The man loves me. Today is the day, the day we go for a vacation in Durban. So now I’m only counting hours for my husband to return from work so we begin our lovers’ journey. Packing my bags in our bedroom I can feel his presence behind me as his blasting Hugo boss perfume fills the room, I guess he couldn’t wait for our trip in as much that he decided to make an early call. He swings and folds his arms all around me and I turn, as he bows his head to kiss my neck. The man loves me. We make love once more before we leave, beautiful love. We drive for six hundreds km and on our way we are as playful as teenagers, kissing, touching and we even pull over to the roadside to satisfy our adultery hunger. No doubt we are in love.

After seven hours on the road we finally arrive at the Sea View Hotel located in the shores of Durban south Beach, a luxurious British style five star hotel. At the reception area after checking in, he goes down on his knees as if proposing, I stand in silence and WOW- He then looks at me with his gorgeous brown eyes, stretching an ‘NWJ’ box towards me and says, “Linda, I love you so much” (sighs) “you are my life and I thank you for being the perfect wife that you are”. Without saying a word I drop to the floor and kiss him passionately as the crowd applauds and whistles. He grips me by the hand, pulls me and we storm to our room to…. you know what!

The man loves me. Morning comes, not as sunny as Tony and I had expected, but we’re cancelling our boat cruise that’s making a turn at the Sheffield Beach estate. We arrive at the boat, only the captain is here. He welcomes us politely with a blissful personality. My eyes remains fixed on him, I’ve seen this guy before- I think to myself, but that doesn’t matter anyway. The engine starts and we take off. It’s only the three of us, and that means we have the whole thingy to ourselves, amazing!

Tony seems down though, I can tell there’s something bothering him. Even when I try to touch him he doesn’t respond as usual. “I think I’m sea sick”, he says hostile. “But baby I……” he rapidly stands and with a flat face says “Forgive me my love, I’m not okay”. I try to pretend that never occurred and sip on the ready-made Martini on the table. He sits at the bar for twenty full minutes and then returns drunk, turns the music on and strip teases me. Who am I not to fall for such a good looking body? So we have a lovely one that took my breath away. After, I use his chest as a pillow and take a cheap nap as the thunder sound roars in near distance. The Captain knocks on our door and shouts “We have to make our turn this right now, the storm is on its way. I apologise for this unforeseen problem”. We get dressed quickly and head up to the operation room to witness the storm.

It’s coming heavily and the winds are getting aggressive, making our boat jingle a little. That gives us a fright, I throw myself in Tony’s arms for an embrace. The lightning flashes and in front of us is another boat that bashed in a huge rock then it sinks slowly. On top of it is a man waving for help. I jump to the Captain’s shoulder to show him what I’d seen. We run to their rescue and looking closely its Mr Riley, my husband’s co-worker. He never mentioned that he was also coming down to Dubz for a trip. A big wave slams him back to the ocean and swallows him. Tony takes off his shirt, takes a dive and disappears. That leaves me no choice, I throw myself in as well. Dark waters. I see Mr Riley’s body and try to drag him out as he is unconscious. Shockingly, he horrifies me when he opens his eyes and pulls me in deep, I scream and try to wrestle him under water but I am no match for him. Now I’m running out of breath and my life flashes before me. My head is getting heavier and heavier then, lights out. Everything goes black. I’m dead!

Miraculously, my eyes open, I see the light. I’m in an ambulance, they say I was saved by a fisherman. I worry, ‘where is Tony?’ I feel okay though, but they just have to admit me. I’m here for a whole month now, he still hasn’t come and I haven’t heard from him since. It’s about time, I am discharged. I’m hoping to go home and arrive to my lover’s presence. Thanks goodness he’s there. I jump to him with tears of joy as he explains how he escaped death. I am too happy, I forget to ask him why he didn’t check up on me.

Time goes on but things aren’t the same, not anymore. He comes home late and we don’t make love like we used to. I’m lonely.

It’s a sunny Saturday and he’s home. I’m at the pool and he is watching a soccer game. I come out the pool and sneak to him half naked to surprise him, but he isn’t in the sitting room, not anymore. He’s in the kitchen, on the phone with someone, whispering “I told you Mandy, our plan didn’t work. Linda is still alive…. No they won’t process the insurance claim. I’ll have to do it myself”. Tears just run down my face and I squeak, this alarms him. I hide because I heard what he said. Tony drops the phone in shock and comes towards me at a snail’s pace. I back up slowly in fright and fear. It all makes sense now, everything was a lie from the beginning.

“Linda, don’t be stupid, let’s talk about this”, he says softly. I can barely say a word so, I force a scream for help from the neighbours. “God dammit” he yells and grabs a knife. As afraid as I am, I stand my ground and continue screaming. He approaches me, I wait for him to come close enough so then I snatch a lamp and slam his head to the ground, he loses the knife. We battled to get to it luckily, I reach it first. Lying down on my back he storms towards me, trips and loses control of his body and falls on top of me with the knife pointed to his heart. I feel the warmth of his blood flowing down my chest as he moans his last breath. My beloved, lying bustard man is dead. I then quickly call the police, in tears.

“Emergency helpline, hello”

“I just killed my husband” I say and immediately drop the phone. Within a minute the sirens approach the house. I guess the neighbours heard my screams and called for help. I used to look up to him, now I’m looking down at his body. A lying, deceitful man.

God forgive me for I have committed murder.