Broken Promises

Chapter 11

3 weeks later -

Sophie rounded the corner of their close and saw Stuarts car in the driveway, but no lights on in the house. She turned her key in the lock and opened the door.

'Stuart are you home?' she called out to the dark house,

'In here,' came a reply from the lounge,

'What on earth are you doing sat in the dark?' Sophie asked, as she hung her coat up on the hook, 'Are you ok? Are you sick?' she asked him her brow furrowed, she turned the lounge light on,

'Sit down Sophie we need to talk' Stuart asked,

'Ok...' she said slowly, her heart had started to pound nervously, what was going on. Stuart started to speak,

'Umm,' he started and rubbed his face with his hands, 'God I don't know where to start' he said, 'Will you please sit down,' he asked again, Sophie still stood hovering by the sofa,

'I'm ok here thanks, go on,' she replied eying him suspiciously,

'Well after we lost the, you know the second time, I felt, well, it was awful and I didn't deal with it very well I know I didn't, I don't think either of us did really', Sophie interrupted,

'I know we didn't deal with it very well, how are you supposed to deal with 2 miscarriages? Cause I sure as hell don't know',

'Sophie please, just let me explain, this is hard enough as it is' pleaded Stuart,

'Explain what, I don't understand, what's hard enough?' Stuart looked at the ground, at the sofa, anywhere except at Sophie,

'We stopped communicating, you stopped communicating with me, you barely let me touch you, I felt shut out and lonely,' he wrung his hands nervously, his knuckles turning white to pink to white,

'You've felt lonely? I told you I felt lonely, but you didn't listen, Stuart you've hardly spoken to me in months, you won't open up to me, you never have, every time I've asked you how you are, you tell me you're fine, what exactly was I supposed to do?'

'I wanted to talk to you I did I just didn't know how, and you closed up too,'

'At least I tried to talk to you, I lost 2 babies Stuart, what did you expect? I wanted my husband to support me, I wanted you to pamper me and hold me, but you went back to work every single god dam time, buried your head in the sand, and left Mya to pick up the pieces,' her voice rising,

'Oh yes Mya, good old Mya, thank god for her,' he spat,

'Don't you dare; she was there for me when you weren't!' Sophie replied, she paced the room,

'Fine, I'm sorry I wasn't there, I'm sorry ok, I just couldn't handle it, I wanted those babies just as much as you did,' his voice wavering, his face lined and rigid.

'Did you? You had a funny way of showing it Stuart,' Sophie turned away from him,

'For fucks sake Sophie, there's something I need to tell you,' he said suddenly, almost making Sophie jump. She stared at her husband,

'Go on then, tell me,' Stuart was almost crying by now, the anguish on his face,

'I....I've been having an affair,' he blurted out, his head in his hands.

'WHAT THE FUCK!' roared Sophie,

'It just happened, like I said, I was upset and lonely and and...' he trailed off as his words turned to sobs.

'I cannot believe you would do this to me, to us. You bastard oh my god' Sophie could feel her heart beating in her head, 'I didn't put out for a few weeks, so you found it elsewhere, who, where did you meet her? Come on I want to know, it's the least I deserve isn't it? Do you love her, is it serious with this woman?' Stuart had continued to cry, he sat rubbing his hands against his face muttering sorry, 'Answer my fucking questions Stuart' she shouted at him, he held his hands up to her in a defeatist pose,