**Diary Entry**
I never thought it would come to this. Ten years married, and suddenly, doubt crept in like a shadow. Emma couldnt shake the feeling that James was cheating. There was no proof, just a gnawing unease she couldnt ignore.
One evening, she confronted him. “Is there someone else?”
He laughed, as if the idea were absurd. “What? Weve been married a decade! Why would I need a mistress? Youre more than enough!”
He seemed sincereno flicker of guilt in his smile, no hesitation in his voice. Yet something still didnt sit right. Emma wasnt one to leave things to chance, so she resolved to find the truth.
She scoured his phone first, but found nothing suspiciousjust idle chats with old schoolmates. James never even bothered with a passcode. “Nothing to hide,” he always said.
Her best friend, Sophie, dismissed her worries. “Youre imagining things! James adores you. Youre just sabotaging your own marriage!”
But Emmas instincts screamed otherwise. She refused to share her husband.
One evening, she followed him to his office, convinced he was sneaking off. When he spotted her, he was furious. “Youre embarrassing me in front of my colleagues!” She apologised, and he forgave quicklytoo quickly.
By all accounts, their life was perfect: a lovely home in Surrey, two children, financial comfort. Yet Emma couldnt relax.
Then came the driving lessons. After passing her test, James surprised her with a little Mini Cooperpractical, easy to park. He claimed he was proud, but privately, hed bought it to keep her from borrowing his Audi. “You need more experience first,” hed say.
One frosty Sunday, Emma woke early to bake a chicken and aubergine piea family favourite. Realising shed run out of flour, she dashed to the car, but hers wouldnt start. Not wanting to wake anyone, she quietly took Jamess keys instead.
While waiting for the Audi to warm up, she wiped the windscreen. Reaching into the glovebox for tissues, her fingers brushed against somethinga phone. Not Jamess.
Curiosity won. She turned it on. The first message was from a woman named Gemma:
*”Miss you so much, love! Come over soonI cant wait!”*
No passcode meant no barrier. Emma scrolled through months of messages. James left work at five but came home at seven. Every day, he stopped at Gemmas flat first.
The photos showed a woman in her forties. *Why her?*
Just as she seethed, James emerged from the houselikely sneaking out to text Gemma. He froze when he saw her in his car.
“Who said you could drive this?” he snapped.
Emmas rage boiled over. She slammed the car into reverse, screeching into the fence behind her. Stepping out, she hurled his keys into a snowdrift.
“Go to her, then! See how much she wants you without your house and car!”
She stormed inside, locking the door behind her. The children, confused, barely grasped what happened. James pounded on the door, but she refused to let him in.
“Go to Gemma! Dont come back!”
Shivering in his slippers and dressing gown, James trudged to Gemmasonly to hear another mans voice inside.
“Darling, hurry up! Ive been waiting!”
Turns out, Gemma had weekends booked already. She gave James an apologetic look and shut the door.
With nowhere else to go, he stumbled to his mothers house two streets over. Margaret took one look at him and sighed.
“Dont worry, son. Youre only thirty-fiveplenty of time to find real love.”
So James moved in with her, foolishly relieved to be “free”until Emma filed for divorce and hefty child support. Suddenly, freedom didnt seem so simple.
**Lesson learned:** If you go looking for trouble, youll find itbut sometimes, trouble finds you first.
