The endless cycle continues. The brief ups and disastrous downs of it all. He never presents me with the ring. We never make love. And we never have the baby talk. Now, I'm questioning even having kids. I would never bring them into this kind of marriage. Where there's a whiplash of emotions between their mother and father. Where their mother isn't one thousand percent sure that their father is enamoured with her. Where she doesn't feel like she always believed a marriage should feel. Where she is so alone.
The days start to blend together. A continuous stream of late night meetings and business trips. Falling into bed without a word and rising before I wake. He becomes a stranger all over again. Until one day, where I find out exactly who he is. Right down to his rotten core.
I'm doing dishes in the morning. James is at work and leaving for a business trip straight after. He'll be gone for two days. Lately, I've been enjoying the time when he's really gone. It's better than when he's here and gone in his mind.
When the doorbell rings, I wonder if Alice is making one of her unannounced visits. I start wiping my hands and walk towards the front door. I throw the towel over my shoulder and pull it open. A pretty blonde woman stands still as a statue, her mouth fixed in an expression of surprise.
"Can I help you?" I ask. Maybe she's trying to sell something.
"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong house." A shock courses through me the moment I hear her voice. I know that voice. She quickly begins to scamper back towards her car that's parked at the curb.
I close the door and stand in the foyer, going through it all in my head. Where do I know her voice from?
The doorbell rings again.
I slowly pull the door open and find her there again, her eyes red and wet with tears.
"I'm sorry. Does James live here?" She asks.
"Yes." I nod. "How can I help you? I'm his wife."
"Oh, God," she whispers. She collapses onto my front steps, sobbing into her hands. "I knew it. I knew. I knew," she says, over and over as she rocks back and forth.
I lower myself down beside her and pat her shoulder, unsure of what she's so upset about. She obviously wasn't expecting to find me here.
"I'm Bella," I say. "Would you like to come inside? I can get you some water."
"I'm Rosalie. And yes, that would be nice. Thank you." She sniffles and we both stand. As she grabs her bag, something on her finger stops me in my tracks. The emerald ring. What I thought was my emerald ring.
I don't say a word. Mostly because the lump in my throat doesn't allow me to.
I lead her to the kitchen and grab a bottle of wine because I need it. And she looks like she needs it.
"My favorite type of water," she says, offering a small smile.
"Mine, too." I uncork it and pour two glasses.
I finally realize where I know her voice from. That phone call. The one that I answered on his phone. She's R.
"You called a few weeks ago," I say.
"You answered."
"Why did you tell me you had the wrong number?"
"Because I was in denial. Why didn't you call me back?"
"Because I was in denial."
We both knew what this meant. It's almost too hard for me to even think the words. He was leading two lives. One with me and one with her. Even though it's going to kill me to hear about it, I need to know about her.
"Give me just a minute," I say. "You can have a seat in the living room, right through there."
I retreat to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. It's impossible to prepare for the conversation we're about to have. It's impossible to hate her because I saw the utter shock and devastation on her face when reality hit her. The reality is that her world and my world are the same. And it's just been blown apart.
When I'm ready...ready. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for this conversation, but I have to be willing to hear it at the very least. Let me rephrase. When I'm done in the bathroom, I join her in the living room. She's nervously running her finger along the bottom of her nearly empty wine glass. Her eyes are fixed on our mantle, where our wedding photo sits in a pretty silver frame.
"How long have you been married?" She asks.
"Over six years."
She sighs and finishes her glass. "Wow."
"When did you meet him?" I ask, settling into a chair beside the fireplace.
"Almost two years ago. At a work conference."
"Are you a lawyer too?"
She laughs. "Heavens, no. I run a catering business. We catered one of the dinners."
The silence that follows is thick and congested, clogging up the room so badly that I feel like I can't breathe. The ring on her finger captures my attention like a flashing neon sign.
"The ring," I mumble.
"He just gave it to me. Proposed on my birthday."
Proposed. He got down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. Those memories should only be mine. Now, he's sharing them with someone else.
"I thought it was for me." The tears sting my eyes and no matter how hard I fight to keep them there, they fall freely down my cheeks one after the other. She surprises me when she slips off the couch and kneels in front of me. When she wraps her arms around me, I feel her pain. And God, I feel mine.
We cry together for the lives we've lost. The ones we thought were everything we'd ever dreamed of. The ones that turned into our worst nightmare. After today, neither of us will be the same. You can't come back from this. He won't come back from this.
"He's not going on a business trip, is he?" I ask.
"We were supposed to go away to celebrate our engagement. I asked him why we couldn't do that here in town. Invite his friends and family." My friends and family. "He said he preferred to just be with me. I guess I know why now."
"So, how'd you find our address?"
"He has an apartment on the other side of town and I'd been to it a couple of times, but I'm awful with directions. I called his office to give me his address because I wanted to surprise him before we left. Told them I had a special delivery for him. They gave me this address." She shook her head. "I knew something was off when I pulled up to this big, beautiful house that I'd never seen before. I even called them back to verify the address."
That was a lot to take in. Husband has an affair. Husband proposes to said woman with the ring you thought was yours. Husband has a completely separate apartment you have no idea about.
"I just can't believe all of this." Yes, you can.
She glances at the clock. "He's supposed to be at my place soon. I can't go with him. I'm so sick to my stomach about everything." She peels the ring off her finger and sets it on the table. "I can't wear that."
"We need to figure out what we're going to do. We have to confront him. The both of us."
"Right now? I'll vomit all over, Bella. I can't face him. Not yet."
"Okay. We'll wait. Next week. It'll give us time to gather our thoughts." I didn't need that time, but I can see she did. In a way, I feel worse for her than for me. He broke a promise he made to me years ago. For her, he broke a promise that's barely left his lips.
We exchange numbers and plan to call soon. In a sick twisted way, I feel like we're friends now. Banding together against a man who did us wrong. So, so wrong.
After she leaves, I think about packing up all of my things. Going to Alice's. Leaving without a word. But somehow, that doesn't seem like enough. That doesn't hurt him the way it's hurting me. Because I am so utterly hollow right now, that nothing less than tearing him apart seems like enough.
When he walks through the door later that night, he smiles. "Business trip cancelled!" Lie. "I'm so happy I get to spend more time with you, baby. I miss you." Lie. "I love you." Lie.
He kisses the top of my head and sets his things down in his study. I swallow down the bile rising in my throat.
"I actually already had plans with Alice." I quickly grab my purse and my keys before I start to cry. I won't let him see that. Then, I walk out the door and leave him alone, like he's done to me so many times. Game over.
A/N: They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but what about two women scorned?
Thank you for reading, for your reviews, and for recommending this story. I have a hectic couple of weeks at work coming up starting July 22nd, so there is a possibility there will be a slight delay in any updates during that time. If that happens, they will resume more regularly after August 7th. Thanks for your patience!
M
