It started as a dream I brushed off as stress. In the dream, a man I didn’t recognize stood confidently beside me and referred to me as his wife.
I woke up confused but not alarmed. I was happily married, loyal, and had never questioned my commitment. Dreams are just dreams, I told myself.
But the dreams returned. Again and again. Different men. Different places. Same claim. Each one spoke with authority, some anger, some entitlement, all insisting I belonged to them.
I would wake up shaken, exhausted, and strangely guilty, like I had done something wrong even though nothing physical or emotional had ever happened in real life.
That was when my marriage began to suffer.
I became distant without understanding why. Intimacy felt heavy. Arguments started over small things. ...CONTINUE READING