On Tuesday, October 6, , I spent the day calling my husband's cell phone. Howard and I had been married six years and owned a business together in Pueblo, Colorado.
We normally talked three or four times a day, and text-messaged even more: Howard often checked in to see how I was doing. It was unusualβand not a good sign, I thoughtβthat he wasn't picking up. By the time 5 p. I'm with the police," he said hurriedly. Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.
I'd met Robert Howard Bruce in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in June , when I was 27 and recently divorced from the father of my two preschool-age sons. I was getting by managing my sister's business towing and auctioning off repossessed cars, trying to figure out what was next in my life. I hadn't wanted to go out that night, but my two childhood best friends refused to let me sit home and mope. When they picked me up from my house to take me to a local bar, I couldn't even be bothered to change out of my baggy shorts and T-shirt.
But once we got there, a tall Ben Affleck look-alike kept turning and smiling at me. A mutual acquaintance introduced us; she'd worked with him at Intel, where he was a technician. By the end of the evening, we'd exchanged numbers. Howard was my Prince Charming at first.
He was 12 years older, but he was in great shape and loved going out. He was generous, and I was a struggling single mom: When he took me on a romantic weekend trip to San Antonio, the weather was hotter than I'd packed for, so he bought me a whole new wardrobe. Go shopping. But pretty soon, it felt like a weight had been lifted. I loved being able to relax and not worry about money for once. Like me, Howard was divorced and was super-involved with his three kids.
