Ten Years of Marriage, Ruined By Lies

Everyone said I was the one Mark Hansen had always longed for, his first love.

So when I filed for divorce, they all criticized me, saying I had forgotten our love, our history.

But only I knew what really happened during the tenth year of our marriage.

That was when he became entangled with a younger woman, someone who looked eerily like me.

"I'm just her personal trainer. What’s with all the drama?" he snapped, dismissing me with the wave of his hand.

In that moment, fury burned inside me. I ripped the wedding ring off my finger and hurled it at Mark. The sound of metal clinking on the floor was oddly satisfying.

“Don’t you dare call me dramatic!” I shouted. “I’m done pretending.”

——

Mark’s face darkened instantly and he lunged forward, grabbing my wrist with enough force to make me wince. His eyes were wild with anger, but I wasn’t afraid.

"What is it now, Jane? What are you trying to prove?"

I didn’t respond, my gaze shifting to Kath Saunders, the woman standing behind him. Her face—a disturbing replica of my own—seemed to taunt me. I walked straight up to her, my heart pounding with adrenaline and slapped her hard across the face.

The sting of my palm against her cheek echoed through the room. Kath gasped, clutching her face, tears welling up in her eyes as she whimpered, “Why would you do that, Jane? I don’t understand...”

Her voice was soft, pitiful, dripping with false innocence. She even had the nerve to step behind Mark, looking at him like she was a wounded little bird.

“Mark, why is she so mean to me?” she sniffed, her lip quivering, playing the victim to perfection.

I could feel Mark’s rage bubbling over as he stepped in front of her protectively, shielding her as if I were the intruder in our marriage.

“Jane,” he growled, “Kath and I have a professional relationship, nothing more! She’s my paragliding student, for God’s sake. Of course, there’s going to be some physical contact! But your mind always goes straight to the gutter.”

I scoffed, unable to believe he had the audacity to lie to my face.

“Oh, I’m the one with a dirty mind?” I said, my voice trembling with anger. “So those pictures I saw? Her clinging to you like she’s your wife? Was that just part of the training too?”

I couldn’t forget the photos I had seen. Kath’s arms draped around his neck, her body pressed close to his, a shy smile on her face. And the way he looked at her... The kind of look that should’ve been reserved for me.

Mark’s expression was cold, distant. He didn’t even deny it.

Instead, he turned back to Kath, who was still rubbing her cheek, her eyes wide with fake tears. He gently cupped her face, his voice softening. “Does it hurt?”

Kath sniffled, leaning into his touch. “It... it’ll be fine if you kiss it better,” she whispered, a pathetic attempt to appear helpless.

And just like that, Mark leaned in, pressing his lips to her cheek, right in front of me. As if I wasn’t even there. As if I didn’t exist.

My chest tightened painfully and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. The betrayal, the blatant disregard for our ten years together, was suffocating.

“Mark,” Kath whispered, “Jane’s leaving... should you go after her?”

Without even looking at me, Mark sighed. “No. Let her go. She’ll calm down eventually. She’s not serious about the divorce.”

His voice was laced with arrogance, as though I were just throwing a tantrum. Like I would come crawling back, begging for his love again.

But he was wrong.

I quickened my pace, my heart breaking with every step I took. This was it. The end of us.

People always said I was Mark’s "white moonlight," the woman he cherished. But no one ever saw the other side of the story, how I had loved him—truly loved him—for a decade. Yet now, my love was nothing more than a joke.

We had met in college. He was charming, passionate and relentless in his pursuit of me. I had fallen for him hard and fast, cutting off ties with my family just to be with him. We married soon after graduation and for years, I believed in our love. I believed in him.

But ten years later, here we were. And he had chosen someone else.

Mark had become a paragliding instructor and Kath, the younger woman, was his student. Today was our tenth wedding anniversary. And instead of being with me, he was with her.

"Thanks for practicing with me today, Mark! I don’t know what I’d do without you," Kath giggled, throwing herself into his arms like she had done it a thousand times before.

Shyly, she kissed the side of his face and he didn’t push her away. Instead, he ran his fingers through her hair, smiling down at her.

"Don’t be silly, Kath. You did great today," he said, rubbing her back. “Next time, you’ll do even better.”

“Next time,” she echoed, her face lighting up with excitement.

I stood there, watching them. She was younger, more energetic, with a face that reminded me too much of my own. But all I felt was exhaustion—exhaustion and a growing emptiness that I couldn’t ignore anymore.