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Diamond geezer!

Pete seemed perfect until I spotted something suspicious sparkling... and it wasn't his wit


Published by: Laura Hinton and Paul Carter
Published on: 19 January 2012

Laid up in bed after a hip replacement operation, I was panicking. With a household to run and my two-year-old daughter Sophie to look after, I didn't know how I was going to cope.
‘It's going to be three months before I'm walking again,' I grumbled to my partner Pete, 41. ‘I've already spent five days recovering in hospital, and it'll be weeks before I'm even on crutches!'
‘Don't worry, love, I've taken care of everything,' Pete reassured me, popping a kiss on my cheek. ‘I've spoken to the boss, and I can have as much time off as I need.'
‘Seriously?!' I said. ‘I didn't think you'd have organised anything!'
I was planning on calling my mate Claire, 36, to see if she could help. Pete worked as a truck driver, so was often away from home. And when he was there, he didn't really have a close relationship with the vacuum cleaner or cooker!
‘See, I'm not a nuisance all the time,' he chuckled.
Too right! He was also a fantastic father to Sophie, and I still fancied him just as much as I did when we'd met 13 years before. Maybe I did take him for granted sometimes.
Of course, he wasn't perfect and he drove me mad half the time. I did all the cooking, he played on his Xbox too much, and he was forever leaving his wet towels on the bed...
Yet over the next few days, Pete really proved himself. The house was spotless, Sophie was fed at the right times, and the washing machine was always on the go.
Not only that, he was constantly checking I was okay. Me not doing everything seemed to have brought out the best in him.
‘What would you like for dinner tonight?' Pete asked one evening, before handing me a printed menu.
Flicking it open, I was shocked. 
He'd actually gone to the effort of writing out a list of starters, main meals and desserts!
‘Well, even if it is a wind-up, I'm impressed,' I laughed. ‘I'll have chicken curry, thanks!'
From then on, I got a different menu every night. It was a sweet touch, and really cheered me up.
‘I'd better have another operation soon,' I joked to him one morning. ‘I never knew you'd make such a great nurse!'
‘Thanks, maybe I've earned a pint with the lads?' he grinned.
‘Well, it's very much deserved,' I agreed.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised Pete had always been quite a romantic. When we'd first dated, he'd constantly bought me flowers and chocolates.
Then there was that spontaneous break to Keswick in the Lake District just three years ago. We'd got up one morning, and he'd announced we were going to stay in a cottage for the weekend. What more could a girl wish for?
Later, we'd strolled through Keswick, and had stumbled across a cute little jewellers' shop. Peering in the window, I'd set eyes on the most gorgeous handmade gold cross pendant. The diamonds on it had sparkled in the light.
‘Would you like it?' Pete had asked me.
‘Err, yes, but it's £300!'
‘You're special,' he'd said. ‘I want to treat you.'
I'd worn it every day since, well, until I'd lost one of the diamonds about a year ago. So I now kept it in my jewellery box and only pulled it out for special occasions.
When I put the pendant on with my diamond earrings and the flash gold watch I'd won at bingo, I felt like a million dollars!
Not that I'd had the chance to get all dressed up lately. After three months of being bed-bound, I was only just beginning to walk on my crutches! It was so boring for me and Pete. So I didn't mind that he popped to The New Inn pub down the road for a pint at last orders. He always made sure I was tucked up in bed with a film first.
Another month passed, and I was surprised by how much better I was feeling. I'd only been for a few walks outside, so was starting to go stir crazy. A night with the girls was definitely on the cards!
So I decided to coax a couple of pals out for a drink. ‘We can just go down to The New Inn,' I told Claire on the phone. ‘If my hip plays up, I can get home quickly.'
‘Sounds like a plan,' she agreed.
And I'd got just the thing I wanted to wear. My special pendant! I went to the jewellery box... but it wasn't there. ‘Argh! Pete must have tidied it somewhere!' I grumbled.
Still, I was running late, so I'd ask him when I got back. Soon, I was catching up with the girls for the first time in ages. ‘I tell you what, my Pete has turned into Florence Nightingale,' I bragged, swigging my lager. ‘Blimey, this stuff tastes good!'
Looking up at the bar, I spotted a few new faces. There was one woman in particular who actually sparkled at me as she turned around. No wonder - she'd got a diamond pendant just like the one Pete had got me.
What were the chances of that? It'd been a one-off piece we'd bought three years before.
I caught her eye and smiled, but she turned away suddenly. Something about the way she'd looked at me made my stomach lurch. Was it a look of guilt...?
Now I found myself staring at her. The more I looked, unless I was seeing things - or I'd had a few too many drinks - that was my necklace. It had the same missing diamond!
Unable to stop myself, I hobbled over to the bar and casually asked her where she'd got it. ‘Oh, I don't know - town somewhere,' she said, fingering it gently. ‘It might have been Argos?'
My heart stopped. She was trying to play it cool. Behind her fake smile though, she was actually nervous. Her hands were shaking.
Something didn't add up. My treasured necklace had gone missing, and now a woman down the local was wearing it. Had she stolen it? How did she know that it was mine?!
Everything got too much. ‘Claire, I need to pop home,' I whispered to my pal.
I was confused, and needed Pete to clear all this up. I was probably being completely irrational, there had to be a logical explanation.
Despite the pain in my hip, I practically ran back to the house and upstairs to our bedroom. Tipping my jewellery box upside-down, I searched through everything in there. But nope, the pendant definitely wasn't there. And neither were my diamond earrings or my watch!
‘Everything okay?' Pete asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway. I blurted out what had just happened in the pub, and felt myself getting teary. But he just shrugged. ‘I don't know where it's gone. Just leave it.'
‘Can't you come back to the pub with me and clear this up?' I asked. He stared at floor, and shifted uneasily.
I felt winded. ‘What's going on?' I sobbed. ‘You're not telling me something!'
‘Leave it,' he insisted. ‘I'm not going anywhere.'
Clearly, he didn't suspect theft then, or he'd be after this woman in a flash. So what was going on?
That's when it clicked. He must've given this woman my necklace. Heart hammering, I limped back to the pub on my own. There she was, still at the bar. She went bright red as she saw me storm through the door.
‘Why do you have my necklace?' I hissed, putting my face inches from hers.
‘P-Pete gave them to me,' she blurted out. ‘We've been seeing each other for months.'
Never in a million years had I expected this. As her words hit home, I suddenly noticed the diamond earrings she was wearing.
‘They're mine, too!' I screeched, bringing the pub to silence. ‘How dare you! Give me back my stuff!'
She just stared at me open-mouthed. But I wouldn't budge. Finally - with trembling hands - she undid the necklace and earrings and plonked them in my hand. Then I span on my heels and stormed out. My head was banging with anger and hurt... Pete had destroyed everything we had.
All that time he'd been looking after me when I was ill, he'd been having it away with another woman. A woman he'd been giving my jewellery to, to woo her! I was disgusted and heartbroken.
Marching back into the house, I threw the pendant at him. ‘Liar!' I screeched. ‘You've been sleeping with her.'
‘I'm so sorry,' he cried. ‘I met her when you were in hospital... I was lonely. I brought her back here. She saw the pendant and fell in love with it.'
‘So you thought you'd give it to her?' I screamed.
Behind all the anger though, I was absolutely devastated.
The man I'd loved and trusted for 13 years, the father of my child, had cheated on me.
‘That's it. Pack your bags.'
‘Please, no, she meant nothing,' he grovelled.
‘Out!' I cried. I kept myself together as he packed a bag. But as soon as the front door slammed shut, I lay on the bed and sobbed my heart out.
All the special memories we'd shared... The birth of Sophie when he'd wept with pride, that weekend in Keswick. He'd destroyed all of them. I stared blankly ahead, crying - then suddenly I focused on what I was looking at.
Pete's Xbox. He loved that flipping thing. The times I'd whined at him to help me clear up, and he'd been playing games on it instead. Slowly, a plan formed in my head. Pete had thought he could get away with giving away my stuff - two could play at that!
Moments later, I was on the phone to my cousin Jim, 29, who runs a second-hand shop.
‘Come round tomorrow,' I told him. ‘I have some stuff for you to sell, or put on eBay.'
Next day, I was up bright and early, helping Jim load Pete's favourite things into his van. I smiled as his Xbox whizzed past, then his iPod, the widescreen TV, laptop, camera, designer watch, even the leather couch!
‘Are you sure about this?' Jim asked, looking at me as if I'd gone mad.
‘Flog the lot,' I told him. ‘Sell it on eBay and keep £1,000 from whatever you make.'
‘No man will ever mess with you again,' he chuckled.
To be honest, I wasn't proud of myself, but it made me feel good. Pete deserved a taste of his own medicine. But I kept a few little bits back for Pete, though...
Smiling, I set up a table and beach chair in the lounge, with a can of his favourite lager and pizza. On the wall, I put up a poster and scrawled Welcome home loser across it.
I took a picture of it all as a little memento, before me and Sophie went to move in with Claire. Next, I text Pete, saying I'd forgiven him and that he should come home.
When he arrived, he wasn't happy, judging from the phone call I got! ‘What the hell have you done?!' he yelled.
I didn't feel guilty that I netted £4,000 from the sale of Pete's gear on eBay. It was enough cash for me to put money down on a property for me and Sophie - the very least that we deserved.
Now though, me and Pete have agreed to act like grown-ups for Sophie's sake, and he sees her once a week. I'm trying to move on, but will never forget what he did.
I thought Pete was the perfect package. But in reality, he was like a dodgy buy on eBay - I just wish I'd asked for a refund before I got hurt.


Peter Wright, 41, said: ‘I was a fool to cheat on Joanne, and even more of a fool to give away her stuff. My affair fizzled out as soon as Joanne kicked me out, and now I'm sleeping on the floor in the old place while I save for new stuff.'


Joanne Whitehead, 37, Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester