“I have important news to share with you,” my ex-husband called me six months after our divorce. Since “he paid for it,” he had ripped off the wallpaper.
I lived with my ex-husband for eight years. We have two wonderful children, a beautiful house that we renovated together, and many plans for the future. But underlying this perfect façade came a sad truth: he was cheating on his secretary.
When I initially heard about the messages, the covert meetings, and the lies, I didn’t think it was true. Then I had to face reality. He tried to minimize it and explain himself, but nothing could undo that betrayal. I filed for divorce. When he left, I was left with the kids and broken memories.
One day, when I was at my parents’ house with the kids, he came back to “take a few things.” But when I got back, I noticed that he had ripped up the wallpaper in the main room. The one we had assembled and decided upon after hours of deliberation. In his note, he even added, “I paid for it, I’m taking it.” As if buying or reversing the past were that easy.
I was outraged, but I was also strangely relieved. After this trivial act, I came to the realization that this person was merely a finished chapter.
A month after everything seemed to be behind us, Dan called me out of the blue. When I answered the phone, he said he had something important to tell me.
— “Hey… I wanted to let you know that I’m thinking about you, the kids, and everything else. We miss you.
There was an unusual tenderness in her voice. Perhaps a hint of regret. But for me, it was too late. I was no longer the lady who waited for an apology. I had pieced her life back together, piece by piece, wall by wall.
— “I’ve moved on, Dan, but I wish you the best life has to offer.”
And it was true.
I repainted the living room, changed the drapes, and hung colorful paintings. Now, every element reflected my personality rather than ours. I even converted the marital bedroom into a painting studio, a long-neglected interest of mine.
A month later, I joined a reading group to help me relax. I told a group of pleasant women about the wallpaper event. There was giggling. “A man tearing down wallpaper in retaliation?” exclaimed Cassie. That is very pathetic!
Time passed. One day, Cassie proudly introduced me to her fiancé. It was Dan. She didn’t know. When I told him he was my ex-husband, there was silence. She wondered, “Wait—that wallpaper thing—that was him?”
Dan turned white. Cassie was shocked to discover that the man she had fallen in love with was not who he claimed to be.
