Sweet responses!! And exactly in line with what I was thinking.
I snooped to find just how deep H had gotten in his A. I snooped until 3 days after I kicked him out. That's when I found the hotel bill for that night and delivered a card and flowers to the front desk for H and OW. That night? I texted H everything I had at the time and vowed to myself I was finished snooping.
When H came back, I snooped for about 2 weeks (verifying NC). He literally left his phone beside me at night. (As recently as this morning, H texted to ask if I had a rough night - his code words for me looking through the "text archives" on his phone - because I went to bed later than usual. Fact is, I haven't snooped in at least a month.)
All that being said, I wholeheartedly agree with the "intel" angle. But I had a personality that could handle it ... to a point. Once I had enough information to expose the A to OH, and once my H was moved out, continued snooping was just hurting ME. Honestly, I could tell when I was snooping for needed information and when I was snooping out of mere curiosity. Once it became curiosity, I stopped it immediately. That's when it hurt.
Thank you for clarifying, Starsky. I think snooping is the only possible answer for verifying the continued presence of OM/OW. Dev, I'm glad you found another "window."
M: 40 H: 44 Married 14 years S11 & D6; D20 & D19 from previous M 2BDs/PAs, 8 years apart Piecing: April 2014