My wife would burn the letters she received, which were frequent. I chose to accept one of these letters one day, and I was appalled.
Nearly every month, my wife would receive letters from her sister, who lives overseas. The letters eventually increased in frequency to once a week.
I became suspicious when I found fragments of burned letters in our fireplace one day. Why are these letters being burned? Why not discard them like other letters or retain them?
She would always burn the letters after she finished reading them, I realized. It was odd, and I found it fascinating. I therefore started looking in the mailbox before she did. I stole a letter one day without my wife noticing.
The letter was already quite odd because it had no return address. I hesitated for a few seconds before opening it. I was aware that it was improper and that I was undermining our relationship’s trust. However, it was more powerful than me. My wife had to tell me what she was keeping from me.
Upon opening it and reading it, I was appalled.
I held the letter in my hand and remained in the car.
I was first struck with the address.
Although it wasn’t far from our place, I had never been there.
Additionally, it said, “Exactly at 6:00 PM.”
The message was unambiguous: “I will tell your husband everything if you don’t come and give me the money I’ve asked for.”
I had stopped thinking.
I turned on the ignition and headed toward the address.
My heart was racing when I came to a stop in front of the door.
A forty-year-old man opened.
After giving me a quick glance, he said, “You’re Elise’s husband, right?”
Everything started to make sense at that point.
This man was the ex-husband of my wife.
I now knew why mom destroyed those letters, even though I had never heard of him.
My wife had concealed this information out of fear of losing me and damaging my perception of her.
Everything I believed I knew about our life together was suddenly falling apart because she had done everything she could to hide her history.
