiffany Lyn shared her jaw-dropping story to TikTok, racking up more than 1.8 million views and 200,000 likes in just two days.
In the first of two clips, she explained that she had been with her then-boyfriend for two years and, although she was “madly in love with him”, didn’t feel that they were ready for marriage.
Nevertheless, one day he decided to surprise her and took her to Orlando for “a little bit of fun at the amusement parks”.
Once they got there, he signed up to be a contestant in a competition that was being staged there.
“So right before the show is about to start, and he's about to start to compete, he hands me over his cell phone and says, ‘Babe, please film this, I want you to see what's going to happen,’” Tiffany recounted.
“And I'm just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cute. How much fun! Like, this is my dream come true.”
The contest then kicked off, during which the boyfriend took on three or four challenges, and won.
“So here I am with his little cell phone filming, all excited, all proud of my man,” she continued.
But, just then: “He starts to receive text messages that are popping up on the screen.
“The text messages turned out to be from his mistress that he's been messing with the whole time we are together.”
Tiffany explained that the so-called mistress was clearly really angry in her texts, suggesting that the boyfriend had messaged her just hours before to call things off.
“I guess that morning he had texted her to let her know like, ‘Hey, it's over between us because I'm about to get engaged today,’” the TikToker said, adding: “And she threw a s**t fit even though she herself was married.”
Returning to that earth-shattering moment, she went on: “At this point, my heart absolutely drops and I want to vomit.
“And I'm sitting here in a crowd with hundreds of people, maybe even thousands of people, trying to keep my hands steady and filming what's happening as he's proposing and announcing it to this whole freaking stadium full of people.
“But I really know what's happening as I'm seeing these texts flash across the screen.”
She then stressed that she’s “not the type of girl that likes it when people see [them] sweat” and so, since the proposal had been blasted all over the big screen and all the onlookers were "so excited" for her, she maintained her composure, exited the stadium, and waited for her partner outside.
“Once he shows up, he immediately gives me a huge hug, tells me that he loves me, and of course, does the proposal again to my face,” she recalled.
However, there were still “so many people watching” so she quickly grabbed him and dragged him into the nearest restaurant in the theme park she could find.
Reliving the scene, she went on: “I bring him over to the bar area and I sit him down and I tell him everything that I know. He didn't try to deny [it], he knew that he was caught. And for the next 30 minutes, he proceeded to just tell me everything that he thought I wanted to hear, and I was just numb.
“The only words that I can manage to muster up at this point were, ‘Baby this two-carat diamond ring. It's just not gonna be enough’.”
@tiffanylyynnCheating Fiance Story time. What would you have done?! #cheater #cheatingboyfriend #cheatingfiance #datingstorytime #datingnightmares #datinglife #datingover40 #datingover40ishard #datinginyour30s #datingover30 #datingover40 @Tiffany Lyn
On that note, Tiffany ended her story; waiting a day before posting a part two.
In the second clip, she revealed that she “didn’t say yes” and so they drove home the same day “in awkward silence.”
“But about two days later, the unhealed version of myself that I was, I agreed to put the ring on and play fiancée,” she admitted.
“Maybe two or three months at the most went by after that proposal and, of course, we fell apart,” she continued.
“He was never gonna win my trust back. It was never gonna work. I had so much invested in this relationship that it was really hard to break it off immediately. Again, we're human and I'm not messy. So I really tried to give it a go.”
But, she confessed: “It took about two years and $10,000 (£7,922) of therapy just to finally be right again with myself.”
She went on to share that she had returned the ring to her now-ex because she “didn’t want anything from him” and felt that it was “tainted”.
“The best thing I ever did was leave that relationship with my head held high,” she stressed.
“And, ultimately, I educated myself with all tools that I needed to make sure that I never associated with another man like that ever again.
“Proof in point, he's never had a single successful relationship after that. He married someone after me, lasted about a year, and anything he's ever done since then, it's all gone.
“His life is miserable. I didn't have to do that to him, he did that to himself.”
@tiffanylyynnFailed Marriage Proposal part 2! @Tiffany Lyn #storytime #cheater #cheatingboyfriend #cheattok #cheatingfiance #datingstorytime #nightmare #susistory
Fellow TikTokers were quick to voice their support for Tiffany, who revealed that the whole thing had happened some 10 years ago and that she was now in a “very loving relationship.”
“LOOOOOVEEE how you presented this for how it was. It’s so hard to let go after investing so much,” one wrote.
“I’m glad [you] kept using the phrase ‘we are human’ because that is so true,” added another. “It’s easy to say [what you’d do] over comments but it’s gonna be harder when it’s your relationship.”
Meanwhile, others shared their own harrowing experiences, with one writing: “I caught my [ex] banging my [ex] best friend on my kitchen table.
“I was holding my [two-year-old] son while pregnant [with] my youngest daughter when I walked into that.”
And others insisted that she should have kept the engagement ring, with one suggesting she should have sold it to pay for her therapy.
She conceded: “Sometimes I do regret not selling the ring and just taking myself on a magical vacation… but I didn't. So that's my story.
“All I can say is learn as much as you possibly can about narcissists and protect yourself against them.”
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