The Broken Vows

She sat across from him, as though looking at him, but staring past him, almost through him. She had hoped to be “loved and cherished” but she had received only bitterness that felt like hatred, and reviling that felt like anything but “cherishing”. She had believed him when he had said that he would only give himself to her, and yet she had found him pouring over other women's bodies on the internet, looking at them hungrily, confirming, once again that she had not “cut the muster”, that she had failed to meet his needs, or wants. And there was that ever lurking suspicion that someone else held his heart, for it was evident that she most certainly did not.

They sat like that for an hour, the silence between them, gaping like an open tomb, signaling the death and finality of the relationship. Then, because there could be no more words, she picked up her things and walked away, knowing that there was no use to look back. Letting the knowledge come, that she had been trying so hard to keep out of sight, that there was never anything there to begin with.

Acknowledging that the end had inevitably come, but not knowing what would be next, she gathered the remains of her broken heart, along with the broken vows, and turned to face her uncertain future....