My Punishment

In this realm of shadows where deceptions breed,  

I stood accused, her plot sowed the seed.  

She claimed I was the storm in her calm,  

A lie so cruel, it lost its charm.

She stacked the decks, played her hand with glee,  

A game where I was blind, but now I see.  

"I hurt her?" No, but the accusation was cast,  

A future tainted, a shadow vast.

The truth emerged from behind her mask,  

Admitting her deceit, a daunting task.  

"It was just to punish you," she confessed,  

Her words, a dagger, left me distressed.

The real torment wasn't in chains or bars,  

But in the betrayal, under the stars.  

She was my love, my soon-to-be wife,  

Yet she chose to cut me out of her life.

My punishment lies in the love I lost,  

In her arms, another's lines crossed.  

While she planned our wedding, dressed in white,  

She lay with another, extinguishing our light.

This agony isn't in the might-have-beens,  

Or in the dreams swallowed by sins.  

It's in the knowledge of her deceit,  

In the echoes of her retreat.

Yet, from this abyss, I find my rise,  

Not in hatred, but in being wise.  

Her punishment, a self-made cage,  

Mine, to turn this pain into sage.

So here I stand, amidst the ruins, reborn,  

No longer her pawn, no longer forlorn.  

For in my heart, a new dawn breaks,  

A stronger self, from all my aches.