One Day You'll Find Me

Chapter Nineteen

"My marriage with Robert, your Grandfather, had been unpleasant for quite some time. I couldn't say when it started going downhill. One day I just realised how unhappy I was with him. We rarely saw each other, which was almost a blessing, and when we did, we fought over everything. And I mean everything. The clothes the other was wearing, to how much salt was shaken over your eggs- even to the colour of the salt shaker! The floorboards were too old, the paint needed a fresh coat, the couch was all wrong, my cooking was below average, my hair was too grey, he'd say to me. I don't know where the Robert I'd married went- the man living in this house certainly wasn't him. He was such an unfeeling, heartless, abominable man! I no longer loved him; I despised him.

"When he started harping on Klara too, I burst. He could do all he liked to me, but there was no way he would do that to my daughter. One evening, I just went at him. All my bottled fury released itself with such force; he was shocked at the ferociousness presented to him. We went round after round after round. Everything was thrown on the pile. But," she gave a dry laugh, "he laid the final card down.

"'I've been having an affair,' he said to me.

'For how long?' I asked, my mind already calculating. I wasn't even shocked. It explained why the air between us had witnessed a silent truce that year.

'All year, with more than one woman.' He sneered.

'I feel sorry for those women.' I hid a smile at his expression. He looked like a petulant child who'd been denied his favourite toy, except that in this case, I'd drowned his last fireball. His hands balled into fists, he stormed into his bedroom and slammed the door.

"It was the next night that the phone call came. Robert had left for work that morning, informing us he wouldn't be back till late the next day. I answered it, and had to stifle a laugh when I heard who it was. The police. What had the ol' boy got himself into now? I listened patiently, asking questions to clarify what they'd told me. The police had crashed onto a scene of drug trading, and Robert was there. The woman he was with got away, and all but one of the drug traders were currently in jail with him. Over two kilos of cocaine were confiscated. I asked the police officer what sentence he would be facing. Robert, it seemed, would be getting off lightly. He wasn't found in possession of the drug, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time; or so they said. I knew Robert better than that. I knew he wasn't just 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'. He would have known there were drugs there. But, they were going to let him walk in three days.

"When he finally waltzed through the front door, a smug smile was plastered on his face.

'How was the run-in with the law? Your three nights in a prison cell? Worth it?' I asked.

'It was nothing.'

'Lucky your girlfriend ran free.'

He laughed, and the sound blew a chill through me.

'Yeah, stupid girl shrieked at the sight of a gun, and that's what brought the cops after us. One murderous look from one of the guys and she was off; rounded the corner just as the cops came in. Ran home to mummy.'

Any sort of connection I thought I had left with him was cut when he said that. The thought of what he possibly did with her... and then hearing him talk about her so flippantly, my heart went out to the poor girl. Although, what she was doing hanging around with a man who'd take her to such places was beyond me. The irony of that made me laugh, and Robert took it as though I was laughing at his words. He smiled. Ah yes, but I was the one actually married to him.

'The police said you weren't found in possession of the drug so they let you walk. But you had it, didn't you? You just managed to hide it before they found it on you.'