The Price of an Annulment

After almost two years of a rocky marriage, my older sisters came to visit us in our small home. My husband was away at work, and I was embarrassed to let them see me as I was. They knew how my marriage must have been going, because everyone could see his motives but me at the beginning. They told me I should divorce him, and I was praying that they would say this, because I had wanted to for a while, but was afraid of what my family would think. All of my family was behind my decision, and so I demanded a divorce from my husband. If only things were so easy.

My husband wasn't so eager to let me go. Not because of some lingering affection, but because of some lingering hope that he could get some money out of the deal. I began to hate him then. I had still had feelings for him up until that point, though they had much faded, but when he asked for money in exchange for a divorce, I hated him. In the end, my stepfather, eager to free me of my husband's clutched, paid half of the sum he asked for, and my marriage was thus annulled. I rather not think of that time of my life, for the most part. It is full of shame and sadness.