He used to speak really positively about his wife, and seemed to have a lot of respect for her
he also seemed fond of his children as well, and mentioned things that made it sound like he was actively participating in their lives
You're very right about it, and I also appreciate that we can't fully know what the other person - even the closest one to us - is truly like.
As Mark Twain said, every person is like a moon and has a dark side that he never shows to anyone.
But I think his most significant dark side is the ability to pretend that he is someone he's not. That it's not that he became grumpy and dissatisfied with his family - but that he always was, and only pretended he's that good family man. Everyone is a potential fuckup, struggling with internal demons - but he actively made himself look to be someone who's better than others - all whilst he was feeding the devil in him. And probably laughing at how stupid everyone is to not notice it.
My main justification for being convinced of his dishonesty is a variety of small things he did. Just to list few examples:
- the whole shower texting thing - how he acted in front of Jersh, and what he said about it to other people - that combined with lying about Monty
- how righteously angry he sounded when screaming at Sean that 'we are monogamous' - and yet more and more details came out that this is bullshit - Hedonism, gay bars, stories about how swingers just seem to approach him, Imholtes, hookers, Mandy
- how, when someone commented that his children might one day learn about his balldo and other gross sexual stuff, he got real angry and said 'GOOD'
- how he acted after being released from jail - you'd think he'd be a broken man, desperate to get kids back and do everything to make them feel safe, and to get trust of his community back - the community which the kids also need - but no, he made it so much worse. He was more focused on protecting his ego, and getting support from retards online, than to repair the damage he's done
- talking so much shit about his Church, to the point where he publicly mocked a lady singing hymns on Easter - he knew he will get brownie points from locals retards for acting like a piece of shit - but at the same time he kept taking his family (and possibly April!) to service, pretending he's part of the community
- and the Big One - how he ended up with an ounce of coke in his house. Alcoholism is kinda understandable - mainly because it happens to so many people, it's so easy to become addicted. Snorting a line occasionally - that's probably something many entertainers do. But having a stash like that, 25 grams of coke? Nobody here predicted that, and many farmers had some pretty crazy theories. How deeply fake must his life have been to end up arrested with 25 grams of cocaine?
So I think he was a monster in waiting. And sure, anyone can become a monster. But, Nick had bazillion of opportunities to squash that evil in him - opportunities that most people will never be able to dream of. He could have become that wholesome husband and dad he tried to convince people he was. And yet, he's chosen to nurture that internal monster, and to let it out once he felt comfortable he can pull it off - or perhaps, when he became too retarded to realise that he can't.
