So my MC is a world class thief and his wife is a government agent that has been looking for him. Now here's the thing she hasn't connected the dots but when they got together was when his world famous personae vanished. Anyway what happens is that a mobster finds out his secret and kidnaps their kids and makes him start stealing again. She doesn't know what's going on and she suspects that her husband's persona is behind the kidnapping and the husband can't say anything or else the kids will be killed. Now the wife doesn't know it but they go back a long way it comes out that she used to work as a Dominatrix (it was how she paid for college) and that he use to see her but she never really noticed him. He's got a lot of secrets and I'm wondering if they are forgivable. Pretty much this is their story that he was a nobody and she was the object of his unrequited love and that he after realizing he'd never be the kind of man she'd want which was rich and successful he decided to reinvent himself and became a thief then she started chasing his persona and he thought it was amazing because of all the female police in the world to match wits with him it was her. The way it escalated was he just kept stealing so that she'd be that much more interested in him which meant more and more elaborate heists with big pay outs and then he finally crossed paths with her. Basically he's in love with his wife and is all about saving his kids but I'm not sure how his wife should feel about him when his secrets are exposed because he's afraid she's going to leave him. I should add he did stop stealing when they became involved and she never connected the dots. One of the MC's insecurities is he's afraid she won't want him if she finds out how much of a loser he really is. For example he failed college and when they first "met" he let her draw her own conclusions about him because in his mind that wasn't lying and ultimately he became a stay at home dad. Basically they are polar opposites he's a failure (regular career wise) and she's a successful woman. I'm just wondering even though he comes out of "retirement" only to save the kids is he unforgivable?
That's a tough one. It all depends on if you want to make her the type of woman that feel flattered by all the effort or betrayed by it. After all, it's not the theft that's so bad, it's the lying to her. Can she forgive that, and live the rest of her life with a lier? You want to ask yourself what kind of woman could do that, or what kind of secret she'd have to have of her own to minimize his. (If she had her own secret, then they're both liers, and that isn't so bad.) It also might make for a good subplot if she had a secret of her own.
This is one of those things that throw me. Why would he do what he does if he considers himself a loser?
He secretly compares himself to his wife whose always succeeded at everything where as he never found his natural talent until he became a thief. Basically when she "first" met him she was introduced to a suave guy in a suit and she didn't recognize him from earlier in her life. He became rich by stealing and passed himself off as someone from a wealthy family. In truth he's known her, her whole life and she never noticed him. His wife unlike him comes from a wealthy family and she paid her way through college by being a dominatrix which she did because she wanted to make it on her own. Another secret of his is that he's the son of the butler and maid that use to work in her house. The MC's whole life he tried to climb the ladder sort to speak but he just always failed. While his wife just has never failed at anything at least in his eyes when the MC looks at his wife he sees a flawless goddess and all he ever wanted was for her to notice him but even when he saw her as a dominatrix she still never really noticed much less recognized him. However the MC's insecurity stems from when he was a kid and his one of his wife's parents picked up on his crush and told him he would always be beneath her and that as you might imagine went on to affect him. His insecurities are only heightened by the fact that his wife is obsessed with catching his persona.
Wow that dominatrix bit felt like it came out of nowhere. So, the persona he presented to her when they officially met was a lie? Something he fabricated to be as attractive to her as possible? After he spied on her? Yeah, that would be pretty gross if I found out my husband did that to me. Probably wouldn't forgive him. Also, I sort of zeroed in on this line here: "of all the female police in the world to match wits with him it was her". So, he wasn't paying attention to any of the male police? Was he specifically looking for a lady-cop to stalk and seduce? Adding the word 'female' there seems very odd to me. "and he did stop stealing when they became involved and she never connected the dots." - doesn't change that he invented a persona specifically to seduce her. I think it'd be hard for a person not to think their entire relationship is a lie, and want to end it. "For example he failed college and when they first "met" he let her draw her own conclusions about him because in his mind that wasn't lying" - Doesn't mean keeping it from her wasn't a terrible, disgusting thing to do. Basically, if he develops feelings for her, and pursues her romantically, while knowing she's a cop that is looking for this "master thief i.e. him", I think it's unforgivable.
I'm going to be honest I don't know why I added that female bit in there either. It's not that he invented the persona to seduce her the persona he invented was what he always wanted to be rich and powerful. This pretty much is how they met he had no idea she was the cop pursuing him all over the world in the beginning and then he started playing a sort of cat and mouse type game with her. Then they quite literally ran into each other by complete accident. He never spied on her. Her impression of him when they first "met" was that he was a player because that was the life style he was living.
