(Deposit Photos Edited With Canva by Author)

Life Changes Chapter One: To Save A Life

Mary relives a near-death experience only to find out that her husband wasn't the man she thought he was. Will this huge event change her for the worse or the better?

I couldn’t believe it. My brain couldn’t wrap itself around what I was seeing.

My husband’s face there was disappointment on it, clear as day.

I watched a video of the young lifeguard breathing life back into me. We had been at a beach resort a few weeks ago. I was carrying drinks back to where my husband and a few of our friends had been seated when I slipped on the side of the pool. My head hit the side, and I went into the fourteen-foot-deep end of the pool.

I don’t remember much after that, just the sharp pain that soared through my head, and then I was in the water.

I remembered the trip to the hospital to make sure everything was okay, and I didn’t have a concussion, but I thought my husband was happy that I was alive. Ricki, my best friend in the whole world, told me she had seen a video online of the incident. She said she had been too worried about me at the time to notice, but her husband, Todd, had noticed it right away.

As the lifeguard asked me my name and I answered after he brought me out of the water and used CPR to bring me back to consciousness, it was right there all over my husband’s face, disappointment.

I made all the money in the household, and Richard wanted to use it to move to Florida. I didn’t want to move; I was close to my kids here. Our twin boys and my oldest daughter were here in this state, not in Florida.

Our twins graduated from high school last summer and were attending the same college. Jeff and Jerry had been inseparable since birth, unlike most twins who wanted nothing to do with each other. No, my two liked being together, dressing alike, and when they started dating, they found two young women who were twins.

Kylie was the big sister; she doted on her younger brothers like a mother hen, making sure they got up for school, did the right things, did their chores, and now that they were in college, she was always calling or texting to make sure they were staying out of trouble and the wrong crowds. She herself was a soon-to-be mother; her husband, Ray, was a great man who loved Kylie more than anything.

I closed the laptop, texted Ricki back, and told her what I had seen in the video and that I was going to confront Richard about it. Some of the comments on the video had spotted Richard’s face and the disappointment in it. We weren’t the only ones who saw it.

I sighed and stood up. I slowly made my death march into the living room with the laptop in hand.

“Hey, made breakfast,” Richard said from the kitchen.

“Not hungry,” I replied.

I put the laptop down on the dinner table and opened it. “Sit,” I motioned.

“Breakfast,” Richard commented.

“It can wait, this can’t,” I sat down and waited for him to sit and watch.

“Wow, that was such a close call,” Richard nodded as he watched. “We all thought we lost you. When you went into the pool and the water turned red, we thought the worst.”

“Did you?” I asked.

“Did I what?”

“Did you think you lost me, or did you want to lose me?”

“Mary, what are you saying?”

“Look at your face,” I told him.

“I don’t know what you…” He paused as he even noticed it. It was hard to hide; it was right there on the screen. The way he looked at me and then shook his head, ran his fingers through his dark black hair, and stood up.

“Well?” I asked.

“I must have been in shock, Mary, it was a quick thing, you weren’t breathing when he got you out of the water, when the others helped,” he started to say.

“Yeah, Richard, others, strangers helped that young man get me out of the water,” I pointed out. “You were standing the closest and you didn’t offer to help him!”

The proof was right there. The young man dove into the red water without hesitation. He brought my body to the surface and swam to the edge. Richard was the closest, and he stepped back away from the edge as the lifeguard brought me to him. Strangers brushed past my husband and helped the young man by lifting me out of his hands and onto the side of the pool, where he performed CPR and brought me back.

Richard just knelt there staring.

He closed the laptop.

“I think you should go,” I muttered.

“I think I should,” Richard stared at me. He stood up.

“You could have asked for a divorce,” I murmured, trying to hold myself together. “I would have given it to you and gave you what you wanted.”

“What good would that do?” Richard commented as he headed for the door. “You would have got your sister the lawyer to represent you, and she would have torn me apart. I would barely get anything.”

Richard had cheated on me the first year of our marriage. Anne would have used that and other things to make sure I kept a lot of what was mine.

“You’re right,” I nodded. “So, you wanted me dead?”

I still stared down at the wooden table, not turning to look at him.

“I didn’t plan it, if that’s what you’re asking, but yes, I hoped for it, the moment you went into the water,” Richard grabbed his car keys and his coat. “Bye Mary.”

“Bye,” I cried as I heard the door slam.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Months later

I was reading some of my emails when a notification popped up from one of my social media accounts.

I was used to getting sordid messages on my photos. Especially the ones from the trip to the beach resort. Ricki had posted many photos from that weekend, and I had to say some of them made me look a lot better than I should have.

I had lost some weight and looked good in my one-piece aqua-blue bathing suit, but some of the comments kept asking the same questions: how big my tits were, how my ass looked so big in that swimsuit. There were some negative comments, but most were good. A lot of them were saying I was a hot Milf.

‘Just checking to make sure you were okay,’ the message read. ‘I was the lifeguard on duty at the Costa Del beach resort that day you fell in. It took me a while to find you.’

I quickly opened my app and went to the actual message.

‘Yes!’ I quickly responded. ‘Thank you for saving my life! I don’t know how to repay you. I reached out to the resort and they said they would pass the message on, but I didn’t get a reply.’

My heart was beating out of my chest; my eyes were wide, hoping that he was still there.

‘I left that resort after they told me I had gone too far that day, after some people noticed the way I picked you up out of the water, they threatened to fire me so I left.’

‘What, call me!’ I texted and sent my phone number.

What was a phone number to a stranger that saved my life? I had checked his profile, and it was him, the young man who saved my life.

The phone rang, and I picked it up. “Hi!” I said, standing up.

“Hello,” he answered.

“What do you mean, the way you lifted me up; you saved me!” I exclaimed. “Who do I need to call to make this right?’

He chuckled. “I found a better resort to work for, and I am happier here.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, I am glad.”

He sent a link. I sat back down and clicked it.

“I don’t see anything wrong,” I watched the video of him bringing me up, my brown hair a murky red as blood was pouring from where I had hit my head.

“My hands, they said my hands were inappropriately touching you,” he pointed out.

I rewound it to the moment he came up from the water.

It was at the deep end, so he was treading water with me, and his hands were on my breasts as he lifted me.

Some of the comments said he was groping a dying woman instead of moving his hands correctly.

“Fuck them!” I shouted.

I was about to comment, but realised that it had been almost a year since that had happened. Almost a year to the day.

“Sorry if I…”

“Stop right there!” I interrupted him. “You saved my life! Mine, not theirs, not some stupid commentor behind a fucking keyboard, me! If your hands were on my breasts or my ass, I am the one who should be offended, not them!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied.

“And for the record, I am not offended in the least,” I smiled. “Plus, I have huge fucking tits, they get in the way all the time.”

He laughed.

“I am sure they made good handles to lift me up out of the water,” I laughed along with him.

“I was going to say, but yes along with your hips,” he added.

I laughed harder. “You like big girls with big hips, huh?”

“Yes Ma’am,” he quickly answered.

“My name is Mary, you can call me Mary,” I told him as I sat back in my chair.

“My name is Adrian,” he introduced himself.

“Well, Adrian it is nice to finally talk to you,” I folded my arms.

“It is nice to talk to you too,” Adrian said.

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