Brides Are Revealing Why They Called Off The Marriage Right Before The Wedding, And Wow

2.

“He didn’t want to marry me, and I could feel it in my bones. I had poured all of myself into our life, supporting him on two different dream career tracks while grinding hard in my own career. I bought us a house, paid off his debts to the best of my ability, just absolutely dragging us through adulthood with sheer willpower. I wanted to build a good, stable life and be a good, supportive life partner. I wanted to have a family and a happy, safe home, things I didn’t get as a kid. That man did not even like me. He liked the life I was providing him. He knew if he didn’t commit, I’d eventually move on, and he’d have to find a new meal ticket. I didn’t realize it at first, but then, it slowly crept into every fiber of my being, like a cold you just cannot get warm from. I told him I didn’t want to get married, a month out from the day. I had planned it all alone, paid it all alone, and knew it would be a death sentence, somehow.”

“I had to convince him it wasn’t him, and that I just didn’t want ever to get married; I had to play into it being some outdated social construct. Immediately after that conversation, I started hiding money in the pages of my favorite childhood books. It took me a year to fully leave the relationship. I had to burn my life to the ground and lost pretty much everything I had worked for, as well as pretty much everyone in my life, and he turned out to be a much, much worse person than I had realized. That was about a decade ago now. I haven’t been asked out on a date since, so I’m still not married. But I do have a new, happy, safe home, and I have built a lovely little found family. If I hadn’t called it off, I would be dead. I didn’t know it then.”

—u/eclecticcrow