Marriage is often described as a journey of two hearts becoming one. After three years together, I believed my husband and I were still walking side by side, our bond strong and steady. That’s why his words one evening landed like thunder in a clear sky.

“I want to sleep alone for a while,” he said.

At first, I thought I had misheard. What wife expects to hear such a thing when the marriage still feels alive, tender, and full of promise? Yet his expression was serious, unshaken. No matter how I pleaded, cried, or tried to reason with him, he remained firm.

In the end, I had no choice but to agree. But my heart resisted.