Page 93 of The Yoga Teacher

He didn’t want to say it out loud. He didn’t want to admit that he was already past his prime.

She reached over and gently smoothed the collar of his shirt like she used to when he was a boy, straightening him out when he didn’t even know he was unraveling.

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Daniel stared down at the worksheet in front of him.

"Infidelity Recovery: Taking Accountability"

The header glared up at him, the stark black font standing in sharp contrast against the crisp white paper.

Dr. Ellis had handed it to him at the end of their last session. No lecture. No explanation. Just a quiet, expectant look, like she already knew this would gut him.

It was worse than gutting him.

It was forcing him to sit in the wreckage he had made.

The worksheet was split into sections, each one demanding a deeper level of self-confrontation than the last.

Daniel exhaled slowly, dragging a hand down his face.

The answers weren’t complex. They weren’t some grand psychological puzzle.

They were ugly and simple.

Why did you cheat?

Because I was insecure. Because I needed to feel powerful. Because instead of confronting that, I destroyed the one person who had always made me feel like I was enough.

What stories did you tell yourself to justify it?

That it wasn’t real. That it didn’t mean anything. That Hannah would never leave me. That I could be a good husband and a selfish fucking idiot at the same time.

Daniel swallowed hard, his grip tightening around the pen.

What impact did it have on your partner?

His chest squeezed.

There weren’t enough lines on this page for that.

I humiliated her. I took every soft, vulnerable part of her and crushed it..

Daniel clenched his jaw, blinking hard against the burn behind his eyes.

It took her sense of safety, her trust in me, in us. I made her question every part of herself—her body, her desirability, her worth.

He had spent months tearing himself apart, trying to change, trying tofixthe part of himself that had let this happen.

But some things couldn’t be fixed.

Some things you just had to live with.

His gaze flicked to the last question.

What do you truly regret—and what do you only regret because you got caught?

His stomach twisted.

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