Let us tell you a story part 17

I am an English teacher but very rarely write stories.  My ink is usually found across my students books, used on marking my students work, so this today, feels a little different.  A few weeks back Laura from Tired mummy of two came up with a gem of an idea to write a collective story. As children many of us have played consequences and this is our grown up version. Yesterday the lovely Becky at Baby Budgeting passed me the baton to continue the tale.

Becky finished by showing us that Laura is strong and that she is taking back control.

She flung open the lounge door and her angry, grief etched eyes met his….

Yet what she saw surprised her,  he wasn’t as strong, as confident and as hurt as Laura.  Robert seemed to shrink before her eyes like an flower that had been deprived of water.  Laura had an inner strength now, it rose within her, it challenged Robert in a way that she never had when they lived together.  She was no longer the downtrodden, meek wife her eyes demanded the truth.  For too long she had hidden from the hard cold truth, she had placed him on a pedestal and convinced herself that she was lucky to have him.

“Well I’m waiting,” Laura slowly but assertively questioned.

Roberts voice faltered “I needed space I didn’t mean for it to go on this long.  I was lost – not physically but I, well, I was a mess.  I knew it was all about to come tumbling down around me.  I’m sorry Laura I didn’t mean for you to have to deal with it all.”

Laura almost laughed at his pathetic apology as she felt the anger rising.  She wanted to scream at him, but she fought to keep her composure.  Laura looked for answers as she demanded to know  how her husband disappeared,  she wanted to scratch his eyes out for not facing things.  She wanted him to feel the torturous, stabbing pain that she had felt since that night.  Wanted Robert to understand the questions that had been in her head, the ones that kept her awake in the dark of the night.  She had known that their relationship was in trouble.  But she was not as weak as him, she didn’t just run away or into the arms of some readily available, lipstick clad woman.  Suddenly she saw him for what he really was.  Laura walked to the oak shelf and her finger traced the silver framed photo of them in happier times.  In that photo there was love, friendship and honesty between them, you could see it, almost taste it.  His arm snaked around her waist encircling her it was playful, fun.

Yet their relationship had stopped being like that, long before the affair if truth be told.  The relationship changed when she stopped trusting him.  It was when Laura found out that he had squandered so much of their savings, that’s when it changed as that’s when her hopes and dreams were smashed into a tiny fragments.  Robert took the easy option by disappearing that night.  That was why she had been so hurt, it showed just how little he regarded her.  Now she wanted to know what the hell he had been doing whilst she had attempted to clear her name and those debts.

To read the next installment you have to head over to MarisWorld and find out just what happens next.  I can’t wait myself!  If you have not read the previous sections you can start at the beginning of the blog hop.

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