When Dani realizes that her marriage with Nathan is on the rocks, she accepts that his new job opportunity may be the fresh start they need. But when they move, Dani learns the truth about Nathan.For the past nine years, I\u2019ve been in what I thought was a loving marriage.Nathan and I had married young, straight out of high school. All we knew was each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll grow together, Dani,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll study and build up careers together.\u201dI believed him. And for the longest time, it seemed that Nathan stuck to his promises.Two years into our marriage, we had Ellie, our daughter. Now, 7 and feisty, she\u2019s the light of our lives.But for the past few years, I\u2019ve begun to watch my marriage fall apart in front of my eyes. Nathan criticized my appearance.\u201dYou\u2019ve just let yourself go, Dani,\u201d he said. \u201cAlways in those frumpy clothes. Do you think that you\u2019ll keep the spark alive like that?\u201dHe accused me of not being a good enough mother because I worked too much \u2014 although I worked from home. Ellie was always around me, except she when was at school.\u201dYou\u2019re always behind that computer screen. Do you even give Ellie enough attention? It doesn\u2019t seem like it. She\u2019s always alone when I come home from work.\u201dAt first, I used to retaliate. I would speak my feelings to Nathan. But eventually, I just tired of fighting with him.\u201dDo what you want,\u201d I said one evening as I went to put Ellie to bed.Things took a turn when Nathan suddenly became more tolerable. He was nice<\/em>. At first I attributed it to him getting a new job offer in another city.I didn\u2019t mind the move. I could work from anywhere, and Ellie was only in the first grade.\u201dIt\u2019s a new start,\u201d Nathan said, helping me box up our lives.We moved, hoping for that fresh start \u2014 and for things to get better between us. Nathan enrolled Ellie in a new school that he had researched in the weeks leading to the big move.He seemed to have everything in order.\u201dI\u2019m serious about this move, honey,\u201d he said, giving Ellie an juice box. \u201cThis is going to be great.\u201dBut a few weeks after Ellie started at school, she started coming home upset, refusing to tell me why.Then, one day, I found her crying in her room.\u201dHoney, what happened?\u201d I asked, worried.\u201dI don\u2019t want Miss Allen to be my mother! I want you to be my mother!\u201d Ellie sobbed.A chill ran through me. Miss Allen was Ellie\u2019s teacher.\u201dWhy would she become your mother?\u201d I asked.Ellie looked at me with large tears dropping from her face. She shook her head.\u201dHoney, tell me,\u201d I pressed.My daughter sighed deeply, as if the weight of the entire world rested on her little shoulders.\u201dYesterday, when Dad picked me from school, Miss Allen told me to wait by the door while she spoke to Dad. I didn\u2019t hear everything, but I did hear her saying that she\u2019ll be a better mom to me\u2026 Dad laughed when she said that.\u201dThe floor might as well have fallen away from beneath me.The accusations, the move, the sudden niceness \u2014 it all clicked into a horrifying picture. My husband was having an affair.That evening, after making sure that Ellie was asleep, I poured Nathan a drink.He accepted it with a smile, oblivious to the storm brewing inside me.\u201dSo,\u201d I began. \u201cMiss Allen seems really good with Ellie.\u201d\u201dReally?\u201d he asked, his eyes lighting up. \u201cI knew Ellie liked her\u2026\u201d\u201dEnough for Miss Allen to be her new mom?\u201d I asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on, and don\u2019t you dare lie to me.\u201dNathan\u2019s face drained of color, guilt written all over him. His confession poured out, officially ruining our marriage.He had been having an affair before we moved, but the woman wanted more from him. So, he broke it off when the new job opportunity came up. But it hadn\u2019t taken him long \u2014 he and Miss Allen had been seeing each other for two weeks before Ellie overheard their conversation.The next day, when I dropped Ellie off at school, I confronted Miss Allen about the affair. She denied everything.I transferred Ellie to another school. She needed to be protected and cherished, not be caught in the middle of her father\u2019s extramarital affairs.A divorce was inevitable, and I found that while it was painful, I was relieved. Nathan had destroyed us a long time ago, it was just time to end our marriage officially.We are a few months into the divorce and Ellie is my focus \u2014 with constant reassurance that she is loved unconditionally. She\u2019s forgotten about Miss Allen, and loves her new teacher.Nathan is free to come and go as he pleases with Ellie, as she is the most important factor in our lives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Dani realizes that her marriage with Nathan is on the rocks, she accepts that his new job opportunity may be the fresh start they need. But when they move,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wow"],"views":21586,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":702,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifementorb.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}