Claire herelet me fill you in on whats been happening. Mark and I tied the knot just over ten years ago, both in our midthirties. He was a director at a big firm in London, and I was running a hairdressing salon in Manchester. We had two kids, Jack and Lucy, I went on maternity leave and then stopped working altogether. Money wasnt an issue; Marks salary was solid.
Marks always been a careerdriven bloke, often away on business trips, and hed spend his free time with his mum, Eileen. Eileens a bit of a drama queenshe can put on a fit or a faint at the drop of a hat, just to keep the spotlight on herself and, well, on her son.
At a family dinner once she turned to me and said, Mark belongs to me, not to you. To him the family is just me! Youve got to understand, youre a mother too. No matter what, you must always help your husband. I never forgot those words.
The next morning I asked Mark to explain what was going on. He tried to brush his mothers behaviour off as a joke, but it felt anything but funny.
Good things dont last forever, though. Last year Mark got the sack and slipped into drinking to drown his sadness. I had to go back to the salon to earn a living again.
I kept hoping hed pull himself together and be the same Mark I fell in love with, but the bottom kept dropping. I finally filed for divorce, and Mark moved in with my mum.
I felt a huge weight liftone less mouth to feed. Then, a month later, Eileen rang me up and said, Dont you forget what I always told you? You must always support your partner! My pension isnt enough, so I expect you to send money each month to help Mark. I was stunned. I told her Id be applying for child maintenance because its the fathers duty to support his kids, and she snapped back that I was the one whod driven her son into this mess.
Her words left me feeling sick, so I hung up. The odd thing is, I still love my ex, but I have no idea how Im supposed to live with that any longer.
