I made a mistake—one so devastating that it’s shattered the foundation of my marriage. After 18 years together, years of love, challenges, and memories, I betrayed my husband in the worst possible way. I had an affair with someone I never should have—a man he trusted, his own friend. It went on for two years, and when he found out, the look on his face broke something in me I didn’t even know could break.

I know I can never undo what I’ve done. The trust we built over nearly two decades is gone, replaced by anger, hurt, and disbelief. He looks at me now, and it’s as though he doesn’t even recognize the person he thought he knew. And honestly, sometimes I don’t recognize myself either.

I’m desperate to make things right, but I don’t even know where to begin. Apologizing feels like it barely scratches the surface of what’s needed. How do you ask for forgiveness when you’ve hurt someone this deeply? How do you convince them to give you another chance when you’ve betrayed them so completely?

I love my husband—I always have. And I never stopped, even when I was making the worst decisions of my life. It sounds selfish to say, but I want to save our marriage. I want to prove to him that I can be the partner he deserves, even though I’ve fallen so far from that.

But how can we move past this? How can I show him that I’m truly sorry, that I’ll do whatever it takes to rebuild what I’ve broken? I know it won’t be easy, and I know it may never be the same. But if there’s even the smallest chance to heal and move forward together, I want to fight for it. I owe him that, at the very least.