Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
I made my third trip to her place later that day for two reasons and slipped out with the hope that things would become clearer in the upcoming days.
I took some time throughout the day to appreciate the fact that things had changed so much between Mark and me these last few weeks. Regardless of whatever else was going on, we felt closer than we had in days.
It took the changes of the last few weeks to bring home to me how much of a rut we’d gotten ourselves in over the years. We’d become parents much sooner than we’d planned, but I don’t think either of us regretted that fact. If it just meant that the fabric of the life we’d planned and imagined had changed straight off the bat.
We’d held it together with love and respect for one another, but our children had always been the focal point of our relationship. Now the kids were grown and gone, and it was just the two of us in this big old house.
Isn’t it strange that his affair had been the springboard for this much-needed change? Who knows how long we would’ve stayed in that rut had it not been for what I witnessed that day?
There were moments when I told myself to be grateful for what we had now. To just leave well enough alone and enjoy the benefits of my husband having an affair with someone thirteen years younger than myself.
But those times were always followed quickly by a resounding no. I refuse to share my husband with anyone, refuse to let him be with anyone else the way he is with me.
That was the decision I’d made that first day. Not just to hold onto what’s mine but to make the other woman pay. Oh, I plan to make Mark pay his dues as well, but I have a lifetime to do that. Jessica, on the other hand, needed to be taught a lesson.
The stench in her apartment was just the beginning of her woes, and I planned to have a front-row seat to it all. That evening, for instance, when she got home and tore the place apart, looking for what she thought was a dead mouse and finding nothing.
Or when she got her first look at the maggots that were starting to appear near her bed where I’d dripped just a little bit of raw shrimp juice, knowing that this would happen. I saw it all.
I knew what that smell would do to her and the fact that the deodorizer spray would only make matters worse once it settled. I watched her move around her apartment, frustrated and bothered, until my husband came home.
We spent that night pretty much the same as all the others, and I woke the next day excited for what was to come. I hadn’t felt this alive in a long time. All of my volunteer and charity work had become mundane, more of the same.
And even though I thrive on the work I do and helping others, there was a different kind of thrill playing Mata Hari. I’d almost forgotten why this whole thing had started because my husband had been by my side every free moment since, and her life was unraveling by my hands.
I was still a bit bummed that I hadn’t found his secret phone, and what’s more, there was nothing on his iPad or laptop to which I had added spyware to. Nothing but business emails and calls to the florist to order me flowers every couple of days.
There were a few calls between him and the kids, usually right after they called me or before, some conference calls between the six of us, and even more messages in our family group chat. But other than those things, there was nothing on his devices.
The tracker I had put on his car hadn’t given me anything to work with either, and I wondered if I had shot myself in the foot by coming on so strong. I needed to know what the hell I had missed before that hug.
Had I stopped a budding affair in its tracks? Had she been making a play for him that I stopped before it started? No, then those messages wouldn’t really make sense. It was confusing as hell, as well as frustrating, and that’s why I was looking forward to my second attack.
As a majority shareholder and owner of the corporation, as well as being a member of the board I had certain privileges that I hadn’t been taking advantage of in the past as I saw no reason for it. But there was nothing stopping me from doing that now.
I fired up my tablet and went to the cameras in the conference room where the presentation was about to start. I saw Mark enter the room and take his place as the others filed into the room. Jessica was the last one in, and she looked about as I expected after a restless night spent battling sleep and the stench that was growing worse in the confines of her apartment.