The Woman At The Door by Daniel Hurst (manga ebook reader .TXT) 📗

very unlucky man. Or she will think that I have been cheating on my wife, and I’m now running through this whole elaborate scheme of hiring a private investigator just to make it look like I’m innocent. I really hope it’s the former, but it could be the latter.

She could just be humouring me and looking for a way to make a thousand pounds. She might think that I’m guilty as sin and that I deserve everything that is happening to me. She might be on Rebecca’s side, just like everybody else will be when my wife starts telling them all what has happened.

I slump down onto the bed beside my bag and bury my head in my hands. This is a disaster. My life is in ruins, and I haven’t done anything wrong.

What’s the point of that? What’s the point of playing by the rules if you’re going to lose anyway? I might as well have had an affair and had some fun because then at least I would have got something out of all this. Instead, I’m being treated like an adulterer when I’ve been nothing but faithful.

This is outrageous.

But this is now my life.

28

REBECCA

It’s very rare that I phone in sick from work, but I think I can be excused for making an exception today. I called my manager at six o’clock while the sun was still down because I knew that he would already be up and on his way to the site. There aren’t many construction workers who aren’t morning people. Thankfully, he bought my story about me having a terrible headache and a temperature, and he told me to get myself right and only come back to work when I’m feeling up to it. I know he would have been disappointed on the inside, not least because we have several important milestones coming up this week in the project, but he can hardly tell a sick woman to drag herself into the office, can he? I feel guilty for letting him down, but then again, I’ve been let down too.

I’ve been let down by the man I trusted more than anybody else in the world.

Sam is out of the house again, but this time, he is out for good. I’m not letting him back in again, no matter how much he might beg or tell me that he is innocent and hasn’t done anything wrong. I have to stay strong now and not waver in my treatment of him. He is the one who has made the mistake, so he is the one who should be punished.

So why must I be punished too?

It’s easy to look at the offending party in a marriage breakdown like this and think that they are the only ones who have been punished. After all, Sam has been booted out of his house and is now forced to live out of a bag in a poxy hotel room, far removed from home comforts and familiar faces. It seems like he has lost and I have won. But there are no winners here, nor is my husband the only one to be punished. I have been punished too because now I am the one sitting in an empty house, and I will be the one who has to put on a brave face in front of family and friends when they offer me their sympathies and ask if I am okay. Of course I’m not okay, I’m far from okay, but my struggle is internal while Sam’s is external. Everybody will see him moving out and starting again somewhere else, but they won’t see the damage this has caused to me on the inside.

The sucker punch to my stomach. The stab in the back.

The broken heart.

With work being one less thing to worry about today, I can try and get started on tackling some of my other problems, the overriding one being what to do about the complete disaster that is my marriage. To say I felt sick to discover another woman’s underwear in my bedroom would be an understatement, and that sickness hasn’t left me yet, even several hours since I first found those knickers in my drawer. They are no longer in the house, although I’m not exactly sure where they are now. That’s because I came out of the bathroom as Sam was leaving through the front door, and I threw them out at him as he went. I hope he picked them up off the driveway and disposed of them correctly, but he might have just left them lying there for any pedestrians to see as they stroll past my house. I imagine some people would get a good giggle at spotting ladies’ underwear outside a house, while some people might be mortified.

But one thing is for sure.

Their reaction to seeing it will never top mine.

Before I go over to the window and look out to see if there is any incriminating evidence on the driveway, I decide to pick up the phone and call my parents. So far, it’s only Ally who knows about my recent problems with Sam, but it’s time I let some more people in on the news. I purposely hadn’t told Mum and Dad about the woman at the door or the lipstick because I was still holding out hope that there was a more innocent explanation and, in that case, I wouldn’t have wanted to worry them, nor judge Sam sceptically if it did turn out that he had done nothing wrong. But now there is little doubt that he has been up to no good so it’s time to tell my parents about it and they can judge him all they want.

Mum and Dad always liked Sam and I know they will be shocked at what I am about to tell them he has done. Mum will probably feel that same wave of sickness in her stomach while Dad will most likely be consumed by an anger that I