Prompt #68: Cruelty & Kindness

Writing Exercise, April 2023

Hi Friends,

Once upon a time I cheated on my husband—not the husband I’m currently married to but the one who came before him. It has been so many years ago now that it feels like the whole mess of it happened to someone else, or at least in some other lifetime.

I married young, though at the time, I felt like I was getting old. All of my friends were getting married and both my mother and my gynecologist were telling me that if I ever wanted kids, I had better get cracking. The thing was, I didn’t even know if I wanted kids; I didn’t know myself well enough to know what I wanted.

My first husband and I seemed good together on paper (and when we split, people who knew us were surprised). We both liked to ski and hike, drink wine and dance. We liked dogs and camping. But looking back these 25 years, I can see clearly that we