Chapter 2

When I finally got home, I was puzzled to see a light on in the lounge. My father was sitting up waiting for me. On thinking about it, I was surprised that he hadn't called me, as I was sure Susan would have called home. But then my dad has this thing about mobile phones; he wouldn't have one, and refused to call one, even if the shit had hit the fan.

"Just what the hell is going on, Donald? I've been trying to call you for hours," he demanded when I entered the house.

Then I remembered that I'd turned my phone off. If my father had tried to call me on my mobile, I knew I was going to be in for a hard time; especially as Mum and Dad only call me 'Donald' when I am not the flavour of the month.

"Susan has been crying down the phone to me for hours. She said you drove off and left her at the side of the road. How could you do something so stupid? Anything could have happened to her."

"Well, she told you some of the truth, dad, but not the whole truth. Susan has been having an affair with some prick from Tolgus. I caught them last night. Her boyfriend got nicked for drunk driving. I didn't see she needed my help to get into his car with him. So when he got nicked, I definitely wasn't offering to help her to get home. The police will make sure she's safe. Monday morning I'll be going to a solicitor to see about a divorce. Susan's history as far as I'm concerned."

"Just like that? You're not even going to talk to her about it?"

"Come on, dad, she's been shagging some bloke whilst she's been up in Basingstoke. That's probably why she said I shouldn't take the kids up to see her. She can go and live with the wanker now."

"What about your children? They need their mother and father."

"I don't know, Dad. I haven't had time to think anything out yet. Look, I've been faithful in this marriage; it's Sue that's been putting it about. Ask her your bloody silly questions, not me."

My parents really loved Susan. They had always thought that the sun shone out of her arse and I began to get the nasty impression that I was going to finish up as the villain of this piece.

Susan turned up home around lunchtime on Saturday. She must have thought that an attack was the best form of defence, as she came storming into the house and went straight into a verbal attack on me. As I expected my folks said very little and if anything took Sue's side.

Sue demanded to know why I left her on the A303 when the police arrested Gary.

"Well, if you had driven home at lunchtime as you told your sister you were going to do, instead going to the MotorLodge to shag that prick Wilson all afternoon, you wouldn't have been standing on the A303 at that time of the morning, would you?"

"What are you talking about? I went to the MotorLodge by myself. I wanted a good night's rest before I drove home."

"Don't talk Bollocks, Sue. You were booked in there as Mr and Mrs Wilson in room 112. I saw the fucking booking-in form, and I watched you kiss and cuddle the prick on your walk back from the restaurant. Now don't try and take me for a bloody fool."

Sue went quiet. I could see she was trying to think of a plausible explanation. When she couldn't think of one, she changed tactics completely and turned the taps on instead. This cut no ice with me, but my parents fell for it.

"Give Susan a break, son. She's had a bad night," my father said.

"Sue's had a bad night? It's me that's had the bloody bad night. Look, Sue was having a fucking good time last night, until I found a way to put a stop to it. I know this is 2001 but most wives don't go fucking their work colleagues, you know."

There's no need to get coarse, Donald," my mother butted in. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all this."

"There sure is, mother. It's called adultery and in this country that's grounds for divorce."

I saw Sue jump when I said the D word; she stopped crying and looked at me.

"No, Donny, let me explain."

"Don't even try, Susan. Those coppers last night knew what you and Wilson had been up to and I know what you did. You fucked our marriage away. Now it appears that everyone thinks I'm over reacting. Well, I don't think I am. I've remained faithful to you and our marriage. I can tell you I've had plenty of chances for cheating over the years, but I loved my wife too much to ever do anything stupid like that. Shit, I only caught you cheating because I went all the way up to Basingstoke to save you having to drive back. I was thinking of you, but you certainly weren't thinking of me, were you. You were too busy fucking that wanker, Wilson."

It suddenly dawned on me; I was justifying my actions, to my folks as well as Sue.

"Oh, fuck this! If you two think her shit don't stink, you two can live with her!" I said to my parents.

Then I stormed upstairs and packed as much of my gear as I could carry and left the house. No one said anything to me as I went.

I drove over to a work colleague's place; he had a few caravans that he rented out as holiday homes. I knew things were quiet at this time of year and he let me rent one cheap.

Mark called me Saturday evening and asked if I had cooled down enough to give him Chapter and Verse. I told him the story as I saw it; he said he was sorry it had happened and that he was going to fire both Sue and Gary Wilson on Monday.

Monday morning I called into work and told them that I would be in later. Then I went to a solicitor friend and told him the story. He said I could leave it with him, and he would get the preliminaries underway.

When I finally got to my office, my secretary, Mary, told me that Susan had called several times wanting to talk to me. I told her that Sue was no longer my wife, and I would take no calls from her.

Mary got the picture straight away and said, "Oh, my god, Donny, I'm sorry to hear that. I won't ask what the silly cow has done."