He Only Missed Me After I Left

A woman spent years giving everything to her marriage. Her husband criticized her and looked down on her. She handled every domestic matter by herself with no one behind her, and she was eventually diagnosed with late-stage cancer. She divorced him. From that point she lived for herself and did not much care which way the illness went. She went through treatment and beat the disease. During the treatment she met a doctor, a cold man who was attentive to her in small ways. Over their meetings she was cared for as she had not been before. She got past her own hesitation and went to him, and they began a life together. Her former husband, after losing her, went through the small ordinary things she had left behind, including her diary, and began working out what she had been and what the marriage had done to her.