These aren't the stories your mother told you.

No, these are the other stories.

Solitude, written by Ben Erington

Narrated by Josh Curran

I did a bad thing.

I did a real bad thing.

My relationship with my wife, Mandy, had been difficult for some time.

Although the first few years of our marriage had been relatively instant free, except for a few minor disagreements,

it went downhill drastically when I quit my job watering plants at the local garden center to become a full-time writer.

Mandy never used to be one for status and material possessions.

I love apparently enough for her when we traveled to Las Vegas to get hitched at a drive-through chapel.

As the years went by, however, she'd start to care more and more about what designer labels were on her clothes,

and the size of our house, both of which couldn't be improved by our moderate paychecks alone.

I blamed the girls at the nail salon where she worked.

All of their talk of rich boyfriends, lavish hotels and expensive gifts got Mandy wanting more,

more than I could provide. She started to go wild with credit cards and sometimes had more money than could be

accounted for. I found piles of $100 bills in a shoe box at the back of a utility cupboard

hidden behind a pile of magazines.

It was either drugs or sex.

I could be sure of that.

I just couldn't bring myself to confront her.

She was distant, yet she seemed happy.

...