What are you talking about? Weve been married ten years! What lover? Ive got enough of you already!
Victoria cant believe what shes hearing. She feels a cold shiver in her skin, as if the very air tells her that Daniel is being unfaithful. The uncertainty gnaws at her, and one day she finally gathers the nerve to confront him directly.
She asks, Is it true or not? but he simply replies:
What are you on about? Weve been married ten years! What lover? Ive got enough of you already!
It sounds as if Daniel is being brutally honest. She doesnt notice any flaw in his smile, his words, or his eyes, yet something still refuses to settle.
Victoria isnt the sort of woman who leaves things to fate, so she decides she must get to the bottom of it. How, though?
After scrolling through advice forums, she decides the first step is to check his mobile phone. The device holds nothing out of the ordinaryjust empty chatter with a few old schoolmates, which she finds hardly alarming. Just gossip, she shrugs.
Daniel never sets a password on his phone. He has nothing to hide, at least thats what he says. No secret chats, no hidden messages. As clean as an angel.
Sometimes Victoria wonders if shes imagining everything, yet every time Daniel stays late at work she feels a knot tighten in her stomach.
Her best friend constantly tells her:
Its all in your head! Daniel loves you and would never look away! Your suspicions are only ruining everything!
Victoria refuses to listen. Her gut tells her otherwise, and the thought of sharing her husband with another woman is something she cannot even contemplate.
One afternoon she musters the courage to follow him to his office, hoping to discover whether hes flirting with coworkers. The moment he spots her, his face flushes with embarrassment. He apologises profusely, and after a lengthy discussion he quickly forgives himself.
On the surface, their life looks pictureperfect. The house runs like a welloiled machine, two children are growing up, and everything seems fine. Yet Victoria constantly searches for a spark of drama, as if shes hunting for the fifth column of excitement.
As the saying goes, He who seeks will find, but for now she keeps hitting dead ends.
Overall, Victoria feels the same restless anxiety that many women in their thirties experiencefear of ending up alone with two kids.
She appears calm outwardly, but inside a storm rages.
Daniel, for his part, notices nothing. No lipstick stains on his shirt, no foreign perfume, not even a shift in his appearance or lifestyle, yet Victoria still senses that something is off.
If it werent for a chance discovery, Victoria might never have uncovered the truth. Fiction or fact? The story will tell.
When her younger son starts Year1 at primary school, Victoria decides she wants to learn to drive. She enrols in a local driving school, attending evening lessons after work. After three months she passes both the theory and practical tests and receives her UK driving licence.
Proud of her achievement, Daniel buys a small hatchbacka modest but handy car. Victoria is petite and short, so the compact vehicle feels just right and is easy to park.
Daniel never admits it, but the real reason for the purchase is to stop Victoria from nagging him for a spin. He thinks shes too young to drive regularly and tells her she needs to gain more experience first.
One Saturday morning Victoria wakes earlier than usual and decides to treat the family to a special dinnereggplant and chicken pie, a recipe everyone loves. She heads to the kitchen, only to realise shes out of flour.
Outside, the frost has turned the streets white, but shes already learned to drive in winter conditions. She decides to dash to the shop. She climbs into the car, turns the key, and nothing happens. The engine refuses to start. She walks back inside, careful not to wake the children still asleep.
Braving the cold isnt appealing, so she resolves to take the car without Daniels permission. Just a short drive, a couple of miles. Hell never notice, she rationalises.
She grabs his set of keys and heads out. While the engine warms up, she wipes the windows, reaches into the glove compartment for a tissue, and accidentally knocks something to the floor. She picks it upa phone shes never seen before.
It isnt Daniels phone; his device is wellknown to her. This one looks newer, its case a different colour. A wave of uneasy thoughts rushes through her mindperhaps Daniel grabbed it by accident, as he often jokes about picking up other peoples stuff. Her finger, however, hovers over the power button and she turns the phone on.
The first thing that flashes on the screen is a message from a woman named Poppy:
My love, I miss you so much! Come to me quickly! Im waiting for you!
Victorias eyes widen. Theres no password, so she scrolls through the conversation. The car continues to idle as she reads.
The exchange is lengthylong enough to fill an afternoon. It becomes clear that Daniel works until fivep.m. and doesnt get home until around seven. Victoria never thought to check his exact finishing time.
Almost every night, after his shift, Daniel first drives to Poppys flat for about an hour, then returns home as if nothing happened. The messages he sends her are intimate, the kind his own wife has never heard.
A photo attached to the chat shows an older woman, roughly forty, smiling beside a sleek sports car. Victoria wonders why he would be interested in her.
Her anger flares.
Just as she is about to exit the car and head back home, she spots Daniel emerging from the blocks entrance. She had left a note saying shed gone to the shop. He must be planning to send Poppy another message.
Victoria finally recalls how Daniel often returns to the car in the eveningsforgotten wallets, Ill be right back, and so on. He frequently steps out at night, looks around, and returns quickly, never raising any suspicion.
Seeing Daniel in his own car, Victoria shouts:
Who gave you permission? We never agreed on this!
She grips the steering wheel, slams the reverse gear, and floors the accelerator. The hatchback screeches as it barrels into the garden fence behind the house. The impact jolts her, but also gives her a rush of relief.
She gets out, staring at Daniels bewildered face, and yells:
Go back to yours! Ill see how you manage without a house or a car! Leave, before my eyes ever see you again!
To seal her words, she tosses Daniels Audi keys into a massive heap of rubbish and marches back inside.
The boys, still halfasleep, stare at the chaos, unable to grasp what just happened. A few minutes later Daniel tries to reenter the house, but Victoria has locked the front door with the latch, refusing him entry.
Go back to yours! Forget this road! she hollers, her voice echoing through the hallway.
Defeated, Daniel slips on his slippers, pulls on a housecoat and an old jacket, and trudges to Poppys flat, hoping for some comfort. He imagines a warm welcome, but the door opens to a cold interior.
Poppys roommate opens the door, and a male voice from inside calls out:
Darling, are you coming? Ive been waiting for you!
It turns out Poppy only sees Daniel on weekdays; weekends are offlimits. She, too, has another lover. Weekend boredom, perhaps?
Poppy merely gives Daniel a guilty look and slams the door shut.
Dejected, Daniel wanders to his mothers house two streets away. His mother, Margaret, recognises him the moment she sees him and instantly understands whats happened. She takes him in, offers tea, a warm meal, and listens to his tale of a bad wife who drove him out of the house. She pats his hand and says:
Dont worry, love. Who could have guessed your Vicky would turn out like this? Therell be brighter days ahead. Youre only thirtyfive! Youll find love again, Im sure of it.
Daniel ends up living with his mother, deciding to start his life anew. He even feels a strange sense of relief at being freeuntil Victoria files for maintenance payments. Only then does he realise that rebuilding his life wont be as easy as he imagined. At least his mother hasnt abandoned him, which is more than he could ask for.
Stay tuned for the next chapter, and dont forget to follow the page for more updates! Leave your thoughts and reactions in the comments, and give us a like.
