Her Secret Affair

Chapter 22

Inside, she was greeted by an empty house. She walked to the kitchen, getting a glass of water to drink some painkillers. With tears streaming down her face, she drank her pills and got into bed, falling into a deep sleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night to pee. Joseph was still not home, his side of the bed empty. Checking her phone as she came back from the bathroom she saw that it was almost 3 AM. No messages from Joseph. She drank some water from the bottle she normally keeps by her bedside table, before climbing back into bed.

As she lay there, her mind filled with thoughts of the future, she heard him in the kitchen. She closed her eyes pretending to sleep when he walked into the bedroom. She heard him tapping away on his phone. He walked to the bathroom and she heard the water running in the shower.

In the shower, Joseph stood under the running water. He had already taken a shower with Lucy before he left the hotel, but he knew Brianna wasn't really sleeping. He needed to make her think he really just came home from work.

He smiled as he remembered Lucy's young and perky body on top of his. Suddenly, his smile turned into a frown as he thought of Brianna. "What the hell am I going to do with you?"

He wiped his body, dressed, and headed to bed. He lied down in bed, facing the ceiling with his arms linked together at his torso. Brianna had her back to him.

"How long are you going to keep pretending you're sleeping?"

No answer.

"I know you're awake."

No answer.

"Fine, I know that you can hear me. I'm sorry about hitting you, but you deserve it for screwing around with Frankie behind my back. If you want to leave, you can," he paused for effect, "but Nicholas stays here."

With that, he turned over and went to sleep, exhausted after his night with Lucy.

Brianna's eyes brimmed with tears. There was no way she was leaving her son behind.

**********

"Good morning," Joseph said to her the next morning. "Do you need me to prepare your breakfast before going in to work?" he asked her as if yesterday never happened.

Confused, "You're still going to work early today? You finished rather late last night," she asked, going with the flow.

"Yeh, I am. I still have quite a bit of work to finish."

"Okay."

"Why? Did you need me to stay with you?" he asked sarcastically.

"N-no. I mean, it's fine."

"I was thinking of bringing Nicky to see my parents this weekend. He will be on Christmas holiday starting next week," she continued quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm bringing Nicky with me to see my parents this weekend," she repeated, slightly more firmly than she intended.

"You cannot go," he stated matter-of-factly.

"I wasn't asking your permission to go see my parents, Joseph."

"Ok then, let me correct that. If you want to go, you go alone. Nicky stays."

"Joseph, be reasonable."

"Reasonable? You should have thought about that before you jumped into another man's bed."

"What do you want? What is going to happen now? Yes, I made a mistake. You obviously don't want us to break up, but what the hell do you want? Because we cannot live like this. With you manipulating me with our son."

"A mistake? A mistake would have been if it happened once, Brie. You don't even know how many times you fucked him. How did you manage to do that? You don't even really go out. Was it during your lunch times? Did you lie about going to work? Were you fucking him the whole time you were at that conference?"

"I - I -...." she trailed off, feeling cornered, unsure on whether he really wanted her to answer those questions. She knew she was in the wrong, she broke the trust they had.

"You what?"

When she stood there looking at him blankly, he picked up his phone and called the office. "Hey, I will be in a bit late this morning. I have some personal things to sort out."

"Let's talk about this, get things out in the open," he said to Brianna as he hung up.

Feeling defeated, Brianna asked him softly, "What do you want to know?"

"When did you start sleeping with him?"

"The last night that I was at the conference. I called you, you were out with your friends."

"Is that your way of saying it is my fault you slept with him?" he asked angrily.

"No, I didn't mean it like that," she said quietly.

"Next question, where did you meet up with him after the conference?"

"Ermm, we met during lunch."

"I asked you where."

"Oh. Ermm, he - we'd parked somewhere and have lunch, or - or h-he, we would go to his house," she stammered.

"His house," he pondered. "Is that where you'd go to fuck?"

"It wasn't like that," she defended.

"Did you enjoy it? Him fucking you."

"Joseph..."

"Did you enjoy him fucking you?" he repeated.

"It was different," she murmured softly.

"Different? Is that different, as in different positions?"

"No. Yes. No. I mean it felt different. Joseph, you stopped showing me you wanted me. Ever since I got pregnant with Nicky. Things changed between us. Do you know how undesirable a woman feels when her boyfriend doesn't even want her? When he doesn't desire her? He made me feel good about myself. He made me feel wanted and desired. He made me feel..." she gasped as he silenced her with a slapped her across her face.

"Don't you use me as your reason for being a slut. How many guys have you cheated on me with?" he continued with his interrogation.

"No one else," she said, her face already wet with tears.

"Why him then? All these years you never once cheated. And you bump into him and all of a sudden your panties drop for him?"

She remained silent, for fear of being slapped again.

"Do you love this bastard?"

She cast her eyes down, looking at her knees as she sat.

"Look at me," he shouted angrily.

She lifted her face up and looked at him, trying her best not to show him any fear.

"Do you love him?"

"I - I don't know what I feel," she answered quietly. "Joseph, do you still love me?"

"Honestly? I love you as the mother of my child."

"Is Nicky the only reason you are still with me?" she cried silently.

"More or less," he answered cruelly.

"Then why force me to stay here? Why stay like this if you are unhappy? If we are both unhappy!!"

"Are you ready to have me tell people we broke up because I found out you were screwing our university friend, whom I invited into my home?"

"I didn't think so," he continued when she didn't speak, "You are not leaving. I will not have you make a fool of me."

With that, Joseph picked up his work bag and left the house.