“New Beginnings Are Always Possible”
“Mum, have you completely lost your mind?”
The words hit Lydia like a knife between the ribs. It hurt. She kept peeling potatoes in silence, gripping the knife a little tighter.
“People are already pointing fingers at us! Dad—fine, he’s a man, but you?! A woman! The heart of the home! Aren’t you ashamed?”
A tear rolled down Lydia’s cheek, then another. Soon they were streaming, but her daughter didn’t let up.
Connor, her husband, sat slumped in a chair, his lip jutting out.
“Dad’s health is in shambles—how can you even think of this?! He needs care!” Connor sniffled. “Is this how you repay him? He gave you his whole life, raised a child with you, and now what? He gets ill, and you start looking elsewhere? No, love, that’s not how it’s done.”
“And how *is* it done?” Lydia asked quietly.
“What?! Are you mocking me?! Dad, hear that? She’s mocking us!”
“Emily, you talk as if I’m your worst enemy, not your mother… Oh, how devoted you are to your father.”
“Mum! What nonsense are you spouting?! That’s it—I’m calling Gran and Auntie May. Let *them* talk sense into you! This is a disgrace!”
“Can you imagine,” Emily huffed, turning to her father, “I’m walking home from uni, and there they are—strolling arm in arm down the lane! Reciting poetry, no doubt. Something about love, eh, Mum?”
“You’re cruel, Emily. Cruel and foolish. Too young to understand.”
“Not an ounce of remorse! Right, I’m calling them!”
Lydia straightened silently, smoothed her dress, and brushed off invisible dust. She stood.
“Alright, my dears. I’m leaving.”
“Where to, Lydia?”
“I’m leaving you, Connor.”
“What d’you mean, *leaving*?! Where?! What about me?!”
Emily was shouting furiously into the phone.
“Emm-ily!” Connor wailed, as if at a funeral. “Emily!”
“What, Dad?! Your back hurting?! Where?!”
“Oh, oh… Em… she… your mother… she’s leaving…”
“*Leaving*?! Where?! Mum, what’s got into you in your old age?!”
Lydia smirked, carefully packing her suitcase.
She’d nearly left once before, but then Connor fell ill—his sciatica flared up. The moaning, the whining…
“Lyd… think I’ve got a hernia…”
“The MRI showed nothing.”
“What do those doctors know?! They hide it at first!”
“Really? Why?”
“To squeeze money out of us! Same thing happened to Dave at work… ointments, pills, then—bam! A hernia! A rare one, no less!”
Back then, she stayed. Couldn’t abandon the “poor soul.”
But now…
“How much longer have you got, Lyd?” her friend Liz had said. “You’re slaving away for them. What’s Connor ever given you? *Nothing!*” She slammed the table.
“Spent his prime years chasing skirts! That hairdresser—what’s her name—”
“Millie.”
“Exactly! Dragged her around like a prize heifer! And you? Two jobs, side gigs, while he lazed on the sofa!”
“Liz, you sound like you hate him…” Lydia ventured timidly.
“I’ll tell you why.”
Lydia braced herself.
“I’ve no reason to love your ‘darling.’ Remember that time at his birthday barbecue? I had too much, passed out… Woke up to him clamping a hand over my mouth, the other under my blouse.”
“The worst bit? His mum was on the next bed—watching. Later said, ‘You tempted him.’ Threatened if I told you, she’d claim *I* came onto *him*.”
Lydia was silent.
How had she never seen it?
She remembered other wives boasting of holidays, gifts… And her? A vacuum. A steamer—because Connor liked dumplings. Perfume his mother kept in the cabinet.
Liz was right. She’d sleepwalked through life.
“Why *did* you marry him?”
“Felt sorry for him… Big glasses, hopeless at everything… His mum said, ‘Take him, don’t embarrass us.’”
The friends cried, laughed, reminisced.
“If only I hadn’t pushed you away…”
“They convinced me married women don’t need friends.”
Lydia glanced around the room.
Leaving was terrifying—but doable. Rent a flat. Divorce. Splitting assets… All earned by *her* hands.
Would Emily side with her father? So be it.
She wasn’t leaving for another man. Peter was just a friend.
She longed for peace.
***
Oh, how the relatives berated her!
“Go back to your husband! Beg forgiveness!” her mother screeched.
Her mother-in-law feigned a “heart attack,” but Lydia stepped over her and walked out.
Then…
Emily came to apologise.
They’re learning to rebuild their bond.
And Connor? A month after the divorce, he was arm-in-arm with Millie. His back pain vanished.
They say Millie doesn’t tolerate nonsense…
But Lydia doesn’t care.
She’s learning to live.
Emily booked her into a spa.
Peter invited her hiking—like old times.
It’s never too late to start anew.
Hard at first, then smoother than butter.
