After Camilla had taken a stand and gone out with her friend, Steven had had a rude awakening and realized his wife wasn't someone to play with.
Things seemed to settle down and get back on track. Just when Camilla started to feel more relaxed again in her marriage, she was again disappointed by her husband.
One afternoon, Steven came home from work in a very bad mood. "Steven, what's wrong?" Camilla asked.
Angrily, he shouted at her, "shut up, just shut up." He walked to the bathroom, went to change his clothes, picked up the keys to the car and drove off.
"What is going on?" Camilla asked herself, bewildered at his sudden relapse in actions.
Uneasy about the whole ordeal, Camilla called her friend who worked with Steven. "Michelle, what happened today? Steven came home in such a bad mood."
Michelle sighed, she had reservations about telling her friend what happened between her boss, Steven and the "client". So she just settled for the last part, not wanting to hurt her friend, "Camilla, didn't Steven speak to you when he got home?" she asked.
"No," she responded.
"Camilla, it's not really my place to say, but Steven was suspended today for 3 weeks pending investigation into certain behavior at work," she explained.
Camilla sighed and said, "Thank you, Michelle, at least now I know. I suspect something more, but thank you for the information." After a few more words, they hung up the phone. Camilla tried calling Steven, but he wasn't answering the phone.
Eventually, when he did get home, Camilla was fast asleep in her bed. Trying not to disturb his wife, he went to the bathroom, showered and got into bed. As he got into bed, she said in a groggy voice, "you home!" She looked at the time, realizing it was after 11pm. "At least it's not that late," she thought to herself and fell back asleep.
The following morning, around 4am, she heard Steven's phone ring. Attempting to answer the phone, she saw a number that she recognized a few times. When she had questioned it before with Steven, he said it was just a client. "Strange, clients don't call at unearthly hours of the morning? Also, why would a client be calling him since he has been suspended from work?" she thought. On answering the call, the caller just hung up.
Later that morning, as Camilla was getting up to get ready for work she said, "Steven, someone that you told me once before, is a client, called at 4 this morning, why would a client call at that time of the morning?"
"They probably dialed the wrong number!" He excused, while laying in bed.
"Aren't you getting ready for work?" she asked him.
"No, there's something we need to speak about when you get home," he said quietly.
"Ok, in that case you can have Marshall for the day, it's cold outside, so it's better he stays home with you. Let him sleep. I have prepared everything already for him. I'll take the car so that it's quicker to get home," she said, walking to the bedroom door about to leave.
As she walked to the door, he pulled her back, "Don't you want to stay a little longer?" he asked. Missing how he used to do this when they were dating and just got married, she let herself fall into his arms. She had so missed being held by her husband, feeling his embraces. They cuddled and kissed for a few minutes, then he let her go and said, "see you later!"
"Okay" she responded.
On her way home she messaged Steven to say she was going to stop at the shop to get some groceries for dinner.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Steven was drinking and entertaining another woman in their home. With long, fiery red hair, the tall, brazen, much older woman was sitting in their living room having a drink with Steven. On arriving home, exhausted from a long day at work, Camilla could hear the music playing loudly. "Is that coming from my place?" she thought.
Pulling up into the garage, she opened the door, took out the groceries and walked into her home. As she walked in she saw a tall, red-haired, very slender, yet quite top-heavy, woman with her blouse half open so that the contours of her chest could be seen.
She gave the woman one look and said, "Excuse me, who do you think you are? This is my home, you have 1 minute to get out before I throw you out!"
"Honey," Steven said, half drunk, looking at her, "she's a friend of mine."
"Listen, I don't care who she is," Camilla said, giving the woman a hard stare, "no woman is welcome in my home without me here, you have no respect, either of you. Now get out and don't let me see you ever again!" she yelled.
As soon as the woman left, Steven said, "listen I was suspended from work yesterday."
"I know, Michelle told me."' she responded, "that doesn't get you off the hook for having a woman in our home, and you're drinking with her,"' she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry," he put his head down and walked to the bedroom to go sleep.
That evening, like always, she was exhausted, yet she still had to cook. No food was made, no cleaning was done. At least one thing was for sure, she didn't have to pack Marshall's bag again, since Steven was home, he could look after his son.
The constant drinking was becoming too much for Camilla, but she endured it. Camilla's family came from a long line of lifetime marriages.
Camilla was determined to make her marriage work, irrespective of how hard it got. Not only for them but for their child.
Camilla was a hard worker and always tried to hide her pain behind a smile to outsiders, but inside her home there was turmoil, consistent arguing between them.
As the new year was approaching, in between all the arguments and fights, Steven and Camilla had some perfect days when they would spend the whole day lying in bed.