amount of time. I was trying not to let my stitches open from having had my appendix removed; but the pain both within my body and outside my soul would break me further apart.

Several hours later he rang me again and stated he had changed his mind. He realised how important I was to him and that he had been selfish. Although I was relieved to hear him say those words; every part of my heart lay shattered around me. He explained how his father had been sick and how his family were so poor that him marrying a poor woman from the village would be the best solution for the family and for our marriage since we could not get pregnant. I must have been in a nightmare; I don’t recall feeling anything as those words were spoken to me.

I just stayed numb.

We didn’t