thank you for your input and advice. I talked to her today. It went pretty much as I expected it would, though I was hoping that she would've had a clue before now as it seemed that she had been pulling away from me too. She said she was totally shocked and couldn't comprehend this. She asked if we could work on it, she wanted to know what she could do to make me happy. At first, I said I'd try but couldn't make any promises. As the day progressed, I was able to be more straight forward and tell her I didn't want to work on it, that it was over for me and had been for a long time. I did apologize for not communicating with her sooner. She is always so fragile, I never wanted to hurt her. Hurting is inevitable. I do feel badly for the pain I'm causing. I am in pain too, but I know that I'm doing the right thing. I'm doing something for myself and it feels strange and a bit uncomfortable, but at the same time empowering and liberating. I'm in acute pain at the moment, writing has helped.