A cheeky young lass swiped my 63yearold husband right out of our marriage, and they had no clue what I was planning for them.
George and I had been together for almost forty years. In that time we raised three kids, built a cosy bungalow in the Surrey countryside, set up a small but solid plumbing business, and splashed out on a reliable Ford Focus. We were thick as thieves, never short of anything, and when the children were grown and settled we were looking forward to a quiet retirement by the fireplace.
Then everything fell apart in an instant.
I started noticing George acting odd hed hide his phone, linger late at work, shave twice a day and even take a shower like a twentyyearold again. You dont need to be Sherlock Holmes to see there was someone else. And who? A nineteenyearold named Poppy, lithe as a birch sapling, with eyes full of calculation. She was more interested in his bank statements than his silver temples.
Blinded by her youth and honeyed words, George swore hed found his second spring. A couple of months later he announced he was leaving to marry her. Can you imagine? Forty years together, all crashing because a girl who called him sweetie and winced whenever he sneezed too loudly.
I didnt scream or pull my hair out. I just nodded and let him go. He had no idea what was coming. Id set the stage for something that would have him crawling at my feet, begging for forgiveness.
They lived like it was a fairytale: a wedding, glossy Instagram snaps, a honeymoon in Turkey. It seemed everything was rolling smoothly for them. But they missed one crucial detail.
Years back, when we were just getting the business off the ground and buying the house, my brother a solicitor advised us to put all assets in the kids names. On paper, George and I owned nothing: no house, no company, no bank accounts. Everything was in the names of our son Sam and his wife Lily. Hed forgotten that, and Poppy never knew it either.
When the honeymoon haze cleared, the questions started coming:
Why cant you sell the shop?
Wheres your car? You said youd bought a new Ford!
Are we meant to spend our lives in a rented flat forever?
You promised you had everything sorted!
When the truth came out, Poppy packed her bags and walked out, no tears, no drama, just vanished, leaving George penniless and stranded.
Two months later he crawled back to my doorstep, thinner, eyes dulled, crying, kissing my hands, swearing hed been blind, that I was the only one he wanted, that hed give up everything for me.
But Im not the sweettalking Susan whod wait with a dinner plate. Revenge isnt my style. I looked at him and said,
Sorry, but Im not interested in a man whod trade a oneandahalfmetre wedding dress for forty years of our life together, our kids, and everything we built.
I shut the door. Behind me is my own life my own real life untouched by his betrayal.
