Stone Cold by Dean Crawford

I don’t mean it like that. Yes, he’s scum, but you’re the psychologist … haven’t you asked yourself why he’s done this?’
    Kathryn realised that she was somewhat caught off guard by the question. In the midst of conjuring up her dastardly plot she had forgotten the raw fury she had felt at Stephen’s lies, the catalyst for her vengeful crusade.
    Kathryn had never had lots of money, had never sought a stellar career in the city or thought that she could be anything more than what she really wanted to be: happy in her life and to share that happiness with a decent, faithful man. What woman ever needed anything more than that? Sure, many wanted fame and the adulation of their peers; others sought seclusion through isolation and rarely ventured into the dating game or foraged through the dung mound of men packed inside sweaty, pounding nightclubs. In some respects Ally was a bit like that: she occasionally “got lucky”, but generally kept men at arm’s length, considering them all to be, as she said, from the devil .
    In Stephen, though, Kathryn believed that she had finally discovered the gem that so many sought, the Holy Grail of Manhood resplendent before her as though she alone had emerged victorious from a lifelong quest to achieve the peace and happiness denied or eluded by so many others. The term whirlwind romance didn’t cover it. Stephen was handsome, kind, generous and focused entirely on Kathryn, and she had been swept along in his wake like a joyous dolphin playing behind a cruise liner, and she had made no attempt to conceal or deny it. The rational part of her mind had constantly both sought reassurance and searched for the chinks in her valiant knight’s shining armour, and had found none.
    Stephen, for all she could ascertain, had been literally perfect.
    She had imagined their future marriage. Surrounded by friends, which accounted for their families too as they were both orphans. Photographers and little children dressed in clothes that could not possibly survive the day unstained. The vows. The applause. The alcohol. The first dance. The last dance. The honeymoon.
    And then life came along.
    Bills. Rent. Jobs. Economic crash. Foreclosures. Jobs lost, once successful businesses floundering. Stephen struggling to earn his commission. Kathryn struggling to get through college a decade after she should have done instead of dropping out and getting the first job that had come along in a cheap Nevada diner. Run down cars and takeaways. And yet through all of it they had each other and Kathryn had drawn such comfort from that, knowing that no matter what happened they would have each other’s backs and could probably get through just about anything.
    Team Family.
    And then had come the revelations, one after the other, that Stephen was not all that he appeared to be. The months of worry, the ache of hope that somehow she was mistaken and that the truth would be a carnival of delight when she learned that Stephen was in fact secretly working double–shifts to earn more money or had another job as a fireman or was in fact a caped, underpants–on–the–outside Superhero saving kittens from burning buildings.
    But no. Stephen was a fraud, a liar. A thief. The wolf at the door.
    ‘He’s done this because he’s not a man,’ Kathryn replied finally. ‘Not the man I hoped he could be.’
    Ally saw the despair crouching in shame behind Kathryn’s words and she hurried over to Kathryn’s side. She hefted herself next to Kathryn on the sofa and hugged her.
    ‘Kathryn, maybe Stephen’s never going to be the person you want him to be no matter what you try. He was good for you, but if it was all a lie then what did you have in the first place?’
    Kathryn smiled a bitter little smile that tasted sour on her tongue, but she held her wine glass tight as she replied.
    ‘Would you walk away without trying?’
    Ally sighed.
    ‘No, of course not, but maybe you should just confront him with all that