Shedding Tears & Burning Memories : romantic short stories for married couples

 Rachel stood over a controlled fire in the backyard of the multi - million dollar mansion with tears in her eyes.

She had every worldly possession her heart could ever desire but she also had tears in her eyes. Her parents had always been millionaires and her husband had just become a billionaire but she still had tears in her eyes.

Even if her husband divorced her without giving her a dime she would still be a multi - millionaire; yet she still had tears in her eyes.

Rachel threw picture after picture of Her & her Husband with whom she had been married for 14 years into the fire. She hated him now more than anything she could think of. She not only wished that he would drown in greater pain than she felt herself in her heart right now, but that he would also suffer in every physical way possible.

It's funny how things change sometimes. Once upon a time they would have gladly died for each other. They were more than married, more than best friends, more than lovers. They meant everything to each other. They had gone strong in their marriage for 10 years but somehow after 4 more years this is where they were. The taste of the bitterness of her marriage was so tangible that she was sure it was that bitter taste she felt at the tip of her tongue. Or maybe it was just the strong growing feeling of disgust that she felt for her husband, Sean.

As she watched the pictures burn, pictures of what had happened that day flashed through her eyes.

Her husband, Sean had come back home only to find her in bed in the arms of another man. The interesting thing is, she knew the time he always got back home. It's like she timed it so she would get caught.

Truth is! She did. She timed it so that she would get caught.

Her husband flipped his lead when he saw them in bed together. Even though he was a lot older than the young man she was in bed with, he turned into a ferocious lion and lurched at the young man whose heart had no choice but to leap into the sky in fear.

Rachel got in the way and tried to hold Sean back. She wasn't exactly as young as she used to be but she was strong. However, some of Sean's blows still got to the young man.

The young man was confused. He wasn't let in on Rachel's plan. He hadn't known what she had planned. He certainly didn't plan to spend his afternoon being assaulted by an angry husband. Or perhaps assaulted would be a very soft word considering the viciousness of the situation. Yes, assault would be a very soft word to describe the situation considering that the young man felt he was about to be killed.

Rachel started delivering punches to her husband's stomach as she stood in between her husband and the young man who was desperately trying to find a way out of the house.

Sean grappled with his wife trying to get her out of the way so he can get his hands on the young man.

Until now, Sean had never really noticed how strong and agile his wife really was. She reached for a large Law book on a table within her reach and started beating him with it.

Sean punched his wife in the stomach as hard as he could. It temporary disoriented her and she moved back from him, holding her hand over her stomach as her body slowly absorbed the pain.

Sean immediately pounced in the young man quicker than an any forest animal possibly could.

The young man tried to fight back but it was like a little puppy trying to defend itself from a very, very angry Tiger who just found out his wife was cheating on him when he was out hunting to bring her back food.

Before Rachel could regain her wits and pull her husband off the young man, Sean had thrown the young man off the 1st floor.

Rachel's heart stopped beating. It's not like she cared about the young man. She barely knew who he was. But she feared that her husband had just killed somebody. She knew the implications of that.

Rachel who had lost the Law book she previously picked up in the scuffle, picked up another close-by item and started hitting her husband with it; with tears now uncontrollably streaming down her eyes.

He stooped down defensively with his hands held protectively in the air to block every hit from her.

Rachel looked at the young man's body from the 1st floor balcony but thankfully the man slowly started moving. Then he stood up it seemed he had regained most of his strength. He gathered up his clothes and quickly ran away as fast his body would let him.

Sean and Rachel remained fighting. There was a lot of shouting going back and forth. Vases, pots, plates, pens, pillows and all sorts of house hold items were sent flying in the air as they threw whatever they could get their hands on at each other.

Rachel soon got a kitchen knife in her hand. Sean did not want to gamble with what might happen if she threw it at him so he rushed forward to collected it from her.

They scuffled. She cut him and he screamed out in pain. The combination of the scream and the blood flowing down his arm knocked something into her head that made her stop. The fighting stopped. She dropped the knife from her hand and staggered two steps backwards like she had just realized what she was holding and was scared of it.

She rushed forward and got on her knees to help her husband with the wound.

He quickly stepped backwards and signaled for her not to come near him and he fought the pain and held his hand over the part of the other arm where the bleeding was coming from.

He looked at her with his face filled with pain and what looked like he would be crying for the first time since he first saw her and the young man in bed together.

"Why?", Sean asked.

Somehow Rachel knew he wasn't asking about why she cut him even though blood tickled down his arm. She knew he was asking why she cheated on him.

Rachel's spirit dropped as she went to pull out her diary from a compartment on her side of the bed. She took out a series of photos from her diary and walked to her husband and gave it to him. Then she went to look for a bandage.

Sean had been puzzled when she pulled out pictures from her dairy and he wondered how pictures could connect to or even remotely attempt to answer the question of why his wife is cheating on him.

He soon had the answer to that puzzle when his eyes fell upon the pictures he now held in his hand.

He was staring at a series of pictures of himself sleeping with another woman at a hotel.

Ouch!

His heart sunk deeper into his chest.

They were both rich and they didn't always tell each other about one another's business investments. She had bought 75% of the five star hotel's ownership. He had actually cheated on his wife in her own hotel.

Rachel came back with the bandage and she threw it at him. "Now that you've seen me sleep with someone else you know the pain that I felt when I first saw those pictures", Rachel said. She folded her arms together and smiled diabolically with satisfaction, "So tell me my love, how does it feel?"

Sean looked at her - Staring at her; Eyeball to Eyeball. Then he threw the pictures on the ground and said, "It feels like I'm going to drive to my lawyer to draw up our divorce papers right now."

He turned and started walking away while trying to wrap the bandage around his bleeding arm.

"COME BACK HERE", she shouted.

He kept walking away.

"COME BACK HERE. I'M NOT FINISHED", she screamed at the top of her lungs. Ignoring yet fearing the budding tears that threatened to reveal themselves within the sound of her own voice.

He still kept walking away.

"IF YOU WALK OUT OF THIS HOUSE. DON'T YOU EVER COME BACK TO HIS HOUSE. IT WOULD BE OVER BETWEEN US DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Sean stopped walking away. He processed what she had said. He looked over his shoulder and said, "I know. I don't intend to come back. It's already over between us. You would be hearing from my lawyer concerning our divorce." Then he turns his head forward and kept on walking away.

Rachel pressed back a scream of frustration which turned into a small roar of a most deadly tigress. She grabs a close-by open plastic bottle of water and sends it flying in the air towards Sean, harder than she'd ever thrown anything in her life. It hits his back with a loud bang and the water splashes all over the back of his coat but he doesn't even stop. He doesn't even look back. He just endured the pain of its impact and kept moving onwards.

"YOU BETTER NOT GO BACK TO THAT GOLD DIGGER!!", Rachel screamed.

But it was too late. He was already out the door. Somehow Rachel knew it was already too late before he even got to the door. Somehow she knew he meant every word he said. Somehow he knew it was really over between them.

* * *

Now Rachel stood over the fire burning pictures. She not only had pictures of her husband cheating on her to burn. She also had gathered pictures from around the house of her and her husband together to burn. She was going to burn memories. She was going to burn the last 14 years of her life in the flames. She stood there Shedding Tears and Burning Memories.

Rachel cried and cried as she tossed each picture into the flames. She would look at the pictures before she'd toss them in the flames, although she tried not to. She knew that looking at the pictures one last time would make it all the more painful; but she just couldn't help it.

Each picture was filled with precious memories. Each picture was filled with some of the happiest moments of her life. Each picture brought back not only a flash back of the moment in time in which the picture was taken but it also brought back the feeling in her chest of the way she felt when each picture was taken. She felt like she was having little painful nibbles of each one of the experiences each picture spoke about but she couldn't stop eating each painful memory. She felt like she was burning a part of herself as she burnt those pictures.

Sadly, she also knew and feared that though she can burn the memories that are on paper, she can't burn the memories that are in her mind and in her heart. She feared that they would live forever.

Rachel hated the feelings that flowed through her heart as she stood there crying. She hated the fact that she missed him already. She hated the fact that she felt empty without him already. But what she hated most was that that feeling of emptiness was growing. What would happen after two weeks with him?

Rachel fell on her knees and did something that she hadn't done in a long time. As a matter of fact, she can't remember the last time she did it. She doesn't remember the last time she prayed.

Rachel wept before God in utter brokenness. She asked God with a sincere heart that he should intervene. She asked him to save her marriage. As much as she did not want to admit it, there was no point in lying to God. She wanted her husband back. She wanted everything back to the way it was. She wanted her and her husband to share the joy and the love that they once shared. She wanted everything back to the way it was before he cheated and she cheated back. She wanted everything back to the way it was before they began to grow apart.

Wait! That was when it hit her. The last time she prayed was a few weeks before they began to grow apart. They had begun to grow apart after 10 years of marriage; only after they started growing apart from God. With the more money they made, the new friends that came, and with the new friends that came; out went most of the old ones that helped them move forward in the first place. They had always had money before and had maintained Godly friends and Godly principles when they where millionaires but it was when they transitioned to multi-millionaires and then on to billionaires that everything completely changed. They'd moved into a new house in a new city. Left old friends behind. Made new friends. Embraced their new friends way of life in their Hollywood type neighborhood. Decreased their frequently of going to church until they stopped going to church altogether. They'd also decreased the number of times that they prayed together as a family or as a couple when their daughter was away at boarding school, until they stopped even praying their own personal & private prayers.

It was their drawing away from God that drew them away from each other.

Rachel begged God for forgiveness. She now knew what the real problem was. It was their relationship with God or lack of.

Rachel begged God to come back into their lives. She prayed to God for forgiveness and she said the prayer of the repentant backslider. She felt a peace immediately come over her. She felt at ease. That's something she hadn't felt in a long time. Somehow, she hadn't noticed when that ease left her years ago but now that it was back she knew what she had been missing that she once had.

Rachel spent a lot of time in fellowship. Soon she found out that she had started praying in tongues. She could pray in tongues again. Hurray! The more she prayed the better she felt. She started praying that she wanted her husband back. She started praying that God would bring her husband back.

As her husband drove to his lawyer's house that late evening, he wondered if he knew what he was doing. He was thinking about all the wonderful times he and his wife had, had together. Was he really going to end it all? What was he even mad about...? Come to think of it, It was his fault in the first place. It was him that cheated on his wife first. The super model he cheated on his wife with did not even care about him. He knew that. He didn't need anybody to tell him that she was only interested in his bank account. So what was he now doing? Why was he leaving his wife? Why was he leaving the only woman that had loved him right front the start? The woman who had supported him when he came out of his millionaire father's shadow and decided to start his own company.

Sean was so lost in his thoughts that he jumped a red light.

Out of nowhere a car came crashing into his. It sent his car tumbling and rolling over: over and over and over again.

Sean had never been so afraid in his life. He felt he would die and the only thing that was on his mind was that he wished he could tell his wife, "I Love You", one more time. What was at the bottom of his heart came out to the surface. What was his top most priority in life became more obvious when he stared death in the face. As the car somersaulted he screamed as the top of lungs hoping somehow his wife would hear him, " HONEY!!! I'M SORRY. I WAS A FOOL. I WAS WRONG. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I LOVE YOU...!!!." If he was to have any last words here on earth, he couldn't desire anything else than those last three words coming out of his lips directed at his wife even though she was miles away, he knew now more than ever that she has always been in and would never leave his Heart.

Then... Everything went Black.

At that moment, Rachel, back at home felt something in her spirit. She sensed something just happened but she didn't know what it was. She immediately was overcome with the immediate urge to pray and she just knew that she was meant to start interceding for her husband; Sean. She bowed her head down and started praying and praying and praying in tongues like she'd never done before.

Meanwhile, Sean's car was still flipping over. It soon came to a grinding halt.

Sean opened his closed his eyes... they closed ... he opened them again? He felt weak. He could feel? Was he alive? His eyes closed but he opened them yet again. He was still seeing the same thing he saw. Could he believe what he was seeing? Could he really trust it? He couldn't believe he wasn't dead. How was he alive? He knew it had to be God. He hadn't even thought of God in a long time but apparently God has been thinking of him.

Sean got out of his car and got on his knees on the middle of the road. He lifted up his hands and started thanking God. He knew what he must do now. It was like his near death experience had made him realize how his priorities should be rearranged.

Sean prayed the prayer for the repentant back slider. Then he got up, took out a check and wrote down 500 thousand dollars on it. He gave it to the guy that hit his car. He then packed up the few important items that where in his car and flagged down a taxi. He was heading back home: Heading back to his love - His Queen.

Meanwhile, Rachel still remained on her knees. She was praying that her husband would come back home. Her head was bent down such that it was touching her knees. She prayed and prayed and prayed for her husband quite audibly, even now and then mentioning that she loved him and was sorry for what she did.

A few minutes later, Rachel head some footsteps behind her and she raised her head up and looked over her shoulder. It was him. It was Sean. He had come back. She stood up and ran to meet him, and he ran to meet her too. They hugged real tight and each one started saying that they where sorry and it is their fault. They apologized to each other and kissed each other for what seemed like an hour. They would often come up for air and apologize to the other again. They felt like they hadn't felt in a long time.

Rachel told Sean that she knows that what she's about to say may sound somehow but she's sure that the reason they drifted apart was because they had drifted away from God.

Sean looked deep into his wife's tear filled eyes with his own tear filled eyes and said, "I know. And I would never drift away from God again."

He leaned in to kiss her. After a deep French - Kiss, she pulled away and said, "But honey, we really need to go see a doctor now about your arm."

The End.