Not all
long lasting marriages are happy. But what do you do if divorce is
not an option?
University
friends, Stephanie and Nick, meet again after twenty years. But life
has not been easy or simple for either of them. Will this friendship
affair stand a chance against reality?
CHAPTER 11
He sat upright but remained in bed
sensing that she needed some space.
“What happened?”
She kept looking out of the window
even as the words came.
“We had been married for three
years when he started to change. It wasn't obvious at first. He would
forget small things, and get angry when he realised that. If I tried
to help, he would shout at me.”
“Did he—”
“Get violent? Hit me?”
He saw her reflection grimace. “No,
but only because I made sure to keep my distance when he became like
that.”
“Go on.”
“Most of the time he was fine, and
things were normal again. When I remarked to his mother or sisters
that he was behaving differently, they told me I imagined things.”
“Did he lose it in front of them?”
She turned suddenly and went to her
closet to retrieve her dressing gown. He suspected she was playing
for time to collect her thoughts.
He sat forward. “He lied to them,
didn't he? Made up some story that put you at fault instead of the
illness?”
She turned her back as she put on the
lilac gown. She had always loved the pale purple colour. To his mind,
it made her look young and beautiful.
“Well?” he prodded. “That's
what happened, isn't it?”
She turned slightly but avoiding
looking at him. “Yes. He confessed later that he told them that I
gave him poisonous mushrooms to eat, by accident, and that it was
causing him some difficulties.”
He gasped. “And they believed him?”
She shrugged and moved to pick up her
hairbrush. “Why wouldn't they? He was the goose that laid the
golden eggs, so everything he said had to be true. I only realised
then that they were all financially dependent on him. I was so naive.
So stupid.”
He got up and wrapped his arms around
her from behind. “You were not stupid.”
“Naive then.”
He tightened his arms slightly.
“Maybe. But it is a husband's duty to support his wife and protect
her.”
“Even against his own family?”
“Especially against his own
family,” he growled.
“But—”
“But nothing. They practically
called you a liar to your face, and to satisfy his foolish pride, he
let them think they were right. You should have divorced him right
there.”
She turned and looked up at him. Her
eyes shattered with the memories. “I couldn't. To appease his
mother he went for a blood test to prove that I poisoned him...”
“When they found the real problem.
Alzheimers?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It was more
advanced that we had thought.”
“What did his family do?”
She dropped her head to his chest.
“Nothing. Nothing to help him. Nothing to support me. All they
wanted was control of the company so that they could continue to get
their money.”
His eyebrows shot up. “I don't
suppose he was happy with that situation?”
Her head moved side to side against
him. “He did the one thing to guarantee that they couldn't get
their hands on the business he had to rebuild after his father
screwed it up: he gave full executive control to me.”
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