Everything changed in a heartbeat, honestly. That day, we had a family get-together my husband, our daughter, and I were celebrating his dads birthday. It was just a handful of us, but it was warm and cheerful. His dad was in great spirits, cracking jokes and telling funny stories from his childhood and younger days. After lunch, our daughter and I decided to walk my father-in-law home. My husband cant walk far anymore because of his bad leg and to be fair, hed had a bit too much to drink. I was sure by the time we got back, hed be fast asleep already. Sure enough, there he was, dozed off at the table in front of his open laptop.
Our daughter went off to her room, and I thought Id put the kettle on and have a cup of coffee. On the way to the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of something on his laptop he was logged into one of those social media sites. Looked like hed been about to delete a message, but didnt get the chance. Half out of curiosity, half out of habit, I wandered over for a closer look Thats when I saw it: I love you. The words absolutely knocked the wind out of me. Hed sent it to some old friend of his. My knees practically gave way, and I just sank onto the sofa in shock.
Dads warnings flooded back into my mind he never really thought I should marry my husband, always telling me Id end up hurt. For nearly twenty-eight years, Id managed to prove him wrong. Wed been through so much together I looked after him after his illness, stood by him when he was forced into early retirement. Losing his job was a huge blow; hed worked so hard, and suddenly it was just gone. But we got through it; he found something else and used to tell me over and over how grateful he was for my love and care. Turns out, that was all a lie.
I managed to pull myself together and decided I had to talk to our daughter. She saw me mustve noticed the tears streaming down my face immediately and asked what was wrong. I told her everything. She dashed straight out of her room and went to see her dad. I was terrified about what shed say. She deleted the messages, but not before taking photos of the whole conversation. Reading through my husbands love notes to another woman was pure torment. Their thing, if you could even call it that, had gone on just under a month probably started when he began the new job. My head was spinning.
Meanwhile, our daughter was already firing off a message to the other woman, something blunt like: If you love him so much, hes all yours. She took screenshots, of course. The woman vanished from the site the second she got the message. Next, our daughter sent her dad the screenshots too, adding a note basically telling him to man up and leave. Then she came back to me, gave me the tightest hug, and kept saying I was strong enough to get through this and that shed always be by my side.
All there was left to do was wait for my husband to wake up. No idea what his reaction would be. We both jumped when his mobile suddenly rang obviously, it was the woman. Surprisingly, he answered, probably assuming we were still out. The call didnt last a minute. Then I heard him moving about, heading to our bedroom to get dressed. As he hurried past us in the hall, he paused for a split second. I couldnt even look at him just stared out the window. Our daughter, bless her, actually waved at him with a sweet smile. The next time I saw him was only when he came to pick up a few of his things.
I still cant wrap my head around it, how a family can fall apart in the blink of an eye. How are you supposed to trust a man after that? Twenty-eight years together all those kind words and gestures and it all ends just like that, with a divorce.
