While moving houses, I found a box containing letters from my husband's college girlfriend. I knew I should put them back. Instead, I read every single one.
What surprised me wasn't jealousy. It was sadness. The boy described in those letters was younger, reckless, insecure, and full of dreams I had never heard about. I realized there was an entire version of my husband that existed before me and disappeared before I arrived. I put the letters back exactly where I found them. He doesn't know I met his younger self that afternoon.