We've been together almost all our lives. < img src = "https://zycie.news/crrops/8d15e7/620x0/1/0/2025/04/06/onffpukx3vNGJTCDBDBQVWWEUHFR82COYXXQPQNitQnitQef.jpg" alt = "older pair @pexels" styles = "background-color: rgba (174,151,137,1)" > < p > I was 21 when I married him. In a long, lace dress and hope in the eyes. He was my first and only one. We built a house together, raised children, experienced ups and downs. It was r & oacute; as in any marriage. But never, ever, it never occurred to me that one day I would hear this.

< p > It was ordinary Wednesday. I cooked his favorite soup. He ate her in silence as usual. Then he looked at me, but this eyes were stranger. Cold. And then he said:

< p > & ndash; I don't love you anymore. I go away.

< p > I thought it was a grim joke. I laughed nervously. But he wasn't kidding. He got up from the table, took the prepared suitcase and left. No screaming. Without saying goodbye. Just & Hellip; disappeared.

< p > children were shocked. Friends asked what happened. And I ? I couldn't answer. Because what can you say when after 40 years someone stops loving you, as if you were a worn book on p & oacute; łce ?

< p > Over time, I learned that he went to another. Younger. Happy. Apparently, “Bdquo; changed his life & rdquo;. They started going on trips, publishing the internet photos, walking on the park, where we recently walked together.

< p > A I ?

< p > I stayed with souvenirs. With his cup in the cabinet. With a shirt that I had the strength to throw away the strength. With silence in & oacute; Żku, where he always slept on the left. With the feeling that my whole life was only a background for his decision.

< p > I look in the mirror every day and see a woman who doesn't have to do anything, but still feels everything. Sometimes I find myself waiting for the sound of the key in the door. That I believe that Wr & Amp; Oacute; I will say that it was just a bad sleep.

< p > but does not come back.

< p > because after 40 years you can stop loving. And leave someone with all the burden of memories.

Natasha Kumar

By Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116