Instead, Tyler seemed to be disappearing from our marriage.
At first, the changes were small.
He began leaving for work before sunrise.
Then he started coming home after dinner.
When I asked about it, he always had an explanation.
“The company is going through a difficult quarter,” he would say, loosening his tie as he walked through the door.
Or, “The new management team is putting pressure on everybody.”
Sometimes he claimed he had attended meetings that ran late. Other times, he said a client had invited him to dinner.
I wanted to believe him.
I had always been the person who gave others the benefit of the doubt. I believed that marriage required patience and that love meant trusting someone even when life became inconvenient.
But patience can become dangerous when it teaches you to ignore your own instincts.
Three months earlier, I had asked Tyler why he no longer seemed interested in spending time with me.
