I never imagined that bringing my husband his forgotten lunch would unravel our marriage.
I’m Janet, and my husband Mark is a psychology professor. We’ve been married ten years, and today, I decided to surprise him at work. When I arrived at the university and quietly entered his lecture hall, I sat at the back to watch him teach. But then I heard something that made my blood run cold.
“To prove the theory, I recreated the experiment on my wife,” he said.
To my shock, a video of me appeared on the screen. My name and face, along with cruel, humiliating labels, were being displayed to an entire classroom. Mark was explaining how he had implanted a false memory in my mind—something that never happened—by manipulating our conversations and texts over weeks. I had no idea I was part of any experiment.
Unable to stay silent, I confronted him in front of the class. “What if your wife found out? How do you think that would go?”
He froze when he recognized my voice.
Trying to defend himself, Mark claimed it was for science, that I should feel “honored.” But I was furious. He never asked for my consent, never considered how this would affect me emotionally or mentally. I was humiliated, betrayed, and treated like a lab rat—all for a lecture.
His students were stunned. Mark tried to explain the scientific value of false memory implantation, but I couldn’t listen. He had broken my trust, made me question my own mind, and used our relationship for academic gain.
“You shattered our trust,” I said before walking out of the auditorium, leaving him and his students in silence.
Outside, I tried to make sense of it all. Could our marriage survive this? Did I even want it to?