In behavioral economics, there’s a phenomenon called the “expectancy effect.”

You expect something to work, and—surprise—it’s more likely to.

Not because the thing itself changed, but because you did. Your behavior adapts.

You show up differently. You make different choices, even in the smallest moments.

And those small moments—those are the ones that quietly bend the arc of a life.

Now apply that to a marriage sitting in the wreckage of an affair.

You’ve got two people—shell-shocked, arms crossed, emotionally bleeding out.

Trust is in the negative.

Intimacy feels like a distant planet.

Every look is loaded, every silence says more than words ever could.

But then something small happens.