The diary

The diary 5 - The cheating wife

There are some moments in your life which hit you in the gut and knock you out. They make you question the general assumptions which you took for granted all along. One such assumption. Boy meets girl. They love each other. They marry. They live happily ever after. I had believed the story ended there. This was proved to be wrong a few years ago.

It was a normal day like any other in the middle of a busy week at the office. That day after many months, I felt I must leave the office early and surprise my wife. Now, this was something I used to do a lot during our early days of marriage. But as time progressed, my workload increased and the surprises decreased. But that day, I postponed everything for the next day and left my office in the afternoon. I bought a bouquet of roses, her favorite jalebis, a chocolate cake and some tri-coloured dhoklas. I was excited for the first time in many days and was eager to see how my lovely wife would react.

I reached home around 4.30 pm and the first thing I noticed were a pair of gents shoes which were not mine. It was unusual but in my excitement I neglected it and removed the house keys. I gently placed them and turned them and opened up my flat. I tiptoed inside and placed the delicious food on the table in pin drop silence. As I did that, I could hear low moaning sounds. The sounds were of my wife. I wondered why she was making such sounds. I opened the door of the bedroom and went inside. I saw a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my life. A sight which got imprinted on my memory and would probably stay there till my last breath.

A man lay on top of my wife, making love to her, in our bed. I had not made any noise and my wife and the man were oblivious to my presence. Both were naked with their eyes closed in their own orgasmic world. I just stood there in utter shock. It was as if my whole body had undergone a paralysis attack. My brain was too numb to react. Then my wife shrieked.

My wife, the woman I had loved and married, pushed the man away from her, sat up and covered herself up with a blanket. The man also presumably in shock, covered himself up and sat there. And I just stood there watching the biggest nightmare of my life, play out in reality. I just stood and stared at my wife. My eyes had lost their shine and sparkle and were as if non-existent. My wife stared back at me in fear. I could judge that she was shit scared. As for the man, I could understand that he was figuring out what he would do next. I broke the confusion.

A thought came to my mind that I must get out of here before I do something that I would regret. I said to my wife, "Thank You, dear." and just left. I do not know what prompted me to say those particular words, but then I was not thinking much. I turned around and just left. Just like that.

I could hear my wife screaming my name and coming out. I could hear her running footsteps. But I just wanted to get away from her. So I ran down the stairs, got in my car and just drove off. I noticed that my phone was ringing. No points for guessing who was the caller. My dear wife. I shut down my phone and just drove out into the city.

I did not want to be surrounded by people. So I checked myself in at the nearest hotel and told the receptionist to not disturb me and leave me alone. Giving me a slightly weird look, she nodded her head and I went inside my room and sat on the bed. My mind was blank. Totally blank.

Around 9 pm that day, I got up, drank some water and again just sat in the balcony overlooking the city. I sat there till the next morning. This proved to be the darkest night of my life. Once my mind started working, it produced a thousand thoughts a second. It was frustrating to say the least. It was an explosion of thoughts which felt like a thousand bombs had gone off at once. I took a deep breath and dealt with my thoughts one at a time.

The biggest question in my mind was why? Why had my wife cheated on me? Was my love not enough? Was I not a good husband? Did I not provide for her? Was she not sexually satisfied? I thought of calling her up and asking her. But I knew I would never want to see that woman or hear her voice. I thought of our story and journey so far.