'Of course, you can stay here Kat,' Danielle said dumping Katherine's overnight bag behind the back of the sofa.

'I wouldn't want to impose,' Katherine said although that was exactly what she was doing. She'd sent Danielle a hasty text as she was getting into her car, begging to stay the night. Surprisingly Danielle had agreed without pressing her for details, she must have caught her when she was busy.

'You're not imposing,' Danielle said. 'What are friends for.'

'You and Eva don't have much room,' Katherine murmured looking around. She'd always thought their home was cosy but as she stood in the living room and realised she could almost stretch her arms from one wall to the other she knew it was too cramped for three people. 'You only have two bedrooms.'

Danielle shrugged. 'Eva's not here very much, since she got together with Kieran I rarely see her.'

'You're just saying that,' Katherine said but she breathed a sigh of relief all the same. It was all well and good walking out on Joe but she hadn't thought through the practicalities of it. 'I promise I'll be out of your hair ASAP, I just needed to get away from Joe to get my head together.'

Danielle smiled gesturing for Katherine to sit down. 'One, I'm not being polite, Eva would be out of here if she didn't think it would leave me in the lurch. And two, what's actually happened? With you and Joe?' She looked at Kat, her face expectant.

Katherine slumped down into the chair not knowing where to start. When exactly had her life began to fall apart?

'Joe's been having an affair,' she said her chest tightening. 'I guess you've already figured that out?' She didn't dare look at Danielle. 'He's with her now, and I'm done trying to fix things.'

Danielle's face was unreadable but Katherine could see she wasn't surprised. She'd probably put two and two together before she had.

'Does Joe know you've left?' Danielle asked as she fiddled with one of her fingernails.

'No, he left this morning.' She took a deep breath. 'It was obvious he was going to see Shannon after she left the club with Donnie last night, and he's not come back. I've tried calling and he's ignored all my calls.' Her face heated up and she could imagine her blood bubbling away in her veins. 'He wouldn't even take my calls to put me out of my misery. He sent a text saying he was going to his mom's.'

Danielle scoffed. 'God, he's such a coward! You're well rid of him.'

Katherine looked up at the ceiling, noticing a cobweb around the light fitting. 'Yeah, I guess I've dodged a bullet.'

So why did she feel bereft?

'Come on, Kat, he's shown you who he is. You can't fix this.'

Katherine's eyes narrowed as she looked at the cobweb, trying to see if she could spot a spider. She realised Danielle was looking at her waiting for a response.

'I know I can't fix this,' she admitted swallowing hard. 'I did everything I could, you name it, I've tried. I was willing to forgive him, to put this behind us but he didn't want to.' A sob escaped her and Danielle pulled her into an awkward hug.

'You'll get over this Kat, better to have found out now than after the wedding. Honestly, Joe's done you a favour.'

'It doesn't feel like a favour,' she said wiping her eyes and trying to hold onto her anger.

'If it hadn't happened now, it would have happened later.'

'Or maybe it wouldn't have happened at all,' Katherine said bitterly. 'If Shannon hadn't come back into his life.' They should never have invited her to the wedding, she should have put her foot down.

'But Shannon would have appeared at some point,' Danielle insisted. 'You said they're old friends, he couldn't have avoided her forever.'

Katherine nodded but she wasn't convinced. If they'd been married Joe would have kept away from her, his Catholic guilt would have seen to that. Especially if they were starting a family. She closed her eyes against the stab of pain she felt, any dreams she'd had about parenthood were now a long way off. She tried to push the thought to the recesses of her mind, she'd only been thinking about having a baby as it had seemed the logical step after getting married, she hadn't been massively broody.

'I'm too dull and boring,' she said with a small laugh and Danielle opened her mouth to protest. 'No, I am. I had our whole future mapped out, there was no spontaneity in our relationship.'

Danielle snorted. 'You can be spontaneous without having an affair. This is not your fault.'

'I'm not saying that,' Katherine said rubbing her temple. 'But I never really asked Joe what he wanted, I assumed he was on board with my plans. I guess he never was.' She inhaled deeply. 'I don't even know what was real and what wasn't anymore. Like did he ever love me?'

'I'm sure he did,' Danielle said quickly and Katherine smiled at her weakly.

'I think we were compatible but I'm not so sure how deep his feelings went.' She closed her eyes as she tried to collect her thoughts. 'I'll take a personal day tomorrow and go back to the house and get the rest of my stuff.' It would be best to make a clean break of it.

Danielle frowned. 'You'll have to talk to Joe.'

'He's not talking to me,' Katherine said glancing at the blank screen on her phone. 'He'll be relieved I'm gone.'

'Even if he is, don't you have stuff to sort out?'

Katherine shook her head. 'Not really. The house is the main thing, and since Joe pays the rent and most of the bills, he has more right to stay there than I do. Well, I couldn't afford to anyway.' She felt a pang thinking she'd be swapping her tidy, spacious home for a cramped, messy apartment. In hindsight she'd been dumb to move into a house that was so far out of her price range; she might have thought she'd called the shots with Joe but she wasn't in control. If Joe moved out as well and the landlord pursued them both for the rent...

Danielle cleared her throat interrupting her thoughts. 'You can stay here as long as you need to but don't let Joe off the hook. You should make him suffer.'

'How?' Katherine asked welcoming the distraction.

Danielle's brows came together in a frown. 'I don't know but there must be something.' She got out her phone. 'Haven't you got any embarrassing pictures of him you could post online?'

Katherine laughed in spite of herself. 'No, I haven't, and I'm not going down that road.'

Danielle pouted. 'I don't mean do anything too bad, just make him feel uncomfortable. How about you message Shannon and say you've got an STD.' Katherine snorted. 'Okay, what about cutting up his clothes?'

'I know you're trying to make me feel better but playing silly games won't work.'

Danielle wiggled her eyebrows. 'It might be fun?'

'No, I want to get out this with what little dignity I have left still intact,' Katherine said repeating the same words she'd said to Donnie.

'Do you have any joint bank accounts you could empty?'

'No, not really,' Katherine said. 'We did set up a savings account for after we were married but we only ever used it to pay for stuff for the wedding.' She inhaled sharply thinking the last transaction from the account had been a payment to Kelly.

'So why don't you empty it?' Danielle suggested.

'No, I couldn't. It's all Joe's money, I never put anything into it.'

'He owes you.'

Katherine met Danielle's eyes. 'There's not even that much in it...' However, she was pretty sure there was enough money to cover the next couple of months rent. After that their lease was up for renewal and she'd be off the hook.

'What are you thinking?' Danielle asked no doubt surprised she was contemplating her suggestion.

'I'm thinking I could borrow the money,' Katherine admitted. 'Just to tide me over in case Joe doesn't pay the rent.'

Danielle nodded. 'I'll go get my laptop, I take it you have online banking.'

Katherine nodded feeling sick at the thought of what she was about to do. How had things got this far?

'Here,' Danielle said placing her laptop on the coffee table in front of them and logging on. 'Go ahead.'

Tentatively Katherine brought up the bank's website telling herself there was no harm in simply looking. She yet hadn't decided what she was going to do. She typed in the passwords, her fingers trembling as she did so. Within seconds she was staring at a brief statement of their most recent transactions. Her eyes widened as reality dawned on her.

'What is it, Kat?'

'It's Joe,' she said her eyes still on the screen. 'He was one step ahead of me. The bastard has only gone and emptied the account four hours ago.'

~~~