Our son is at university, our daughter is poised to go and because we had passed through the potentially perilous mid-life years, I’d assumed we’d grow old together. At 61, he’s ten years older than me, and I thought our lives together were settled and content. He was charming, clever, witty and charismatic. We’d met at university in London, when I was an undergraduate and he was a mature post-grad. Indeed, he’d always been loyal and dependable a solid husband and father who works as an accountant in the Midlands town where we live. His parents, like mine, were married until they died and I’d taken his fidelity for granted. I asked myself why I had not suspected before, but the truth is that I’d always thought Will, to whom I’ve been married for 28 years, was a stayer. I realised the affair was an established one. He’d used similar excuses so many times before - for a year or so, he’d been staying out late on the pretext of organising such events. He’s on the governing body of a local racquets club and he said he’d joined fellow committee members for a meal out to plan a forthcoming event. The next day, I asked him casually where he’d been. That first night, when Will crept into our marital bed at 2am, I lay awake, rigid and cold with anger, but silent. Unbidden thoughts and images crowded into my mind.
The strain of being burdened by such awful knowledge was almost insupportable. I couldn’t bear to shake her world so irrevocably at such a vital time. She was about to take the A-level exams that will determine whether she gets into her first choice of university. I decided on this extraordinary course of action for our daughter’s sake. When the first wave of shock had subsided, I knew what I intended to do: I would pretend I did not know he was betraying me. Had he been in the house, I might have confronted him and all our lives would have been thrown into turmoil. It gave me time to pause, reflect and plan. When I look back to that evening six weeks ago when I found out about Will’s infidelity, I am grateful he was rushing out to spend an evening with his mistress. Our anonymous writer was distraught when she discovered her husband had been corresponding with another woman via email