A chapter has closed. I stand solemnly under the moonlight, unmarried.

Alone, single, aimless.

What was my life, my confidante, my safety net, and my peace.. evaporated.

I did everything "right". Got married after college, excelled in my career, bought her a home; all in preparation for the idyllic life we painted ourselves. The life I've always dreamed of crafting.

People tell me I'm still young and I have no kids, so this is a blessing. I got the easy end of the stick.

But the truth is, I feel no baggage lifted from me. There is no freedom in this; only slavery to a cold, unknown world. Slavery to my own mind.

All that I have ever known in my adult life has been stolen from me. I know no other existence apart from her. I am an empty vessel clawing at the past, and living in the dreamscape of yesteryear.

I've built up a foundation that so certainly was made of stone. How could it not be? I did everything "right".

But alas, when dignity is abandoned, erosion creeps in through the backdoor. When mother nature seduces the loneliest and least suspecting of hearts, weathered rock turns to sand. But perhaps it was sand the whole time?

Was I so foolishly swayed by a fossilized facade?