When the Veil Is Pulled Back

That’s the moment everything starts to make sense—and it hurts like hell, but it also sets you free.

At first, everything was confusing.
The coldness. The silence. The mood swings.
The way he could be sweet one moment and gone the next—emotionally, physically, or both.

I spent years trying to decode it, thinking it was me.
If I just loved harder…
If I was less emotional…
If I didn’t ask so many questions…
If I was easier to love…

But then the veil lifted.

It didn’t happen all at once. It was slow—little cracks that became ruptures. And suddenly, I saw it.

The lies.
The hidden phone.
The conversations that never added up.
The devaluing, secluding, and neglect.
The way I was always the one trying to fix things I couldn’t see.

Then came the affairs.
The cruelty I had once explained away as “stress.”
The emotional withdrawal that was, in fact, punishment.
The affection that was selectively given to manipulate me into staying.

It was like waking up from a trance.

And with that awakening came anger, grief, and the most painful clarity I’ve ever known. But it also brought peace.

Because once you see it, really see it—you stop blaming yourself.
You stop trying to fix what was never yours to carry.
You stop waiting for the person you imagined him to be.
You stop bargaining with ghosts.

When the veil is pulled back, things become less confusing—because you're no longer trying to explain abuse through the language of love.

You’re just beginning to speak the truth. Carlin