I found out about my dad’s affair from a random selfie on his phone, days after my mom gave birth — and the woman threatened us

I was fresh out of elementary, just starting high school. My mom had just given birth to my youngest sister — she was only a few days old. We should’ve been in that post-baby bubble: soft blankets, sleepless nights, and the quiet happiness that comes with a new life.
Instead, everything came crashing down.
One afternoon, I was on my dad’s phone. I wasn’t even snooping — just bored, maybe looking for something to pass the time. That’s when I found a picture in his gallery. A random selfie of a woman I didn’t recognize. Just her, smiling, like it belonged in her own phone — except it was on his.
Something felt off. My gut told me what my brain didn’t want to believe.
I showed the photo to my mom.
What followed was chaos.
My mom, already physically and emotionally drained, confronted him. They exploded into a fight I’ll never forget — voices raised, accusations flying, my mom crying while holding my newborn sister in her arms. My dad shouted, denied, then stormed out of the house like he was the one who’d been wronged.
It was awful. I thought that was the peak of it.
But it wasn’t.
Two days later, the woman from the photo — the one I’d never even seen in real life — messaged my mom.
And she threatened us.
She told my mom, in a twisted, direct message, that she should end her. That she should end me, too.
I was a kid. I couldn’t even fully understand the weight of what she was saying. I just remember feeling scared. Small. Unsafe in my own home.
Since then, nothing has been the same.
My mom is still here, still doing her best. But she’s not the same woman she was before. Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes anymore. She carries something heavy every day, and even though she never says it out loud, I know part of her broke that week.
As for my dad… he stayed. Because divorce isn’t legal here. But nothing really got fixed. It’s like we pressed pause on the pain, and just kept living around it.
No one talks about it. It’s like it never happened. But I still carry it. I probably always will.

Thanks for letting me get this out. I’ve never told anyone the full story before now.