At Dusk

PART II - Tainted

2012

It was the third month of their relationship and she still could not believe what was happening to her. She had never been given to these illusions of love, especially with a man that was at least twenty years her senior. His star was already rising in the pharmaceutical industry. 

There was a buzz surrounding his name. People listened to him, admired him, and followed his words without question, probably convinced that he was the genius that would indeed revolutionize the treatment of the sick. He was a strength to be reckoned with, a person that stood out.

He knew how to get his way with people and made impossible tasks seem no more difficult than waking up in the morning. Serendipity surrounded him wherever he went, a sense of fate. He was also married, with kids. Two, as far as she knew. A detail she still struggled to accept. 

He was a very dedicated lover with a shameless long list of conquests. In the end, she knew she must be just another woman, yet when they were together it felt different, it felt unique. Like the entire world had been made for them. 

Under his guidance, she found out things about herself that she never dreamed possible. In school, she had always been the timid one, always behind in every girly process: first kiss, first time having sex, first heartbreak. Now she felt lust evaporating through her every pore. She loved him for it but made a point of never letting the words escape her mouth. She knew theirs was a complicated situation and vowed to herself not to complicate things further.

She convinced herself to prepare little by little for the time his wife would find them out and force him to end their affair. Yet months went by and the judgment day never came. That gave her an ever-present feeling of uneasiness, which fully materialized as apprehension when he took her to a seaside park. 

He had rented a lovely bungalow by the beach. They were looking at the sea when he came up with the proposal.

"Have dinner with me."

"Always."

"At my house."

"What..?" She raised her head, a bit distraught.  

"I want to have dinner with you in my own home."

"What about Linda? What about the children?"

"They will be out of town, as I've told you before."

"What about her? Will she be present?"

"Yes," he said carefully. "It was her idea."

"She knows about us...", she pondered out loud. What kind of woman would do that?

"She knows about everything I do."

"Why now?"

"She wants to meet you. She realized how an important part of my life you are. She knows I love you," he said as he held her face between his hands.

"This is the first time you tell me you love me," Isabel asked, feeling like floating to the clouds with joy, but at the same time, plain sad. Sad that there was a part of their history together that was unknown to her. He had talked to his wife about her, they had some sort of crazy agreement she knew nothing about. 

"It's the truth, Isabel," he replied simply, with a weary smile on his lips. "It has been for quite some time now."

"This is not right," she said at last.

"What isn't?"

"This whole business. How can she want to meet me? What kind of marriage do you two have? When we first met, you told me you were happily married..."