Aerial view of a beach | Source: Midjourney
The words hung in the air, each one a hammer blow to my soul. My dad. My rock. My protector. He had been paying my husband to stay with me. My entire marriage. My entire life. Built on a lie. A transaction.
His words at dinner, so cruel and cutting, suddenly weren’t just about my contribution to our household. They were about him. About the money he received. About the forced gratitude. About the gilded cage my father had built for me, and the resentment my husband felt for being the bird trapped inside.
My blood ran cold. No, colder. It froze. My lungs seized. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. The man I loved, the man I married, had been essentially bought. And I, the unwitting prize, the beloved daughter whose happiness was purchased, had been living in a carefully constructed illusion.
A man holding a TV remote | Source: Pexels
Continue reading…
