Positive relationships after cheating

I’ve never come across anyone in this scenario and wonder if anyone else has ever been in this position?

My and my OH have been together since we were 14 & 15 and were coming up for 14 years together now. As we got older and could drink legally we would go out together occasionally but a lot of the time we would go clubbing with our own friends and end up meeting up at the end of the night.

Around 4 years ago, i became suspicious as he started spending a lot more time on his phone and my gut instinct told me something wasn’t right. I checked his phone and discovered he’d been messaging a girl, following which he then took her out for a drink (as in a date). From the tone of the messages I do think that’s as far as it went and it had been going on about 2-3 weeks but obviously in my eyes this was cheating because he was going about it behind my back and Id wonder what would have happened next had I not found out when I did. I felt so betrayed and seriously considered my future with him at the time.

He admitted that she gave him her number on a night out and he just felt excited/ a bit of a thrill going out with her as all we’ve ever known is each other. We’ve never dated, kissed or slept with anyone else. This hurt me a lot but strangely (and I know people will have a hard time getting their heads around this) I could understand where he was coming from so we decided to try and move forwards and open our communication with each other.

Fast forwards 4 years, we’re engaged (wedding cancelled due to Covid but in the process of replanning), have a beautiful 2 year old and a baby on the way. He’s a wonderful dad, and also a wonderful partner who supports me emotionally. He truly has stuck to his word and opened up to me more and we’ve never gone through anything like that time since. Our relationship, sex life etc has been the best it’s ever been and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t know if questioning my trust comes into it, but I do trust him to make better decisions and we have a strong basis that if ever either of us feels it isn’t working in the future to be honest and upfront about it.

The only thing that troubles and saddens me from time to time is knowing that what we have now is a product of a stupid/rough period in time and some stupid decisions made by him.

Has anyone ever been in this position before? I see a lot of cheating posts and I’ll always agree with “leave” but sometimes it’s not as black and white as that, and I’ll admit even I’m surprised sometimes at how we’ve been able to move forwards. Not sure what my point is tbh I’ve not long read a long cheating story and it got me thinking back a little and here we are.. 😅