After 52 years of marriage, my husband put me on a plane without telling me where we were going. In the middle of the flight, he squeezed my hand tightly and whispered, “After today, you will never see your children again.” I was terrified of the man I’ve lived with my whole life, not realizing what he meant…

Finally we went on board.

The plane took off, and I watched our city disappear under the clouds.

The first twenty minutes Robert hardly spoke.

Then, as we flew somewhere over the countryside, it reached for my hand.

His fingers were cold.

He looked me straight in the eye and whispered:

Mary, after today, you’ll never see your children again.

For a moment, I thought I was mishearing.

• What did you just say?

He squeezed my hand.

Please don’t ask me any questions until we land.

I vomited my arm.

“You just said that I’ll never see my children again, and now you ask me not to ask questions?!”

The woman sitting through the pass looked in our direction.

Robert lowered his voice.

• Trust me.

For the first time in fifty-two years, I didn’t want to trust him.