FORENOON SHOCK

A minute after daybreak, Scott's cellphone started vibrating hard on the drawer beside his bed where he had left it to spend the night with the lady, he had deliberately brought to his hotel the other night. Half-awake and still giddy with sleep, he suddenly woke up beside the woman he had slept with to the sound of his cellphone vibrating hard behind him and turned around slowly on the bed to pick up the phone. He was not sure of the identity of the caller nor was he certain that he was expecting to be woken by an early morning phone call from his wife.

Without looking at the identity of the caller, he quickly answered the phone call and sat upright next to the sleeping lady who was still fast asleep on the bed with his torso exposed to the bright morning sunshine. Despite the fact that he was still dizzy with sleep, he already knew that he fell asleep beside her after their unwarranted nuptial night and was too distracted with answering his cellphone that he paid less attention to the woman who was still lying with her back facing him while over half of her entire body remained tucked underneath the white blanket which had become rumpled as a result of Scott pushing the blanket for him to sit down on the soft bed.

 "Who's calling?" he said briefly after rubbing his eyelids.

 "Scott, honey, how's Australia?" the caller asked from the other end of the phone. At once, he felt his heart sank with every bit of shock triggered in every part of his body particularly his mind which was completely overwhelmed with guilt at the recognition of the caller's voice. Not only was he mystified by the fact that he vividly recognized the voice to be his own wife, he turned around and peered deeply at the woman sleeping peacefully beside him in shock. He was dumbfounded and extremely horrified to the point that he frantically dashed out of bed and stood beside the bed in utter shock with the cellphone remain stuck to his ear.

He almost fell when he got out of bed as he almost missed his steps and had to stumble twice before he could stand firmly on the smooth carpet. For some brief moment, he felt as though he had woken up in a nightmare and that he was having a terrifying bad dream but what was happening all around him especially the cool breeze that kept brushing the bare torso that revealed his firm albs, was too real for him to confuse reality from a horrible nightmare. This time around, he checked the identity of the caller on his cellphone and saw that it was indeed Gabriella's name that was indicated as the caller. He was left speechless and completely bereft of words.

 "Scott, are you still on the phone? I know that you can hear me but why aren't you answering?" His wife questioned fervently from the other side of the phone but he could not bring himself to say a word. Scott felt inclined to respond but he was too appalled to say a word out of his mouth which had suddenly gone mute. He was still in shock and couldn't figure out how to respond to the caller. He knew things we

 "Scott, honey, are you keeping quiet on purpose because of the quarrel we had before you left?" The caller inquired further but he remained silent, "Okay, fine, honey, I admit I was wrong so please answer the phone, Okay, please don't give me the silent treatment." His wife pleaded agitatedly and he felt a lot bad with himself but as soon as he found a little courage to speak, Gabriella hung up on the phone before he could say anything.

 Trembling with shock, he dropped his cell phone in the drawer and took some time to stare blankly at the woman sleeping soundly on his bed. He couldn't imagine how deeply he fell into a deadly trap though part of him had an eerie feeling about the identity of the woman whom he thought was his wife earlier on before making a costly decision to spend the night with her in his bedroom and there was no going back. He had already committed an act he knew he had to keep secret till his dying breath. He had not foreseen that his dream holiday would tragically end with him having a secret affair and the last thing he would want now was Gabriella finding out about his unfaithfulness. He thought it best to take a shower to gather his thoughts on how to deal with the gruesome secret embodied in the bodily form a lookalike woman he had lain with and left the room to get himself freshen up before deciding his next move.

It was obvious he had to keep another secret away from Gabriella but felt perplexed how on earth he had encountered a woman who had his wife's exact resemblance and he already realized that he would not have known that it was not Gabriella he met by coincidence last night at the local pub but an entire different person who had striking facial resemblance with his wife if the lookalike lady had not worn a different outfit the very night he stumbled across his wife's lookalike.

He thought about what to do the entire time he took his bath while the woman kept sleeping and came up with an obvious solution to keep his encounter with the woman an underlying secret, he was ready to take her with him to the grave but he had to leave for Monaco earlier than expected. His free time in the city had already been ruined and he knew he could not afford to be seen around sightseeing the beautiful buildings of the city with a lady that would cost him nothing but pain instead of joy in return. Besides that, he had already gotten what he needed from her and he felt she had nothing left to offer him any more than her body which she had willingly surrendered the previous night. An hour later, he left the bathroom and got himself fully dressed to take one last look around the city before leaving for Monaco in the evening of the same day but he was only halfway done eating the breakfast he ordered when the lady woke up from sleep only to find him missing from the bed.

She figured that he had left the room already and only got up to have a cool bath thirty minutes after she woke up. Lucky for her, there was another bathrobe in the same bathroom Scott took his shower though it was tailored for men and she wore it as soon as she was done showering in the bathroom. She had hoped Scott had left her to pick up a few of her clothes lying on the carpet which he had stripped off her body the other night but was only disappointed to find him waiting in the sitting with his legs crossed on the couch he was sitting on near the window while he remained lost in deep thought.

She also noticed that he was so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to perceive her presence when she first walked into the sitting room and she had to break the silence for him to return from memory lane. As soon as she was done keeping her personal belongings, she went to him still dressed up in the other bathrobe she took from the bathroom after she had her bath.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked him when she deemed it fit to break the morning silence and stood before Scott who was not too thrilled, she was standing in his presence but he looked at her warmly though he hated looking at the sight of her, particularly at her face which had heightened the few secrets he had not told Gabriella about ever since their wedding.