Jason was not a patient man. When he wanted something he wanted it now. He behaved like a small child, demanding attention all the time. When he didn’t get it he would shut Dorcas out and sulk badly.

He would scowl at her.

And more than once he even slammed the door in her face. Dorcas became frightened of him. Usually she tried to sense his moods and then she’d make sure he had everything he wanted. She hated the constant rows with him. It hurt, the way he looked at her as if she meant nothing to him at all.

Sometimes, for no reason at all, a terrible rage would take hold of him. A couple of times he raised his hand as if to strike her, but Dorcas always managed to stop him.

As months passed and she failed to fall pregnant he grew more and more irritable and moody. Then he began shutting her out of his life completely. He’d side-step by her if he happened to be in the same room as her. He hardly talked to her, except to ask whether she had cooked his meals and done his laundry. He had turned into a different person from the one she had first met and she didn’t like this new Jason. Dorcas had no idea what to do.

She had a full time job and was earning more money than him. How dare he treat her like a slave! She deserved more respect than that. She wasn’t just a baby-making machine!

At night he’d sleep curled up on his side of the bed. He wouldn’t make love to her now. He refused to even kiss her goodnight. More often than not Dorcas cried herself to sleep at night. She felt miserable and lonely.

Dorcas kept on reassuring herself that they were alright, that this was just a bad patch they were going through. Maybe they needed a holiday on which they could both relax and rekindle the romance? Jason would soon see the error of his ways. He was just in a foul mood because she couldn’t fall pregnant. But how could she fall pregnant if they didn’t have sex anymore?

Jason was becoming more and more desperate to have a child. His friends’ wives were now pregnant with their second children. All they seemed to talk about was their kids.

Dorcas and Jason still went out to friends where they pretended that everything was OK. But as soon as they got home things changed.

Then Jason started to go out without her at night. Sometimes he wouldn’t come back. That marked the beginning of the end of their relationship. They never did things together after that. Jason went out more and more on his own and he seemed oblivious to the fact that Dorcas actually brought in most of their income.

“Welcome to the human race,” her friend Bonyo said when Dorcas confided in her. “Of course he’s probably having an affair. Men always like to prove how virile they are.”

“Well, maybe if everything wasn’t quite so tense between us, I might have a child,” Dorcas wailed. “Not that there’s much chance of that – we never make love anymore. Jason stays as far away from me as he possibly can.” A tear rose in the corner of her eye and ran down her cheek.

“I’m sorry Dorcas, but you knew how I felt about Jason from the start. You don’t deserve to be treated like that. He’s a user and he’ll suck you dry. You’d be better off without him.”

“I know,” Dorcas said sadly. “I just keep hoping that things will go back to normal.”

“I didn’t want to say, but I’ve heard rumours that there’s this other woman throwing herself at him. Jason must be lapping up all the attention. I really wouldn’t be surprised if he was having an affair.”

* * *

Tell us: Do you think the rumours are true? Why?