Anna bent down under the table, picking up piece after piece of Lego, expertly flinging it across the room into the toy box. She looked at her watch. Nick was already an hour late. Their tea sat in the oven; the steak which was plump, pink and juicy to start, now dry and tough.
Anna sighed as she plonked herself at the dining table, picking encrusted Weetabix off the chair with her fingernail. She pulled her chair out a bit more to allow for the great lump of a baby growing fast in her womb. Every night Nick was arriving home later and later, with a half-arsed apology and a scowl. Anna got up and busied herself with filling the mop bucket with hot, soapy water. The monotonous task of mopping the kitchen floor, from left to right, backward and forwards was soothing and calmed her frazzled nerves.
Half an hour later, she jumped as she heard the keys in the front door.
‘You’re late,’ she said, before he had chance to speak.
Nick flung his work bag and muddy trainers onto the kitchen floor. Bits of dried mud scattered over where Anna had just mopped. She could feel her face flushing red, her fingernails digging into her palms.
‘I went for a few drinks after work, what’s the problem?’
Anna pulled a plate out of the cupboard and slammed it down on the worktop.
Her voice sounded strange, squeaky and high pitched.
‘The fucking problem is our tea, burnt to a crisp. Your children have gone to bed wondering why their dad isn’t home to kiss them goodnight.’
Nick shrugged, hanging his jacket on a hook at the back door.
‘I’m not hungry. I’ll look in on the kids on my way to bed.’
When she heard the floorboards creaking up the stairs, Anna unhooked his jacket from the door. It stunk of smoke and perfume. Perfume that wasn’t hers, but that she’d come to recognize.
She rifled his pockets, and her heart skipped a beat as her hand closed around his mobile phone. He was normally very careful to keep it with him. She put the phone into her cardigan pocket and busied herself clearing the burnt food from the oven dish and washing the pots.
After the kitchen was cleared, Anna locked up and crept up the stairs into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She sat on the edge of the bath and took the phone out of her pocket. She unlocked the keypad and jumped as the phone started to vibrate in her hand. One new message flashed up on the screen. Her heart pounding, she thought of her wedding day. Nick had cried when they had said their vows. She could see the love in his eyes when he’d said ‘I do’. Was he really capable of cheating on her?
Her stomach churned as she read the message, confirming what she knew deep down.
‘Tonight was amazing – let’s do it again soon. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again – Lindsay xxx’
Frantically, Anna flicked through the other messages in his inbox. There were so many messages, going back months, all from Lindsay. Her heart felt like it was going to shatter to pieces as she read one sordid message after another. They had described what they wanted to do to each other in intimate detail, and it was obvious it had been going on for months.
Anna fell to her knees in front of the toilet trying to catch her breath. Her stomach throbbed with Braxton hicks brought on by the stress. All she could think about was the children, asleep peacefully and oblivious in the next room. She couldn’t think straight. She wanted to wake him up and scream in his face. How could he do this to her? She was seven months pregnant with their third child. She leant over the toilet and threw up into the bowl. Wiping her mouth, her hands shaking, Anna flicked through the phonebook in Nick’s phone until she found Lindsay. She pressed the green call button.
‘Hi babe, you’re calling me late, is she asleep?’
Anna gripped the phone tight.
‘This is Nick’s wife, Anna. Do you know you’re sleeping with a married man?’ Anna spat the words out, resisting the urge to smash the phone to pieces.
She heard Lindsay gasp, and then the line went dead. Anna took a deep breath, put the phone back into her pocket and splashed some cold water on her face. She crept back down to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.
As she sat down at the dining table, the phone vibrated in her pocket. It was Lindsay. Anna quickly answered it.
‘Anna, he told me that you’d split up.’ Her voice was shaky and strained. ‘He said he was sleeping on the sofa until he’d found somewhere else.’
‘Well he’s fooled us both then, hasn’t he?’
Anna put a hand across her stomach protectively. ‘Do you know I’m thirty-eight weeks pregnant?’
‘Anna, I’m so sorry about your circumstances, but me and Nick love each other…’
‘How old are you? You sound very young.’
‘I’m seventeen. Look, that’s got nothing to do with you. Mine and Nick’s relationship has got nothing to do with you…’
Anna jumped up off the chair, pacing the dining room.
‘Not for much longer. Anna, please don’t ring me again.’
The line went dead before she could respond. Anna placed the phone on the fireplace and sat down quickly as the room started to spin.
