The major differences between us, that I knew about at the time, were that she smokes and uses abortion as birth control.
Another major difference that I learned later was that she likes to lie and manipulate people.
The smoking of tobacco was obvious, and she told me about her abortion history early in our relationship. She said it might be an issue if we were to have children together. I also learned later that she smokes marijuana regularly. I have never used tobacco or marijuana. She was surprised to learn that I had never even tried pot. Since marijuana is part of her life, she couldn't imagine my negative view of illegal drugs.
If she had told me about her dishonesty, I would have been able to walk away from her. Instead, she did the complete opposite by elaborating in great detail how good of a person she was.
I learned a lot from Melene. Most of what I learned, I didn't want to know. I didn't want to learn that she could get away with the things that she did. I didn't want to learn that her lies would prevail over the truth. Not just truth, but unused evidence. More on that later.
Instead of smiling forever because of her, I cringe, I feel a sadness towards the future of humanity.
When I admitted to myself that I was in love with her, I cried, intensely, for about two minutes. If I had known then that she was about to rip my world apart with her lies and devilish scheming, I would have felt happy about still having my job, and spending time the way I choose.