My mum has been sick lately, so I’ve been staying with her on the weekends helping out by doing her housework. One time when I returned from Mum’s, I noticed a lip gloss lying by the edge of our pool. It wasn’t a brand that I wear. I asked my husband about it and he said he had no idea where it had come from. My husband hates swimming and would never hop in the pool himself, so I didn’t say any more. I’ve been married for 12 years and I trusted him.
When I got home from my next weekend at Mum’s place, I checked the pool again. This time I found pretty hair clips scattered by the steps. The kids and I have short hair so I knew they weren’t ours. But I had seen clips exactly like that before — worn by the wife of the electrician who lived two doors down from us. When I thought about it, Sharon’s husband had started working fly-in/fly-out six months before so she could easily be spending time with my husband unnoticed. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. My husband had claimed that he was feeling neglected with me going away every weekend to Mum’s, but he knew it was only short-term and I was furious that he thought he could play around while I was gone.
I knew Mum was nearly better and I would only have to go and help her out one more time. Before I left with the kids on Friday night, I got the chemicals out of the pool shed. Every year my husband used super-strong chlorine at the start of summer to destroy all the bugs that had built up in the pool. I knew from past experience that if you swim in the pool too soon after the water’s been treated; the swimmer suffers from a full body rash. I had to know if my husband was having an affair. I knew he’d never normally swim in the pool and he would never think that I’d treated the pool as that was always his job. The bottle of chlorine said to use just one third of the contents, but I decided better safe than sorry and up-ended the whole bottle of clear liquid into the pool water, put the bottle in the boot of the car and went and visited Mum.
As expected, Mum was much better and didn’t need me to clean her house any more. When I got back home on Sunday evening, I checked around the pool and found an empty beer bottle and a used wine glass. When I went inside to see my husband, I noticed he had a nasty red rash on his arms and back. He was very concerned and was planning to see the doctor the next day.
I was dropping my kids off at school on Monday morning when I spotted Sharon — covered head to toe in a bright red rash. I noticed that she was having some difficulty walking too, so it looked like the rash must have been everywhere. I didn’t say a thing, but in a town of 300 people, I knew I wouldn’t have to either. It only took a few hours for everyone to realise that my husband and Sharon had the same rash.
When my husband came home from work, he went straight out and tested the pool water. His doctor had suggested his rash looked like a chemical irritation. When my husband saw how high the chlorine levels were, he assumed our filter wasn’t working properly and never suspected me. He must have heard the gossip around town about him and Sharon because later on that evening he confessed to me about their affair. It had only started when I’d been visiting Mum and he wanted it to be over.
Dave’s a great dad and usually a brilliant husband. He was truly sorry, so I agreed to give him another chance. Sharon’s husband wasn’t so forgiving — he kicked her out of their house and she had to leave town.
I know it was a terrible thing to do, but it was the only way to work out who was messing with my husband. And that was something I wasn’t going to put up with.
Image: Getty. Picture posed by models.
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