'I'd always been embarrassed about my teeth. I never expected my husband to make it worse.'

As told to Ann DeGrey.

I've never been happy with my teeth. I've always been self-conscious about them. There are hardly any photos of me smiling with my mouth open. I've trained myself to smile small, closed, tight-lipped.

My partner Marco* knew this. He used to say it didn't matter, that I was beautiful anyway, but he also knew how much it bothered me.

How I used to cover my mouth when I laughed, and I'd look away when someone took a photo.

About a year into our marriage, he promised to help me get my teeth fixed; braces and some surgery if needed. He said he would start saving up for it.

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I remember crying when he said that. It wasn't even about the money, though we didn't have much.

It was the fact that he wanted to do this for me and that he cared enough to try and help.

I held onto that promise like it was a little piece of hope. I started researching options, looking up orthodontists, even thinking how nice it would be to smile in photos for the first time in years.

I followed dental accounts on social media and saved before-and-after photos. Then, I made a list of clinics to call.

For the first time, something that had always felt like a distant dream was starting to feel very possible. I even told my close friends about it, and they were happy for me.

But about six months later, my world kind of exploded. Marco sat me down one night just as we were just about to watch something on Netflix.

He said he needed to talk to me; that's when he told me he was leaving me.

I felt distraught and blindsided. He didn't really give me much of an explanation beyond "I haven't been happy."

He stayed with me until he found somewhere to live and then he moved out. I was shattered but, at the time, I thought we could still work things out.

But then his sister, who was more like a friend to me, broke the news; he'd been seeing someone, and now he's living with her.

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A couple of weeks after he left, I asked him about the money he'd been saving; the money he'd promised for my teeth.

I stupidly assumed that, even though he was leaving me, he would still be happy to pay for my dentistry work.

He said, "I'm really sorry, I've already used that money for something else."

Later, I found out he gave the money to his girlfriend, to help her renovate her apartment which he'd just moved into!

I was so upset, I phoned him and asked if that was true, and he said, "Yes, I'm sorry, but she needed the money and you and I have broken up." I was heartbroken.

Not just because of the betrayal, but because it felt like I didn't matter.

Like my years of covering my mouth in photos didn't mean anything to him now.

Or maybe it never did, maybe he had never planned to give me that money. He said he was trying to "do the right thing."

But the good news is that I managed to find another job that pays well, and I'm slowly saving up to get my teeth fixed.

Also, as a big believer in karma, I was pleased to hear my ex had been hit by the so-called "karma bus" in a big way.

My former sister-in-law let me know that the new girlfriend used his money to help pay for her renovations, but then she broke up with him.

She vanished the second she got what she wanted.

In more good news, I've met a new man and, so far, things are going great! I've told him the story about my teeth and that, soon, I will get them fixed.

He told me I look gorgeous regardless of how I feel about my looks.

He also said my teeth give me a certain character, which was nice to hear. I still cover my mouth when I laugh and I still avoid smiling in photos.

But hopefully, by the end of the year, I'll have enough money to do something about the teeth I've always hated.

As for Marco, he once promised to help me fix my teeth. But, in the end, all he did was show me I needed to stop waiting for someone else to save me.

I don't want to depend on anyone else for something this personal ever again.

So, I'm committed to saving myself, one little step at a time.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Feature Image: Getty. (Stock image for illustrative purposes).