I just wanted to find a place to drown my sorrows.

Call me useless, call me cowardly. I don’t care. After realizing what a cunning man my husband truly was, fear was just the beginning. The pain, the disappointment, the utter disillusionment all piled on like a weight I couldn’t lift.

I’m human too, okay? My heart is made of flesh and blood.

Every moment of the past seven years was real. But what Jim Jackson said and did today make me feel sick—physically sick.

I downed one drink after another, as if I were gulping boiled water instead of alcohol. My stomach burned, but even that couldn’t compare to...