My wife, Emily, is sleeping beside me when a Facebook notification pops up: a woman has sent me a friend request. I click Add Friend and accept it, then message her, Do we know each other? She replies, I heard youre married, but I still love you.
It turns out shes Claire, an old friend whose picture is strikingly beautiful. I close the chat, glance back at Emily, still breathing softly after a long days work. Looking at her, I think about how safe she feels, how easily she can drift off in our new home together.
Shes far from the family house where she spent every hour surrounded by her parents, siblings and grandparents. When she was upset, her mother was there to hold her, her brother and sister would crack jokes to lift her spirits, and her father would bring her favourite treats. Yet she places the same deep trust in me.
All those thoughts swirl through my mind, so I pick up my phone and hit Block. I turn back to Emily and settle down beside her. Im a grown man, not a child. Ive pledged fidelity, and Ill keep it. Ill keep fighting to be the husband who never cheats and never tears his family apart.
