It started with a random phone call.
For twenty-five years I was a good wife.
I cooked his favorite meals, ironed his shirts, waited with dinner when he came home late from work. I thought we had a good life – maybe not perfect, maybe not fabulous, but stable, certain, built on mutual respect.
I never suspected that it was all a lie.
It started with an accidental phone call.
My husband, Andrzej, went out to the store and his phone was left on the table. I never looked through his stuff – I trusted him. But when the screen lit up and the name „Magda” appeared on it, something inside me stirred.
Magda.
I didn't know any Magda.
Before I could think, I picked up.
— Honey, what took you so long? — I heard a cheerful, female voice. — The kids are already waiting.
I felt the world around me freeze.
— Hello? Andrzej?
I hung up and put the phone down, feeling my hands shaking.
Children.
Sweetheart.
I didn't know what to do. I stared at the phone, my heart pounding like crazy.
When he got home, I looked him straight in the eyes.
— Who is Magda?
He froze.
I saw a shadow of panic cross his face.
— Honey, she's just an acquaintance…
— He has children with you.
Silence.
The worst silence of my life.
— Andrzej, answer me.
He didn't answer.
And I already knew.
The truth turned out to be even worse than I could have imagined.
For eight years he led a double life.
He had a second family. A second wife. Two kids who called him „daddy”.
And I never knew it.
When I started asking, he gave some convoluted explanations.
— It just happened.
— I didn't mean to hurt you.
— I love you both.
Both.
How can you love two women and simultaneously deceive each of them for years?
I didn't have the strength to cry.
I only felt emptiness.
I didn't sleep a wink that night.
I looked at the man who had slept next to me for so many years and wondered who he really was.
Because my husband…
My husband never existed.
There was only a lie that I believed in all my life.