The can eventually slipped from my numb fingers and hit the hardwood floor, rolling until it came to a stop against the leg of the breakfast table. I did not move a muscle to pick it up because I was paralyzed by the betrayal echoing through the tiny speaker. Lydia then said something that completely shattered whatever remained of my heart.
“You had better follow through with this plan, Mark, because I am not going to keep hiding our relationship any longer,” she warned him. “I certainly cannot keep hiding it now, given the current circumstances,” she said with a heavy weight in her words. Mark let out a long and weary sigh that sounded like he was carrying a great burden.
“I know, my love, and I promise that with the baby coming, we cannot afford to wait much longer,” he replied softly. The entire world seemed to go silent around me as that single word hung in the air like a poisonous cloud. Lydia was pregnant with my husband’s child while she continued to pretend to be my most loyal companion.
This was the same Lydia who had come to my house only two weeks ago to eat lunch and hug me while we talked about the future. She had looked me in the eyes and asked if Mark and I were still trying to have children of our own. “Do not wait too long, Audrey, because you were truly born to be a mother,” she had told me with a fake smile.
I had to lean against the kitchen island because my legs were trembling so violently that I thought I might collapse. Mark continued to speak as if he were merely planning a summer vacation instead of destroying a family. “We are going to move to Nashville or perhaps Tampa for a while after we buy a house in a different name,” he explained.
“Then, as soon as the divorce is finalized and the money is moved, everything will finally fall into place for us,” he said. “What if your father in law suspects that something is wrong with the deal?” Lydia asked with a hint of genuine concern. Mark laughed in a way that sounded incredibly arrogant and cruel.
“Thomas is getting old and his heart attack made him much more sentimental than he used to be in his younger days,” he claimed. “The old man thinks I am the son he never had, so he will sign whatever I put in front of him without asking questions,” he added. Something deep inside of me changed in that moment and the sadness was replaced by a cold and hard anger.
