They managed to navigate the tricky path to pursuing their careers and discovering new friendships while maintaining their relationship. She’d been tempted of course, enjoying the attention of work colleagues flirting with her at Christmas parties or catching the eye of an attractive man in a bar on a night out with the girls. She was sure he’d had plenty of temptations too, but she trusted him implicitly. She knew, and relished the fact, that their relationship was envied by friends and colleagues on both sides and that there were women out there determined to find a chink in their armour and claim Pete for themselves, but they had held strong for all these years, a solid couple that couldn’t be broken. Until now.
Kate remained rooted to the sofa digesting, thinking, disbelieving and then believing all over again. How had this happened? What had actually happened? Why hadn’t she seen it coming? What was she going to do in the morning? What should she tell the children? What should she tell their friends? She felt an overwhelming wave of humiliation. Everyone was going to be talking about this. Did people already know? Were they gossiping behind her back? Her thoughts and fears came thick and fast then, invading her mind with such force that she couldn’t shake them off. She sat there, immobile and trapped in her thoughts, unable to move or to see any light at the end of the tunnel in this situation.
It was only when she heard the gentle hum of the milkman’s electric van on the street outside and the clinking of two bottles being put on her front doorstep that she realised a new day had begun without her. She had to sort herself out before the kids woke up. Dashing to the bedroom she quickly showered, brushed her teeth and changed.
Lily and Maggie, ever the early risers, appeared soon after, clutching their teddies and grinding their little hands into sleepy eyes. They were so innocent and blissfully unaware of what had happened the previous day, and Kate looked at them and thought her heart was going to break. Instead, she forced herself into autopilot mode, an act that came easier than expected after years of practice, preparing their toast and peanut butter and supervising their washing and dressing, until Rachel, their lovely Australian nanny, arrived to gather them up and take them to school. Clearing up the discarded cups and plates on the table, Kate kissed them both, waved them off and waited for the front door to close with a slam. With relief, she sunk down onto a kitchen chair and considered just what the fuck to do now. Maybe she should be in tears, but she was too horrified to cry. Stuff like this didn’t happen to them – only it had and now she was left to clean up the mess with very little idea of how to go about it. She bit her nails nervously and grabbed her phone.
Forty-five minutes later Kate still hadn’t moved when her phone bleeped with a message:
what the actual fuck? I’m on my way.
Erin was at the house in fourteen minutes. As soon as Kate opened the door her younger sibling barged in, eyes wide, hair unkempt, and said simply, ‘Start at the beginning and tell me everything.’
‘He didn’t come home last night,’ Kate began. ‘I found this note.’ She passed the note to Erin who devoured it, reading each word as if searching for a clue to a cryptic puzzle. Once she had finished the letter Erin looked up at her, mouth hanging open in shock. For a split second Kate thought she saw something else pass over her face – a fleeting response so quick that she almost missed it – as though the shock hadn’t quite reached her eyes. ‘You don’t seem that surprised? What do you know? What’s happened?’ she demanded.
‘I don’t know anything at all,’ Erin protested, holding her hands up in surrender. ‘I’m as shocked as you are that this has happened. He has everything he could ever need and he’s thrown it all away for someone who I can only assume is a twenty-something blonde bimbo with big boobs. He’s a selfish bastard.’
Kate observed her sister. Perhaps she was being paranoid. She was, after all, sleep-deprived and out of her mind with worry. And right now, she needed an ally not a row, so she decided not to push it. She sat in silence for a minute or two, staring at the note and trying to think of something to say. On the other side of the table, Erin appeared to be doing the same thing. Finally, to her relief, Erin broke the silence. ‘Did he say anything to you yesterday morning? Did he seem different at all?’
‘Not at all,’ she replied, replaying the previous morning over again in her mind. ‘That’s what I can’t understand. We even had breakfast together, just the two of us, and he acted like everything was normal. He had plenty of opportunities to say something to me and he didn’t. He must have known the whole time what he was planning to do. I can’t decide if he’s a calculating bastard or just a coward.’
‘Where did you find the note?’
Kate explained her middle of the night discovery to Erin, who raised her eyebrows when she heard that Pete had left his phone behind as well. ‘When he says he’s met someone else, do you have any idea who?’
‘I can only assume it’s someone from work or one of his clients,’ Kate answered. ‘He’s never anywhere else except at the office or at home so I doubt he’d have time to find someone else. It’s unlikely to be a mum at the girls’ school given that he’s been so busy at work he hasn’t done a school run in months. I guess I
