The 'Do Nothing' Option

Pete sought Lee out. "This is totally fucked up but I'm going to say it anyway. My wife is apparently a complete slut. I've no idea how many men she's fucked since we married. I don't want to know; she's nothing to me now. You've done everything I asked you to; so, if you want to walk away now, that's fine. But, if you want to exploit the faithless cow for an evening's sexual tuition, go for it. The choice is yours."

Lee looked at his boss. "If I thought that you still cared about her, really, I'd walk away. But." He paused to think it through, "It seems like karma that the fake identity we created is the one that gives you the final proof that she's been whoring behind your back."

"The other thing is, Pete; the guys here still mutter things about me when you're not there. I'm going to go tonight and I'm going to ask her if I can take photos of us screwing, to show the guys at work. You say they brag about non-existent shags. I'll show you the photos first, but I want to shut the fuckers up."

Pete just shrugged, past caring. They spent a few more minutes planning and then got back to work.

At quarter to six that evening, Pete parked his company pick-up on a side street close to his flat. He pulled on an old hoodie that he kept at work and went to stand in the bus shelter that gave him a good view of his front door. Just after six, a taxi pulled up and Tina got in. Pete turned his back, ostensibly to check the bus time table, as the car passed him.

He collected the pick-up and parked outside his home and then let himself in. The flat seemed lifeless, like an abandoned film set: It looked like a home but one where no-one really lived. He walked through the rooms feeling like an intruder in someone else's life. Then he realised that there were no answers here for the one question in his mind; she was the only one who could explain why and he would never speak to her again to ask. He shook himself and went about his task. He cleared his clothes out of his wardrobe and drawers. The everyday stuff went into his suitcase; anything with a link to Tina, like his wedding suit or the funny Christmas sweater that she'd bought him, he threw on the bed.

Then he went through the household stuff. Things that were gifts to him went on the kitchen table, except gifts from Tina, they went on the bed too. His books went on the table, unless they were from her. Within an hour, he'd segregated the possessions of two people who had promised each other to grow old together. "Three fucking years!" He thought, as he took the last of his belongings from the bathroom cabinet. "She barely lasted three fucking years."

He noticed a missed text on his phone. It was from Lee.

**I'm so sorry Pete. Ive only got a minute while shes in the bathroom. I tried, but she just laughed and said what hubby dont know wont hurt him**

Pete replied.

**Not your fault. thanks for trying**

He barely remembered the next ten minutes as his heart broke.

Eventually, the tears stopped and he got back to work. Day to day stuff went in one box while non-essentials went into another. Originally, he'd wondered where he'd store all his things. As he looked at the two boxes and two suitcases that were all that remained of his marriage, he realised that most of it would fit under the single bed in his dad's bungalow.

He still had two more things to do: Tina, like many women, kept a memory box. Hers had every card that Pete had ever sent her, all tied together with a blue ribbon. Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas and Valentine's Day cards; he put them through the paper shredder and tossed the fragments over the items on the bed. He did the same with the cards she'd sent to him and then he shredded the cards she kept from family and friends accepting the invitation to their wedding. He left the, now near empty, box on the bedside table.

The last task was to take their wedding photo from the living room wall. He laid it carefully on the kitchen worktop and then got his IKEA toolkit from the kitchen cabinet. He placed the pointed screwdriver bit carefully on the glass and, when he was satisfied with its position, gave it a sharp blow with the hammer. Cracks radiated away from the impact. Perfect!

He loaded up the pick-up and left, posting his key through the letter box. By nine o'clock, he was at his father's bungalow dropping his possessions off. He gave his dad a sanitised version of Tina's infidelity and promised to tell him the whole story in time.

"I'm expecting a lot of drama tonight," he told his father. "And I won't ask you to lie for me, so I won't be staying here for a while, and I won't tell you where I am going to stay. That way, no-one can bully or guilt you into getting involved. Don't let them use your phone to contact me and don't agree to pass on messages. If Tina or her parents try to drag you in, just tell them I'll happily block your number just to protect you."

"Are you sure you're doing the right thing son?" His dad asked.

"I'm certain," Pete replied. "I took your advice and let the situation play out until it was obvious what I had to do. If I'd reacted too soon, I'd never have been sure what she was capable of." Father and son hugged and Pete left.

At about ten to ten Pete was sitting in the small B&B room that he'd booked that morning, when he got another message from Lee.

**Im watching from the hotel window. Shes getting into her taxi now. Going straight home like a good girl she said. Should be there by quarter past. Fuck im so sorry!**

**Dont be. At least now i know** Pete replied

He logged into his completed divorce application, added his electronic signature and entered his credit card details for the fee. Pete took a deep breath and pressed 'Submit Application'.

He logged into Facebook and changed his relationship status to 'Separated'. Then he went onto his home page and in reply to 'What's on your mind?' He posted, "My wife thinks that this is ok." He attached the screen shot of her Infinidelity profile and changed his 'Feelings" status to 'Broken'. Tina wouldn't see that straight away as she didn't have a Facebook account. She relied on Instagram. He was pretty sure that one of her mates would eventually tell her that she'd been outed.

He looked at his watch. Ten o'clock. He rang Tina's father.

"Hi Pete. What are you ringing at this hour for? Is everything okay?"

"Look Eddie, there isn't time to explain. Tina's on her way home and she'll be there in ten minutes or so. I think she's going to be upset and she'll need someone there. You and Janet should go now and call me when you get there. Then we can talk."

"What's going on, Pete?"

"Eddie! Just fucking go!" Pete hung up.

Pete sat back and considered the hurt that he was about to unleash on Tina's parents. Eddie was looking forward to being a grandad, and he'd be a bloody good one too. "Just not for my kids," Pete thought sadly. Janet was a lovely woman who tried to fill the gap left because Pete's own mum had died when he was in his teens.

Seven minutes later, Pete's phone rang. Christ! Eddie must have shifted.

"Alright, We're at your front door. What the fuck is going on?" Eddie was getting angry as well as scared.

"Ring me when Tina arrives and I'll explain. Don't worry about her though. She hasn't been hurt or anything. It's just so fucking complicated, but you need to be there for her." He hung up again.

It wasn't that long before Pete's phone rang again.

"Okay Pete. Tina's paying off the taxi now. So, for the last time, what the fuck are you playing at?"

Pete's mouth was almost too dry to speak. "I'm sorry Eddie. Though fuck knows why it's me apologising. Ask Tina where she's been."

"Pete, what's going on?"

"Just fucking ask her, Eddie. Just ask her where she's been." Pete heard her father asking where she'd been.

"Pete? Tina says you know where she's been. She told you. She was out with Emma."

"Eddie. Emma's in Portugal; she's been there a week and not back for another week. So ask Tina again. Where has she been?"

Eddie was getting angry now. Someone was fucking him about and he wasn't even close to happy about it. He came back on the line. "Tina said that she's actually been out with the gang from the office, but she didn't want to tell you because there were some guys with them and she didn't want to make you jealous. She promises nothing happened. She's sorry she lied."

"How many people were there, Eddie?" Another pause.

"She says there were about a dozen, but they all stayed together in the pub. I know it sounds bad. But she swears nothing happened. Is that it Pete? She's been stupid; she knows she shouldn't have lied. But is that it now?"

"I'm so sorry Eddie. Ask her if Room 154 at the Travelodge can really accommodate twelve people." There was a long pause and concerned voices.

"Pete? Tina's throwing up in the gutter. What the fuck is going on?"

"Go inside," Pete told him. "And ring me back when you've opened my next message." Pete opened his phone's picture gallery and sent Annie's profile screen to Eddie's phone.

Two minutes later, Eddie rang back. Pete could hear Tina sobbing in the background. "What are you showing me Pete?" He could hear Eddie pleading for this to be a mistake.

"Eddie. Tina has to tell you the truth. It's not fair me being the one to dump this on you. Tell her that I can keep sending you pictures all night, until she stops lying."

"She won't say anything, She won't stop crying."

Pete sent the screenshot of the message that Annie had sent to Alex. He went back to the call. "Eddie. Tina set up this profile months ago. I only found out recently that she has been posing as Little Miss Annie on an infidelity website to meet men for sex. This is the message she sent to her most recent fuck. She sent it while I was in the same room. She pretended it was to Emma. She sent that message and looked at me and smiled. That's how much she respects me. That's where she's been tonight, and everything that she has told you so far has been a lie. Tell me Eddie. In my place; could you forgive her? Start a family with her? Cheerfully go to work not knowing who she'd be fucking in your bed while you were out?

"So, I'm sorry; but I needed you to be there to show her this. I can move on; But she'll still be your daughter. You'll have to deal with this, because in less than a year she'll be a single woman and not my problem ever again. Put me on speaker now, please."

"Janet, take Tina into the kitchen, Show her the photo. Ask her if she knows what it means." Pete waited, picturing the scene in his old home.

He heard crying and then Tina's mum's voice. "She says she's sorry that she made you so angry that you smashed your wedding photo. She says that she never meant to hurt you."

Pete shook his head. "She doesn't understand yet. Tell her to look harder at the picture. Where is it broken?"

There was a moment's pause in the conversation. Then Janet spoke again over the sound of sobbing in the background. "She understands now. She's broken your heart. That's why you broke it there. She just keeps saying that she never meant to hurt you."

"She never meant to hurt me? Well that was easily avoided. She could have not paid to join an adulterers' website. She could have not have fucked strangers. Not hurting people isn't fucking rocket science; it just needs you not to do hurtful things. My wife though? Tonight she laughed with her lover and told him 'what hubby don't know won't hurt him'. She never meant to hurt me? No, she just didn't fucking care."

"Never mind, we're nearly finished now Janet. I'm so sorry but there's just two more things to do. Take her into the bedroom and ask her if she understands what the things on our bed mean."

Eddie's voice this time. "Tina's near hysterical. Her mother's trying to calm her. Tina says that everything on the bed is things that are special to the pair of you. You've moved out and left behind all the things that remind you of her. We don't understand the shredded paper."

"That's okay Eddie. Show her the box. Ask her what used to be in there."

Pete heard Eddie pass on the message and then a howl of anguish as Tina finally realised how deeply she'd hurt him. "What the fuck did you do?" Eddie asked, shocked. "I've never seen anyone in a state like this."

"Eddie. Everything she said at our wedding; to cherish, love, honour, keeping only to each other. It was meaningless to her. Barely three fucking years, us saving to buy a house to raise our kids, your grandkids, and how does she honour me? By fucking strangers she finds on the internet. All the cards she's sent me, telling me how much she loves me. They're meaningless, they're lies; so I shredded them, because they had no more value, no more meaning. My cards to her, replies to our wedding invitations, all just fucking meaningless to her."

Eddie struggled to get the words out now. His voice thick with emotion, he tried to make himself heard over his daughter's wails and his wife's sobbing. "We didn't know Pete. We never suspected. I can't explain and I won't try to make excuses for her."

"I know, Eddie. You and Janet aren't to blame for Tina's choices and I'm so sorry for putting you through this. But she had to understand what she's done and you needed to be there for her when she did. We're nearly finished now, then you can take her home and try to mend her. She's broken now: she smiled at me as she texted a stranger for sex. That's not right. You need to fix her. But I'll only speak to you or Janet in future. Not her; never her; not after what she did to me."

Pete sent the last message with the link to their divorce petition. then he switched off his phone and wept.

Postscript

I had to edit this story to correct an unfortunate typo, so I'll take to opportunity to update the postscript too. Originally the postscript was about this being a good place to stop. From Pete's point of view it is. His relationship with Tina is over and a new story begins. But, reading the feedback, I thought that it would be interesting to write a first person account from Tina's point of view. So I did. I hope you enjoy it. If not, well, I tried.