My name is Maria, and I am 53 years old. For 32 years, I have been married to a man I thought would stand by me until the end. We have built a life together, raised beautiful daughters, and weathered countless storms. I thought we were unbreakable, that after so many years, we were woven together in ways no one could unravel. But I was wrong.

It started with subtle changes—an unexplained distance, his sudden absences. I brushed it off, convincing myself he was busy, that maybe I was just imagining things. But soon, I couldn’t ignore the obvious. I discovered he has been seeing someone else, a younger woman, a girl young enough to be our own daughter. The betrayal feels like a knife twisting inside me, sharper with each thought. I wonder if he sees the same spark in her that he once saw in me, or if he’s simply chasing after his own youth, something I could never give back to him.

This revelation has shattered me. Every memory feels tainted. I look in the mirror and see lines on my face, grays in my hair, marks of a life spent loving and giving to a man who now craves someone untouched by time. I’ve devoted my life to our family, to raising our daughters, only to feel discarded like a relic from the past.

Now, I’m left wondering who I am without him. After years of being “us,” I feel lost. This pain, this loneliness—it’s something I never expected. I am Maria, 53 years old, a woman forced to find herself again, picking up the pieces of a heart I once gave so freely.