▸ Column · Modern-day New York City (Marvel Universe)
SPIDER-MAN replies.
Replied to by Spider-Man, with a rebuttal from Green Goblin.
The letter
My husband Dylan left his phone on the kitchen counter Wednesday morning while he was in the shower, and I wasn't even looking for anything — it just kept buzzing. The name "Layla" kept coming up, so I picked it up. I really wish I hadn't. There were months of texts, hotel bookings, the whole thing. Going back to September at least, maybe earlier.
We've been together eleven years and we've got two kids in second and fourth grade. Here's what's messing with my head: the whole time he's been saying we "don't connect anymore" — like he's already been building his excuse. (Which, honestly, makes me feel sick in a completely different way.)
I put the phone back exactly where it was, didn't say a word, and pretended to be asleep when he came to bed. I keep going back and forth. Do I bring it up right now, or do I quietly figure out how bad it is first before everything blows up?
— Blindsided in Brooklyn
Spider-Man replies
Oh man. This one hit different.
Here's something I know from bitter personal experience: keeping a secret while the other person doesn't know you're keeping it is two lies living in the same apartment. I held out on MJ for years — big stuff, "for her protection," I told myself. What it actually did was build a wall so thick that when things finally broke open, she wasn't just hurt by the original thing. She was hurt by every single day I'd said nothing.
You saw what you saw. You know what it means. And you're wondering if more evidence will somehow make the conversation easier. It won't, pal. It'll just make it longer.
Tell him what you found. "I picked up your phone. I saw the texts. I need you to talk to me." That's it — simpler than rewiring web-shooters, honestly. You're not blowing up your family — he set that charge the day he first started typing her name. You're just deciding whether to be in the room when it goes off.
Your kids need a mom who's standing upright. That starts with not carrying this alone.
Take the brave swing.
— Spider-Man
Green Goblin weighs in
Heh heh HEE HEE! Oh how precious — the spider wants you to just "talk to him." Worked absolute wonders for my Harry, didn't it? Show all your cards, bare your soul — touching! Crippling!
What you have right now, darling, is a pumpkin bomb that hasn't detonated yet. Don't light the fuse yourself.
Before you say a single word to that spineless coward Dylan, you call a lawyer. Today. You document everything — the texts, the hotels, the timeline. Every piece becomes leverage in the only fight that matters: the one in a courtroom.
Then when you glide in? You're not broken. You're not begging. You're winning.
The spider wants him to have time to spin his little web of excuses. I want you to cut the string first.
— Green Goblin
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