The lesson

THE LESSON


PROLOGUE



The car screeched to a halt.
She glanced over at her husband, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. He had avoided her gaze the entire trip and even now, he was only watching her backwards reflection in the windscreen.
God he was handsome. She sighed. His jaw was clenched, shadowed by a light amount of stubble. Her eyes moved up to his hair, jet black and effortlessly tidy. He blinked. She had forgotten how long his lashes were, just as dark as his hair.
She forced back a smile as she remembered the way his topaz eyes would gaze lovingly into hers.
How times had changed. They say having a child can do that to a marriage.

She finally spoke. He was half listening, half watching the reflection of his eleven month old son wipe chocolate around his mouth.
Somewhere between "It’s not you it’s me" and "Please don’t think that this is your fault," he realised he should have been listening a little more intently. He watched his inverted wife in the glass, her reversed mouth telling him she was having an affair, her reversed eyes burning holes in his skin. He allowed his mind to play tricks for a moment. This was some sort of window into an alternate universe; the woman in the glass was not his wife. This was some other Juliet telling some other Matthew that she was leaving him. When he turns his head he will see his Jules and she won’t be talking about divorce, she will be moaning about work or saying she was going for drinks with friends.
Matthew blinked again, this time blinking back tears. He turned to meet Juliet's gaze.
"I’m so sorry." She whispered.
Without another word she climb gracefully from the black SUV and walked away, not looking back once.