It was a normal day when I sent my husband this picture of me with our neighbour’s horse. I didn’t pay much attention to it.
I had been helping out at the stables for a long time and this massive black horse had become my favourite. His name was Thunder, and he was affectionate despite his size.
But when my husband saw this picture, everything changed. He enlarged the image, scanned it over and over, and then the message came – cold and unexpected.
‘I want a divorce.’
At first I thought it was a joke. But then he called. You could sense the anger in his voice.
‘How long has this been going on?’ – He demanded.
‘Wait, what? What are you talking about?’ I was confused.
‘The shadow,’ he spat out. ‘The shadow on your back, don’t lie to me.’
Only then did I realise what he’d seen.
The shadow from Thunder’s head and neck was casting a long, dark figure on my back – it was disturbingly reminiscent of the silhouette of a man standing behind me with his arms around my waist.
At that moment I realised what he was thinking. It seemed to him that I wasn’t alone.
No matter how many times I tried to explain that it was just the shadow of a horse, he refused to believe me. His opinion had been formed, and no amount of reasoning could change it. The image had played a cruel joke, distorting reality so much that it made him doubt everything. It wasn’t just the image, but his trust, which had been shattered in that fleeting moment of illusion. From then on, he doubted what was real and what wasn’t, and nothing I could say could undo the damage that had already been done.
