Boundaries In Marriage Novels & Stories

His voice was calm and deliberate. “I love you,” he said. “But I’m a married man.” He laid heavy emphasis on the word ‘married’, as though to drive home a truth she couldn’t ignore. “There are certain boundaries I can’t cross.” Vivian shook her head, her hair swaying with the sharpness of her movement. “Mm mm… no. You don’t love me enough. Because if you did, you wouldn’t make me feel like I’m nothing.” She turned away from him, her face hardening, her shoulders stiff, her arms still tightly folded.

Then his phone lit up with a message from his mother, effusive and emotional, praising the wedding, praising Lena, praising the future she believed had finally aligned itself properly. He did not respond immediately. He set the phone face down and returned to the documents in front of him, because responding would require performing gratitude he did not feel and acknowledging tenderness he had not earned. He told himself control was not lost simply because it had been breached once. Control could be reasserted. Boundaries could be rebuilt. The marriage was contractual. Functional. Temporary, if he chose to make it so.

“I’ve lived through worse.” Leonard’s jaw tightened. “You don’t always have to bleed to prove you’re strong.” Her eyes flashed. “Strength is exactly why I’m saying this.” She took a deep breath, steadying herself. “This marriage was a contract,” she said firmly. “We agreed not to involve feelings.” Leonard nodded. “We agreed to try.” “No,” she corrected. “We agreed to boundaries.” Leonard exhaled slowly. “And now you’re terrified those boundaries are breaking.”

It seemed he had been there all along, waiting for her return. “Should I tell you everything I do? Isn’t our marriage just a piece of paper?” Mike didn’t like that statement, even though it was true. For him, the truth belonged only to him, especially when it came to Angie and their strange marriage. Stepping closer and turning Angie’s body, which was about to walk away, then closing the distance until there was no space left between them, Mike glared sharply at his wife. “I make the rules and have the right to set boundaries for you. As long as you’re my wife, you’ll be under my control. Got it?”

"What about our wedding? What about having a life together that isn't consumed by work?" "The work is our life together. It's who we are." "That's not entirely true. We're also two people who love each other, who want to build a family, who need time for things that aren't about saving the world." "You're right. So let's set boundaries. Three cities, maximum. Janet handles operations, you handle vision and training. And we get married in the spring, small ceremony, just like we planned." "Promise me we won't lose ourselves in the expansion."

He was supposed to suffer for his pains, he was going to suffer for every ill word that he spoke to that woman. “She was getting too close for comfort and I wanted to draw the line. If we are going to get married, there needs to be boundaries.” I raised my eyebrow at his dismissive attitude towards me. “Are you sure this is because she is getting too close for comfort or there is something else attached to it?” I set a trap, hoping that he would fall into it but even he knew that answering that question was going to lead him into damage. “I wouldn't think so. I believe that I have the right to speak when things are not going accordingly.” He attempted to smile but it turned into a grimace.

April felt this to her core, too. “This won’t be a short-term relationship April. When the boundaries are set, they won’t move. They’ll be there forever, and no one will cross them without there being serious punishments. That’s something we won’t want. Now, we must join Neil and Carolyn or we’re not doing our job as the Best Man and the Maid of Honour.” “Ugh, I’m still a Matron.” April said. She reminded Damien the sad reminder that her marriage was still in place.

I was waiting for him to push. This was the honest thing I had not said to Seth or to anyone else, the thing that lived underneath the rules and was why the rules existed in the first place. I had written them as boundaries but they were also, if I was precise about it, tripwires. Structures designed to catch the moment when the man I had married would reassert himself, when the patience would run out and the old mechanisms would return, the pressure and the leverage and the specific quality of coldness that had been his primary mode of communication across three years of a marriage that required me to always be reaching and never quite arriving.

I softly replied, “but please don’t worry. I have made sure that all of my requests are about our marriage. I don’t want you to be taken advantage of in any way.” As I waited for his response, a smile formed on my face. However, he seemed to avoid eye contact and instead gazed out the window behind me. With a smile on my face, I confidently stated, “This next request is easy.” "Say it." “I want to establish a clear boundary while we’re still married. You’re not allowed to meet other women alone behind my back, regardless of who they are. Whether they’re your business partner, friend, or even... Amby.” I gauge at this reaction, but he just gave me his normal stoic poker face. “If you meet the

I drafted a contract days ago to set a boundary, I didn’t need him and my space, and neither do I want to be in his space. ‘Contract?’ he blurted out, surprised ‘Why would we need a contract as a married couple?’ he asked in disbelief as he slowly drew out the content of the contract out. ‘This isn’t a love marriage, so some boundary needed to be set’ I said with a scoff. What was he expecting for us to be all lovey dovey and all over each other? What a jerk. I rolled my eyes. ‘We are to stay in seperate rooms? What about today that is our wedding night?’ he said, looking at me surprised, is this guy being fr right now? I was too tired to argue with him today.