Hi all, this is a simple story about the cost of finding and ultimately losing, the love of your life. A huge thanks to 'One of The crowd' for all his help and assistance with those constant grammatical issues I seem to love.
As before, I welcome and look forward to your thoughts
The One True Love!
I knew from the first moment I saw you, that you were the only one for me.
I knew you were my destiny.
I was holding for the right time to let you and the whole world know that you were mine!
You are my smile, my heartbeat. With you beside me I forget all my sorrow.
You are my friend, and I want you to be my wife.
Despite my poor words, I truly love you in my life.
What is true love?
The beginning:
Helen Murphy stole my heart over a coffee and Danish, and never gave it back!
I had never met anyone like her before. In a blink of an eye, I knew I was lost. She had captivated me with her presence, enchanted me with her personality and ensnared me with the sexual chemistry that exploded between us.
Helen was 5ft 9in tall, slim athletic build. Brunette, wait what? I normally only fell head over heels in lust and love with blondes. Just what has happened here? Yes, as I as saying, a very attractive brunette with perfect, thick, wavy hair cascading down her back to a most delectable bottom. She was dressed very professionally in a dark suit with a medium length pencil skirt promoting her long slender elegant legs, a white silk blouse that revealed just the hint of a cleavage. She was dressed to impress. Without trying to appear slutty, she knew how best to promote her wonderful figure. All this was finished off by a sensual mouth and warm hazelnut eyes. How do you say love at first sight?
Barcelona is an incredibly romantic city, although the 'Centre Commercial Arenas de Barcelona' would probably not be found in any Lovers tourists guide book. You can picture it now, falling in love surrounded by breath-taking scenery and beautiful landscapes? Only no. Here was I surrounded by five hundred sweaty, pushy sales people all locked up in a tin can. Could it get more romantic than that?
It was the annual Spanish Hospitality Trade Expo and for some unknown reason it was decided that we would attend. Good for business was the official version, not an unofficial three-day jolly in sunny Barcelona? What was I doing here you ask? Well my job was incredibly exciting and a real hit with the ladies, my company created cards. From high end business cards to designer birthday and celebration cards. My great grandfather created the company in the 60's, and despite the occasional blip in a forever changing world, the family business has gone from strength to strength.
The real clincher was when we went away from the general market and targeted the high-end leisure industry, namely the hotel chains. High net worth companies, this was the real reason for this three-day jolly, sorry business soiree to sunny (not fun) Barcelona.
I wasn't a newbie at these types of events, however each time I was amazed at just how much of a meat market the Expo really was. Three days in the company of sharks and wolves, saints and sinners. Three days of constant glad handling and uncertain promises. The constant image filling my head of a politician - kissing the baby's head, whilst nicking her lollipops.
She appeared at my stand a little over 12:00 the first day. Her badge showed her as a representative of Sonas Logistics, a small but up and coming parcel distribution service. I was aware of the name as they had recently been taken over by the huge conglomerate that was Mellow's Corporate Enterprises. Like their parcels, they were going places. With time pressing, and the chance that she was losing me to her fellow competitors, she upped the ante and suggested a drink at close of business. One drink away from the madness, a chance to talk about a mutually beneficial business opportunity for the both of us?
Only the drink turned into a nice dinner, the nice dinner was followed by dancing and the dancing turned into one of the best nights of my life. Although the night failed in comparison to waking up beside her and I knew in that moment that I was in love, not lust - love. Staring into those hazelnut eyes and immersing myself with that warm sexual body, I made a promise to myself. One that took me a little over a year to achieve, I was going to marry the women of my dreams.
Life was perfect right? I was living proof that dreams do come true. I lived the perfect wholesome dream. A dream job that I enjoyed and provided me with great financial security and a wonderful and amazing woman to share all my hopes and dreams with. I, as the story goes, had it all!
I had the perfect life until suddenly, I didn't.
Detection and deception:
Five years of marriage bliss and each day I realised just how much I loved my wife. Of course, like any relationship, we had our up's and downs. Just recently, we both felt that life and more importantly work was getting in the way. Helen had just been promoted and was working more crazy hours, and me, well we had just recently taken on a new and demanding client. For the last couple of months, we were ships passing each other in the night. Concerned, we agreed to check our schedules and I had booked a ten-day romantic cruise around the Mediterranean. The only problem was, this little piece of heaven was still a little over a month away.
Well that brings you up-to-date and to the start of my discovery. Paperwork was and always will be the bain of my business life. We live in a large three-story Georgian town house. It was my parents and upon their deaths became mine. It was originally a four bed, only I had converted the top floor bedroom into an office. Simple maths. One, I could achieve a lot more here without being constantly interrupted and bombarded by the ever-incessant demands on my time in the office and secondly it afforded me the most wonderful view across the park, off the city skyline. It wasn't all perfect though, for being stuck here in my lofty position meant I was often cut off from the world below. Namely the front door. Now I agree that agree most people use their mobiles to contact people, however occasionally when I know I'm working from home I have contracts and important documents couriered over to me to sign or review.
I once missed the arrival of an important package, so I conjured up a rather simple solution. Two baby monitors, one in the hallway by the door and one in my office. This way should someone be at the door, I could easily hear and be able to answer. In truth, did I ever envisage that something as simple as a baby monitor could cause me so much despair and ultimately rip my heart out - hell no.
The monitor picked up the sound of two voices as my front door opened. It was Helen coming back early with Marie, her best friend. I was about to shout down and reveal my presence when I caught part of their conversation. She was discussing the cruise. Now any husband likes to hear praise, so I held off and listened to my wife reveal just how excited she was about the upcoming trip and what a lovely and thoughtful husband she was married too. Boy, was I in for a surprise?
An annoying noise in the background was making it difficult for me to hear every word, plus they were walking away from the monitor towards the kitchen and then back out again. However, from what I could hear Marie asking her about wasn't she afraid I would find out, the word love was mentioned, and the words afraid of being caught?
Caught, just what was she on about.
They were now back in the hallway heading back out. There's no way I'm going to get caught, we only meet on a Wednesday even...
With that, the door closed behind them, leaving me not only lost for words but a feeling that someone had just ripped out my heart and threw it away in the trash.
Discovery and a showdown:
I challenge anyone to act normally when they're living in a personal nightmare. Heaven or Hell, take your pick? My whole life had just been turned upside down and the worst part of it was I didn't know anything. Analyse the fact's first before you do anything rash. Well the facts out of both her and her duplicitous best-friend spoke volumes. Was she cheating on me? However, I only heard certain words of the conversation and they could have been taken out of context. I know, before you all shout at me how unlikely that was. But, up until five minutes ago I was living a dream life. Now, well, I was living a lie?
Simply put, I needed to know the truth.
The private investigator I hired took a little over two weeks to come back to me and officially destroyed my world. It's never easy to see your loving wife in the arms of another man, holding him, kissing him, laughing with him. Helen was cheating one me. No, I didn't have any actual proof that they had had sexual contact, although I didn't need any. The photos became ingrained in my memory and killed my relationship with her. Kissing, laughing, cuddling. It reminded me of how we used to act when we were first together. Each photo shredded a piece of my heart.
Could I get over an affair, did I love her enough to work through this? These were the questions raging through my head as I sort a way out of this personal hell. Only the real problem for me was that Helen was showing no signs of either remorse or signs of stopping. She was acting exactly the same. No tell-tale signs of guilt or increased happiness, no hiding illicit underwear from my prying eyes, no additional late nights working at the office. My beautiful wife was having an affair with Mark Penrose and had no intention of stopping.
This was the second time in my life where I heard the name Mark Penrose, and the effect was just the same. I felt like I was being punched repeatedly and this faceless man was laughing as he delivered each painful blow.
You see, Mark Penrose was the name of Helen's first true love. They had been childhood sweethearts, destined after finishing their education to get married and live their lives together. Only this fairy tale story had a painful twist for part way through University, Mark unexpectantly upped sticks and joined the Navy. Ceasing contact and severing any and all ties with Helen.
