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 13
Nick sighed into the blessed silence
of his backyard. It had been a long week and the emotional
difficulties of Sunday were still haunting him. Added to that he had
come to realise that he was in love with Annie.
Stephanie. Her name reflected the
elegant and mature woman she was, but he would always think of her as
the carefree Annie of their youth.
Maybe he had always been in love with
her and just never realised it until now.
He swirled the whiskey around the ice
cubes rapidly melting in the summer heat. Apparently they were going
to get some more rain, but when he looked at the empty sky, he
wondered if the weather guys saw things.
His mobile phone beeped.
He opened the message. Come tomorrow.
Bring the papers with you. L
He took a sip of the whiskey and
deleted the message before putting the phone back in his pocket.
He understood Stephanie's situation
much better than she knew. He was raised with the idea that one never
abandoned one's family, but having been on the receiving end, he
understood why she couldn't let her husband go.
But he could and one day when she was
ready, they could have a future.
“Hey, Dad.”
He smiled at the cheerful face of his
daughter. “Hey, yourself.”
“I am off to study group. I brought
some Chinese if you feel hungry. See you later?”
He nodded. “Thanks, sweetie.”
She waved and turned to go back
inside.
He called her name.
“Yeah?”
“Break a leg!”
With a shake of her head and laughter
still tinkling with youthful cheer, she left him to his thoughts.
Alone in the house, he went to his
study and dug out the key to a small safe hidden away in the desk. It
contained but one thing and this was the first time in seventeen
years that he was going to open it. He only hoped the documents were
still intact.
He had to blow out some dust from the
lock, making him sneeze twice, but the key still fit and the door
opened on the first attempt.
Reaching inside he withdrew the
envelope. He pulled a face. Judging by the smell the mothballs have
done their job keeping nature away from the documents.
After closing and locking the safe,
he returned the key to its hiding place and sat down behind the desk.
Giving his hands a quick wipe on his
jeans, he opened the envelope and pulled out the documents.
Due to their dark and sealed storage
space, the paper was still white and crisp as the day he had put them
in there. Only the smell gave away their age.
Seventeen years. Sometimes it felt
like yesterday. Other times it felt as if it had happened to someone
else and he was only an observer to the result of that fateful day.
Whatever he had felt back then, was
not relevant anymore. It was time to move on.
It was time to finally cut the ties
to his wife.
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