**Diary Entry, 12th October**
My parents always told me to be patient when I said I didnt love Emily and urged me to wait. How did that waiting end?
Marrying Emily was like living a waking nightmare. She was demanding, loud, but my father had chosen her for me. Hed picked out his old friends daughter and decided wed be perfect together. With no other prospects and already thirty, I had little choice but to go through with it. Emily ran our marriage like a generaleverything had to follow her plans and whims. First came one child, then another, just as shed arranged.
Life rolled on in hardship and disappointment, filled with moments so bitter it felt like hell itself. I resented my wife, my children, even clashed fiercely with my father-in-law. At times, I doubted Id survive it without divorce.
Mum stood by me, though both she and Dad insisted I just wait and endure. As if they knew something, having lived so long, certain Id understand in time.
Now the children are grown and gone. Emily and I remain, worn into each other like old shoes. I cant imagine life without her. Moneys steady, and weve settled into a quiet contentment, life feeling almost like a fairy tale. Were healthy, want for nothing, love each other in our way, with no real worries left. Everythings as it should beno complaints for years.
It took decades to reach this peace, but I wonder do people ever truly feel happy while buried in work, children, and chaos? Or does it come, as it did for me, only in old age? When theres nowhere left to run, and no reason to.
