Love Triangle: Three Sides to the Story Read Free Page B

work.”
    “On Sunday?” She raised her eyebrows as she calmly drank her tea. “He told me he was going to stop by with Karen today.”
    “Karen?” I asked, my mind working overtime.
    “Yes,” the witch said, looking at me innocently. “He has this friend, a beautiful young lady, that he carries me to visit sometimes. She’ll make a fine match for a lucky guy.”
    I was speechless. Karen … carries to visit sometimes … kept repeating in my head. I realised that my mouth was opened and I closed it with a snap.
    Mrs. Cameron was looking at me, feigned concern in her eyes. “Is everything alright, dear? The silence is oppressive. Let me get you some tea.” She got up and went into the house. I was shell-shocked.
    The girl had a name and she was visiting his mother. I was so weak when George’s mother placed the cup in my hands, it was rattling in the saucer and I could not stop it. She took it from me and placed it on a side table. I observed it in a haze.
    She then stood over me, her eyes looking kind, and said firmly, “Marie, you are an intelligent girl. I have admired your drive and determination over the years. You are a smart girl until it involves George. You know I love my son, and I have not been very nice to you over the years, but you are the mother of my grandchildren, and I would just hate to see the family broken up.”
    She cleared her throat and put her hand on my shoulder. “Let me not say anything more … ” and then she sat down across from me, calmly drinking her tea.
    I watched her hand go up and down from her mouth to the saucer. It was as if all other sounds in the world were obliterated except the clink of the cup in the saucer and the sipping noise that her mouth made.
    I don’t know how I reached home. I can’t remember anything else from that evening except that I felt very small in a big, bad world. Mother-in-law, the dragon, was not really a dragon. My sweet husband was now the dragon, cheating on me with a girl called Karen.
    George returned home from ‘work’ late Sunday evening. He noticed the absence of dinner and my zombie-like look but said nothing.
    He hurriedly dressed for church as he was going to conduct the night’s meeting. He left without saying a word. My body language obviously discouraged conversation.
    I cried when he left, but not the heart-wrenching sobs of the last time, though I felt torn, and suicidal. I knelt beside my bed, my head wearily in my hands and asked God why. Why did this have to happen to me? There are people who live together for 40, 50 years with no infidelity in their union.
    What happened, Lord? Is it because I am not reading my Bible and praying with my husband enough, or am I less of a woman?
    I am just 32, a young attractive woman, with three beautiful children for the same man.
    Why me?
    I sobbed my poor heart out.
    I heard the car drive into the garage and I looked up at the clock. It was 9:30 pm. I had been kneeling down for two hours. I got up, took the cordless phone and locked myself in the bathroom.
    I called my mother. She’s always on my side. Though she loved George, she would fearlessly rebuke him on my behalf. I needed Mommy in my corner, but she was not at home.
    My eldest sister, Winsome, answered the phone. She sounded sleepy and I was not in the mood for Winsome’s unbiased view on life. I asked for my other sister Laura, who was still at university and our parents' youngest child.
    She would understand; she’s a counselling major.
    “Laura,” I said, when she took the phone from Winsome.
    “Yes, Marie. I called you about twenty times today. Where were you?”
    “I …  I … ” I started to cry, hiccups flowing through the phone line. I looked in the mirror above the bathroom at my bloodshot eyes and tear-streaked face. I looked positively awful. I started to laugh hysterically.
    “I bet Karen is beautiful when she cries,” I said to my puzzled sister.
    “Calm down,” Laura was saying urgently into the