But why? The answer soon revealed itself. One evening, I heard him whispering on the phone, thinking I was sound asleep. In his voice was a tenderness I hadn’t heard directed at me for a long time. He was talking to her.

And then the worst happened. One evening, while I was once again “asleep” on the couch under the effect of the sleeping pill, he brought her into our home.

They laughed, whispered together in our living room, while I lay nearby pretending to sleep.

That was when I finally understood: everything I had believed to be love and family happiness was a lie. My husband had been drugging me with sleeping pills so I wouldn’t get in the way of his life.