That day, my husband came home earlier than usual, sat down on the sofa, and began to cry like a child. When I found out the reason, I was frozen in shock.

Arthur and I first met when we were both twenty-seven. By then, Arthur had already finished university with honours and was preparing for his final dissertation. Hed always done well in his studies. On top of that, hed managed to save up enough to buy a modest two-bedroom flat and even a spot in a nearby garage. He was planning to buy a motor car once he finished his degree. A year later, we married, and another eighteen months on, our daughter was born. By our thirtieth birthdays, our little one was already two months old.
As Arthurs birthday drew near, I suggested we celebrate at a local restaurant with his parents. But he shook his head, saying he wished to spend his special day only with the two of us, his girls.
And so it was. The next day, after work, Arthur went to visit his parents, as was customary, but he returned not long after, clearly distressed. He sank down on the settee and wept. I was taken abackthis was a grown man, a husband and a father, overcome with tears like a boy. I did what I could to comfort him, gently asking what had happened. That was when everything tumbled out.
It turned out that, as a boy, Arthur had been punished for the smallest mistakes: for kicking a football, for muddying his trousers, for a smudge in his exercise book. His parents, both father and mother, had struck him for things that seemed so minor.
When I got older, they stopped hitting me, he whispered, but they never had a kind word for me. I finished my technical college at the top of my year.
And? Thats just technical college, isnt it? You should be going to university. And so Arthur enrolled, though he didnt have a real need for a degree.
He bought his own flat.
Thats only fifty square metres, they scoffed, even though they themselves lived in a cramped home barely thirty metres across.
He got married. Shes so slight, a bit too thin, dont you think? Is she really strong enough to bear children?
Then our daughter was born.
Whos to say whose child that is? She looks nothing like any of us!
Finally, they caused a scene because Arthur hadnt thrown a grand party for their wedding anniversary.
Ungrateful son! they cried.
After that, Arthur turned to me and asked in a broken voice, Am I truly such a bad person that they cant love me?
I told him that there are some people who are simply unable to love. It wasnt his fault hed been born into such a family, but now he had me and our daughter, and we both loved him dearly. He was everything to ustruly the best in the world.
Have you noticed how our daughters face lights up the moment you walk through the door? I asked gently.
Arthur remembered the joy in our little girls eyes when she saw her father, and at last, he began to calm. Then, for the first time in ages, he managed a small, genuine smile.