When we returned, I asked Nina about the dress and she had no idea what I was talking about. Enraged, I confronted Pete, who coolly admitted having an affair with Lily – the woman I had dismissed so easily.

I had even invited her to our wedding! I became hysterical and beat him with my fists, demanding an explanation.

He told me he had met Lily on Friendster six months before, and had planned to make use of her to pay for his car modifications as she was earning big bucks in her HR job.

He had done similar things before. He was quite good at charming the ladies and sweet-talking them into giving him whatever he was after. When we were teenagers, he had asked girls who liked him to pay for his drinks or his cover charge at the clubs.

It had bothered me then but I believed he had changed since. Guess I’d been wrong.

Pete had never been a high-flier but he had always aspired to have a certain lifestyle, one he couldn’t afford on his own.

Enter Lily. I’m sure she enjoyed the flattery and male attention since she did end up paying for some of his car modifications. She enjoyed it enough that she didn’t care that he had a fiancee – Pete had told her from the start about me.

The difference here was that he had ended up falling for her. My heart broke when he told me he had “fallen in love all over again”. He even claimed that I neglected him whereas Lily was always there for him. At the time, I was working long 14-hour days in my job as a spa manager.

Sure, he must have felt lonely, but I was working my butt off for our future. I drew a bigger salary than he did so I shouldered more financial responsibility – I was even paying for his car loan instalments. I pleaded with him to leave Lily, but he just brushed me off.

I couldn’t understand the attraction. I was a pretty and charismatic 24-year-old. Lily was more than 20 years older than us. She was stout, frumpy and motherly. She was also divorced and had three children – the oldest was the same age as me! Perhaps he just wanted a wife who would cook, clean and wait for him to come home from work.

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Get a copy of the March 2010 issue of Her World, Singapore’s No. 1 women’s magazine. Her World, published by SPH Magazines, is available at all newsstands now. Jaclyn Lim, Angeline Tse, Zarelda Marie Goh & Gladys Chung are  features writers with Her World magazine by SPH Magazines. Check out more stories at Her World online, www.herworld.com