“What on earth? Weve been married ten years! What mistress? Ive got all I need with you!”
Valerie couldnt shake the feeling. She sensed it in her bonesher husband was unfaithful. The uncertainty gnawed at her until, one day, she mustered the courage to confront him outright.
She asked him plainly, was it true or not? But he only laughed.
“What on earth? Weve been married ten years! What mistress? Ive got all I need with you!”
Edward spoke earnestly, his smile unforced, his eyes steady. No flicker of deceit darkened his words, yet still, unease coiled in her chest.
Valerie was no fatalist. She wouldnt leave truth to chance. But how to uncover it?
After scouring advice online, she decided to check his phone first. Nothing amissjust idle chatter with a couple of old schoolmates, hardly worth fretting over.
He never bothered with a passcode. Nothing to hide, he claimed. No secret messages, no deleted conversations. A veritable saint in the flesh.
Sometimes she wondered if shed imagined it allyet every time he lingered late at work, that same dread settled in her stomach.
Her best friend chided her.
“Youre inventing trouble! Edward adores youhed never stray! Youll drive him away with these suspicions!”
But Valerie wouldnt listen. Her heart whispered otherwise, and the thought of sharing her husband was unthinkable.
Once, she even followed him to his office, determined to see if he was truly working or chasing skirts. When he spotted her, he was lividhumiliated before his colleagues. She spent days apologising, though his temper cooled quickly.
By all appearances, life was perfect. A fine home, two growing children. Yet Valerie insisted on courting disaster.
As the saying goesseek, and ye shall find. Only, so far, shed found nothing.
Truthfully, Valerie was terrifiedas any woman of thirty might be, unwilling to face single motherhood. Outwardly calm, inside she seethed.
There was no evidence. No lipstick on his collar, no trace of foreign perfume, no sudden change in habits. But still, something felt wrong.
Had chance not intervened, Valerie might never have learned the truthreal or imagined. That remained to be seen.
When their youngest started school, Valerie decided to learn to drive. She took evening lessons after work, passed her test in three months. Edward, proud, bought her a little carsmall, but perfect for her slender frame. Easier to park, too.
Hed never admit it, but hed bought it so she wouldnt pester him for rides in his Audi. She wasnt ready for that, he insisted. Best gain experience first.
One weekend, Valerie rose early, determined to bake their favouritechicken and aubergine pie. But shed run out of flour.
Winter had gripped the countryside, snow piled high, but shed grown confident on icy roads. A quick trip to the shops wouldnt hurt. Yet her car wouldnt start. Back inside, the house still slept. She crept about, careful not to wake them.
Walking in the cold held no appeal, so she took a riskborrowing Edwards car without asking. Just a quick errandbarely two miles. Hed never know.
Keys in hand, she returned to the frosty street. As the engine warmed, she wiped the windscreen, rummaging in the glovebox for tissueshis were always there. Her fingers brushed something unfamiliar. It clattered to the floor.
A phonebut whose?
She knew Edwards well. This wasnt it. At first, she thought hed accidentally taken someone elseshe was always misplacing things. But curiosity won. She pressed the button.
The first thing she saw was a message from a woman named Roxanne.
*”My love, I miss you dreadfully! Come quicklyI cant wait any longer!”*
Valerie blinked. No lock. She scrolled through the messages, the cars heater humming as her blood turned to ice.
The correspondence spanned monthsyears, perhaps.
Edward finished work at five, yet never returned home before seven. Valerie had never thought to check.
Nearly every evening, it seemed, he stole an hour with his beloved Roxanne before slipping back as if nothing had happened. The words he wrote herwords Valerie had never heard.
Photos revealed a woman in her forties. What on earth did he see in her?
Rage boiled over. She moved to leave, then frozeEdward was stepping out of the house.
Shed left a note saying shed gone to the shops. He must have seized the chance to send another message.
Now she rememberedhow often hed “forgotten” his wallet, darting to the car at odd hours. Always quick, always innocent.
He spotted her at the wheel and stormed over.
“Who said you could take it? We agreednever without asking!”
Valeries fury flared. She buckled up, slammed into reverse, and hit the accelerator. The car screeched into the fence behind her. A small relief.
She stepped out, meeting his stunned gaze.
“Go on, then! Run to her! Lets see how much she wants you without your house, without your car! Go! I never want to see you again!”
To drive the point home, she hurled the Audis keys into a snowdrift and marched inside.
The boys were awake, bewildered. Minutes later, Edward tried the door. Shed bolted it.
“Go to her! Forget this house!” she shouted.
Edward had no choice. In slippers, a dressing gown, and a thin coat, he trudged to Roxannes. Surely shed take him in.
But fate had other plans.
Roxanne opened the doora mans voice called from within.
“Darling, hurry up! Ive been waiting!”
Edward only visited on weekdays. Weekends, it seemed, belonged to another.
She gave him a guilty glance and shut the door.
Defeated, he wandered to his motherstwo streets over.
Margaret took one look and understood. She fed him, warmed him, listened to his tale of a cruel wife casting him out on a whim.
“Dont fret, love,” she soothed. “Who knew Valerie would turn out like this? Your luck will changeyoure only thirty-five! Youll find love again, mark my words.”
So Edward stayed, starting anewuntil Valerie filed for maintenance. Then he realised fresh beginnings werent so simple. Thank heavens for his motherwithout her, hed have been truly lost.
