Tricia Rose Burt

I was raised that I should get married, that I should defer to my husband, and that I should rely on my husband to make me happy.

I can tell you firsthand that this is inherently flawed.

When my husband and I separate after five years of marriage,

He stays in our home in Sudbury, in the suburbs right outside of Boston.

And I rent an apartment in town in Back Bay.

And as it turns out, without knowing it, I move directly across the street from the woman my husband's been having an affair with.

Now, for months, I suspected he was having an affair, but he kept denying it and telling me I was imagining things, and so I just felt crazy.

So a couple of months after I moved in the new apartment, I thought to myself, I said, you know, God, I just don't want to feel crazy anymore.

So if he's having an affair, please let me know it.

And if he's not having an affair, please help me trust him.

And three days later, I'm driving to the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where I'm a part-time art student, and I see my husband's car on the side of the road.

It's this little white Alfa Romeo.

You can't miss it.

And there's a woman putting something in my husband's car.

And the first thing I do is throw my hands up in the air and say, thank you, God, I'm not crazy.

And then I pull over, and I say, hi.

That's my husband's car.

And she says, well, I don't know what you're talking about.

And I said, but that's my husband's car.

And she says, well, I guess you're just going to have to talk to him about that.