The Torn Up Marriage by Caroline Roberts Read Free Book Online

they’d known each other for years.
    She pictured him as he was back then, his hair was longer with brown-black tufts that sprung up at oddly attractive angles across the fringe and crown.
    By the end of the night, he’d taken her number. She remembered the butterflies she’d had all the next day, hoping he’d ring… He did.
    Those early, easy years of passion, playfulness, friendship: just the two of them.
    What had happened to them?
    She stood with the border fork poised mid-air before she dug it deep into the earth, narrowly missing her toes. How could she have not known that things had changed so drastically? She’d been wrapped up in the girls, for sure. Being a mum took loads of energy. And they didn’t have so much time for each other as a couple, but wasn’t that normal, just family life? But surely she should have sensed something, seen some sign that her husband was cheating on her? Christ, did other people in their circle know about this? Was it common knowledge? And what the hell did it matter? He’d still have done it.
    She sighed as she glanced across the garden, remembering last summer. Would Michael ever be back, sitting here with her, sharing a glass of wine and easy conversation, kicking a football around or splashing with the girls in the paddling pool with his trousers rolled up around his knees? Or would that all take place in some other garden now? Some other life? Not the one she’d imagined for them at all.
    Kate glanced at the blackbird. It was brown, a female. It hopped under a shrub and regarded her, its eye black and bead-like, yet gentle. Did it have a nest somewhere? Kate wiped away a tear that came silently, smudging it with the cuff of her coat, adamant not to let the flow start again. The phone sat silently on the wall of the patio.
    Ten to three. She’d go in and make a coffee before the girls were due back. She took the phone in with her, the plastic casing cold from being on the stone wall. As she got to the kitchen it rang.
    “Hell-lo?”
    “Kate…”
So this was it.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Jesus,” he muttered, as if to himself, “This is so difficult.”
    She remained quiet.
    “I… Look, I’m going to come back after work.”
    So he was staying after all?
    “But just to collect some things,” he continued. “Just for now… I haven’t… I can’t make a final decision just like that. But I… I can’t come home and just pretend nothing has happened, either.”
    Do you think I can? Do you think I can pretend nothing has happened?
    “Are you going to her?”
    A pause. Maybe he should just lie, but the truth seemed necessary. There had been too many lies. “Yes. I’m going to stay with Sophie.”
    Kate gulped back tears. How could he sound so calm? How the hell was this happening? “Right… I see” But she didn’t see anything, A mass of jealous thoughts collided with her words. But how could she stop him? What could she say that would make him stay? She wasn’t going to beg, and she would never use their girls as a weapon, a bargaining tool.
    “I’m sorry Kate, truly.”
    “Sometimes sorry isn’t enough, Michael.”
    He paused, “I know… Look, I’ll see the girls when I’m there, before I go.”
    “What will we say to them?” Panic gripped Kate. This was real. This was going to happen. Michael was leaving them.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something. Nothing’s definite yet… with us. I’ll think of something.”
    “Okay.”
    “See you later, then.”
    She couldn’t speak. Held the phone, just staring at it in her palm until her hand went numb. Heard the click on the line as it was cut from his end.

Chapter 7
    He pulled into the driveway. This was going to be the hardest thing he had ever had to do in his life. Pack a bag, kiss the girls a “goodbye for now” and walk away from his marriage.
    His guts were already churning, but he couldn’t see any other way. He hadn’t meant to fall in love with Sophie, hadn’t wanted to rip his