Another Love - Alternative Ending

My impression is that you don't even consider what you did to be wrong and your conduct for the last 20 years certainly supports this. I know you'll be shocked and hurt by what I'm doing. You'll be wondering how I could be so heartless because for the last 20 years I was happy with you, and you haven't changed so why am I leaving?

But that's the problem -- you never changed, never showed any guilt or remorse because you have none. Whatever drove you to seek love and solace in the arms of another man is still a part of you. You've convinced yourself that sharing your love with another man while still married to me was acceptable and natural, perhaps even unavoidable, and that letting me in on the secret would only hurt me and spoil everything. As long as I never knew then it would be alright, so where's the harm?

Well, now I do know. The hurt is immense and the harm is just beginning. Your secret second life has been revealed but now it's too late to reconsider and you can't change the past.

And although you haven't changed, I certainly have.

I'm no longer the husband you knew when you kissed me goodbye last Wednesday morning. I've discovered that the marriage I thought I had was a sham. I thought I had a wife I could trust with my life, but that trust has been destroyed. I thought I had a wife who shared my views on marriage, but I was so, so wrong. I thought I had a wife who was faithful and honest, but she's neither.

I believed that my wife, my true friend and companion for life, would never stab me in the back and then rip my heart out - but she has in the cruelest way possible. The wife I thought I knew turns out to be a nightmare and now I've woken up.

The shock of discovering not just your incredibly self-serving infidelity and deceit, but also the length of time it went on for, have altered me in ways I could never have imagined and even I don't yet fully understand them. But one thing I do know with crystal-clear certainty is that I'll never look at you again as I once did.

My trust has turned to suspicion, my love has turned to anger, and my joy turned to sorrow. Even you should see that these are not the ideals for a happy marriage, and I'd rather be lonely for a while than remain forever suspicious and angry.

Besides, every time I look at the painting I see my nude wife unashamedly looking at the artist with love in her eyes, and then I can't help but imagine you and him making love. Him between your legs where you promised only I would ever be, him receiving your love instead of me, and you telling him how much you love him instead of telling only me.

Karen, my love for you was like a hot fire burning bright, but every time I imagined you making love to him a little bit of the fire died. Over the last two days more and more flames have flickered briefly, and then vanished. The fire is now almost snuffed out and the embers are getting colder by the hour.

I'm sorry Karen, but despite the hard road ahead there is just no way back for me, and nothing left to return to anyway.

So if by chance we should ever cross paths again please don't try to impersonate the wife I thought I had and pretend she's come back. The wife I knew, cherished, and loved with all my heart is almost dead inside me, and now it's time to rest her memory and start life over again.

There's no need for you to despair though. You're still a beautiful-looking woman and will have no trouble once again finding a couple of men who, between them, can satisfy all your needs. And if two were good before then imagine how much happier you'd be with three of even four. Just don't tell any of them about the others and it'll all be just so warm and pure and loving and beautiful.

But if you search long enough and hard enough you may just find a special man who, all on his own, can fulfill those same desires. He will inspire you to truly honor him, love only him, and above all, inspire you to forsake all others.

Karen, I can't find words strong enough to express the regret I feel, and the deep sadness it brings me, to learn so late in life that I was never that man after all.

Goodbye from someone you once knew.

Rob put the letter on the table by the painting, took off his wedding ring and placed it on top, then started carrying his belongings downstairs to the rented moving van.