THE WIFE HE SANG ABOUT (Marriage in Crisis, Grovel & Redemption #20)

LARKIN

My husband could tell the whole world how he felt about me. He just couldn’t tell me.

Townes Barrett was one of Nashville’s most gifted songwriters, and somewhere along the way, our marriage became his inspiration: our fights, my grief, the little pieces of our life I thought belonged only to us.

Then he wrote a song about the night our marriage nearly broke, gave it to one of the biggest country stars in America, and watched it become a hit.

Millions of people sang along to the worst moment of my marriage without knowing I was the woman behind every word.

I tried to live with it, until I heard the next song. This one wasn’t about our marriage. It was about something I’d told Townes years ago, a memory from when I was seventeen, a secret I’d never shared with another living soul. And he’d sold it.

That was when I understood the truth. My husband hadn’t just stopped talking to me. He’d turned me into material.

So before another stranger could sing my secrets back to me, I left.

Townes could keep Nashville, the songs, the awards, and the career he’d built from all the things he could never say to his wife’s face.

But if he wanted me back, for once, he was going to have to put down the guitar and find his own words.