My grandfather cheated on my grandmother with a woman twenty years younger than him. My grandmother found out through a phone bill. Of all the ways to discover your husband is having an affair, that was the one she got. She didn’t cry or scream. She simply asked him, “Does she know you’ve been sleeping with the same woman for 32 years?” He had no answer. For six months, she acted as if nothing had happened. She cooked, went to work, and attended family gatherings with a smile. Everyone thought she had forgiven him. Nobody knew she was preparing to leave. She had already spoken to a lawyer, opened her own bank account, and found an apartment two towns away. While my grandfather went about his life, convinced everything was fine, my grandmother was quietly planning her freedom. Then one morning, he woke up to an empty house. Her clothes were gone. Her belongings were gone. And on the kitchen counter was a note that read: “I spent 32 years building a home with you. I refuse to spend the rest of my life begging you to respect it.” What happened next was even more painful for him.