I woke up the next morning with a heavy body and an even heavier heart. The sunlight coming through the curtains felt too bright for my tired eyes. My chest ached with a pain that refused to leave, no matter how many times I tried to breathe deeply. I sat up slowly in bed and looked around my room. Everything in it reminded me of the lie I had been living for ten years. The large bed where I had slept beside David night after night. The photos on the wall showing us smiling in what I thought were happier days. The clothes hanging in the closet that I had chosen carefully to look like the perfect, devoted wife.
I stood up and walked to the mirror. I looked tired. Broken. My eyes were still red and swollen from crying the night before. My skin looked pale. I touched my face gently, as if tr
