That night I went to bed without my husband and only saw him in the morning. He was already dressed up and ready to go.

“Good morning my beautiful wife,” he said with a smile. “My meeting took forever last night,” he explained.

I didn’t respond because I didn’t know what to say to him anymore.

“I’ve got an early meeting today and will be having another late business dinner later on,” Tony said looking at his phone.

“It’s okay,” I responded quickly.

That day I was going to follow him to work. The bell rang and I went downstairs to open.

“Good morning madam. I came early as you mentioned in your message,” Namhla said politely.

“Thank you Aunty for coming, you can come in,” I let her in. “Tasha is sleeping right now, but I have left all the instructions on the fridge.”

I carried her suitcase to the guest room next to the nursery before going to the bedroom to take a shower quickly.

“I heard voices downstairs. Who was it?” asked Tony.

“It’s our nanny who will be starting work today,” I replied.

“Oh I see,” he sounded surprised.

I showered quickly and got dressed before he was about to leave.

“Have a good day,” he said taking his bag.

“You too,” I said.

Words like honey, boo or sweetheart had disappeared from his vocabulary.

As soon as I saw him driving away I rushed to the garage. I got into my car and followed him.

My car was a few metres away from him. The route he was taking wasn’t heading to work, it was going to Cindy’s place. He parked at the visitor’s section and I waited for him to get inside her apartment. I already knew her flat, so getting there wasn’t a hustle.

When I got to the front door, another guy was peeping through the door already. I suspected the guy to be Cindy’s boyfriend. I joined him to see what was happening in the lounge.

Through the window I watched as Cindy greeted my husband with a kiss. My husband kissed her back passionately. I had never seen him kiss me like that before. I was about to get into her apartment, but Cindy’s boyfriend stopped me.

“Don’t do anything stupid ma’am. At least now we both know that our partners are cheating on us,” he said looking at me.

I took his word and drove to the boutique.

My mind wasn’t clear to drive straight to the boutique so I stopped at a beautiful lake in Sandvlei. As I got out of the car, I could hear birds chirping in the trees. The place had such a breath-taking scenery with blossoming yellow flowers at the edge of the lake. The lawn was well maintained that you couldn’t see any litter on the ground.

I took a seat on one of the benches. My mind raced. I thought about AIDS and whether Tony was using protection. I have to leave this marriage, I told myself. After a while I got up and drove to the shop.

***

Tell us: Should Monica confront Cindy?