Betrayal

 

Most relationships are based on trust, although I suppose they could be based on anything.

Need comes to mind. Once upon a time, marriages were a thing of need in a world that required much of either person, especially if they had children. That is true even today when most of us do not have to hunt our food or make our bread and clothing.

And I believe it is need that takes over when a relationship is not built on trust. We stay together, or stay with someone who does not fulfill more than physical needs if we feel we cannot do that alone.

Such relationships take their toll, especially if they are built on betrayal. 

Not being able to trust the person we live with destroys extemporaneous joy. It dims hope. It casts a pall over everything else.

Betrayal is perhaps the most enduring horror that exists. It creates a situation that says nothing is as it seems and the need to discriminate between truth and lies becomes a way of life that can harden the heart of even the gentlest of people over time.