About three years ago we moved house and, having young children, my wife soon made new friends with other mums outside school and began socialising with them. After a few months she told me that a group of them were going out for a "girlie" night – a few drinks and then on to a nightclub – and she asked me if I minded her joining them. As my wife loves dancing and I have two left feet, I thought this would be an enjoyable night for her and told her that of course I had no objections. She had a very enjoyable night and so this became a regular monthly event, where three or four of them would go out together dancing. They always got home about two in the morning, usually in high spirits, and I often used to enjoy the stories she told me about the guys who came on to them. This continued quite happily until a week ago, without any reason for me to have any doubts that it was just a fun evening out for the girls and nothing more.
It was Friday 13th February (lucky or unlucky?) and my wife was leaving to join the others, but as she left, she asked me if she could take my phone, as hers was very low on the battery. This she did and I put hers on charge. After having put the kids to bed a little later, I settled down with a few beers to watch some late night TV. The beers and the quality of the TV programmes had their usual soporific effect and I fell asleep on the sofa, only to wake up with a stiff neck some hours later. Glancing at the clock I realised it was already past 2:00am and wondered where she had got too. I called her on my phone, which rang for a while and then went to the answer service. About 15 minutes later I heard her phone beeping and saw that a message had arrived. Assuming that it was her texting me to tell me what time she would be home, I opened the message and was amazed to read the following: "Gr8 2 meet U tonite – u r gorgeous. Looking 4ward to Thurs."
My heart skipped a few beats as I read the message and a whole wave of different emotions swept over me. Jealousy, anger, rage ....and to my amazement, excitement. My wife had given her phone number to someone and had apparently arranged to meet him later in the week. She had obviously either forgotten that she had my phone, or hadn't expected him to contact her that night. I made a note of the sender's number and put the phone down and sat wondering what to do. Despite my emotional turmoil, I quickly decided that I would leave the message on her phone to see if she mentioned it to me. I sat in the chair and composed myself and waited until she got home. About three quarters of an hour later I heard the door open and Anne walked in. I asked her if she'd had a good time and she said yes – I don't know if it was my imagination, but I half though that I saw her blush. I asked her why she was so much later than normal and she made some excuse about having to wait for one of the others.
We then went to bed and, as I always did, asked her if she had "pulled" – it was our little joke – and unusually, she told me no. Normally, even if it had been a completely uneventful night, she would make up a story about some guy or other coming on to her, and we would both get turned on and make love. This night however, she made no attempt to say anything more and quickly appeared to fall asleep. Eventually I did likewise, my mind a turmoil of unanswered questions and suspicions.
The following morning, as soon as I had an opportunity, I checked her phone again and the message had been deleted. This eliminated my one doubt – that the message had been sent to her phone by mistake. It was then that I formulated my plan to find out what exactly she had been up to.
A quick call to the mobile phone company provided me with immediate internet access to my itemised phone bill, enabling me to check on my wife's phone usage. I felt quite guilty about doing this, but salved my conscience with the thought that if she could be deceitful, so could I. Sure enough, checking on the Monday, my wife made several calls to the same number the message had come from and continued to make regular contact over the next two days. I was now more than certain that she planned to go through with her clandestine meeting.
On the Thursday morning, I left for work slightly earlier than usual and swapped my car for one of the unmarked vans in the yard. Telling my employees that I had equipment to pick up and that I would not be back that day, I hurried home and parked some distance down the road from our house and settled down to watch my wife's car. Shortly before midday my wife left the house and drove off. I followed her at a safe distance until she pulled into a pub car park, not many miles from our home. I was quite incredulous that she would meet someone that close to where we live, for although it is not a pub that we frequent, it was quite possible that someone we knew may see her there. Parking across the street from her, I watched Anne as she sat in the car, checking her make up and hair in her driving mirror.
About five minutes later a black BMW entered the car park and drew up alongside her car. The door opened and a guy got out and walked over to Anne. He was of medium height, quite good looking and perhaps ten years her junior. She opened the door and got out and he bent down and kissed her. My emotions almost got the better of me at this point and I half went to run over and give him the punch in the face he deserved, but my curiosity and excitement got the better of me and I sat back down to see how this would develop and just how far my wife was planning to go.
After a couple of moments discussion, he opened the passenger door of his car and Anne got in. They drove off together, with me again following and they eventually stopped at a small pub out in the country. This time I waited until they had gone into the pub and parked close to the exit. I sat in the van for while and then decided to risk a look to see if I could observe them. As I approached the pub, I saw them through one of the small leaded windows, sitting in an alcove near the open fire. They were sat close together and he had one arm around her shoulder and the other was holding her hand in her lap. To the outside world they would have looked like any ordinary couple, but to my eyes, there was my wife of 16 years, who to the best of my knowledge had been completely faithful to me, being openly intimate with another man.