'The word 'heartbreak' doesn't scratch the surface'

This story originally aired on December 2, 2016

An excerpt from Michelle Parise's powerful audio essay on the impact of cheating and the way a kind stranger can help you move on:

Picture me in those early days, in the fallout of the bomb.

I'm on my way home from work, driving like I'm underwater. I've slept maybe seven hours total in the past three days. The pain in the place where my heart once was is something awful.

It's February, but some kind of freak weather system is making it feel like spring and I roll down my window.

I make a right turn onto a major street without looking first and cut off a car. The driver is not impressed. He starts honking, and I can hear him screaming at me.

For the next few minutes he follows close behind me, still laying on the horn and yelling. I'm shaking so hard. I can't handle his anger because I am nothing but thin threads of a person over here.

At the next intersection, the guy pulls up right beside me, tires screeching. He's around 60-years-old.

He leans out of his window and shouts: "You want to kill yourself or something? You want to kill ME? You don't have a family? You don't care about MY fam.."

He stops abruptly as he recognizes the whole grieving-zombie thing I've got going on.

"I'm so sorry," I say weakly.

He shakes his head to stop me, his face now changed, overtaken by the most intense empathy and concern.

He leans further out of his car and almost into mine, and softly says: "Little lady, are you alright?"

"No," I answer. "No, I'm not alright."