Chapter One

As soon as Tally stopped off the bus, she raced down the path. Her heels echoing on the sidewalk in sync with the beating of her heart as she hurried to the townhouse she shared with her fiancé, Blake. She couldn’t believe she had been so stupid as to leave the documents that her boss needed for this afternoon’s meeting at home. 

She had been working on them late last night, but had forgotten to pack the files back in her work case after the disagreement she had with Blake. She’d almost had a heart attack looking for them just before lunch. 

After explaining what had happened to her boss, she had fled the office, calling back over her shoulder to her boss, Ryan. She was going to get them during her lunch break. She had heard Ryan yelling at her as she slammed the outer door to their offices. Shit, she was going to get the skin peeled off her hide when she returned to the office? 

Tally should have taken a taxi, but saving for a wedding and their own home deposit made her frugal. Luckily she only lived fifteen mins from work and she should make it back with plenty of time. She may have to grab a bite to eat at her desk. Getting the files back to the office was more important than a lunch break.

Thinking about the wedding, they really needed to set a date. There had been plenty of talk, and Blake kept pushing her for a date. But with her job, she was always busy. There just always seemed to be something coming up. Tally didn’t have family coming to the wedding. Maybe that was part of the reason she was putting it off.

Blake still didn’t understand why she wanted nothing to do with her family or their money. But she had seen what that money had done to her family. She didn’t need to give her father a weapon to use against her. If she had wanted the family money, they would have forced her into an unwanted marriage, and she would have been denied her beloved career.

Her father believed a woman’s place was at home. While the man worked and slept with whoever he liked. Ancient views on a woman’s place. She hadn’t spoken to him in over 5 years. She had even started using her mother’s maiden name the day she left to distance herself from him and his name. 

Blake knew her family was wealthy, but he didn’t know exactly who her family was. She didn’t talk about them with anyone. Blake was a real estate agent and connections meant a lot to him. She understood it was important for his business. She adamantly refused to welcome her family back into her life. If she ever saw her father again, she wanted to be married. Save guarding herself from him. 

Because she was worried that her father would do everything in his power to break them up. Tally marrying Blake didn’t help her father’s business. So, she hadn’t lied to Blake, just hadn’t shared the full details of her family. Their presence was unwanted and unnecessary in her life. 

Tally knew she would have felt differently had her mother still been alive. She would have done anything for her mother. It was now just her father and older brother and a few cousins.

Her older brother was of the same opinion as their father. She wondered how Stacey, her sister-in-law, was. She had coped no better than Tally’s own mother with her husband’s affairs. Stacey had a drinking problem and was booking herself into another clinic the week Tally had left home. Tally didn’t understand why she didn’t just divorce John. 

Slipping the key in the lock of their rented townhouse, Tally shouldered the door open. Pausing when she heard a noise from upstairs. Blake had unusual hours in his line of work. Maybe he had popped home for lunch if he was free. 

Tally opened her mouth to call out to him, but a sound came from upstairs, stopping her from doing so. It was a faint groan. She frowned. Was Blake hurt?

Dropping her bag at the front door, Tally moved quickly up the stairs but halted abruptly on the landing when she heard a woman’s sharp cry. Tally’s eyes widened. No! No, he couldn’t do this to her. 

But laying on the floor outside their bedroom door was a woman’s hot pink high heel shoe. Laying over it was the tie she had seen Blake put on this morning before leaving for work.

Silently now, Tally walked lightly towards their bedroom, to the door only halfway opened. Taking a deep breath, Tally braced herself to look into the room. She already knew what she would find. Sick to the stomach, she couldn’t stop herself from looking. She needed to know; she needed to see. So later Blake couldn’t say it wasn’t him. Despite the evidence lying on the landing, she still had to look. 

The sight that greeted her was like a physical blow. Tally grabbed the doorframe with her right hand to hold herself upright. There in the middle of their bed was her naked fiancé and an equally naked woman. Blake was lying on his back and sitting over his nether regions sat a bleach blonde with big boobs. The rest of her was bony.

Obviously, they were having sex. Blake gripped the woman’s hips, moving her on him to his liking. He had his head thrown back. There was no mistaking the situation.  

Tally brought her left hand up to her mouth, hitting herself in the face with her phone still clutched there. Without thinking about why she did it. It wasn’t like they were married and she would need the evidence.

Tally unlocked her phone and, without the knowledge of the couple in the bed, took some photos. She would not be told later that she didn’t see what she had just witnessed. Like her father had tried to tell her when she had walked in on him and his twenty something secretary when she was a teenager. With a trembling hand, she put the phone in her back pocket of her work pants.

Tally stood there. Not sure what she should do now. She felt trapped and she couldn’t leave and act like this hadn’t happened. 

She had to say something, right? 

When she had walked in on her father having sex, she had felt betrayed then. She had quickly entered his home office and was horrified to discover her father standing between his secretary’s parted legs, their bodies entangled on his mahogany desk. The lovers had been unaware of her presence. Time seemed to freeze as her heart pounded in her chest, her breath catching in her throat. After a moment, she cried out, backed out of his office, and hurried to her room. 

This was so much worse than walking in on her father. Her heart pounded in her chest, its rhythm chaotic and painful. The air felt heavy, suffocating her as she stood frozen in the doorway, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her.

Anguish washed over her like a tidal wave, threatening to drown her. The walls seemed to close in on her, mocking the shattered trust that had once bound her to this place.

Her mind raced desperately searching for the etiquette. She would need to deal with a scene like this. Tally was sure she had never been taught how to react. How was she supposed to handle this? How could she confront the person she once believed was her life partner, the one she had wanted to build a future with? The private school she had attended had taught her many things, but it had failed to prepare her for this kind of devastation or how to confront it.

Confusion mingled with anger as she struggled to comprehend the depth of the betrayal. The hurt inflicted on her by the walls of her childhood home was nothing compared to the pain of discovering her partner in the arms of another woman. The wounds ran deep, piercing her soul and leaving her feeling raw and exposed.

She took a deep breath, summoning whatever remnants of grace she could find within her. It was time to confront this truth, to face the pain head-on and make a choice that would define her future. The private school may not have taught her how to handle this situation. But she was determined to find her own path towards healing, because there was no coming back from this.

Tally felt devastated. It’s like her world had just twisted off its axis. She thought she had it all figured out. Clenching her left hand until the pain of her oval nails left red crests in her trembling palm. It was the pain that finally snapped her out of her wonderings. 

Heart still in her throat, straightening away from the doorframe. Tally took a moment to calm herself.

She said in a calm, clear voice, “Honey, I’m home.”