Chapter One

Amanda set the table, carefully placing the cutlery where it needed to go. She hummed to herself quietly, giggling like a little school girl as she thought of how surprised Stevie would be when he finally got home from work.

She stepped back and admired her work, her long, silky, blonde hair falling in effortless waves down her back. At the age of forty seven, she was petite but she still had the face and figure of a thirty year old. Her keen grey eyes surveyed the room, searching for mistakes that needed to be corrected, but found none.

Just then, a cool breeze blew, fluttering the curtains near the open window and blowing out the candles she'd just lit. She shivered, closed the window and relit the candle with determination etched on her delicate features. Nothing was going to ruin this night; she'd make sure of it.

A loud bang downstairs drew her attention. She sighed, blew out the candles and went down, only to find her ten year old daughter, Evie and her fourteen year old son, Jack, arguing.

"What's going on guys?" she asked, pressing her forefinger and thumb to the bridge of her nose.

"He hit me!" yelled Evie, pointing a finger at her elder brother, who glared at her.

"I only hit you because you took my ice cream from the freezer!"

"Well how was I supposed to know it was yours?"

"I wrote my name all over the tub!"

"I didn't-"

Amanda cut them both off.

"Both of you stop this right now!"

Evie and Jack turned to face her.

"Your father is going to be home soon, and tonight is a very special night. I don't want anything to ruin it for him. If anything goes wrong, both of you will be grounded for the rest of your lives! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Mom," they muttered.

"You won't even be around for the rest of our lives anyway," added Jack, under his breath, but Amanda still heard him.

"Jack!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry, sorry!" he said, rolling his chocolate brown eyes.

Evie walked up to her mother and looked up at her with wide blue eyes.

"I'm sorry Mommy. I'll try my best to get along with Jack. I promise. I'm a good girl."

"Puppy dog eyes don't work on me anymore," laughed Amanda.

The ten year old pouted and skulked away.

"Mum's going on a date with Dad tonight, to recapture their youth!" teased Jack, his eyes dancing.

Amanda sputtered. "It's not a date!" Her cheeks burned, in spite of the fact that she was talking to a fourteen year old.

"It will be a civilised conversation between two adults who are talking about serious issues."

"Sure," he drawled, wriggling his brown eyebrows. "And there'll be...other stuff."

"Go to your room young man!"

He chortled and walked away, still laughing.

"Don't forget to have a shower!" she cried.

"Whatever floats your boat Mom!"

She sighed and smoothed out her silver dress, before exhaling slowly.

Everything has to be perfect, she thought. After all, you only get one Silver Jubilee.

"Honey, I'm home,' a voice called out. Amanda ran out to meet Stevie at the coat rack, taking off his coat for him.

"Here, let me," she said, sliding the coat off his lean, muscular body, well toned from regular days spent at the gymnasium.

"Well, what got into you today?" he smiled, his eyes crinkling as he did so.

"Whatever do you mean?" she smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes at him as she spoke.

"Hmm, let me see." He tapped his chin in mock contemplation. "Usually, when I come home, a certain someone's busy painting her nails or chatting with her friends on the phone."

"Can't I do something nice for my husband once in a while?"

"Not if you have ulterior motives."

"And if I don't?"

"Well, then I guess it's okay," he chuckled.

"Anyway, I gave Hilda the day off, and the kids are all their rooms, even if they're not asleep.

Hilda was their nanny, maid and cook all in one. She pretty much ran the house since its owners were out so often.

"Should I be afraid?" asked Stevie.

"Yes, be afraid, be very afraid," said Amanda, leaning in to give him a peck on the lips.

"Oh my eyes, my poor, poor eyes!" yelled a voice. "I'm blinded, never again shall I see! Have mercy!"

"Jack, it wasn't that bad," said another voice. "I actually thought it was kind of cute. Now shut up or they'll hear us."

"It's a little late for that," said Stevie, and the two culprits crawled out from behind the sofa, the picture of innocence.

Evie stood up and dusted her shorts. "For the record, I never agreed to this. It was all Jack's idea. He forced me to."

"Push all the blame on me why don't you? It's not like I even wanted you to come along. If I remember clearly, you tagged along quite willingly."

Evie's blonde pigtails jiggled as she furiously shook her head.

"You probably don't remember clearly then. Should we check you into a hospital for those who are sick in the head?" she asked sweetly.

"Maybe you should try sticking your head in-"

"Jack!" yelled Stevie and Amanda.

"In a freezer!" Jack said. "I was going to say in a freezer!"

"Mhmm, and I'm Santa Claus," said Evie.

"You're fat enough to be Santa Claus," said Jack spitefully.

Evie looked at her gangly pale arms and legs.

"I'm not fat!"

"Yeah you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"Enough!" shouted Amanda, who by that time was exasperated. "Do you guys really have to argue every time you're around each other?"

"He started it!" said Evie.

"She started it!" said Jack at the same time.

"Me!" they both exclaimed.

"Stop copying me!"

"I am not copying you!"

Stevie walked up to Amanda, who had her palm to her forehead, and slung an arm around her shoulder, drawing her closer to him.

"Do they ever stop bickering?" he asked, resting his chin on her head and looking at their two children.

"Honestly? I doubt," she answered.

After a few seconds, he let her go and said,

"Alright, that's enough kids. Tell you what, if you both go to bed right now, tomorrow I'll take you out wherever you want to go."

"Oh, I want to go to the mall."

"What, no! I want to go to the cinema!"

"Mall!"!

"Cinema!"

"We'll go to both places, just please stop arguing okay?" said Amanda.

"Fine!" said Evie and Jack, heading to their respective rooms.

"And don't come out!" called Amanda.

They ignored her.

When they were finally gone, Amanda let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.

"Alone at last," she said.

"Yes we are," said Stevie, placing his chin on top of her golden locks again. He let out a sigh, and twisted her hair in his fingers.

At five foot five, she wasn't very tall, but standing next to him made her feel even shorter. She moved away from him, placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"What did I do?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"You've got bad news for me, haven't you?"

"Who, me? Pfft-of course not!"

She scoffed. "I've known you for twenty seven years Stevie, you can't lie to me. You always play with my hair when you have something bad to tell me." It was one of his quirks that she loved.

He sighed, avoiding looking into her eyes.

"Stevie..." she said menacingly.

"Alright, alright! I've got a meeting at work in a couple of minutes. I just came home to shower, change and maybe get a bite to eat."

"You've got a meeting at-" She checked her watch "-eight o'clock in the night?"

The incredulity in her voice was not lost on him.

"It's not my fault my job is so demanding," he said defensively.

"Is your job demanding enough to require you leaving at this time of the night?" she asked, her voice rising an octave.

"My clients need me and so does my business!"

"Oh, and so your family doesn't?"

"Don't go putting words into my mouth! This job is what puts food on the table, Amanda!"

"This job is killing our family! You just refuse to see it!"

By this time, both of them were shouting.

Amanda tried to calm herself down, if only for the children's sake.

"With the amount of money you've made Stevie, you could retire and still we'd still be able to live comfortably. Why can't you just take a night off? Tonight's a very special night. Stevie it's our Silver Jubilee for crying out loud! Twenty five years together is no small joke! Please!"

By this time, Amanda was near tears.

Stevie stared at her for a while, the expression in his cerulean eyes unreadable. Then he spoke.

"Amanda, we can do this tomorrow. Right now I've got somewhere I need to be."

With that, he stalked out of the house without bothering to shower, change or eat.

Tears welled up in her grey eyes. Arguments like this were becoming all to common in the Winnows household. Even Hilda had complained to her, indirectly of course, that of late, the tension in the house had grown extremely thick.

But it dissipated for a while, she thought gloomily.

It seemed to her that work seemed to eat all of Stevie's time lately. He always had somewhere to dash off to, and sometimes got home as late as three in the morning.

She trusted her husband with all her heart, but there were days even she had her doubts about his so called "meetings."

She climbed the stairs wearily, the energy she'd had before gone. It was when she got upstairs that she realised that something was wrong.

He left his briefcase, she thought, remembering the brown bag she'd seen on the floor. Amanda wasn't a business guru, but even she knew that it wasn't possible to go for a business meeting without a briefcase containing your information. The doubts niggling in the back of her mind resurfaced.

You can't go to a meeting without a briefcase, the voice in her head taunted.

Maybe he forgot it, she reasoned. I'll go give it to him.

"Stevie!" she yelled, running downstairs. "You left your-"

She tripped on a stair and fell the rest of the way down. Her foot connected with the briefcase in question, kicking it open.

It snapped open, papers fluttering everywhere.

A paper flitted over to Amanda.

What's this? she wondered. It was a perfumed letter

Dear Stevie,

It's been a pleasure being with you. I never dreamed that I could ever find love after John, but you've proved me wrong. I love you with all my heart, but I need to give an ultimatum. It's either me or her. She's just a-

Here, Amanda stopped reading the letter. It's contents made her nauseous. She saw a sealed envelope addressed to Leila, and opened it.

My dearest Leila,

You of all people should know that I'm playing it safe right now. I would never dream of leaving you in your delicate state. Amanda and the kids mean nothing to me, and you of all people should know that. Leila, you've shown me more love in the last few months than I've known in twenty five years. Rest assured that we will be together soon. I love you with all my heart.

All my love,

Stevie.

Amanda felt as though some unseen force had squeezed all the air out of her lungs. She struggled to breathe, feeling as though she was drowning.

Her heart felt as though it had been shattered. She dissolved into a pool of tears.

"No," she murmured. "No, no, no, no..."

It began to drizzle as she slowly rocked herself to sleep on the floor, her twenty fifth wedding anniversary forgotten.

"