Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [109]
I know it took us both a long time to fall asleep - we each lay there quiet and still, pretending to the other that we were.
I must have dropped off at some stage but woke up just after 3am with a gagging feeling in my throat. Something in the combination of the banquet and the wine and ferry trip had clearly not agreed with me. I made it to the bathroom on time and heaved my guts up into the toilet bowl several times. I leant my hot head on the cool porcelain, amazed that the noise hadn’t disturbed Tony. He was snoring softly, clearly out like a light. Deeply asleep. I had my chance.
I opened the drawer to his bedside table, congratulating myself as I did so for choosing a top-of-the-range design; it moved seamlessly on its thread, quiet as a mouse. I padded downstairs to our kitchen, bare feet on bare boards. I drank several glasses of water to clear the taste from my mouth. Then I looked at the phone. It was off. He never turned his phone off. I pressed the on switch. Have you ever noticed how long it takes to switch on a mobile phone? When you’re engaged in espionage it seems an eternity. Finally…the battery was fully charged and the phone set to silent mode. A few seconds later a light flashed, indicating he had a new message. No…twenty-two new messages in fact - ten voicemails and a dozen texts, all from the same number. I checked the latest text, sent only a few minutes earlier. It said: U cant keep avoiding me. please can we talk.
I pressed the return call number. A female voice answered. The accent was Chinese, the manner eager: ‘Hello.’
‘This is Eleanor Cooper speaking. I am wondering who you are and why you are sending text messages to my husband at three in the morning.’
Her tone changed with this. It was now clipped and efficient, with a hint of defiance. ‘I’m glad you called. My name is Wendy Wong and I think you should know that I have been your husband’s girlfriend for four years.’
Wendy. So the mystery was solved.
But four years - was this part true? Isabel had not long turned four. If this woman was telling the truth my husband had not just had a brief affair. He had been involved with her for over half of our married life.
‘Why should I believe you?’ I said.
‘Because it’s true.’
‘Not good enough, I’m afraid.’
‘It is true. He had a mobile phone that only I could call him on and our own email account so you would not find out. He was going to leave you and marry me when his daughter got big enough.’
‘You could be making this all up,’ I said, although my denial was just a façade. I think I knew it was true from the moment she spoke.
‘I still have my emails. You could read them.’
No thanks, I didn’t want to read them!
‘I know…’ she said, ‘how I can prove it to you. Last year, in June, when he called you to say he was sick and wasn’t coming home that night. You were angry because you were at a conference or something. I was there with him that night.’
My husband slept on, unaware that his marriage had just ended.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I think I’ve heard enough. What I need to do now is talk to my husband.’
‘He will deny it but it’s true. Remember I have the emails.’
The Eleanor of a few years earlier would have rushed upstairs to confront him in a tearful rage, but she’d long since departed the scene. Besides, Myrna was asleep in our house and neither she nor Isabel needed to be witness to that. I took down Wendy’s number, deleted all her messages, turned the phone off again, snuck it back in his drawer (still he slept) and went downstairs again to make myself a cup of tea. Then I sat and thought.
Tony came downstairs about 6am to look for me. His hair was tousled from sleep and he was clad only in boxers and a t-shirt but I observed he was still clutching that phone. ‘There you are,’ he said. ‘Why are you up so early?’
‘I’ve been vomiting my guts up. Something on the menu last night didn’t agree with me.’
‘Really? I thought I would have heard you then.’
‘I came downstairs so as not to disturb you. I feel okay now, anyway.’
‘I bet it was the seafood. I felt