I’ve been living Outside The Wire for the past five years.

Struggling to survive after my wife killed herself has been hell, and the guilt has torn me up inside.

I was barely breathing.

Nothing helped. Not my friends talking to me. Not the run-down house I bought to fix up. And definitely not the alcohol I drowned myself in every night to rid myself of the nightmares.

I missed all the signs.

I never saw it coming.

The bottle of pills she had on her that day had a permanent place in my pocket for way too long as a reminder of just how badly...

I’ve been living Outside The Wire for the past five years.

Struggling to survive after my wife killed herself has been hell, and the guilt has torn me up inside.

I was barely breathing.

Nothing helped. Not my friends talking to me. Not the run-down house I bought to fix up. And definitely not the alcohol I drowned myself in every night to rid myself of the nightmares.

I missed all the signs.

I never saw it coming.

The bottle of pills she had on her that day had a permanent place in my pocket for way too long as a reminder of just how badly I’d let her down.

Then came the storm.

The pain was too much to take and all I wanted to do was end it all.

And I almost went through with it.

But then the cycle would have continued and my friends would be paying the price.

So, I escaped.

I wake every morning with a new take on life. My mind no longer revolves around the pain I once felt, and for the first time, I actually looked at another woman and wanted to kiss her.

She’s a breath of fresh air, reminding me every day that not everything in life is tragic and horrible.

We’re so insanely happy that this Hallmark romance is bound to nauseate a few people, including my boss and her best friend. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even her conspiracy-theorist dad made me smile the first time I met him.

Life is just perfect.

But the life I’m living is based on a lie. You can never truly escape your past. Burying the truth and pretending it never happened doesn’t actually work, and when the storm returns, sometimes, it’s like a tornado, tearing everything you love apart.