Chapter 1:
She looked at the text messages, confronted him and he accepted everything.
She contemplated for a few weeks and then decided to stay.
What did she have to gain by leaving him over an online affair? There wasn’t physical contact. Could she hold this against him enough to justify a divorce?
CHAPTER 2:
He texted frantically, smiling all the while. She checked his phone and found some naked pictures of a new woman.
She confronted him again. He accepted.
They went for counseling.
They were doing so good for six months.
Then there were more pictures and more text messages.
Then there was silence.
CHAPTER 3:
She heard her husband of fifteen years enter stealthily and then crawl into bed. She kept her eyes closed. She could smell another woman on him and it made her insides turn. A few minutes later she heard him snore.
She stayed awake just like every other night.
CHAPTER 4:
She felt a small bump in her private parts that soon started to grow. She went to her gynecologist. She couldn’t tell if it was there a few months ago but realized that she didn’t remember much anyway. She answered vaguely to straightforward questions, had a PAP smear and came back home.
The week after she was called in for further evaluation.
A week from that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
CHAPTER 5:
She lay in a quiet hospital bed. She had just had a surgery to remove some of the cancer. Her surgeon was an oncologist who specialized in gynecological malignancies. She was grateful for her.
They scheduled a follow up date for a month after.
A week later she moved out of her cheating husband’s home. She would go anywhere, just to be away from infidelity and sexually transmitted illnesses.
Painful reality of our existence. However, we must do our best under any circumstances.
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