Early the next morning, Camilla sat up in bed reading through her social media posts when a call came through on Steven's phone.
Looking at the number, Camilla didn't say anything at all to Steven. She woke him up and handed him the phone. "It's the same people that have been calling all night," she informed him icily. "Huh!" he responded in a daze, still trying to wake up. Camilla explained to him about the phone calls from the night before, and these women not giving up on calling him, wanting him to fetch them at all unearthly hours of the night. Steven had no recollection of what had happened or how he had even gotten home. After explaining the phone call, Camilla confronted him for not fetching her from work the previous afternoon. "Why didn't you fetch me from work yesterday, and where were you? You got home so drunk," she questioned him. Camilla got straight to the point. Steven started to explain, "I finished work early yesterday and decided to go and have a few drinks at this bar," he didn't dare give excuses, he could see Camilla was in no mood for his antics, "the bar I went to was a strip club," he continued, "I don't remember much of anything." "So you don't remember telling me that you were on the way to fetch me!" she raised her voice. "Quite honestly, no, I don't," he said with a guilty look in his eyes. "And those girls that were phoning you?" she questioned, not happy with his explanations. "I really don't know them," he said quietly, "honestly, I don't know them at all, as for how they got my number, I don't know." He seemed genuinely truthful in what be told her about the girls. As for not fetching her the day before, he still wasn't off the hook. That afternoon, they took a drive through to Warrington to Golden Square shopping centre. While walking around, Steven's phone rang. He looked at the number, and by the look on his face, Camilla could tell that he knew the number. Answering his phone, he said, "Hi, how are you doing?" The voice on the other end was a friendly, female voice, "I'm good, what are you up to today?" she asked. "Nothing much," he responded, "just out with the family today." "That's nice, well enjoy!" she said. They both said goodbye and ended the conversation. Camilla looked at him questioningly, waiting for an explanation. Noticing the look on her face, Steven said, "she's just a friend." "Uh huh!" Camilla thought to herself. Steven didn't answer her again and just left it at that. That evening, she noticed that Steven was unusually quiet. He didn't have anything to drink the whole day, but he was on his phone a lot that evening. As Camilla leaned over to him, she noticed that he was chatting to a female. The context of the conversation was not very savoury, to say the least. She didn't confront him then and there about the text messages, but she decided to go and do some laundry. They would, after all, need fresh clothes for Monday. While checking through his pockets, Camilla came across a photograph of a fiery, red-headed woman with a peach completion. "Please don't lie to me!" she lashed out at him. Steven took the photo she had thrown at him. He had actually forgotten he had this picture of Lucille. He looked at the photo, "What lie can I spin?" he questioned himself. "It's Lucille. She asked me to give it to Matthew. She met him the other day when he was with me. She said she wanted him to have this picture," was the escape answer he gave her. Matthew was single. He worked with Steven. He was a senior manager in the firm. Matthew was tall with dark brown hair, a neatly shaved beard. He was the same height as Steven but more masculine. "I don't know about that," Camilla responded, "if she was really interested in him, why didn't she just give him the photo herself?" "Everything is just way too coincidental." She thought. "She didn't know his number," Steven answered, but Camilla could see the guilty look in his eyes. "Something about this doesn't sit right. This woman seems familiar," Camilla pondered. Camilla didn't say another word. She went back to the laundry area and continued with the washing. While taking out the first load, she realized why the woman's face was familiar to her. Angry as hell, she went back to the dining room where Steven was watching TV and, with a raised voice, said to him, "This is it, why do you insist on lying to me!" Quizzically looking at Camilla, he responded, "What do you mean?" "That woman in the photo, it's the same woman you were chatting to earlier, it's the same woman who called you while we were out, and it is the same woman that you went to meet a few months ago!" her anger blazed inside her. Staring dead straight at her, Steven could not deny that he had just been caught in a tonne of lies. "How can I explain my way out of this one?" The wheels of deceit turned inside his head as he conjured up another lie to cover all the uncovered lies. There was no way out. There was no lie he could conjure up to cover all the other lies. He had to face the cold, hard fact that he had been caught in his lies. He said to his wife, "I really don't know how to say this, Lucille and I have been having an affair," he admitted. Finally, the truth was out. Camilla collapsed on the settee and cried. She had realized that this was the case for a while now, but the hard reality of her husband admitting to having this affair hit her like a tonne of bricks. Seeing how this affected his wife, he bent down in front of her and said, "Camilla, I'm sorry." "You're sorry!" she yelled at him, "you are nothing but trash, get out of my sight!" Disgusted by his behaviour and his lack of respect for their martial vows, she burst into tears. This had been the first time she had ever resorted to using derogatory name-calling. This usually wasn't how she was.Steven didn't know what to say or how to comfort his wife. She was angry and bitter, so instead of saying anything, he did what he usually does. The solution to getting out of any situation, he picked up the keys to the car. "I'll be back later," he said in a low-key tone of voice, walked out the door, and drove off.Camilla had no energy to deal with her husband at that point. She went to her son, who was just waking up from his afternoon nap, put him in the bath, and then put on a change of clothing to get him ready for bed. While he was playing on the mat in the dining room, Camilla prepared something for the two of them to eat. After playing for just over an hour, Marshall started to yawn, so Camilla took him to the room, laid him down, and read him a story. It took all of about ten minutes before her young man fell fast asleep.Quietly leaving the room, Camilla went to sit on the settee. Looking at her phone, she saw a message from Steven, "I'm sorry Camilla." The message said.
Camilla woke up a little later than she had planned. Steven was already up and making something to eat. "You awake!" he exclaimed.Looking at the time, Camilla responded, "Why didn't you wake me up?""You've been awake a long time, so I decided to let you sleep a little later. Come sit down, the food is ready.""How's Marshall?" she asked."He's okay, his fever didn't spike again through the night, and he has had his breakfast and a bottle, and he's gone back to sleep," he smiled at his wife."What! Is he sleeping again? What time did he wake up?" she was surprised."He woke up at 7a.m. We played in his room, I gave him porridge and his bottle, and he just went to sleep about ten minutes ago," he explained the routine to his wife. Camilla sat at the table and began eating the bacon and eggs her husband had prepared for her, along with a couple of slices of toast with strawberry jam. "This is a lovely spread, thank you,
Five years had passed since the birth of their daughter Meghan. Meghan, now five and Marshall, now seven were in primary school.Steven and Camilla had seemed to have moved into a better space in their relationship.Camilla had been wanting, for a while, to start her own business, but Steven was adamant that she stayed in her job. He wasn't one for change, or that is at least what he portrayed towards his wife. The plain fact was that he didn't want to see Camilla doing better than him financially. In the company where Steven worked, things had gotten a lot tougher, and the stress load was on top of him.It had been a few years since he had been in a bar. One night, after getting home, he went to shower, picked up the keys, and said to his wife, "I'll be home later."Confused by what he said, she asked, "Babe, where are you going?""I'm tired, Camilla. I just need to go out and unwind!" his tone wasn't harsh but not gentle or loving either.At 11 p.m. that evening, she was still wait
The next morning, when Camilla woke up, she noticed that Steven had a mark on his shoulder. Looking at the mark, she asked, "Steven, where does this come from?"He looked at the arm. "Gosh darn, she wasn't supposed to leave marks on his body," he thought to himself. Quick to respond, he said, "I bumped into the filing cabinet at work.""Those look more like fingernail scratches," she thought.Thinking about what Michelle had said the night before, she asked him, "Steven, you came home so drunk last night you fell asleep. What happened?"He started thinking, then said, "after I finished in the office, I went to the bar not far from there and had a few drinks, I met up with a few guys from college as well." Steven was very swift and managed to learn to lie easily. "How quickly he lies," she thought and got out of bed. She didn't believe a word of what he was saying. She picked up her phone and called Michelle. They chatted for a few seconds on the phone. As the call ended, she heard
Camilla was sitting on the veranda, enjoying her glass of wine in silence while the television was softly playing in the background. While sitting there, Camilla had started to think about all the things that had happened to her since getting married to Steven. Tears rolled down her face. "What have I ever done to deserve the treatment I keep getting from Steven?" she pondered.Deep in thought, she hadn't seen the tall, handsome, muscular gentleman approach her. She jumped when a husky, deep voice greeted her. A little dazed, Camilla didn't recognize the man at first. "Every time I see you, you are crying," he said, concerned."Um, oh," she didn't know what to say."Let me introduce myself," he said, walking over to her, "I'm Bradford.""Hi Bradford," she greeted back."I'm here visiting my grandfather," he continued, "I just decided to go for a walk to clear my head.""I understand, I know that feeling well," she commented.The two of them sat for a few seconds, then he said, "Why a
Having seen the photo of her cousin and husband, Camilla was unsure what she was going to do.The next morning, she woke up early, got the children dressed, and took a drive to her aunt and uncle's place. She hadn't informed them that her and the kids were coming but hoped that they would be home.On arriving, her aunt saw her face, pulled her in, and said to her husband, "Please go take the kids to the shops and get them something nice for breakfast. I will message you when I am done, and then you can come back."Camilla's uncle understood full well what her aunt was alluding to and said, "Come kids, let's go buy breakfast and do some shopping, then I will buy you each an ice cream and a soda." The children did not need to be tempted twice. They loved their great uncle.Once they had left, her aunt turned to her, "Camilla, what on earth happened?" Camilla related the whole incident of yesterday and also explained it had not been the first time he had raised his hands to her. "My chil
Camilla was officially on leave for three weeks.The first two or three days of her leave, she would just be relaxing at home, getting things in order. While she was busy the first day, which was the day after she had spoken to Bradford, she received a text message. "Hi there, it's Bradford, I'm just checking in to see how you are doing!" he stated.A smile lit up on her face, "I'm okay," she responded."So what are your plans today?" he asked, "I didn't see you get on the bus this morning."She laughed, "I'm on leave for a few weeks," she told him, "you, keeping tabs on me now?" she couldn't help but chuckle. This man was so easy to talk with. She felt so comfortable speaking with him. When she spoke with him or read a message from him, she would get butterflies in her stomach, and her heart would race. She couldn't understand why he had this effect on her. Every day for the next 3 days, Bradford and Camilla would spend a few hours chat
As the first week of her leave drew to its end, Camilla was more excited about her new, up-and-coming venture. She was ready to absorb and take it all in. She sat for hours during the day designing a few different structures for her meeting that Friday with Bradford and his grandfather. After all, did Bradford really think the patriarch of the family was going to give his grandson full control while he was still alive?That Friday, Camilla headed over to the Hemmingway offices. As she entered the building, she was met by her cousin Tamara as Tamara was exiting the building. Greeting her cousin, she asked in a low, subtle voice, "What are you doing here?" After all, Camilla didn't want to let on to Tamara that she was well aware of her skanky antics with her husband.Tamara responded, "I had an interview with the managing director for the position of personnel assistant. What brings you down here?""I'm dropping off some documents, I have a meeting with the
The next couple of days, Camilla stayed at the hospital beside her husband's bedside. She wanted to be there just in case he woke up. Her children were spending time with her aunt and uncle, so she didn't need to worry about that. Every day, while at the hospital, Bradford would come and ensure that Camilla had something decent to eat so that she could keep her strength up. He would bring her her salads and chicken or meat, or he would bring her soup. "Thank you for caring so much," Camilla said in a soft, sweet tone. "It's no problem at all," he responded in a soft yet extremely masculine voice. "Why did the sound of this man's voice affect her so? Why did her heart flutter at seeing him? Why does he have such an effect on me?" she wondered silently. Camilla didn't dare to think about it at that point. She needed to focus on Steven and get him better so that she could move on with her life. Three days of sitting
Steven had tried to avoid hitting a pedestrian. He hadn't seen the young boy, probably around the age of 15, running across the road until it was too late to slow down. His mind had been preoccupied with everything that had happened over the last few days.Steven had slammed on his brakes but lost control and swerved to the left and hit about four other cars parked on the side of the road. Thankfully, there were no occupants in the cars that he had hit into. Only Steven was in critical danger. The police, ambulance service, and the fire department all got to the scene pretty quickly. The paramedics got him out of the vehicle pretty quickly. The trauma to his head, they could not tell how much damage was done. The blood was pouring profusely. The ambulance rushed him to East Cheshire Hospital. Not far from where the accident occurred. Once there, he was seen by the doctors and wheeled straight into surgery.At 10:45 a.m., the phone rang. "Is this Mrs Middleton?" The voice asked."Yes,
The weekend had gone by so quickly. Thankfully, for her, she had been surrounded by good friends and family. Her day started out as it regularly did. However, today, she was going to look at buying a car. She would, after all, need one. Back at Tamara's, Steven got ready for work. He and Tamara would have to figure things out now that her parents had cut her off from any financial services they had been providing her with. "Tamara, I think it's time that you also found a job, otherwise we may not make it to the end of the month," Steven said to her, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her deeply."I have been looking already," she said. Steven had thought that her parents would eventually come around.On arriving at work, Steven settled in behind his desk in his office. Matthew greeted him, and they spoke for a while. Matthew asked him about the weekend and their anniversary.Steven hadn't had time to catch up with his friend and tell him that he and Camilla had separated.
That Sunday, Michelle and Camilla got up, cleaned the place, and started preparing food for when the children came home. Camilla had called her aunt and uncle and invited them to have something to eat with them as well, because she had something to speak to them about.When they arrived at Camilla's, the children ran into the house and hugged their mom. "Mummy, where's daddy?" Marshall asked."I will explain everything just now," she said.As if in tune with her mother's thoughts, Meghan responded, "it's okay, mummy, we'll be okay."Shocked at how mature her daughter was for her age, she drew them both into her embrace, "I missed you both so much," she tickled them, "now go unpack your bags and prepare your clothes for tomorrow. I need to speak to Uncle and Aunty quickly.""Come children," Michelle said, "I'll help you." Michelle was just like a real aunt to the kids. She loved them as her own. The kids went with Michelle and left Camilla to speak to her aunt and uncle. Uncle Toby lo
On entering the house, Camilla looked around, and the realization that her home would, from now on, only consist of her and the kids, hit her. She unpacked the groceries she had bought and went to the bedroom to take off her clothes and shoes and go shower. As she entered her bedroom, the reality for the second time hit her. Steven was gone. He had packed his clothes and toiletries as well as all other belongings and left just as she had asked him to do. As she was about to step into the shower, there was a knock at the door. "I wonder who this could be," she thought. Camilla headed for the door, and on opening, it saw her Uncle Chris and Aunt Ruby (Tamara's parents). She greeted them with a hug. They weren't extremely close, but they were not that distant either, and family meant everything to Jones's. "You're probably wondering why we are here!" her aunt said. "Not really," she responded, un-surprised that they came. After all, she knew that Tamara's brother would have told
After the whole embarrassing situation at the bar, Camilla had decided that instead of going with James and Bradford out, she wanted to stay the night at Michelle's but decided otherwise and went home. "Bradford, can you drop me off at home instead?" she said softly.Her heart was broken into a thousand pieces of glass shards. "No problem. We'll drop Michelle, then James, and then head back to our street," he said."Thank you," she responded.On arriving at her place, Bradford turned to her and asked, "Are you sure you want to go inside?"Calmly, she responded, "Yes, I'm sure.""Okay then, but if you have any problems, and I mean any problems, just message me, and I will come. It doesn't matter what time it is," he said."I'll be okay," she assured him, not wanting to lead him on in any way.She thanked him for the ride and walked into the house. The place was quiet, cold, and miserable. It was about as miserable as she
The weekend had finally arrived. Camilla wasn't particularly looking forward to the weekend. It was their seven-year wedding anniversary. They had originally made plans to go away for the weekend and leave the children with her aunt and uncle. In light of the constant abuse, Camilla had cancelled the trip but let the children still go away for the weekend.On Friday afternoon, Uncle Toby picked the children up at school with Camilla and then dropped her home. Steven was still at work despite saying he would get off earlier. The children were so excited about their weekend away.On arriving home, Steven pulled up in the car. Uncle Toby left with the children. "Kids going away for the weekend?" he asked. "Yes, even though our plans are cancelled, they were looking forward to going, so I let them go," she responded. Camilla was too exhausted to fight. "Okay," he responded, "what's for dinner?""I'm making steak and salads," she replied, op
That evening, after the children had gone to sleep, Steven confronted Camilla regarding her meeting with the Hemmingways. "Camilla, I don't know what you are doing, but having lunch with the Hemmingways is just unacceptable!" he shouted at her. "Why is that?" she asked, "it was a meeting I had to attend."Being in the realty business, Camilla often went to a luncheon with prospective clients in order to seal a deal for the sale of a property. This meeting would seem to be no different. However, this was during her leave. "Steven, I am on leave, yes, but if a client needs to have a meeting regarding property, I will still take time and meet with them!" she bit back, "what is your issue anyway?" questioning his judgement."I don't like the idea of you meeting with those people!" he stated."Are you jealous?" she asked sarcastically, "that's very rich, coming from you!" Camilla was so dying to open up her can of worms but held her tongue b
As the first week of her leave drew to its end, Camilla was more excited about her new, up-and-coming venture. She was ready to absorb and take it all in. She sat for hours during the day designing a few different structures for her meeting that Friday with Bradford and his grandfather. After all, did Bradford really think the patriarch of the family was going to give his grandson full control while he was still alive?That Friday, Camilla headed over to the Hemmingway offices. As she entered the building, she was met by her cousin Tamara as Tamara was exiting the building. Greeting her cousin, she asked in a low, subtle voice, "What are you doing here?" After all, Camilla didn't want to let on to Tamara that she was well aware of her skanky antics with her husband.Tamara responded, "I had an interview with the managing director for the position of personnel assistant. What brings you down here?""I'm dropping off some documents, I have a meeting with the