**A Fresh Start is Always Possible**
*Mum, have you completely lost your mind?*
My daughter’s words cut through me like a knife. The pain was sharp, unbearable. I kept peeling the potatoes, gripping the knife tighter, saying nothing.
*Everyone’s pointing at us now! Dad—fine, he’s a man, but you? A woman! The heart of the home! Aren’t you ashamed?*
A tear slipped down my cheek, then another. Soon, they were streaming, but my daughter wouldn’t stop.
My husband, Colin, sat slumped in his chair, his lip jutting out like a sulking child.
*Dad’s health is in tatters, how could you?! He needs care!* Colin sniffed. *After everything he’s given you? Raised a child together, and now—what? The moment he’s ill, you’re looking elsewhere? No, love, that’s not how decent people act.*
*Then how do they act?* I asked softly.
*What?! Are you taking the mick?! Dad, can you believe this?!*
*Emily, you speak as if I’m not your mother but some villain… Oh, how devoted you are to your father…*
*Mum! What rubbish are you spouting now?! Right, that’s it—I’m calling Gran and Auntie Maggie. Let them talk some sense into you! This is a disgrace!*
*Imagine this,* Emily scoffed, turning to her father, *I’m walking home from uni, and there they are—strolling through the park, arm in arm! Probably whispering sweet nothings, eh, Mum? Some soppy poetry about love?*
*You’re cruel, Emily. Cruel and foolish. Too young to understand…*
*Not an ounce of remorse! Right, I’m calling them. Let them sort you out!*
I straightened my back, smoothed the wrinkles in my dress, brushed away invisible dust. Then I stood.
*Alright, my dears. I’m leaving.*
*What d’you mean, leaving?!* Colin’s voice cracked.
*I’m walking away from you, Colin.*
*How can you?! Where will you go?! What about me?!*
Emily was already shrieking into the phone.
*Em—ily!* Colin wailed like a mourner at a funeral. *Emily!*
*What, Dad?! Is it your back again?! Where does it hurt?!*
*Oh… oh… Em… she… your mum… said she’s going…*
*Going where?! Mum, what nonsense is this?!*
I almost laughed. Calmly, I packed my things into a suitcase.
I’d nearly left once before, but then Colin fell ill—his sciatica flared up. All that moaning, the endless complaints…
*Liz… I think it’s a slipped disc…*
*The MRI showed nothing.*
*What do those quacks know?! They never tell you the truth straight away!*
*Really? Why not?*
*To bleed you dry! Just like Dave from work—pills, ointments, then—bam! A slipped disc! And some rare one at that, no proper name for it…*
That time, I stayed. I couldn’t abandon the *poor soul*.
But now?
*How much longer are you going to live like this, Liz?* my friend Sarah had said. *You’re slaving away for them. What has Colin ever given you? Sweet Fanny Adams!* She slapped the table.
*Spent his best years running about like a tomcat! That hairdresser—what was her name…*
*Millie.*
*Exactly! Dragged her around like a prize heifer! And you—two jobs, extra shifts, while he lounged on the sofa!*
*Sarah, you sound like you hate him…* I’d whispered.
*I’ll tell you why.*
I braced myself.
*I’ve no reason to love your ‘darling’ Colin. Remember his birthday at the cottage? I’d had too much wine, passed out… Woke up to him with one hand over my mouth, the other up my blouse.*
The worst part? His mother was in the next bed—*watching*. Later, she told me, *You tempted him. Your fault.* Threatened that if I told you, she’d say *I* came onto *him*.
That was that.
I’d sat in silence.
How had I never seen it before?
I remembered other wives boasting about holidays, jewellery… And me? A hoover. A steamer because Colin liked dumplings. *Perfume*—kept in his mother’s cabinet.
Sarah was right. I’d sleepwalked through my own life.
*Why did you marry him?*
*I pitied him… Those big glasses, so hopeless… His mother said, ‘Take him off the shelf before you’re left a spinster.’*
We’d cried, laughed, remembered.
*If only I hadn’t let them push you away…*
*They convinced me married women don’t need friends.*
I looked around the room.
Leaving was terrifying—but possible. A rented flat. Divorce. Splitting assets… Everything *I’d* earned.
Would Emily take her father’s side? So be it.
I wasn’t leaving for another man. Peter was just a friend.
I wanted peace.
***
Oh, how the relatives *laid into me*!
*Go back to your husband! Beg his forgiveness!* Mum screamed.
Colin’s mother clutched her chest in a *dramatic faint*, but I stepped right over her.
And then?
Emily came to apologise.
We’re learning how to be mother and daughter again.
Colin? A month after the divorce, he was arm in arm with Millie. His *sciatica* miraculously cured.
People say Millie doesn’t suffer fools…
But I don’t care.
I’m learning to live.
Emily booked me into a salon.
Peter invited me hiking—like old times.
It’s never too late for a fresh start.
Hard at first, then—smooth sailing.
