MARIA and Faith were very close sisters with only 15 months between them. Always in and out of each other’s pockets, Maria was on a. visit to Faith this fateful day her life was turned upside down. Faith was in the bathroom and Maria needed to get a message to Alex, her boyfriend of three years. “My mobile was out of credit,” said Maria. “So I grabbed Faith’s phone. ‘I’m just going to use your mobile to text Alex,” I called out. But she was in the shower so didn’t hear me. Thinking she wouldn’t mind, I went ahead anyway. But as I scrolled through the menu, I was surprised to see the first message in her box was from Alex.

“Thinking he might have been trying to get hold of me, I opened the message. It read: ‘Can you get away? I want to see you asap (as soon as possible)?” My mind swirled. Was this my Alex? There must be an innocent explanation. But I told myself to get real and stop making excuses for them. They must be having an affair. Lately, they’d been very friendly towards each other and Alex never complained if  we had to go out with Faith. In fact, he seemed to look forward to seeing her!

“Trying to control my anger and tears, I wasn’t sure what I should do. Should I confront them? Then suddenly, Faith came out of her room and grabbed her phone, heading for the door. ‘See you later,’ she called—and with that she was gone. So I decided to turn detective and follow her. Outside, I watched as she strutted down the street and turned off to the next street where Alex lived. Burning with furry, I followed her into his ground floor flat. ‘So you two are having an affair!’ I spat. Alex looked bemused. ‘What?’ he said. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, we’re not having an affair’. ‘Don’t lie to me,’ I fumed, trembling. ‘I just read the text you sent to her. I’ve just caught her red-handed’. ‘It’s not what you think,’ Faith said. ‘We just arranged to meet so we could check out the new shopping mall. That’s all.’

“I desperately wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Our relationship would never be the same again if I was right about them having an affair. Faith gently put her hand on my arm. ‘You’re still depressed from losing your job,’ she soothed. ‘I’d never try to steal your boy-friend.’ There was an awkward silence and I began to doubt myself. After all, the text message I’d found hadn’t actually said anything incriminating. ‘Sorry,’ I said, suddenly embarrassed. ‘I jumped to the wrong conclusion.’ Yet deep down, I still couldn’t shake the awful feeling there was something going on.

Not long after this incident, Alex and I had one of our blazing rows and he sneered: ‘You think you’re clever. You think you know everything, don’t you? Well, I’ve got news for you. I am sleeping with your sister!’ Seeing the shock in my eyes, he quickly grabbed my arm. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ he said, looking panicked: ‘I just said it in the heat of the moment.’ He continued to deny what he said but I knew it would gnaw away at me until I had proof one way or the other. So, later, when he was in the bathroom, I reached for his mobile and sent my sister a text: ‘Fancy coming round?’ her reply flashed up moments later – and destroyed my world, ‘I don’t want one-night stands any more,’ it said. ‘I want a serious relationship and you can’t give me that because you’re still with Maria.’

“It was proof of the ultimate betrayal—my little sister was sleeping with the love of my    life! When Alex came out of the bathroom, I showed him the text. ‘It was just a one-off’ he babbled. ‘Stop lying to me! I shrieked. ‘Stop treating me like an idiot,’ I was fuming. Yet my anger at him was nothing compared to what I felt for Faith. My own flesh and blood! Usually, she was the one who helped me through heartbreak. Now she was the cause of it.

“The next day, I went to see her. I ranted and raved until I managed to calm down. “How could you?’ I said quietly. By now she was crying, finally realising the damage she’d wreaked on our relationship. The love between us had diminished. All the trust we’d had was gone. ‘I’m sorry’ was all she could say. Then, as if I hadn’t suffered enough, I started bleeding a few days later. I’d suspected I might be pregnant, but the stress of their betrayal took my mind off it. Now I’d had a miscarriage.

“Alex begged constantly to be given a second chance vowing he’d never cheat again. Through my loss, people gathered to comfort me—my mum, my friends. And then came the one person I’d thought I’d never want to see again: my sister. She didn’t say anything. She just held me tight. And in that moment, I vowed to do my best to forgive. She was only 22. Who doesn’t make mistakes at that age? But it was hard.

“ Alex and I tried to make a go of the relationship. We even had a son. Yet, despite our best efforts, things were never the same and we broke up. Happily, I now have a new man I’m engaged to and I’ll make sure Faith’s kept at arm’s length from my fiance. Even now she and I are no way near as close as we were. I might have forgiven her, but I’ll never forget.”