As much as he wanted to avoid facing his parents he knew that there was only so long that they would believe that they were putting the girls to bed before they came looking for him.

The walk down the stairs felt like he was walking to his execution, there was no way that this was going to go well and he hated it already. As he got closer to the living room he could hear the mumbling as his parents clearly talked about him so before he lost his nerve his walked in to the room, "Sorry about that."

Patricia watched her son as he sat down as far as he could from them before she looked at the door for her daughter-in-law but she didn't appear to be following, "No Stephanie?"

"She's going to work out so that we can talk; I mean that is why you came here isn't it?"

His Mom nodded her head, "That we did. If you had been answering any of our calls, texts or voicemails then we wouldn't be here right now but unfortunately you have been giving us the silent treatment so we have had no choice but to turn up on your doorstep and force it out of you."

Did his Mom have to try to make him feel worse than he already did? "I know Mom and I'm sorry, it's just that I couldn't face you."

Those four words sent a shiver down her spine, she was almost too nervous to ask him exactly what he was talking about.

Paul Senior took the lead as he knew that his wife had been shaken by his son's words. "So exactly why couldn't you face your Mother? Why have you been scaring your Mom by not answering her calls?"

Slowly taking some deep breaths he had to get some serious nerves for what he was about to tell his parents. After a few minutes of tense silence the words finally left his mouth, "I had an affair."

She heard the words that came out of his mouth but she didn't believe him, there was no way that her son could possibly have done that to Stephanie, not the woman he fought so hard for and went through such hell to be with. "You didn't."

"I did." His Mom had only said two words and he already knew that he had crushed her and she was incredibly disappointed in him.

There were so many things that she wanted to say to him but she really didn't know what to say because she was so disappointed, she didn't know who this person was in front of her because it most certainly wasn't her son. "One night or an actual long term affair?"

This discussion may be even worse than the one with his wife. "An affair. I met her at the Concussion Legacy Foundation and we met up when she was in town."

"How did Stephanie find out? You told her didn't you?" His Mom needed to know that he had had the guts to tell his wife what he had done, the idea of her finding out from the other woman or for her just to have found out would be gutting for her.

The look on his Mom's face told him that his answer to this was a crucial answer and he needed to tell her what she wanted to hear, the only problem was that he wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to hear. "Do you want another drink?" He got up to leave the room to give himself a break from the weight of disappointment now weighing on his shoulders from the looks in their eyes.

"Sit down Paul. If you are man enough to cheat on your wife then you are man enough to admit the truth to your parents. So how did she find out?"

Sitting back down he hung his head in shame he hated himself for this, "She found the credit card bill and worked it out."

Ashamed of her son's behaviour Patricia got up needing to leave the room, "Where is Stephanie?"

"In the basement, she is working out in the gym."

"Thank you."

Paul could only watch as his Mom left the room, she was so mad at him, madder than she had ever been before and he felt terrible for the pain that he had caused everybody.


When she left the lounge Patricia made her way down the stairs to the basement. Being careful of the various equipment scattered along the walls and on the floor she navigated the short distance to the proper entry of the gym.

Down the bottom of the gym Stephanie was focussed on doing some inverted bodyweights as she pulled herself up towards a bar as Metallica played loudly in the background, this was just an excuse to stay far away from the lounge. It was supposed to be a rest day so she was going to take it easy otherwise Joe would kill her but she had to do something with herself.

Finishing the set she dropped to lay on the floor briefly as she caught her breath before she rolled out from beneath the bar and stood up to get a drink but froze when she saw Patricia stood in front of her. The look on the older woman's face told her that she knew everything so swiping her water bottle up from the floor she went to turn off the stereo, "Patricia, can I help?"

As much as she wanted to just go over there and hug the younger woman despite the fact that she was covered in sweat her feet wouldn't carry her the short distance towards her because she felt the guilt of her son cheating on her shoulders, did they not do a good enough job with him when they brought him up? "I'm sorry."

"You are?!" Why was she sorry? Was it for turning up on the doorstep? Utterly confused she twisted off the cap of the water bottle and took a long swig as she walked closer to her, "What have you done?"

"It isn't what I have done; it is what my son has done. I'm sorry for what he has done to you."

"You have no reason to apologise; you didn't make him cheat on me." As horrible as it sounded Stephanie just didn't have the strength to take on Patricia's guilt also because the weight of her own guilt was already slowly killing her.

"But I do, I have plenty of reasons to apologise. I may not have made him cheat on you but my husband and I clearly did a poor job of bringing him up if he felt like cheating on you was an acceptable option."

She sat down heavily on one of the benches not even sure what to say in response to that, his poor decisions did not reflect on them as parents, not when he was a grown adult. Slowly lifting her head to look at her Mother-in-law she forced a smile, "I don't blame you for anything that happened. I am sorry for avoiding you though; you didn't deserve that at all."

Patricia sat beside Stephanie on the next bench, "Why did you avoid us?"

"Because I didn't know how to face you, I didn't know if you knew about Paul and I didn't like the idea of lying to you because you know I look at you like my parents too and it felt so deceitful so if I didn't talk to you then I wouldn't have to lie to you."

"That is why I knew that something was wrong, I knew that you would only avoid me if you didn't want to tell me something so it would have to mean that something big was happening and when Paul wasn't answering my calls either then I just had to come and find out for myself. I'm sorry for turning up on your doorstep like I did."

It was no surprise that they turned up on the door when Paul wasn't talking to them either but she wished that it hadn't been such a surprise. "It's okay, it's to be expected if you are getting frozen out by everybody."

After a brief but tense silence she asked the one question that she had yet to ask that was bothering her, "How are you coping?"

A dry laugh passed her lips at that question, "I'm just peachy thanks."

"What about the honest answer? It's just you and me here, nobody else will have any idea what went on in this conversation." She just wanted her to open up to her, it was clear that things were harder than she was letting on and she wanted to help her.

"Truthfully I'm terrible, the girls are the only reason that I am getting up most mornings and they are the only thing keeping me going. I feel like I am letting them down by not deciding what I want to do about the marriage but I don't know what to do."

Her heart broke for the younger woman. She knew that it would have hit her hard, it was why she had come straight down here to talk to her to have a woman-to-woman conversation but it didn't make it any easier to hear. "You should have called me; I would have come to help out just to take a load off you."

"I have to be strong for the girls though, they can't see me falling apart when their world is already being rocked by their Father moving out. No matter what happens between Paul and I my focus is the girls and keeping their lives as normal as possible. Anyway, if I didn't have to get up for the girls I probably wouldn't have so would have just stayed in bed."

"Is there anything that I can do for you right now to make things better or easier or to help in any way? We were planning to book in to a hotel and stay around for a few days so we will be here if you need us."

There was no way that she could allow them to stay in a hotel when there were plenty of guest rooms in the house. "Stay here. There is no need to pay for a hotel when there is plenty of space here. Please don't argue on this, I just can't deal with fighting over this."

When she put it like that she couldn't exactly say no to the request, "Of course, we would love to. If we are here then we can watch the kids of an evening instead of the Nanny and it will save everybody some trouble."

She got the feeling that even if she had the energy to fight her on this she wouldn't win so she didn't even try. "Sure, whatever you want. I am sure the girls will be very happy about that anyway, they are always begging to see more of you guys."

"I should leave you to your workout."

"It's okay; I wasn't supposed to be working out anyway"

Looking at the other woman shocked Patricia got up from her seat and started nudging Stephanie on the shoulder, "Come on you, out of here. If you aren't meant to be working out then you will stop working out and I will make sure of it."

Emotionally drained by everything she just allowed herself to be nudged and pushed out of the gym. Once back upstairs she looked towards the living room and sighed sadly, she couldn't face him again today. "I'm going to go and shower and then I'll make sure one of the rooms is ready for you."

"We can do that for ourselves, you really don't need to go in to any trouble for us. Don't argue with me on this, you look like you don't have the energy for it and it really isn't worth wasting what little energy you do have on something as insignificant as this."

Now she knew where Paul got his stubbornness from, his Mother. "Okay fine, whatever you want that will make you happy. I am going to go and take a shower and then I will go and make some dinner."

"Enjoy your shower." She watched her daughter-in-law walk away before she went back to the lounge and immediately smacked her son in the shoulder, "How could you do that to your wife? You have crushed that poor woman."

"I know." And he did know that, he wasn't an idiot and could clearly see the changes in his wife. "As much as I know what I have done to her I don't know how to fix it. Steph told me today that she wants me to fight for her but I don't know how, everything that I am doing and saying is just pissing her off and it is a vicious circle."

"I think you should give her some space, let me talk to her and get a feel for what is going on in her head and what she truly wants from you."

To Paul that was a terrible idea, if he gave her space then she would be even more convinced that he didn't love her and that was the last thing that he wanted to happen. "Sure, let me just give her space and compound in her mind that I don't love her and make her think that I am with the other woman, such a great idea Mom."

"But being around her really isn't helping her either. Paul you did not see her face when we came up from the gym and she looked towards the living room knowing that you were here."

He was so torn, he wanted to fix his marriage but he didn't want to cause his wife any more problems, "Okay fine. Only because you are here and you can keep an eye on her will I do this and stay away. Tell Stephanie I will call every night to speak to the girls and I will try to come over to spend time with them or take them out or something at the weekend but I'll text her to arrange it beforehand." Standing up he knew when the best time to leave was as he definitely was no longer welcome here, "We will have to do lunch or dinner or something whilst you are down."

"Of course we will. I'll call you tomorrow and we can find a time. Have a safe journey Paul."

He hugged both of his parents before he made his way towards the door, "I will. I love you and I really am sorry about everything."

"It's okay; just never do any of it again."

That was a guarantee, he had more than learned his lesson, he wished that he hadn't done it in the first place so repeating it was never going to happen. "I can easily swear on everything that I will never do it again, I just hope that I can fix the mess that I have caused. I am going to get things sorted for my move though and finish some paperwork. Goodnight."


Once Paul had left Patricia stood up, "Right, I am going to go and make some dinner because I doubt that Stephanie would eat if I didn't. Don't go causing any problems please."

"I will just sit here quietly like a good boy." Paul Senior knew better than to argue with his wife when she was on a mission so if he just agreed with what she said and stayed out of her way then he was on to a winner and guaranteed a quiet life.

Smiling at her husband she knew that she had trained him well. Satisfied that he wasn't going to do anything she headed towards the kitchen to see what Stephanie had in to be able to cook for her.


Although she had visitors Stephanie didn't hesitate to have a nice long shower just to try to relax her body, after fifteen minutes it wasn't working so she just shut the shower off and climbed out wrapping a towel around herself.

Once she was dried she threw on some yoga pants and a shirt leaving her hair tied in the messy bun she had tossed it up in to before she had gone to shower. Now that she was dressed she had no excuse not to go back downstairs but she did procrastinate a little longer by going to check on each of the girls to make sure that they were still asleep before she did so.

The last step to the stairs felt like it was on fire as she placed her foot on it, just the thought of coming face to face with her husband again sent her mind in to overdrive and she hated it but she couldn't put it off any longer. After a short walk she found herself entering the lounge but the only person in the room was Paul Senior, at that she found herself releasing a breath that she didn't realise that she had been holding in. "Where's Pat? I was going to ask what the two of you wanted for dinner?"

Glancing up from the fitness magazine that he was reading out of boredom having found it lying around on the side he wanted to say that she looked more relaxed than he she had done when he had first seen her but that would have been lying. "Actually Pat is already cooking dinner. I found it to be in my best interest to not argue with her when she said that she was going to start cooking dinner so please forgive me."

How could she be mad at him for something that he couldn't control? She had always known that Patricia had her husband under the thumb so it was not a surprise, "It's okay, don't worry about it. I will go and see if I can do anything to help her, thank you." When she left the lounge for the kitchen she actually could smell whatever was being cooked and it made her hungry.

"I said that I was going to make dinner after my shower."

"I know, I just thought that I would do you a favour as you have been so busy with the girls and everything. You don't mind do you?" Whilst she spoke she turned the meet over with one hand and stirred the vegetables in the water with her other.

Stephanie didn't know why she had ignored Patricia and Paul, she wasn't treating her any differently or acting like her son was an angel and attempting to persuade her to take him back, it was exactly what she needed right now after the way that Paul had been making her feel, unintentionally or not she had still felt terrible. "I don't mind at all. Honestly I was too tired to cook tonight anyway so you are lifting a weight from my shoulders. Can I help at all?"

"Definitely not, just sit down and take a weight off." She knew that she was too tired to cook; she also knew that she hadn't been taking care of herself as a whole so the time that they were going to be spending here with them Patricia was going to make sure that she had three meals a day and took proper care of herself.