ManyWriters

Eight years into our marriage, my husband, Julian Croft, abruptly announced he wanted us to have a sexless marriage.
He said work was too demanding, the pressure too great, and he simply had no energy left for our private life.
I tried to convince myself this was perhaps just a normal phase, a common dip that seasoned marriages sometimes experienced. But then, as I was mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, I stumbled upon a familiar figure.
The caption was stark and to the point: Is my boyfriend touch-starved?
In the video, the man whose hands seemed to ache to caress every inch of the girl’s skin was none other than my own husband—the very same man championing our new, sexless life.

Eight Autumns of Lies

On the screen, Chloe, pregnant, was crying, throwing herself onto a man decades her senior.


The college advisor and I were beside them, trying to reason with her:


"Chloe, are you sure you want to gamble your future on a man like this?"


"If you don't approve my withdrawal from school, I'll die here at the school with my baby!"


The man's rough hand wiped away Chloe's tears, his voice filled with anger:


"Listen, she's carrying the Harrison family's eldest grandson in her womb."


"If anything happens to Chloe, I won't spare you!"


Under their repeated threats, the college advisor and I finally approved her application to withdraw from school.


As I walked her to the door, I looked at Chloe:


"Since you've chosen this path, I won't be funding you anymore."


Chloe lifted her chin, her face full of smug satisfaction:


"Of course. I'm going to live a good life now."


Chapter 5