Noella sat in the middle of her lounge room, tears flowing down her cheeks, as she surveyed the remnants of her life. The family for which she had spent the last twenty years nurturing and growing had bee destroyed. Damien, the man she had fallen for as a young woman, had trashed her life, her trust and self respect.
To those on the outside, it appeared to be the ideal marriage, but in the end nothing could have been further from the truth. Her marriage to Damien had started off being full of fun, joy and light. It was sprinkled with spontaneous gifts, bouquets of flowers, romantic dinners at the best restaurants and exciting weekends away, filled with hot joyful sex, that left her body shaking from multiple orgasms. But these times had been consigned to the distant past as steadily over the next twenty years, the bond of their love frayed, overwhelmed by the raising of children, Damien's ambitious climb up the ladder of success and their mutual obsession to acquire material possessions.
For a time, the beautiful beach side house, European cars, indulgent spending sprees for clothes and overseas holidays compensated for the steadily decaying relationship. They were able to put on a front of harmony and happiness in front of family and friends but at home it was a very different situation, with constant disagreement and arguments. Damien's absence from the home grew to the point he was hardly ever there. Noella was certain Damien was seeing another woman. There were phone calls to Damien's where he would rush outside and spend a half an hour on the phone and Damien came home late from work almost every night. But try as she may, she could never prove it. That was until one day when an unusual message arrived in the family e-mail account.
Noella didn't recognise the sender, but the subject read,"Something just for you." Her curiosity was peaked, even though she knew it could just be spam. Despite this, she opened the message to find an attachment and salutation. " Much Love. Jennifer". Now she was intrigued! She clicked the attachment and watched as her computer opened its movie playing software. At first it flickered as it loaded a video clip. As it began to play Noella couldn't believe her eyes and she was soon wishing she had just deleted the message instead. There was Damien in all his naked glory, lying on his back, as a young woman, presumably Jennifer, gyrated wildly on his erect penis. Damien was emitting deep guttural groans, which were almost drowned about by Jennifer's squeals of pleasure, that came with each stroke. Tears streamed down her cheeks as Damien's infidelity was laid bare.
Part of Noella wanted turn it off immediately, delete it and pretend it never happened. Another part was fixated, as the man she had been faithfully married to, humped and pumped some young skank. She knew that there relationship was somewhat fractured, but that was totally different to having your husbands infidelity on open display right in front of you. Mixed emotions of hurt and anger swirled through her body as she realised that her marriage had become a total sham.
Soon anger overcame hurt and retribution became the key goal. She pressed forward on the message, entered Damien's e-mail address and typed:
"WTF is this!!!!!!!! You cheating prick.!!!"
"Noella."
And pressed send.
The power of the moment emboldened her.
She created a new message and attached the video file. She then searched the address book.
She found the groups of e-mail addresses. Friends click. Then she found a group of all Damien's work colleagues. Click. Then she looked for Damien's mother. Click.
In the subject box she typed: "Cheating Bastard!"
Then she clicked: Send.
She watched as the the messages disappeared from the draft box, confirming that the message had been sent. She had a brief moment of trepidation, but the she thought, "Nope! I've been too nice for too long!'
The fallout from this was almost immediate. Her mobile phone rang. It was Damien.
"What are you doing?"
"Bastard!" she screamed down the phone and hung up.
Straight away the phone rang again. It was her friend Suzie.
"What's going on honey? Who's that woman with Damien in the video? Oh my God it's terrible!"
"He's cheated on me!" Noella wailed and tears began to flow.
"I'll be straight over." And she hung up.
The phone rang again. It was Damien. He was wild!
"Who did you send it to? Noella. Who did you send it to?"
"Everyone!" She bawled. "Bastard!" She hung up again.
The phone rang again. It was another good friend. Jodie. She too was soon on her way over to look after Noella.
Again the phone rang. It was Damien. This time his mood was incendiary.
"You bitch! You sent it to my mother! You sent it to my mother! Bitch!"
"Bastard!" She screamed and once again she slammed the phone down.
Soon her friends arrived to supporther. Together they cried and swore at Damien and gave her many hugs. They consoled and comforted her, as it was clear to all, that her marriage was now over.
The fallout was enormous. There were numerous screaming phone calls and one mammoth fight on the front step of the house when she wouldn't let Damien in. Damien was shunned by all and sundry when it had become apparent to his friends and acquaintances, that the appearance of being a good husband and great father, was merely a thin veneer. Noella banned him from the house and told the kids their father wouldn't be returning anytime soon.
That was until one fateful Sunday afternoon two weeks later, when Damien came home with his tail between his legs. He begged to move back in, for the sake of the kids. Their children Stephanie, Marcus and Emily had been missing him terribly and so Noella relented. He had promised to behave immaculately and was banished to the spare room.
Little did Noella know that this was the beginning of the end for her family. Damien threw himself into the role of doting father, showering the two eldest, Stephanie and Marcus with new cars and enlarging 16 year old Emily's wardrobe to ridiculous proportions. The kids adoration for their father sky rocketed, as he ingratiated himself by splashing cash around in an almost obscene manner.They started resenting Noella's voice of reason and moderation, and at times she felt as though Damien was deliberately setting them against her.
