u/HelsinkiTorpedo

My ex-wife left me last October. First it was just a separation, then it became clear that we'd never work it out. She grew more and more hostile, to the point that she hates me now. I gave her space, only communicated about the things we had to communicate about, left her most of the stuff we owned, but it didn't matter. She tries to stop me from seeing my kid. She won't let my kid even call me from her house.

While we were together, I paid the bills (only one working) *and* took care of the housework. She played around on TikTok. I did much, if not most, of the parenting.

I found out a couple months after we split that she'd been cheating on me since at least June 2025. I confronted her, and we've been no-contact since that confrontation. She knew that cheating was my most important boundary.

I've never had an honest relationship. I've been cheated on by every single partner I've had. I'm done now. I cannot trust again. I cannot commit all of myself again. Which means I can't be with someone else, because everyone deserves a partner that will commit fully and not hold back out of fear of getting hurt.

She broke my ability to love romantically.

I'm just trying to accept that I'm gonna live my life alone.

Dinner was blackened tilapia and garlic green beans cooked in kerrygold butter in my cast irons, and I churched up some box mac & cheese with crawdad meat, replacing the milk in the recipe with half-n-half.

Edit to add: we were entrenched in a custody battle last year with her ex-husband (my daughter's bio-dad) that I paid for entirely, and she gave up custody as soon as we separated.

Also, we weren't legally married. We had a ceremony, but .gov wasn't involved