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

Mum says with her arm still around me as if she is afraid to let go. ‘I know he’s not perfect, but I never thought he would do something like this.’

When Mum says Sam isn’t perfect, she is simply referring to more innocent indiscretions of his, like how he is absolutely useless at DIY or the fact that he isn’t the best timekeeper and has often turned up late for family lunches whenever he has come straight from work. But those things are forgivable. I didn’t need a husband who could put up a shelf or who turned up for a meal on time every time. I just needed a husband who I could trust to never hurt me. Ever. But apparently, that was too much to ask for.

‘I just want him to admit to it,’ I say, looking down at the crumpled tissues in my hand. ‘It’s the fact that he is still lying to me that is the worst. It’s like he has even less respect for me by still trying to get out of it.’

‘I know, love. But he probably never thought he would get caught. He’s in denial, I suppose.’

It’s pretty clear from what Mum is saying that she believes me and has taken my side instantly, which of course she should do in her capacity as my parent, but a part of me feels a little disappointed. I think that’s because I was almost hoping that she would have seen something in my version of events to offer me a glimmer of hope that it might not be as straightforward as it seems. Some way that Sam might still be innocent in all of this, perhaps. But just as I feared, the facts don’t lie, and they are not pretty. Sam is guilty as sin. He didn’t think that he would be caught, but he has been, and now it’s clear that I have a very simple choice to make.

Stay with a man who betrayed me.

Or divorce him.

My father has not been quick to jump to Sam’s defence either, instead preferring to talk about going to my husband’s workplace and speaking to the adulterer face to face, which is a terrible idea, and I’m glad that Mum was able to nip it in the bud straight away. The last thing I need is everybody at Sam’s workplace seeing him and my father rolling around in the car park punching the living daylights out of each other. They always got on so well, finding plenty in common, from football to politics, but it only takes something like this to bring an end to a friendship. Dad will always be on my side, just like Mum will, and Sam will now be an outcast from our family.

Unless I decide to forgive him and let him back home permanently.

But how can I do that?

I’ll just have to try and move on because while it will be harder in the short term, it will surely be easier in the long term. I won’t have to worry about where he is or who he might be with whenever he stays out late or works away. I won’t have to find myself worrying whenever I hear him get a message on his phone that could be from some woman arranging another meet-up. And I won’t have to find myself staring up at the bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night while he is fast asleep next to me, wondering if he is dreaming about somebody else other than me and secretly laughing at me for allowing him back into our house.

But I can’t think about divorce and separation right now. I just need to think about something that will make me feel better in the moment, and my mother’s suggestion of a cup of tea does just that. It’s only a small thing, but it’s the small things that I came here for.

The big things can wait for the time being.

I’m in no rush to deal with them today.

32

SAM

I’m in a rush today, and it’s all because I’m on my way to meet Erica. But I’m not the only person rushing around. I’m in Central London at lunchtime, which means there are plenty of people with places to go and people to see. I grit my teeth as a burly man pushes past me as I reach the top of the escalator and walk towards the tube station entrance. I’ve managed to get out of the office and whizz across the city in order to meet Erica so I could find out what exactly she has been able to get on the woman I tasked her with looking into. To say I was excited when I heard her tell me over the phone that she had news would be an understatement because if the PI can help prove my innocence then she can help save my marriage.

I had asked her to give me the news over the phone, simply to save time and to give me a faster way of knowing if I could call Rebecca and tell her that I had something concrete to back up my claims, but Erica insisted that we meet to discuss her findings in person. That is why I am scurrying around London now on my way to the meeting point in front of The Shard.

I am seconds away from getting some answers.

As I leave the murky darkness of London Bridge station and step out into the bright sunshine of a clear day in the capital, I feel my phone vibrating in my trouser pocket, and I take it out to see it is a text message from Maria back at the office. She is telling me that Ed, my grumpy manager, came by my desk and asked to see me, but she covered for me and said I had gone to see a client. Better that than telling him that I was out on personal business when I was supposed to be finishing