Tangled Web

I couldn't afford to stay in the hotel, so I'd moved back home with my parents. They were sympathetic but said it was my own fault. I should have talked to him. As dad said, two wrongs don't make a right.

I was still living in hope that he wouldn't go through with the divorce. He was just trying to scare me into backing down and apologizing. How the hell could I apologize if he wouldn't talk to me?

I remember that Tuesday oh so clearly. I was sitting at my desk finishing off an account when the girl from the front desk called and said that there were two men at the desk to see me. Thinking it was salesmen, I put on my best smile and walked down to meet them.

Mark stood there with another man talking quietly. My heart skipped a beat, had he forgiven me?

Mark nodded in my direction and said something to the other man who approached me. Mark stood back not taking part in what was about to happen. I knew then my marriage was over.

"Dianne Andrews?" A question within a statement, I nodded yes, unable to speak.

"You are being served with divorce papers by your husband Mark Andrews. The grounds are your adultery. If you haven't got a lawyer then I suggest you do so as soon as possible."

Nodding to Mark he walked off after completing his assigned task.

"Mark no, I thought you loved me. How could you do this to us? I love you. I know we have problems but we can work through them surely if we love each other."

Mark's voice was cold, his words calculated and almost emotionless, "I did love you with all my heart. But you took that love and ripped it out of me, and my heart with it. Now all I feel for you is pity. You chose to listen to someone who doesn't even know me. Where is this bitch anyway I want to say a few words to her."

"Yes, she'll prove that you cheated and we can forget this. I'll get her."

Running over to the desk, I asked a snickering receptionist to page Jane for me.

Jane arrived, and I thought that finally I could get him to admit the truth.

"Jane, tell Mark what you saw that weekend at the hotel."

Jane shrugged and told her story again. "I saw your husband with another woman staying there."

Mark gasped, "You saw me staying at the Hyatt in Carlton?"

Jane shook her head no. "No I saw her husband not you, and it wasn't the Hyatt in Carlton. We stayed at the Regent in West Bend."

Mark and I were both confused, but for different reasons. What was she talking about?

Jane turned to me and said, "I don't know what is going on here but I saw the same man who used to come here and pick you up for lunches and after work. The man you took with you on that three day conference in August two years ago. You introduced him to us as your husband Wally."

Fear paralyzed me as I realized she was talking about a guy I had a short affair with two years ago. Jane really didn't know my husband.

It had dawned on Mark at the same moment and a look of triumph creased his face.

Mark turned and left calling out for all to hear, "See you in court."

My fate was sealed.