We were both animal lovers.
Hikers.
Sports enthusiasts.
When we got married, she was beginning a career in business, and I was a veterinarian at an animal clinic.
Every so often, people brought abandoned or abused animals to the clinic.
On my very first day at the clinic, a woman walked in with a dog.
"We bought a house," the woman said, "and the previous owners left her there."
I looked down at her feet, and there she was: an Australian shepherd with the sweetest eyes I'd ever seen. You could tell something was hurting her, yet she looked as though she was trying to smile.
We examined her and found that she had heartworms. The X-rays showed some damage to her heart. We explained the treatment she would need and what it would cost.
The woman stared at the dog for a long moment before speaking.
"I can't pay for that. She needs more care than I can give her."
Well, I was glad the shepherd couldn't understand English, because that wasn't the kind of thing anybody wanted to hear.
That dog had already been abandoned. She was probably wondering where her owners were.
I told the woman I'd take the dog to a shelter.
I called Samantha on my way there and told her what had happened.
"We need to bring her home," she said.
Those were the kindest words I'd heard all day.
I put the phone on speaker so the dog could hear it, or at least feel the warmth in it.
That night, I brought her home.
"I think Layla," Samantha said.
"No, she looks more like a Kira," I said.
"I hate that one."
"Kayla," I said.
Samantha smiled.
She didn't have to say anything. We both knew we'd found the right name.
From that day on, Kayla went almost everywhere with us: hardware stores, hiking trails, road trips.
Like many couples, we grew even closer because of our dog.
And so did the love between Samantha and me.
Bringing Kayla home was the best decision we'd made since getting married.
But things between Samantha and me changed a few months later.
Not because we stopped loving each other, but because more animals kept arriving at the clinic.
Just like Kayla, many of them weren't likely to be adopted because of chronic health problems.
So I brought them home.
Eventually, we had seven dogs and three cats living in our house.
That's when everything started to fall apart.
Samantha was barely home anymore.
"I can't stand the noise... all the extra cleaning," she said one night.
She held up her running shoes.
"They chewed them." Frustration filled her voice. "Please take them to the shelter."
"And let them die?" I asked.
"It wasn't you who abandoned them in the first place."
I knew she didn't mean that. She cried all night.
I brought up an idea I'd been dreaming about for years.
"What if I opened my own veterinary practice?" I asked.
"We don't have the money, James."
"We can use our savings."
We argued for hours that night.
I couldn't convince her.
She became more and more frustrated. She cried herself to sleep almost every night.
And just like that, the same decision that had once brought us closer slowly drove us apart.
A month later, she packed her things and moved in with a friend from college.
"I'll give you time to decide if this is the life you want," she said before she left.
About six months later, I opened my own practice and converted part of it into a rescue where animals could stay for as long as they needed.
Three months in, I was already sheltering fifteen dogs and two cats.
By that point, Samantha and I were still separated, but we hadn't stopped talking.
We texted every week or so.
We hadn't talked about divorce papers.
We hadn't talked about moving back in together, either.
My friend Ray and I were grabbing drinks one night.
"She should've come back already," he said. "Your house isn't full of dogs and cats anymore."
I'd been thinking about that.
I kept telling myself maybe Samantha just needed more time. But ten months felt like long enough. If we wanted to give our marriage another chance, we needed to see each other again. And there was one trip we'd planned that could be our chance to do that.
So, a week later, I called her.
"The hiking trip to Tuscany is coming up," I said.
"I know. I figured you'd cancel the tickets."
"What if we went?"
There was a long silence.
For a moment, I thought the call had disconnected.
"Are you there?" I asked.
"I am," she said quietly. "I guess we could go... if you want."
"Yes," I answered softly.
Samantha and I texted more frequently in the weeks after that. We shared our excitement about the nature trails we'd chosen for the hike.
For the first time in months, it felt like we were finding our way back to each other.
Everything was going smoothly until Ray texted me.
"I saw Samantha," he said.
He kept typing.
"On a dating app."
I didn't believe him until he sent screenshots.
Something inside me broke when I saw them. Maybe Samantha had lost hope in us. Or maybe she'd stopped loving me.
But I couldn't understand why she hadn't asked me for a divorce.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
Part of me felt I should fight for my marriage.
The other part told me to accept that it was over, even though neither of us had admitted it.
For two days, I thought about canceling the trip.
Every reason told me not to go.
But I kept remembering the woman I'd married. The one who'd told me to bring Kayla home without a second thought.
If there was even the smallest chance we could find our way back to each other, I owed it to us to take it.
So I went.
Later, I found out she was keeping another secret from me.
Note:
I revised a version of this story that I had previously posted. I cleaned up the grammar in some places, and changed the intro and ending.
I typically post as I write.
Comment Updateme if you want to know when the next part is posted.
Thanks for reading me !
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