I Had A False Sense of Security (Until It All Crashed Down Around Me)

I walked toward the kitchen, in search of desperately needed coffee. It had already been a LONG day!

"I sent her an email, telling her I know," Rick said, as I passed his den. "I’m also sending emails to everyone we know, telling them what you’ve done. I’ll call my parents, and yours, sometime today."

"It’s none of their business!" I protested. "Why are you dragging everyone into this? It’s OUR business, not theirs!"

"You should have thought of that before you cheated on me," was all he said.

"You had no right to look at my email!" I snapped. "That is my private property. I never thought you would stoop so low!"

"The account’s in my name. I pay the bill. It IS my right!" he answered. "I wouldn’t have found something if there hadn’t been something to find. By the way, you can’t use email or Internet anymore. There’s no reason I should pay for you to go behind my back."

I looked at him, astonished. I’d been cautioned, but I’d been so sure he would never invade my privacy. Privacy had always been sacred to him. "I haven’t even DONE anything!" I cried. "I’ve written a few letters. We haven’t even met!"

"A few letters?" he asked, his voice rising. "You’ve done nothing but sit at that computer writing letters for months now! You do it ALL DAY! And…" He looked me in the eye, his own filled with loathing. "You’ve been planning to leave me for her. You’ve made… vows to each other. It’s sick!"

"Her name’s not Alexis," I shouted, "it’s Alexina! At least if you’re going to accuse me, accuse me correctly."

"I don’t care what her name is!" Rick snapped as he walked toward the front door. "Come on, Abigail, let’s go!" he shouted up the stairs.

I stayed in the kitchen until they’d gone, then went into Rick’s den to see if I could figure out how to get my email back. I had to let Lex know, but it was too early to phone, she wouldn’t be awake yet. I gave up in frustration, then went up to my bedroom to get dressed for this surely long and trying day. I turned on my computer, and surprisingly, I could get my email, so I sent Lex a message, and planned to call her in a couple hours. We hadn’t planned to meet online at our usual time that day, because I was going to meet my oldest daughter, Jacqueline, for lunch. I certainly didn’t feel up to that now, but knew I had to talk with Jac too, since Rick said he was going to tell everybody, and she would certainly be on his list.

I didn’t know what I’d do about my parents, our families, our friends. I didn’t have time to think about them yet. I had to plan what I was going to do about me.

My first thought was to just chuck everything and go to Lex.