Hailey’s POV
“Raymond…”
“Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.” I said gently as I slid the receipt towards his side of the dining table.”
“Where did you find this, Hailey?”
“Does that matter?”
He looked at it, he wasn’t moved, like there was nothing to hide.
“Raymond,” I called him again, my voice was trembling this time.
“Look at me.”
He slowly looked at me.
“Tell me I’m overthinking.”
“Tell me this receipt is random.”
He was silent and it passed a message but I wanted to hear it clearly from him.
“Your last trip, you claimed it was a business trip, I mean that was what you told me.”
“But you were with someone right?”
“Hailey, where’s all this coming from?” He finally said.
“Stop stalling and tell me the truth Raymond.” I raised my voice.
“You’re making assumptions.” He lied.
It was obvious he was lying.
“Assumptions? Prove me wrong then.” I said.
“It’s not so easy, it’s complicated.” He looked directly into my eyes.
“Then make me understand, please Raymond.” I was almost in tears.
“One of the mums from Sophia’s school spoke to me today.”
“She said she had seen you in New York, she was also on a trip.”
“You weren’t on that trip for business, yeah?”
“You were with someone else.”
“Another woman.”
He didn’t speak, what could he say?
He rested his hands on the table and then on his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s not an answer Raymond.”
Another silence.
“Yes, I was with someone.” He dropped.
I can’t express how I felt in that moment.
The one man I loved and trusted had just broken my heart.
I was numb, I didn’t move, I just sat there.
I eventually spoke.
“How long has it been?”
He didn’t respond.
“Raymond, how long has it been?” I asked raising my voice.
“A little over a year.”
It was like I was being broken all over again. “A year Raymond, a whole year”
“This means every time you said you were traveling for work…”
He closed his eyes.
“It wasn’t always for work”
I was tearing up.
“So every business trip..”
“Not all”
“But some of them”
I bent my head.
“Who is she?”
He hesitated.
I gave him a stern look.
“Vanessa, that’s her name.”
He said her name, she was real, I was still trying to not believe.
“Vanessa”
“And do I know Vanessa?”
“You don’t”
“Do you love her?”
He just looked at me.
“Hailey, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen”
“That wasn’t my question”
He sighed.
“I care about her”
“So you love her then?”
He didn’t answer, he didn’t need to.
I stood up.
“All these years…”
“I know Hailey.”
“I quit my job.”
“I know.”
“I supported you, I took care of our children.”
“I believed you, I trusted you.”
“ I’m sorry.”
“Stop!”
“What can your apology do?”
I tried to stop crying but it kept coming.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I wanted to. I just didn’t know how to tell you”
“What if that woman hadn’t seen you, would you still lie to me?”
He couldn’t answer.
“I get it, I finally do.”
I picked up the receipt from the table.
“You know, it wasn’t even the receipt”
He looked at me.
“It wasn’t what the woman told me.”
“It was how you couldn’t even deny it.”
I shook my head.
“You didn’t even try, you didn’t even consider me, you didn’t think about what we had.”
“Look at this life we built, what more could you have wanted Raymond? What more?”
He stood up.
“Hailey please.” He said as he walked close to me.
I stepped back.
“I need sometime to think and you need to leave.”
He looked like he understood what he had done to me and how broken he left me, picked up his car keys and I heard the front door close.
I sat on the floor and left myself cry. I wondered if I wasn’t enough and what went wrong with us.
I thought about how we would move forward from this.
I thought about everything, I didn’t know how long I sat there.
The tears kept flowing till my face was numb and I couldn’t feel anything. Everything we built and where we started from flashed through my mind.
The day we met in uni. We lived different lives but we still crossed paths.
Our first date too. He took me to his favorite spot of campus and soon enough, it became mine too.
The day he said he loved me first and how cheesy I was.
The day he proposed.
Our wedding which was absolutely glorious.
The day I found out I was having Jack, how happy Raymond was. Sophia’s first words.
Every memory was genuine and happy. So what went wrong?
No matter what happened this night, my children still needed me and I had to show up for them.
I was hurt but I had to be strong.
For my children that depended on me and for myself too.
I stared at our family pictures as I walked up the stairs. These happy moments, they were all gone. I was there for a hot minute and eventually went into my bedroom.
I took off my ring, stared at the line where it has been sitting. It was kart of me but not anymore.
I placed it on the bedside table.
That was it, it was over.