Behind the facade of a happy family, a toxic environment festered. John, a God-fearing, humble and honest officer, suffered in silence. His simplicity, clean-heartedness, and honesty had become his downfall in his marriage to Mary, whose narcissistic personality had created a living hell. Behind closed doors, John wept and wiped away his tears, hiding his pain from the world. Mary would taunt him, criticize him, and manipulate the children into turning against him.
As the days turned into nights, John’s tears fell like rain with his heart heavy with sorrow. He felt like a prisoner in his own home, trapped in a loveless marriage, with no escape from the torment. But Mary had other plans. She decided to break their home without giving a second thought to the children’s future, and John’s love for her. With a calculating smile, she executed her nefarious plans, feeling a twisted sense of joy in destroying the life, they had built together.
She would often humiliate John in front of his relatives and of course, their children, making him feel worthless and insignificant. Mary tightened the noose, declaring an open war on John. She no longer bothered seeking permission or consent before doing anything or going anywhere, a fundamental aspect of a trusting married life. Instead, she began making outrageous demands for huge sums of money, knowing John earned a handsome salary and had adequate savings, but ignoring the fact, that he was drowning in loans and debts, which he had incurred for the renovation of his ancestral property.
John had a great emotional attachment to his ancestral home, where his fathers’ and grandparents’ memories, coupled with his own sweet and sour childhood memories, resonated. Actually, John wanted to preserve the same for his dear children, hardly thinking that his wife was having contrary designs and plans. As Mary’s plans unfolded, John’s world began to crumble. The first step she took was to feed lies and concocted tales to their children, just to cultivate and harness hatred among them for their loving father. The children, under Mary’s influence, turned against John. They would ignore his calls, dismiss his messages, and even refuse to meet him. John felt like he was losing everything that mattered to him, although temporarily. He was left alone, with no one to turn to, no one to confide in.
John, having full faith in the mercy of God, watched all the hostile events and the whole scenario, solely eyeing on Almighty’s justice, and believed that a day will come soon when the truth will be revealed. The closed room, full of dullness, stood as a silent witness to John’s suffering for all these long years. It saw the silent sobs and sighs, the trickle of thick tears from John’s eyes, and the mental and emotional torture, atrocities, coupled with severe denial inflicted by Mary upon him.
The room held a thousand heart-wrenching tales, each one a testament to the anguish and pain that John endured behind closed doors. His love for Mary, for which she later proved worthless, prevented him from dissolving the sacred institution of marriage. In the end, John’s story became a haunting reminder that behind closed doors, the truth is often hidden, and the suffering is often silenced. But his resilience and refusal to give in serve as a beacon of hope for those trapped in similar situations, a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is always a way forward.
(Author works as a GST Inspector, Government of Jammu & Kashmir. He can be reached at [email protected])
