An unlikely friendship

part 3

"I was married" Dec stated bluntly.

"Really?" Ant asked.

"Yeah" Dec nodded "I guess it was kind of doomed from the start,but I was too blinded by love to see it,what an idiot eh?"

"Of course you're not an idiot" Ant replied kindly "what happened"

"My family hated her from the beginning" Dec sighed.

"How come?" Ant asked.

"All sorts of reasons" Dec frowned "she wasn't right for me,she was too cold,she was taking advantage of me,she was selfish,she was a bitch,she was taking me away from my family...all of the above"

"She sounds like a real catch" Ant mused "was she actually like that though?"

"Yeah" Dec laughed sarcastically "she was,but unfortunately I couldn't see it at the time,I was so crazy about her that nothing else mattered,I moved in with her pretty quickly,it was a rented house,but in her name,I contributed to things obviously,but if anything went wrong,which it obviously did,I would be left with nothing,but of course,none of that crossed my mind at the time,things going pear shaped wasn't even a possibility"

"You still had your family though" Ant pointed out "are you close to them?"

"I was" Dec replied sadly "very close in fact,especially to my Mam,I'm a real Mammys boy...well I was"

"So why didn't you go back to them when you split up with your wife?" Ant enquired.

"We're estranged" Dec frowned,trying not to show the tear that was forming in his eye.

He let out a deep sigh,before continuing his story.

"There were so many arguments...awful arguments,everyone got so angry,my brother's and sister's included,they all saw something horrible in her that I just didn't see,so of course I defended her"

"That must have been hard?" Ant asked sympathetically.

"Yeah,it was" Dec nodded "I was so angry at how they were treating her,not letting her in their houses,refusing to go to any events where she would be there too,you know,that kind of thing,so I eventually snapped,said some horrible things and told them they were all dead to me and to never contact me again"

"Oh dear" Ant nodded sympathetically.

"Told you I'm an idiot" Dec shrugged.

"Of course you're not an idiot" Ant assured him "we all say things we regret in the heat of the moment"

"Yeah" Dec nodded "but I cut off my entire family,not seen or spoke to any of them since,but I was still convinced I was doing the right thing at the time"

"So by then,you'd moved in with your wife?" Ant encouraged Dec to keep on talking.

"Well,girlfriend as she was at the time" Dec pointed out "but yeah,I moved in with her and it was great...for a while"

"What happened?" Ant asked.

"She got pregnant pretty quickly,so we got married" Dec sighed "just a quick registry office wedding with a couple of friends as witnesses"

"And then?" Ant urged.

"And then..." Dec sighed "she started changing,I put it down to pregnancy hormones to start with,but she just got so nasty,that wasn't the woman I fell in love with"

"Sounds tough" Ant nodded sympathetically "what did she do?"

"Put me down all the time" Dec replied sadly "told me how useless I was,what a waste of space I was,how lucky I was that she put up with me,how no one else would ever love me and..."