Where should I start?
Maybe I should start with how I met my husband.
Before I knew him, I was still waiting for someone I once loved. We had known each other for years. We spent a lot of time together, went out often, and acted more like a couple than just friends. But I guess we were never meant to be. What hurt me the most was how he could disappear for months without giving me any explanation. Looking back, I realised that maybe I was never his first choice just someone he kept around whenever it was convenient.
While I was trying to move on, my husband came into my life through a popular social media app.
Honestly, I had no intention of getting to know anyone. I was still healing. Sure, I chatted with a lot of people, but none of those conversations were meant to become anything serious. I just wanted friends and distractions.
One day, he replied to one of my stories and started telling me about his ex-wife.
That immediately turned me off.
I couldn't help but think, "Why do I always attract divorced men?" To make it even stranger, his ex-wife worked at my previous company just like another divorced man I had talked to before. It felt like such a weird coincidence.
For days, I ignored every invitation he made to meet me. I simply wasn't interested. Dating a divorced man was never part of my plan.
Eventually, we started talking on the phone.
One night, he confessed that he liked me.
I was completely stunned. I didn't know how to respond.
I asked him to give me a few days to think about it, but he kept pushing for an answer. I won't lieāit made me feel uncomfortable.
Eventually, we agreed to meet. It happened on a Tuesday afternoon, the same day I had taken leave from work to prepare for a short family vacation.
The day before our meeting, he told me he had to go to court regarding custody of his daughter. What he never told me was that his divorce had been rushed through the legal process. I only discovered that much later while filling out our marriage registration documents.
Can you imagine how I felt?
I was devastated.
When I met him, he looked exhausted. He seemed emotionally drained, like someone carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
That night, I accepted him.
Partly because I felt sorry for him.
But also because he was the first man who had ever confessed his feelings to me and genuinely asked me to be his partner. Throughout my life, I had always been the one making the first move. No one had ever chosen me first.
As time passed, our relationship was good. We spent more time together and slowly built a life.
Then reality caught up with us.
There were lies.
There were things both of us chose not to be honest about.
There were people from our past whom we couldn't completely cut off.
Those unresolved issues slowly hurt both of us, and even today, some of those wounds haven't fully healed.
Despite everything, he decided he wanted to marry me. He met my father, asked for my hand, and eventually proposed. I said yes.
Earlier this year, we got married.
Before our wedding, he warned me that people from his past might try to interfere with our marriage.
Unfortunately, he was right.
Even before we got engaged, his ex-wife posted about me on Threads, calling me "his ATM." When I responded professionally, she became even more emotional and accused me of things that simply weren't true. I only defended myself because she attacked me first.
Yet somehow, I ended up becoming the bad person.
She even told my husband, "Make sure your wife doesn't throw shade at me."
I remember thinking, Who started this in the first place?
What hurt me even more was that my husband seemed to agree with everything she said about me.
That disappointment stayed with me.
Eventually, I became tired of the drama and stopped caring.
Sadly, it also affected my relationship with his daughter.
He assume I dislike her, but that's not true.
Every time she stays with us, I'm the one who cooks for her, bathes her, pampers her, cleans her up, and takes care of her. I do everything a parent would do, even though she isn't my biological child.
So when my husband tells me, "You don't like my daughter," it hurts more than he realises.
How could he say that after everything I've done?
I stopped arguing about it because I was exhausted. Instead, I kept everything to myself.
One thing I will always be grateful for is his family.
They have always treated me with kindness, and I genuinely appreciate them.
Sometimes I do feel hurt when they naturally take his side, but I understand that he's their son. What they don't know is everything I've gone through because of him.
His ex-wife spread lies about me.
Women from his past have even contacted me, telling me to divorce him.
Meanwhile, before I got married, the people from my own past respected my marriage and never disturbed us again.
The difference hurts.
Do I love my husband?
Yes.
I truly do.
But sometimes, his behaviour makes me question the choices I've made.
Financially, I carry more responsibility than I should.
Most of the household expenses come from me.
This month, I stayed quiet on purpose because I wanted to see whether he would notice that the house needed groceries or daily necessities.
He didn't.
As the husband, I believe you're meant to lead the familyānot leave everything for your wife to manage alone.
Providing food for the household shouldn't even be a question. It's a basic responsibility. There are many other responsibilities too, but whenever I bring them up, his answer is always the same.
"I'm sorry. I don't know."
"I'm sorry. I'm just a kampung boy."
Well, so am I.
Being raised in a village doesn't stop someone from learning, growing, or understanding responsibility.
If I were in his position, I wouldn't have handled things this way.
If I knew I wasn't financially or emotionally ready, maybe I wouldn't have gotten married yet. Maybe I would have focused on fulfilling my responsibilities as a father first.
Another issue is moving back to his hometown.
Honestly, I'm adaptable. You can take me anywhere, and I'll find a way to survive.
The only thing stopping him is that he doesn't want to be far away from his daughter.
I understand that completely.
But these are conversations he should have properly with his ex-wife. If they need to arrange visitation differently, then discuss it like adults. If seeing his daughter means travelling to Kuala Lumpur once a month, then perhaps that's what needs to happen.
Instead, it feels like everything still revolves around his ex-wife.
What confuses me the most is that he tells her almost everything.
Every decision.
Every plan.
Every problem.
To me, that crosses a boundary.
Sharing too much gives someone the power to look down on you or use your struggles against you.
When I once read his emails with Farina, I realised something.
My husband doesn't know how to establish healthy boundaries.
He struggles to make decisions for himself and often lets other people influence him.
Sometimes he says that I'm the one who doesn't think far enough ahead.
But from my perspective, he struggles to see the bigger picture himself.
I don't ask for perfection.
I just hope he changes.
I hope he learns how to face problems instead of avoiding them.
I hope he becomes more responsible financially.
I hope he grows into the leader our family needs.
Because despite everything we've been throughā¦
I still love him.
I still want to spend the rest of my life with him.
I still want us to grow old together, holding each other's hands as our hair turns grey.
I simply hope that one day, he'll become the husband I know he's capable of being.
















