• Culture
    Culture
    Filipino actors Bridgerton

    Get to know the Filipino actors in ‘Bridgerton’

    pura luka vega chappell roan church

    Matched her freak! Pura Luka Vega performs Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ at ‘Church’

    AI and deepfake porn is a form of sexual assault—and we need to talk about it

    AI and deepfake porn is a form of sexual assault—and we need to talk about it

    • Women
    • Queer
    • Politics
    • Environment
    • Food
  • Style
    Style
    Pond's serums

    These night serums are your new solutions for radiant, glowing skin

    5 original Filipino fragrance brands to check out

    5 original Filipino fragrance brands to check out

    Here’s where you can get unique, one-off accessories—designed by you

    • Fashion
    • Beauty
    • Space
    • Shopping
  • Entertainment
    Entertainment
    Filipino actors Bridgerton

    Get to know the Filipino actors in ‘Bridgerton’

    pura luka vega chappell roan church

    Matched her freak! Pura Luka Vega performs Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ at ‘Church’

    charlie’s angels totally spies!

    Our favorite onscreen spies, from Austin Powers to ‘Totally Spies!’

    • Celebrities
    • TV & Movies
    • Music
  • Life+Money
    Life+Money
    Single woman adopts baby

    Forming a family: When a single woman adopts a baby

    painting of baby

    A mother-to-be’s survival guide

    Navigating a friend breakup that has no bad blood

    It’s no one’s fault: When a friendship naturally runs its course

    • Career & Money
    • Parenting & Relationships
    • Sex & Health
    • Astrology
    • Travel
  • Inquirer.net
  • Lifestyle
Reading
How my daughter helps me go through my break up
ShareTweet
In Culture
3 min read

How my daughter helps me go through my break up

By L. Julianoon November 22, 2016
Share

Every week, Preen tackles motherhood sans the rose-tinted glasses. Our columnists L. Juliano, Marla Darwin, Monica Eleazar-Manzano, and Rossana Unson tell their personal experiences like it is—at times frustrating, oftentimes confusing, but always enlightening.

How does a marriage jump from bliss to uncertainty? From literally being fine one day, and then the next completely amiss? The sudden jolt baffles me. I’ve had friends tell us that the 10th year is among the hardest. But I never expected the foundation to just crumble in a matter of hours. The questions that arise from what I knew as true yesterday are the very contemplations that test my sanity—like a tiny pen slowly blotting an immaculately white weave until it consumes it to pitch black.

It all began when hubby decided to stay most of the week in a condo in Makati. Months ago, it seemed like the perfect plan. Long hours at work was not healthy and the additional time he gets to sleep instead of driving all the way home will do him good. His schedule has been so crazy, and I understand. We’re building a business and that’s a part of it. But recently, I’ve noticed how we’ve become distant. On days when he’s home, we would bicker about things you’d expect a couple going 10 years should be well adjusted in. From the way I almost singlehandedly raise our daughter to his poor choices and work priorities, there’s always something to question, always something to be irritated about. His absence, despite it bringing a false sense of relief from the arguments, adds to the complications; compounding without us even knowing it.

Then one evening at home, after a few drinks with friends, I woke around 11 p.m. to the sound of mumbling in the bathroom. I open the door and to his surprise, he tells the person on the other line, “I have to go. I have to go” and hastily puts it down. I demanded for the phone where he flashed a woman’s name on the log. I asked to see the messages and he buckled. After a few seconds, he headed to his inbox and scrolled way too fast for me to see anything. I grabbed it and looked at the first few messages and see nothing. I couldn’t go on, a part of me was afraid of what I’ll see. I just stood there perplexed. I barraged him with questions he couldn’t even answer. Defeated, I just tell him “Break it off. Whatever it is that you’re doing. F*cking break it off.” And I go back to bed.

Sleep wasn’t kind enough to give me rest. We uttered no word until 5 a.m. He held my hand and apologized for being too drunk to explain anything, that it was simply a client who called him. It’s not new to me that a client calls in the wee hours of the morning, but what’s new was his reaction. He blamed intoxication. He convincingly assured me of his fidelity and I was willing to let the issue go, to just rewind and start again. But those hours lying in bed were enough to conjure long forgotten demons I’ve locked away years ago.

I’m acquainted with this fear. I’ve had to go through it many times in my life because of my anxiety disorder. By now, I’m expecting myself to rebound from it quicker than before. I’ve learned to understand and work around it. But that doesn’t mean I no longer feel the same kind of dread. His actions that I’ve always seen as innocent are now tainted with judgment. More questions are brought up, more actions seem to be far from innocent. It’s been weeks since the incident, and every day is a step down into the pit. My daughter has been asking for him and I couldn’t even bring myself to say “daddy,” as if mentioning it is akin to calling the Devil himself. He hasn’t been home so much to notice, and the more there’s this distance between us, the more I succumb to the dark clouds that try to pull me into abyss.

My daughter has been my cure. Time spent with her is time in another world. A place of no hatred. My days are filled with her magic. But as soon as it is 2 a.m., when silence fills the room and her tiny body is flung across my chest, I choke and drown to all these thoughts.

I cannot and will not let this go on. Not when I have another human being to raise. It’s about her now. Whatever outcome the universe decides to reveal, I will take it and act on it. I just hope my intuitions are wrong, just as they’ve been wrong before. In my case, intuition isn’t something I can fully trust because of my condition. I just pray for truth.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author in her private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of Preen.ph, or any other entity of the Inquirer Group of Companies.

 

Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels

Follow Preen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Viber

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0

Action Required!

We embed Facebook Comments plugin to allow you to leave comment at our website using your Facebook account. It may collects your IP address, your web browser User Agent, store and retrieve cookies on your browser, embed additional tracking, and monitor your interaction with the commenting interface, including correlating your Facebook account with whatever action you take within the interface (such as “liking” someone’s comment, replying to other comments), if you are logged into Facebook. For more information about how this data may be used, please see Facebook’s data privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Accept    Decline

Tags
AnnulmentdaughterhusbandmomhoodMotherhoodparentsrelationship

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay in the loop


By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

ShareTweetEmailShare
L. Juliano
Jacque De Borja is an introvert pretending to be an extrovert, who gets insanely emotional about things—especially if they’re about dogs, women’s rights, and Terrace House.
Related
painting of baby

A mother-to-be’s survival guide

Peek This

Pond's serums

These night serums are your new solutions for radiant, glowing skin

Filipino actors Bridgerton

Get to know the Filipino actors in ‘Bridgerton’

pura luka vega chappell roan church

Matched her freak! Pura Luka Vega performs Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ at ‘Church’

AI and deepfake porn is a form of sexual assault—and we need to talk about it

AI and deepfake porn is a form of sexual assault—and we need to talk about it

Preen.ph © 2020. Hinge Inquirer Publications, Inc.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • HOME
  • ARCHIVES
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
Previous
Jodi Sta. Maria Did Not Bag an Emmy, but She Won in Fashion
Next
How to Style Your Fedora and Beret for Your Everyday Look
  • Culture
    • Women
    • Queer
    • Politics
    • Environment
    • Food
  • Style
    • Fashion
    • Beauty
    • Space
    • Shopping
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrities
    • TV & Movies
    • Music
  • Life+Money
    • Career & Money
    • Parenting & Relationships
    • Sex & Health
    • Astrology
    • Travel
  • Inquirer.net
  • Lifestyle
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Search
Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close
fashion fashion news music Culture News movies
See all results

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay in the loop


By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.