I always looked up to my big sister Natalie. She’s two years older than me and has always been one of those people whose life just turns out right – academic, good at sport and even as her brother, I can see that she’s pretty enough to turn heads.
For a while she sang with a band so when I was about 17 I really thought she was the coolest thing on the planet. Then she got a big job in marketing and met Jeff who’s a doctor and pretty soon they were onto getting married and producing three kids.
During a lot of this I was in London, as I’d decided to do a bit of travelling so although I came back for her wedding and holidays, it wasn’t till last year that I came home for good and we carried on where we’d left off, so to speak.
Jeff’s a dead easy bloke to get on with, so it wasn’t long before we were all spending a lot of time together, along with Nat’s best pal, Bronnie - they’ve known each other since before they went to school and always stayed close.
Bronnie’s quite different from Nat. She’s a teacher and at first sight appears quite quiet, but has a very dry sense of humour and the kids love her. She never married but my nieces and nephew clearly dote on her so having her round the house all the time seemed quite natural.
One night Bronnie and Nat turned up at my flat in the city centre, a bit drunk and boisterous and asking to stay in the spare room as they couldn’t be bothered trying to make their way home out to the suburbs.
Nat phoned Jeff who was quite amused at her giggly state and said just to be sure she got home in the morning before he headed off to work so she could organise the kids.
I wasn’t bothered but a couple of weeks later it happened again and then again, and I did wonder why they were coming into the city to socialise if it was such a hassle getting home.
Each time they were away early and then one morning it looked like they’d slept in so I made two mugs of coffee and knocked on the bedroom door.
There was no answer so I pushed the door open and nearly dropped the coffee in shock.
The single beds had been pushed together and they were far too busy to have heard me knock at the door as they were both naked, my sister lying back with Bronnie half obscured under the duvet.
Nat froze in shock as she saw me and Bronnie jumped up seconds later, leaving her fully exposed to my horrified gaze. There was no doubt that she and her best friend had been making love and I blundered from the room, locking myself in my own bedroom and pretending I hadn’t seen them.
Minutes later I heard the front door shut and then a knock on my door, with Nat’s voice pleading to me to open it and speak to her.
I didn’t know what to do but eventually I opened the door and found Nat close to tears.
“Bronnie’s gone. I’m so sorry you had to find out but please don’t tell Jeff” she said.
I said nothing and she plunged into an explanation, saying that Bronnie was gay but she was the only one who knew as Bronnie’s family were extreme Christians, like something from the Dark Ages. I knew that was true as Bronnie’s family had been a bit of a standing joke when we were kids, but what was Nat doing having an affair with her?
Her tears now wiped away, she was strangely unrepentant. “Well, Jeff and I have been married nearly ten years and this is better than me seeing another man. The sex gets a bit boring when you’ve been together that long and one night when we’d had a bit to drink I just kissed her to see what it was like and one thing lead to another.”
That really did horrify me and I told Nat that I couldn’t believe she had so blatantly seduced Bronnie but she waved my concerns away. “She’d never had sex in her life and I’m doing her a favour. She’s happy, I’m happy and no-one needs to know.”
Nothing I said got through to Nat and eventually she got really annoyed with me, saying I was just as much a stupid romantic as Bronnie.
When I asked what she meant she confessed that the affair had been going on for a year now and she’d promised Bronnie that when the kids were grown up she would leave Jeff and be with her.
It was obvious Bronnie was totally in love to believe that as Nat’s youngest child was four – a long, long time away from leaving home.
I finally got really annoyed when Nat asked if they could stay at mine every couple of weeks as that meant they could spend the night together and refused point blank, saying I wanted to know nothing more about it.
That was three months ago and the affair is still going on. I feel dreadful for Jeff, who was really pleased recently when he was on call over a weekend and Bronnie said she would take Nat and the kids away for a weekend.
He told me that he feels bad about working such long hours and is glad Nat has such a good friend.
One afternoon at Nat’s I found Bronnie crying in the kitchen and she told me that she was really tempted to tell Jeff. I begged her not to and told Nat, who just shrugged and said he wouldn’t believe her.
I can’t believe that the sister I always looked up to is putting everyone’s happiness at risk like this, but I’ve given up talking to her about it. I just wish I’d never found out – it’s such a cliché, but I feel there’s a time bomb ticking away in my family and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
Picture: Getty Images. Posed by model.
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