Okay, I whipped this out just now. It sounds pretty good to me. Please, folks, give me your opinions. I want this to count before I go dark.
W:
I am writing this e-mail to you because I feel that it's come to this, and also because I'm much better at organizing my thoughts on paper. I care about you very much, and I am respecting your wishes to find your happiness elsewhere. I'm truly sorry if you couldn't find that happiness with me. However, I really feel that space is the best thing for us as we go down our separate roads in life. I have learned very quickly over the last three months that I am not willing to share you in any form with another man, even if my relationship with you only constitutes friendship. Doing so has come in conflict my values and caused me a lot of unnecessary emotional pain, so this is why I have come to this decision.
Please don't feel like I am doing this to "get back" at you or to enact some kind of petty revenge. This has nothing to do with punishment of any kind. Instead, I am withdrawing to preserve my feelings, as well as to give us both the opportunity to move forward with our lives. I understand that you want to keep updated on [the rabbit] and me, but I don't think that it's necessary to call. I will keep you updated on us if anything major happens, but otherwise just assume that we're doing okay. If it really bothers you to be without [the rabbit], I will gladly figure out a way to give him back to you somehow. I love him very much, but I know that he's your rabbit, so I won't keep him from you. (As I agreed, I will also let you see him when you come down in the next couple of weeks.)
I'm sorry if you think I'm being selfish by doing this, but I really feel like it's the best thing for both of us. I honestly do wish you all of the happiness in the world.
--WCF
On an unrelated note, I was doing really badly last night, so I called my younger sister (she's 21, soon to be 22). She's really a hero to me. She's a single mom going to college and living by herself. Interestingly, she just broke up with her scummy boyfriend for reasons all too similar to mine. (She doesn't know just how similar -- I still haven't told any of my family or friends that my W is living with someone else. Don't really see the point of exposing that.)
I told her about the unpleasant convo with my W, and she explained that something very similar happened to her. Her ex left her for someone else, yet still expected them to be friends. My sis explained to him in a very kind way that she couldn't do that because it caused a lot of unnecessary emotional pain, and her ex flipped out on her, accusing her of being selfish and pressing every button possible to hurt her. Now his R with the OW has imploded, and he's calling her up left and right to get back with her, but my sis will have none of it.
My sis chalked it up to our ex's trying to exert power over us, plain and simple. She thinks it's because our ex's want to keep us around as "back-ups," in case their current R's don't work out for whatever reason. This could very well be true. Hard to know what's going on through my W's head, but I'm quickly getting to the point where I no longer care what's going on in her head.
