As the rain pounded against my windows I lay in bed contemplating weather I should walk over and close the windows in order to shut out the noise. As I dragged my body out of bed, I could feel the weight of my body coming with me. As I say at my window watching the droplets form on the pane, I saw a shadow, a woman wheeling a suitcase through the heavy storm, trying to find taxi along the quiet streets in the middle of the night. Upon closer inspection I realized that the flower patterned umbrella she was carrying bore an extremely similar resemblance to the one I had walked past in my entrance hall for the past 14 years. And with a heavy heart I realsied the day had finally arrived, the day my mother had plucked up the courage to leave her marriage and family behind.

Their problems started a few months ago, when I began to see less of step ford wife mother, she no longer spent her days in the kitchen making sure her family was well fed when they returned at the end of a long day, instead she would stroll into the house, with the non chalant attitude that we were now old enough to look after ourselves. The neglection of her family was replaced by her excessive interest in her appearance and persona she represented to the outside world.

We, my sister Maria and I, were the first to notice the changes, with my father only choosing to acknowledge them much later on. This was the problem, she felt neglected by the man she chose to spend her entire existence with and the lack of attention he decided to show her drove into the arms of someone she felt would.

As weeks past, and their relationship deteriorated in front of our eyes, the easy communication between these past lovers faded and turned into screaming matches that one only has nightmares about. The fights escalated at a rapid pace, from occurring only once a week they became daily events within our