Cast the Banishment Ritual tonight

“Every month his ex flew in "for business," and every month I ironed his shirts knowing exactly where he was going. I felt like a fool in my own house. Three days after the ritual, he told her don't come this month. Then he blocked her. Then he planned a weekend for US. I stood on that balcony and felt pretty for the first time in years. Not tolerated. Chosen.”

“Tinder, Bumble, one called Hinge, and one I'd never even heard of. I found them in a folder on his phone called "Tools." Tools! Married 26 years and he's got a folder called Tools.

I counted 31 conversations. Not all of them went anywhere, but some did. And I wish I'd never seen that.

All the times he told me he was going out with the boys. All the times he said he was going to play tennis. It was these women he was meeting.

I'm not gonna tell you this ritual stopped him overnight. It took a few days. He just stopped answering those women. Then one night he deleted the whole folder and set the phone down in front of me like a dog bringing you a shoe. He didn't say a word. But he knew that I knew. And that was his way of asking for forgiveness.

He treats me like he did on our first dates. He holds the door, pulls my chair out and tells the waitress I'm his bride.”

“Every Saturday I watched from the kitchen window as my husband walked across the street to "fix something" for our divorced neighbor. I'd smile and wave so nobody could see how humiliated I was. This ritual was my last hope. Five days later, I heard him turn her down. Bluntly. Two weeks after that, her house went up for sale. Now I drink my coffee on that porch and actually enjoy the view.”

“He got engaged four months after we broke up. I saw it on Instagram at work and had to go cry in the bathroom so nobody would see. I did the ritual with shaking hands, sure I'd lost him forever. Day 7 she changed her profile picture to just herself. Day 12 he texted, "I made a mistake." I read it sitting on that same bathroom floor. Happy tears this time.”

“His first love showed up at his mama's funeral. I was holding him up at the grave and he was already looking at her. I never felt so invisible. I was grieving his mama and my marriage at the same time. And then they started meeting behind my back. When I found this Banishment Ritual I was desperate. I was hopeless. But after the casting, she was gone. He confessed everything to me and asked for forgiveness, and now I'm making him work for it. And he's happy to do it. He took me to his mama's grave and told her he was sorry.”

“okay so i literally never post but i owe this one 😭

his "bestie" since college. the one in every pic. the one who came to OUR engagement dinner and sat next to HIM. i smiled the whole night and cried in the uber home. he said i was being insecure. maybe i was idk

i did this lowkey as a joke tbh like what's 16 dollars

then they had some huge falling out over something dumb (concert tickets??) and he unfollowed her and when i asked he just said "i don't even know why i kept her that close. you're my best friend"

YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND. in front of his boys. i'm still not over it 🥹

we picked our venue last week. it finally feels like it's just us”

“Every single one of my friends warned me. My cousin literally said, "Nisha, that man has a roster." She was right. He had a roster.

Gorgeous, funny, a little dangerous. The kind who calls you at midnight and you go. There was always a girl from his office, a girl from Hoboken, a "she's just a friend from college." I knew I was in the rotation. I told myself I was fine with it because I was the one he came back to most. Very evolved of me. Very healthy.

I'm a data analyst. I bought a ritual online. I'm aware of how that sounds.

The roster dissolved. I don't have a better word for it. All of his "friends" disappeared from his life. Within a month it was just me, and he was the one calling to ask if he could see me. This time, not after 11pm. He took me to nice, romantic restaurants. We went away for a few weekends. And the whole time I had the same feeling: finally.

Finally he understood how much he means to me. Finally it's just me in his head.

Last Diwali he came to my parents' house in a kurta my mom picked out, touched my grandmother's feet, and he's worn my hair tie on his wrist every day since.

The player retired. I feel claimed, in the best way. I don't have to compete anymore. I just get to be his.”

“Number one I found in his Cash App. $40 to "Bri" with a rose emoji.

Number two I found in his car. A lipstick that wasn't mine and wasn't Bri's either, 'cause Bri's 23 and this was an old lady color.

Number three called my house phone. Asked for him by his middle name. Nobody calls him by his middle name.

Number four I found out about at my own cousin's baby shower. She was there. She was a guest.

I stopped crying around number three. By number four I was just keeping a list in my Notes app like I was building a court case.

I did this ritual 'cause I didn't know what else to do with that list.

And a few days after, he started cutting them off. Him. Not them.

Bri texted him and he looked at the phone like it bit him. Blocked her right there at the table.

The lipstick lady came by the shop and he told his boss to tell her he wasn't there. Number three called the house and he picked up, said "don't call here no more, I'm home with my wife," and hung up.

Number four he blocked on everything in one night, then sat on the edge of the bed rubbing his face like he'd woke up from a bad dream.

He told me, "I don't know what I was doing, Dawn. I can't stand none of them. Just thinking about them make my skin crawl."

And then he looked at me like I was the first woman he ever saw. Like he was coming home to his queen after being gone a long, long time.

I deleted that Notes list last month. He puts his phone face up on the counter when he comes in. And last week he called me "the only one," and I realized I believed him. I'm not counting nothing no more. There's only one number now, and it's me.”

“Every Sunday I sat in that pew while my husband sang in the choir for a widow in the alto section. Everybody in that church knew. I could feel them looking at me with pity, and baby, that's worse than anything. Ten days after the ritual he quit the choir. Now he sit next to me holding my hand like we courting, and I walk into service with my head held high again.”

“I kept taking him back. Every time.

He'd leave me for his ex. Come back. Leave me for some girl from his gym. Come back. Back to the ex. Three years of that. My kids stopped asking where he was. I had a bag packed for him by the front door so I wouldn't have to watch him pack it himself. That's how normal it got.

I was so tired. Not even sad no more. Just tired in my bones.

I don't know what Lady Elara did and I'm not gon' pretend to. I just know one night his ex called, and he looked at that phone like something rotten was on the screen. Blocked her right there on my couch. Next day he blocked the gym girl too. Told me, "I don't want none of them. Just thinking about them turn my stomach." And he came home and something was different. He didn't come home like a man passing through. He came home and unpacked.

It's been seven months. That bag is gone. He fixed the gutter. He goes to my son's games. Last week I caught myself not even wondering where he was, and I sat down on the stairs and just breathed.

I got off the merry-go-round. And he got off it with me.”

“Two years of being one of three. I knew it. I went through his phone while he slept and hated myself every time. I felt cheap, like I was auditioning for my own man. Then, within a week of the ritual, something changed in him. He cut both of them off. He blocked one right in front of me and said he couldn't stand the sight of her anymore. The other one called him crying, and he hung up on her. He told me he didn't know what he ever saw in either of them. Then he asked me to be his girlfriend for real. Official. I don't check his phone anymore. I feel like his full attention is on me now. I feel he desires me and only me. That peace is worth more than he'll ever know.”