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Abstract

s all that was needed to set me off on a trail along which I discovered a depth of betrayal I found hard to accept and an even more sinister plot that could have cost me my life. It was enough to send me plummeting down into the depths of depression I almost didn’t come out of alive. Either they were going to get me or I was going to commit suicide. Whichever way you slice it, my death was the outcome that was hoped for.The letter, or telephone bill, simply revealed a lot of very expensive and mysterious telephone calls to a mobile telephone number which was only ever called when I was out of the house. I called the number out of curiosity. The response I got rocked my world on its axis.I called the number to try to establish who the number belonged to. In my mind, I had the idea that it might have been one of our children calling a naughty premium rate number, a sex line for titillation in other words. I could not have been more wrong.When I ever so politely asked who the other person on the other end of the line was his response floored me. In a growling, highly insulting tone the other person said….“ Why don’t you ask your wife? You’re pathetic. A full year and still you don’t know? ”That was enough for me to indicate that all was not well in my marriage. And the other person clearly enjoyed stabbing me through the heart with a sharp knife.I looked through the rest of the mail to see if there was anything else that might confirm my suspicions. I found an innocent-looking letter addressed to ‘ C.Knott.’ or See Not, if you like. Nobody of that name had ever lived at our address. And this was not the first time such a letter had arrived with the mail.I opened the letter only to find what seemed like a general invitation to some farmers event. In fact, it turned out that this was my wife’s lover’s way of secretly arranging to meet my wife in plain view. They even had the brass neck audacity to leave what I came to realise were secretly coded messages on my professional answering machine!In the end, through a process of thorough investigation, hoping in fact to establish my lovely wife’s innocence, I discovered that she had been leading something of a double life for almost a year. She had been pretending to go out to work five days a week, when in fact a simple telephone call to her workplace revealed that she only worked three days a week! I discovered that the other two days a week she was out galavanting with the monster on the telephone. Further investigations revealed very ambiguous coded conversations which seemed to indicate a desire, possibly a plot even, for me to die.That was more than enough to send me over the edge into an abyss I found very hard to climb out of. In the end, with the love and support of two allies, a lifelong male friend and my wonderful mother, plus my own tenacity and resilience, climb out I did. But it was a close-run thing.

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For years I punished and chastised myself for being so trusting and gullible. How did I not see what was going on behind my back sooner? What a total and absolute fool I was.Since then I have eased off on myself. I was guilty of nothing more than being a dedicated, trusting and loving husband and father. I was too caught up in the demands of both those roles to give anything else a second thought.And to think, it all started with those nasty little rumours from that hippy, free-loving couple who had the hots for my wife! Did those two ever get their way with my wife? I suspect at least one of them did. Of course, I cannot reveal who those two were, not least of all since they were both very successful and almost famous in their respective fields.The monster lover boy who hurt me so much administered the killer blow, not only to my family, but to his own as well. In the end, after his own divorce, he went off to marry somebody else. Later he tried to re-ignite his affair with my ex-wife, who had finally come to see right through him. To make matters worse, this fowl, pathetic monster hit on my eldest daughter when she reached her teens! They’re out the there, these monsters that live amongst us. Sometimes they even pretend to be your best friend.Now, here I am living a totally alien life in another country far, far away from it all. Separated in time and distance from those truly awful events. Events that taught me a great deal about the utter moral depravity of so called decent human beings. It was a lesson that cost me dear. But I got through it in the end.I have no contact with my three children, who at the time I did my best to protect from the truth of what was happening. Years later, when they were in their twenties, I tried ever so gently to explain what had happened to satisfy their constant curiosity. It was no use, they had already been fed a diet of lies about me. The truth was far, far beyond their comfort zone. They simply refused to believe me and got angry accusing me of having an over fertile imagination which I was mis-using to put their ever so innocent mother down. It doesn't really matter much to me as I know that I know the harsh truth of it all. There has been no contact at all for ten years now. I now accept that it is a sadness I have to bear for the rest of my days.To end on a happy note, I am now happily married to an amazing woman and I am fulfilling my dreams of being a writer here. That is as good as it gets, and it is more than enough for me, or any man or woman for that matter, to live a fulfilling, joyful life.Now I am like a beautiful newborn flower, bathing in the life-giving rays of a sun blazing across the idyllic blue skies of the east. I have arrived in heavenly bliss.<figure id="00a9"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*PvMTmVr_76w90vvbI_Vnwg.jpeg"><figcaption>Photograph by Adonyi Gabor on Pexels</figcaption></figure></article></body>

The Letter

How Malicious Rumours Destroyed My Family And Almost Cost Me My Life.

The story I am about to tell you happened over two decades ago, in 1995 to be precise. At that time, I was happily married to a lovely wife and three young children. Life had been good to us, mainly due to my success as a writer and my wife’s diligence as a caring mum and housewife. Five years earlier, that was all to begin to change due to the devastating economic crisis of 1990. I lost my job and career and we had to implement changes.

We downsized on the house and car, let the children’s nanny go and I started a new career working from home. My wife managed to find a job and gradually we began to come out of things. By 1995 we seemed to have weathered that crisis reasonably well. At the time I thought that we had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Little did I know that defeat had only just begun and would have the last laugh. Having said that, I did ultimately survive the ensuing onslaught and live to prosper and tell the tale, so in that way, I did win out in the end. On with the tale……

Unbeknownst to me, in 1995, self-serving dark forces in the background were working against us, or at least against me. Little did I know that several vultures were lurking overhead. Having seen us pass through a bad time and our marriage wobble a bit during that crisis of 1990, those dark forces thought that they smelt an opportunity for some easy prey. They did everything that they could to hasten the process towards the death of my relationship with my wife in order to enjoy their feast on the corpse of our marriage.

Two people, in particular, a couple who were supposed to be friends of ours, though in fact they were originally only friends of the woman I married, both had the hots for my wife.

What this evil pair did was start a rumour implying that I was having an extramarital affair with a professional colleague with whom I had only ever had professional contact by telephone. Their hope was that my wife would take the attitude that what was good for the goose was good for the gander. They were quite determined to have their way with their prey.

At the time of all of this happening, I knew nothing of this nasty little plot. It was only after the terminal damage had been done that I found out. Sadly, it was all too late, nothing could be done to save my marriage.

How did I find out? By the very simple expedient of a letter and a telephone call. Both led me to delve a little deeper with the use of certain investigative technology and processes, plus a little bit of personal intuition and logical deduction.

The letter was nothing more than a telephone bill and a follow-up telephone call. That was all that was needed to set me off on a trail along which I discovered a depth of betrayal I found hard to accept and an even more sinister plot that could have cost me my life. It was enough to send me plummeting down into the depths of depression I almost didn’t come out of alive. Either they were going to get me or I was going to commit suicide. Whichever way you slice it, my death was the outcome that was hoped for.

The letter, or telephone bill, simply revealed a lot of very expensive and mysterious telephone calls to a mobile telephone number which was only ever called when I was out of the house. I called the number out of curiosity. The response I got rocked my world on its axis.

I called the number to try to establish who the number belonged to. In my mind, I had the idea that it might have been one of our children calling a naughty premium rate number, a sex line for titillation in other words. I could not have been more wrong.

When I ever so politely asked who the other person on the other end of the line was his response floored me. In a growling, highly insulting tone the other person said….

“ Why don’t you ask your wife? You’re pathetic. A full year and still you don’t know? ”

That was enough for me to indicate that all was not well in my marriage. And the other person clearly enjoyed stabbing me through the heart with a sharp knife.

I looked through the rest of the mail to see if there was anything else that might confirm my suspicions. I found an innocent-looking letter addressed to ‘ C.Knott.’ or See Not, if you like. Nobody of that name had ever lived at our address. And this was not the first time such a letter had arrived with the mail.

I opened the letter only to find what seemed like a general invitation to some farmers event. In fact, it turned out that this was my wife’s lover’s way of secretly arranging to meet my wife in plain view. They even had the brass neck audacity to leave what I came to realise were secretly coded messages on my professional answering machine!

In the end, through a process of thorough investigation, hoping in fact to establish my lovely wife’s innocence, I discovered that she had been leading something of a double life for almost a year. She had been pretending to go out to work five days a week, when in fact a simple telephone call to her workplace revealed that she only worked three days a week! I discovered that the other two days a week she was out galavanting with the monster on the telephone. Further investigations revealed very ambiguous coded conversations which seemed to indicate a desire, possibly a plot even, for me to die.

That was more than enough to send me over the edge into an abyss I found very hard to climb out of. In the end, with the love and support of two allies, a lifelong male friend and my wonderful mother, plus my own tenacity and resilience, climb out I did. But it was a close-run thing.

For years I punished and chastised myself for being so trusting and gullible. How did I not see what was going on behind my back sooner? What a total and absolute fool I was.

Since then I have eased off on myself. I was guilty of nothing more than being a dedicated, trusting and loving husband and father. I was too caught up in the demands of both those roles to give anything else a second thought.

And to think, it all started with those nasty little rumours from that hippy, free-loving couple who had the hots for my wife! Did those two ever get their way with my wife? I suspect at least one of them did. Of course, I cannot reveal who those two were, not least of all since they were both very successful and almost famous in their respective fields.

The monster lover boy who hurt me so much administered the killer blow, not only to my family, but to his own as well. In the end, after his own divorce, he went off to marry somebody else. Later he tried to re-ignite his affair with my ex-wife, who had finally come to see right through him. To make matters worse, this fowl, pathetic monster hit on my eldest daughter when she reached her teens! They’re out the there, these monsters that live amongst us. Sometimes they even pretend to be your best friend.

Now, here I am living a totally alien life in another country far, far away from it all. Separated in time and distance from those truly awful events. Events that taught me a great deal about the utter moral depravity of so called decent human beings. It was a lesson that cost me dear. But I got through it in the end.

I have no contact with my three children, who at the time I did my best to protect from the truth of what was happening. Years later, when they were in their twenties, I tried ever so gently to explain what had happened to satisfy their constant curiosity. It was no use, they had already been fed a diet of lies about me. The truth was far, far beyond their comfort zone. They simply refused to believe me and got angry accusing me of having an over fertile imagination which I was mis-using to put their ever so innocent mother down. It doesn't really matter much to me as I know that I know the harsh truth of it all. There has been no contact at all for ten years now. I now accept that it is a sadness I have to bear for the rest of my days.

To end on a happy note, I am now happily married to an amazing woman and I am fulfilling my dreams of being a writer here. That is as good as it gets, and it is more than enough for me, or any man or woman for that matter, to live a fulfilling, joyful life.

Now I am like a beautiful newborn flower, bathing in the life-giving rays of a sun blazing across the idyllic blue skies of the east. I have arrived in heavenly bliss.