“TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED…”
“Well?” Zach pushed. “What is this about? What have you been
up to? Speak for goodness sake!!!”
Cathy looked as if she would crumble into rubble where she
stood: her face was pale – she seemed about to give in. But she threw her head
back in defiance and looked straight at her husband. “There’s nothing to tell
you, Zach.”
“Oh really? There’s nothing to tell? There sure is a hell of
a lot out there, darling wife. There’s a lot about you and your amorous affair
in my absence. What? Is he the one sending you the mail?”
“I have nothing to tell you. And I can handle this on my
own!” Cathy threw the words at Zach and started to walk out. As she passed by
him, he grabbed her arm and whispered, “If you walk out of this door, we are
done!”
“Watch me, Zach,” she replied in the same tone, and yanked
her arm from his grip. She walked out of the room, out of the house and got
into a taxi before she broke down in tears completely. Her marriage was
crumbling to pieces and she had just ruined the one opportunity she had to make
things right with her husband. She had five days remaining to get the money
Dale wanted. But who cared now? She had already lost the most important person
in her life, the one for whom she had been willing to make the sacrifice. It
was bad enough that he had deceived her, and he had made it worse by
investigating her life in his absence and making her look like the complete
whore in the story. He just passed his judgment without hearing her side of the
story. Oh how she wished her mother was still around for her to weep out her
frustrations to. She instructed the driver to circle the area before bringing
her back to her starting point.
While Cathy was weeping her heart out, Zach was also
battling with himself, wondering if playing offensive had done any good at all.
He could have handled the issue in a more mature way, he knocked himself. His
wife would have told him everything if only he had not allowed jealousy to
overcome him. Now, he had lost his wife with a petty dare. He laughed dryly.
Come to think of it, his wife had never challenged him or his authority before.
Were it not for the situation at hand, he would have found it truly comic.
Perhaps the benefit of his absence was his wife’s ability to fight back. But
exactly what happened to make her so? He would never find out now, he shrugged.
He looked at the piece of paper in his hand and shook his head again. To keep
himself busy, he rearranged the messed up items in the bedroom, packed his
backpack with a pair of tracksuit and water and left the room. If Cathy
returned, he did not want her to see him. He did not know what to do with her
now, and the time away will give him some time to think of how to deal with it
all rationally.
Zach went out and stopped a taxi. As it pulled away, he saw
another park in front of the residence. Out of curiosity, he asked his driver
to stop for a moment. Cathy stepped out of the taxi looking miserable. Zach
shook his head and instructed the driver to take him to the nearest guest
house.
His face did not betray his raging emotions when he got to
the reception area of the modest guest house. He made his requests: he did not
know how long he would stay but he was to be given lunch only. Then he took his
key and went to his room: 1173. He missed his wife already. He rubbed his face
in his palms. How was he going to handle this?!
Three days passed quite swiftly for Zach as he sojourned in
the guest house yet he did not have any headway as to dealing with his wife’s
infidelity. Cathy was also struggling through the days. She had emptied her
account of all that she had yet she did not have Dale’s 7,000. Dale had also
been pestering her with his blackmail every day. She was afraid he would kill
her, as his last mail had said.
She missed her husband and if wishes were horses, Cathy was
sure she would have had one ride him to her immediately. At that thought, she
heard the doorbell. Fearing that it was another one of Dale’s mails, she
tarried. But the ringing did not cease as it normally did. She armed herself
with a kitchen knife and walked slowly to the door. She jerked the door open
and aimed to slaughter but Zach’s military instinct intervened: he swiftly hit
her wrist and the knife fell onto the threshold. Cathy yelped out of pain and
stepped back. Zach entered the room and took her hand, apologizing even as he
tried to soothe the pain in her wrist. He smiled at her bravery but he received
a scowl in return and his smile disappeared almost immediately. He took the
knife off the floor and put it on the table. He then grabbed his wife in a
fierce hug. He confessed how he had missed her and complained of how miserable
the bed at the guest house was. “I’ll listen to you, Cathy. I love you and I
need you in my life. Tell me what happened. Let me help you deal with this
blackmail. Let me back into your life, my love.” Zach whispered as he held her.
Cathy was stiff; she did not know what to say. She allowed Zach to lead her to
the couch and sat her on his laps. She let him kiss her temples, her neck, even
her lips, without moving.
Zach stopped caressing her. He looked her in the eyes, the
plea so clear in his, and said, “I will listen, Cathy. Tell me everything that
happened.”
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