Cufflink Ch. 01

As always, he had given me some good advice and deep down I could see the sense of it, but not right now, not today!

"I'll think about your advice, but I can't get the picture of her with them out of my skull. Until recently, she was my rock, my wife, my lover and my best friend. Now in the space of a few weeks, she has turned that rock to so much dust! You said that you talked to her today?"

"Yes, I know her parents very well and they called me first thing this morning. It was they who put me wise to some of what went on last night. I went over and met them both. Kirsty was brave enough to face me and give me a first-hand account of what happened. She didn't try to make excuses or gild the lily! She explained without going into the detail of her affairs but she admitted that it was her fault and her affair and failure to support you when it really mattered lies heavily on her conscience. She looked a wreck and before I left she handed me her letter of resignation."

He waited to see if I was going to respond to that and then said, "She has done a very stupid thing and knows she has no excuses that could mitigate her behaviour. We have all made mistakes in the past and I admit to being very selfish when I tore her letter up! The Company will need her more than over now. We have some positions to fill and will need a major recruitment drive it if we are to meet the CDI contract timelines! I told her that if she had the guts to stand up and face down the inevitable gossip, it would soon blow over. As far as I'm aware, what happened between her and her lovers, never took place on Company time or on Company premises. Any liaisons they had, until last night at any rate, she said there were only a handful, took place well away from town and out of office hours."

He stood up then and shook my hand. "I wish you the best of luck with your new career. You're a terrific salesman and have been a far better husband than she deserved, but please let her try and explain her behaviour to you soon."

He left and I sat there for most of the afternoon just thinking about what he said. At around five, I called my in-laws and asked if I could come and see my son. It was time to start the rest of my life.

I went to her parent's house and they embraced me. They wanted a word with me before they let see Andy. They begged me to let Kirsty have her say. Their obvious question was whether there was any hope of us staying married and I confirmed my intentions to seek a divorce, they didn't try to change my mind. Thereafter, it was mainly more of the similar advice I received from Sam about allowing the opportunity to explain her actions.

It seemed that everyone wanted me to listen to the details of her infidelity. It wasn't for my needs, I told them it mattered little to me now why she cheated, what mattered was that she had! If I was honest with myself, the truth was that they were right. It did matter deeply to me though for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. What difference did it make if she had only fucked them once or a hundred times? I tried to brush off the why as if I didn't care, but the demon inside me had to know the why. Was it some kind of vicarious thrill that drove me try and find out or was I just a masochist who wanted to revel in my own misery? Whatever the truth of the matter, I had to know. I told them I would speak with her sometime before I left town.

That caused a whole new set of questions and also brought Kirsty storming into the room. She must have been listening from the hallway as I talked to her parents. She was crying and through her tears and sobs she begged me to give her another chance. I couldn't help myself, I laid into her calling her a slut and a whore and other such names as I could think of. I eventually ran out of steam and calmed down a little. Once I had vented my frustration and anger, I was able to conduct myself in a more rational manner and confirmed to her that there was no chance of reconciliation. She told me that she would accept my decision, only she wanted to try and explain first. I told her that she could move back into the family home right away. I only wanted to pack up my stuff and that I would stop with my mother until I left town. She thanked me for my understanding about how important it was for Andrew to at least have the continuity of his own home surroundings at this time. She asked if it would be all right if they came back with me today and I said OK. Since the sole purpose of my visit was to see my son, I asked where he was and she said, he was at the swing park with his friends and would be back shortly. They felt that it would be best if he wasn't around at our initial meeting just in case things turned ugly.

When we got home, we sat together and explained to Andrew that his mummy and daddy were going to be living apart, but that we both loved him very much. He seemed to accept it all too easily, but with around 50% of all marriages ending in divorce, he must have had classmates at school in similar predicaments. When he was in bed, Kirsty tried to explain why and I just listened without comment. I was angry still, but thought that if we got it over with, we could both move on.

We sent Andrew to bed and sat there silently, both of us contemplating the next step. I wanted a divorce, I could not see me forgiving her and certainly the trust was now gone. I remembered the advice I had been given, to hear her out and told he the floor was hers if she wanted to try to explain her behaviour.

The following is her explanation. It revealed a lot of things I knew about and some I wished I hadn't ever got to know!

To be continued.