Underneath, he started listing what he’d just learned. That she wasn’t cheating. That the locked bathroom door meant panic, not betrayal. That her questions about whether they were okay weren’t manipulation but genuine terror that he was going to leave.
Then, under that list, he wrote something that made his chest ache.
“I’m scared too. Not of you. Of failing you. Of not knowing how to help when you’re hurting. I don’t want a divorce. I don’t want distance. I want help. Can we take this to someone who actually knows what to do? Because I don’t, and I’m tired of guessing wrong.”
He left the notebook exactly where he’d found it, open to the page he’d written.
Then he sat there at the kitchen table, waiting.
Emma appeared in the doorway and stopped when she saw him sitting there. Her eyes immediately went to the notebook, and all the color drained from her face.
“You read it,” she whispered, and it wasn’t a question.
“I did,” Daniel said, and his own voice was shaking. “And I’m so sorry, Emma. I’m sorry I spent months fighting a problem I never even asked you about.”
She stood frozen in the doorway, clutching the frame as if she needed it to hold her up.
“I thought you’d think I was crazy.”
“I thought you were cheating on me,” he admitted, the words bitter in his mouth. “I thought you wanted out. I thought I was losing you to someone else.”
Emma made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “I was losing myself. And I didn’t know how to tell you.”
She walked slowly to the table and picked up the notebook. Her hands were trembling as she turned to the next page, where she’d apparently been writing before he came home. She slid it across the table to him.
At the top, she’d written, “Things I’m scared to say out loud… but maybe can write.”
Below it was a list of everything she’d been holding inside. Every fear, every moment of panic, and every time she’d wanted to reach for him, but convinced herself he’d think she was too much.
“Can this be our bridge?” Daniel asked quietly, touching the edge of the notebook. “On days when you can’t say it out loud and I don’t know the right words, can we write it instead?”
Emma nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I’d like that.”
It didn’t fix everything overnight.
Daniel didn’t magically transform into someone who understood emotions and knew exactly what to say during a panic attack. Emma didn’t magically stop having anxiety that made her doubt everything, including his love for her.
But they took the notebook to therapy together. They learned new words that Daniel had never heard before: panic attack, reassurance, triggers, grounding techniques, and anxiety disorder.
Some days were harder than others.
Read more on the next page 👇👇👇
