“He loves me so much!”, she thought.
Why, he’s always so romantic and naughty
Like the hero in a movie, teasing and courting his leading lady.
He pursued her endlessly, sweeping her off her feet,
Until she was in love, oh so completely!

“He loves me so much!”, she thought.
It’s only society he worries, who would diminish his value, see him as less
If she carried out her plan and not burden her dad from excessive wedding expense!
A wedding does come, once in our lifetime,
But it made her cringe some, seeing her dad stress for every dime.

“He loves me so much!”, she thought.
It’s just that he needs unwinding after work, a little TV and a pint of beer, is his manly quirk.
“Lucky you!”, she’d always think, after work when she cleaned the plates, off the dirty sink.
It’s just that he doesn’t know, poor man, how to wash, cook or clean
While she was the ‘skilled superwoman’, the ‘born multitasker’, as he’d say with a wink.

“He loves me so much!”, she thought.
It’s for our combined future he saves unnecessary gifts for her, when he evades.
The Value of money he’s learnt the hard way, practicality is important, emotions don’t make him sway.
It was perplexing, the no-spend list, so long.
What would she have done, had Mr. Perfect not come along?

“He loves me!”, she thought.
“It’s just momentary anger”, he’d say,
When he screamed at her and drove with that reckless sway.
“Little fights, which couple doesn’t have”, he’d quip,

When she couldn’t understand, the long arguments and practically no friendship.

“He still loves me!”, she thought
“But why the constant anger”, she’d wonder,
She was carrying their child, was that no reason for his heart to grow fonder?
Why this constant sadness and streaming tear, where did happy days, weeks and months disappear?
“All would be fine”, she’d still think, although she found herself, always at the depression brink.

“He does love me!”, she thought
Let me be extra nice, put behind the past and break that ice.
As his childhood friend came to stay, she served them happily, night and day.
It warmed her heart to see their friendly bicker, over coffee, tea and countless glasses of liquor.
She cooked and cleaned, an infant by her side, in cloud nine, to see him laughing after such a long while.

She did find them whispering at times, some man-to-man talk, she casually brushed aside.

Until she heard in his inebriated state, her husband of 10 years, boasting of another wife, to his mate!

In that instant, the world around her shattered, as one little thought, through her numb mind battered.

“Oh, he doesn’t really love me!”, for the first time she thought. Her soulmate, he was surely not!

Though that thought, brought her to her knees,
Months and years of agony, breaking her heart to one million piece.
But that single thought finally liberated her.
For there was left, no more doubt, that a better life awaited her.

It choked her, it chaffed her, made her desperate to the core
But she held on and finally showed him the door.

Never love anyone so much that you are blind.
Focus on you, that’s more worthwhile.
No one is more important than you, love yourself first.
Let no one tell you what to do now and then next.
As one wise woman had once said: Once your parents have raised you,
There’s no more raising, someone else has to do!