by Daniel Hurst
It was on their wedding day that I realised I didn’t just have some kind of crush on Sam. I actually loved him. Not only that, but I was actively envious of my best friend and how happy she was to have snared a guy like him. As I sat there in the church in my bridesmaid’s dress, watching Rebecca and Sam tie the knot, I had clenched my teeth and done my best not to cry. The tears had got the better of me in the end, but luckily, nobody knew they were tears of pain rather than joy. That’s the thing about weddings. You can get away with crying because everybody thinks that you are just happy for the bride and groom.
Nobody suspects that it is because you are secretly in love with the groom.
I had hoped that the finality of seeing the man I loved get married to my best friend would snap me out of my silly state of mind and force me to draw a line under my feelings so that I could move on and focus on my own future happiness. But that didn’t happen. If anything, my feelings for Sam only became stronger the more I listened to Rebecca tell me about their honeymoon or when I visited their new home for their housewarming party. I lost count of how many nights I cried myself to sleep alone in my poxy flat while I knew that they were both snuggled up together in their king-size bed. It got to the point where I had almost stopped eating because I felt physically sick. I even had to pretend to Rebecca that I had picked up some virus from a work trip abroad when she noticed my weight loss and showed concern.
I was lying to Rebecca when I said I couldn’t see her sometimes simply because I couldn’t face another day of her telling me all about Sam. I was lying to my employers when I told them that I was sick and needed a day off simply because I’d been up all night crying. And I was lying to all my friends and family when they teased me and asked why I wasn’t settling down yet with a man of my own, simply because the man I wanted was already taken.
I felt like I was lying all the time.
But worst of all, I was lying to myself.
Then I found the woman who told me she could get me what I wanted. She could do the impossible. She could break up Rebecca and Sam’s marriage, giving me the chance to swoop in and claim him for myself.
I paid the first half of the money, and I told the woman to get to work, and get to work she did. Now Rebecca and Sam are separating, meaning he will be a single man again. That doesn’t guarantee that I will be able to get with him, I’m aware of that, but it does give me a chance, and that is all I can ask for. With Rebecca out of the way, he will surely be more open to the idea of the two of us being together when I do eventually make my move in the coming weeks.
Sam will be shocked to find out that I like him because I’ve done a very good job of keeping my feelings disguised. But his level of shock will be nothing compared to Rebecca’s. She will feel betrayed when she finds out that I have made a move on Sam after her, and she will hate me if I enter into a relationship with her ex-husband. It will be the end of our friendship, that is for sure, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make to be with the man of my dreams.
Time will tell if my plan has worked, but it seems to be working well so far. The only area of concern at the moment came when Rebecca told me about some woman called Maria Garcia who was spotted entering a bar with Sam one night after work. The last thing I need after getting rid of one love rival is the emergence of another one, but I’m sure I can handle her too.
If I can get rid of Rebecca, I can get rid of anyone.
Speaking of Rebecca, my best friend has been getting progressively more inebriated as our evening has gone on, and that is made evident by how she continues to open up to me even more about her personal problems.
‘I just can’t get the thought of him and that woman out of my head. Do you know what I mean?’ she asks me, and I nod my head.
I know exactly what she means because I spent years with the thought of Rebecca and Sam in my head.
‘I wasn’t going to tell you this but fuck it. Why not?’ Rebecca says, finishing off the rest of her wine and slamming her empty glass down on the table. ‘My husband is so deluded in thinking that he can get out of this that he has hired a private investigator to look into the woman who came to our door.’
Rebecca scoffs and waits for me to laugh or at least show my disapproval. But I don’t do that.
I’m too busy panicking.
‘He’s done what?’
‘He’s hired a PI. God knows what they are supposed to find out, but it’s all a waste of time. Sam can pretend he doesn’t know that woman all he wants, but his game is up.’
I try to keep calm as I process this information, but there is no doubt that it is concerning. Rebecca might think that her husband is just stalling or trying to get off the hook, but I know different. I know that Sam is innocent, and now I know that he has hired a private investigator to prove it.
I need to warn Charlotte. I need to tell her to be careful.
But what if it’s already too late?
‘I’m really sorry, but I’m going to have to go to the little girl’s room,’ I say. ‘This wine is going right through me. I’ll be right back!’
I get up from my seat and scurry away from the table, taking my handbag with me because I need to use the phone inside it.
I take out my mobile as soon as I’m out of Rebecca’s sight and find the number for the woman who I have been paying to break up my best friend’s marriage. Then I dial it, pressing the phone to my ear and trying to keep my breathing under control so I can impart the crucial information that I have just become savvy to.
But there is no answer. Damn it. I’ll have to send a text.
My fingers fly across my phone screen as I type out a warning to Charlotte.
Sam has hired a private investigator to look into you. Be careful!
Then I’m just about to press send before adding one more sentence.
This can not come back to me!
I send the message and wonder what kind of response it will get when it is read. Of course, at that time, I expect it to only be Charlotte who reads it.
I had no idea that the private investigator was going to read it too and pass it on to Sam.
By then, it’s only a matter of time until Rebecca reads it too.
44
REBECCA
I’m feeling the effects of the wine now and should probably slow down, but it’s not every night that I get to unload all my problems onto somebody else. Poor Ally. She came out tonight for some fun, yet I’ve spent most of the evening talking about Sam and what he has been putting me through recently. It’s no wonder she has been a while in the toilets.
She’s probably dreading coming back to the table and being subjected to more of my moaning.
As I wait for my best friend to return, I reach into my handbag and take out my phone, wondering if Sam has made any more attempts to plead his innocence to me since I have been here this evening. If so, I am expecting a message or two, or maybe even a missed call.
What I’m not expecting is to see my screen full of notifications.
Twenty missed calls from Sam and twelve text messages.
What the hell?
I’m just about to open the first of the messages when Ally returns to the table, swaying slightly and looking a little flush in the face.
‘I’m really sorry, but I think I might have to call it a night,’ she tells me as she holds onto the back of her chair for support. ‘I didn’t realise how drunk I was until I stood up.’
‘That’s okay. I think I’ve probably had more than enough too,’ I reply, and I put my phone back into my handbag, figuring I’ll just look at all the messages when I’m in the taxi home.
Based on the sheer volume of notifications from Sam this evening, I can only assume that he has been drinking heavily in some bar of his own and has lost the filter that tells him when to stop bothering me and go to sleep.
Getting up from my chair, I put on my jacket and follow Ally to the bar where we both pay our half of the drinks before stumbling outside into the chilly eve
ning air.
‘I’m sorry to bail out early, but we’ll catch up again very soon, okay?’ Ally tells me, and I smile because she is still worried about me even in her state.
‘That’s fine. Maybe we can go for another walk this weekend?’
‘Sounds good,’ Ally replies as she takes out her phone to presumably try and book a taxi.
I do the same, but before I open the app that will find me a driver in the local area, my curiosity gets the better of me, and I go into the multitude of messages that Sam has sent me.
‘I think Sam’s been drinking tonight,’ I say as I open the message stream. ‘He’s been blowing up my phone with messages and calls.’
‘He has?’
‘Yeah, I’m not sure what he wants but...’
My voice trails off when I read the first message. He tells me that the private investigator has evidence. But it’s the second message that really gets my attention.
It tells me that Ally is behind it all.
‘Is everything okay?’ Ally asks me as she stands beside me, waiting for her taxi to arrive.
But I don’t answer her. Instead, I keep on scrolling down through the messages, becoming more concerned and confused as I do.
‘Rebecca?’
That’s when Ally touches my arm, and I’m so on edge that it causes me to jump, sending my phone flying from my hand down onto the pavement below.
My mobile clatters across the concrete, but that’s the least of my worries as I turn and look at the woman standing beside me.
‘It was you?’ I ask her as I look into her eyes.
‘What?’
‘You sent that woman to my house? You tried to break up my marriage?’
Ally holds onto her look of confusion for a few more seconds.
‘Rebecca, I’m not sure what you think has happened but-’
‘The private investigator has the evidence,’ I reply, and that shuts Ally up just as a car pulls up to the kerb in front of us.
I’m guessing it’s the taxi she booked because I didn’t get a chance to book mine. I was too busy reading all the messages from Sam about how Ally’s name had been discovered in that woman’s apartment.
‘I have to go,’ Ally tells me as she makes a move towards the taxi, but she’s not getting away from me that easily.
Grabbing her by the hair, I pull her back towards me and demand that she tells me the truth. The poor taxi driver looks terrified and quickly drives away, but if he’s afraid then it’s nothing compared to how worried Ally should be as I wrestle her to the pavement.
If it wasn’t for the security guard coming out of the wine bar and pulling me off my former best friend then there’s no saying what I might have done to her. But I do get pulled off Ally, and that’s how she manages to run away from me before I can get any answers out of her.
I let the security guard know that I’m not going to cause any more trouble before picking up my phone from where it lies on the pavement and checking the device for damage. There is a huge crack running across the screen, but it’s still usable, so I’m able to call my husband and hear his voice.
I’m crying. I’m out of breath. I’m not making any sense.
But Sam doesn’t care.
He just tells me that he wants me to come home.
45
SAM
When I hired a private investigator to prove my innocence to my wife, I had envisioned all sorts of scenarios. But not a single one of them consisted of me finding out that my wife’s best friend was the person behind all of this.
I thought that Alexandra was the biggest villain.
But it turned out to be Ally instead.
I’m standing outside my house waiting for my wife to get back home so that I can present her with all of the evidence that I have on her best friend and the woman who came to our door. The evidence is substantial, and my private investigator was worth every penny in the end. Erica has saved my marriage, and I will be eternally grateful to her for that. But something even bigger might come out of all this. It might not just be my marriage that is saved.
It might be dozens of other marriages too.
It’s clear that my pursuit of the truth has uncovered a much bigger scandal than I could have ever anticipated. That’s because I’m not the first person that Alexandra has played this game with before. She has done it to numerous couples all over the country, and I dread to think how many divorces and broken hearts can be attributed to her and her despicable business. But time will tell because my investigator and her assistant are currently combing through all the evidence and piecing together the full story of just how much of a homewrecker Alexandra has really been.
The lid was blown off this whole sorry affair when the PI’s assistant was able to gain access to Alexandra’s flat by setting off a fire alarm and causing an evacuation of the building. With Alexandra and all her neighbours outside, the assistant had snuck into the flat using a key that had been cut specifically to fit the lock of the target’s home. It was in the flat where they were able to discover paperwork in a wardrobe that would lead to the unravelling of the business Alexandra had clearly worked so hard to build for herself.
The assistant had sent images of the paperwork to Erica, who had begun the process of trying to figure out what it all referred to. It wasn’t immediately clear in the wording of the documents, but there were two names on each piece of paper, and they seemed to refer to couples.
Mine and Rebecca’s names were on one of those pieces of paper.
It was through Erica’s use of the internet that she was able to figure out what all these couples might have in common. By scouring social media, the PI was able to ascertain that every single one of these pair of names had been in a relationship before.
But not anymore.
That was when Erica had realised that Alexandra had not just come to my house and told a lie. She had gone to several houses and told several lies. But while there was a clear pattern indicating a troubling connection, it still didn’t explain why Alexandra had targeted my marriage. Fortunately, Erica’s assistant had one more trick up his sleeve.
The original plan had been to plant a series of recording devices around Alexandra’s flat in the hope that they would pick up her voice during private conversations, and that might lead to figuring out exactly what she was up to. But a better opportunity had presented itself when the assistant had entered the flat because that was when he noticed Alexandra had left her mobile phone behind when the alarm had gone off.
Using technology that is far beyond my realm of understanding, the assistant was able to gain access to Alexandra’s messages and contacts as well as being able to install a bug on the device that allowed all future communications to be monitored. That was how Erica was not only able to figure out who had employed Alexandra to ruin my marriage but also see the message this evening in which that person had tried to send a warning about an investigation into her.
It was Ally.
I had messaged and called my wife several times during the evening ever since I was told that Ally was the person who was really trying to break us up. But Rebecca hadn’t responded to any of my urgent communications. At the time, I had thought it was because she was mad at me. But in reality, it was because she was too busy enjoying a night out with the woman I was trying to warn her about.
Thankfully, Rebecca eventually read my messages and found out about the kind of best friend that Ally really was. My wife has just called me and told me that she is on her way home in a taxi but not before she apparently confronted Ally and demanded the truth. The thought of my wife getting into a catfight on the street outside a wine bar is a troubling one, but I’m just glad she is okay. Apparently, Ally got away, but she will get her comeuppance soon enough. Erica’s assistant is keeping an eye on her home now while Erica herself is keeping watch on Alexandra.
I need to make a decision on what happens next, but I don’t want to do that alone.
I will do it with
my wife.
Rebecca should be home any minute, so I keep watch on the road at the front of our house for any signs of her taxi. I had gone inside when I first got here, but that was when I was looking for my wife before I knew that she was out this evening. Since finding out where she is, I have been waiting outside the house because I still want Rebecca to feel like it is her decision to let me back inside for good. The evidence is now available for me to show her that I didn’t cheat, but I’m aware that she is going to need some time to wrap her head around all of this. I’ve known from the start that this was all lies, but Rebecca hasn’t, so she will need a while to come to terms with it. When she does, she will see that she hasn’t lost her husband at all.
But she has lost her best friend.
I can’t believe Ally wanted to break us up. I’m still not clear on why she would do that, but regardless of her motive, it’s despicable. She was supposed to be someone Rebecca could trust, yet all this time she was working behind her back to ruin her marriage. To think that Rebecca and I sat across the table from Ally and her boyfriend not so long ago when all of this drama started unfolding. To think that she sat there as me and my wife got drunk and said things in public that we should have kept in private. And to think that she was taking pleasure in our pain as our marriage crumbled right in front of her eyes.
As bad as this whole episode has been for me, I’m aware it’s going to have been worse for Rebecca even though it is now coming to an end. She will have to live with the knowledge that her best friend was lying to her and stabbing her in the back. I will have to make sure I am on hand to help my wife get over this betrayal, and I will do my best to help her move on.
Perhaps I could be forgiven for being resentful towards my wife for not believing me from the start, but I’m not going to hold it against her. Rebecca had every right to react in the way she did at the recent events because who is anyone to say how a person should react when confronted with the shocking claim that their partner is cheating on them? The important thing is that the truth has come out in the end, and as I see a vehicle turning onto the street, I get the sense that the end is coming now.
