Adultery Who Watches The Watchmen? by aurelius1982

[Ramesh_Rocky]

The first real pang of insecurity I felt about my marriage was when Menaka came home from the hospital one day sporting a brand new nose ring.

Which in itself was not a red flag. Menaka often wore nose rings, but on her left nostril, as was traditional in our community. This ring was an ornate one in her septum. Something I had only seen in tribal documentaries.
"That looks like it was painful." I said.
"Yeah." She simply answered. And gave me that look which indicated that she preferred not to talk more about it.
That's how we had weathered the uncertainty of the month since I returned from the ship right after that eventful night on the roof for my wife. Menaka had asked me to respect her privacy and trust her to tell me things at her own pace. She herself was trying to come to terms with the massive changes in herself in the past few months.
Since I had been mostly kept in the loop by her, and had in fact encouraged her to seek other lovers like I did, I had no rationale to press her for more. Given that I had secretly installed cameras all over and kept tabs and could have stopped this whole chain of events with a single phone call.
And I still held that veto power. Menaka had said repeatedly that I had to just say the word and she will stop all sexual adventures and return to being the monogamous housewife she used to be. But I could sense that she did not really want it. She was in this now, and keen to continue this journey of self-exploration. And I could not bring myself to be the reason for her to stop, even if I had started worrying about my wife drifting away from me emotionally.
After she went for her regular post hospital shower, I googled Nepali nose rings. Sure enough, that's what she was wearing. A symbol of her dedication or maybe even love towards her older Nepali lover Dara. She had been utterly honest when I asked her, do you love him. She had said yes, but not in the same way as me. And her first priority was always me. And I had absolute veto power.
But having entered the marriage with a perpetual hall pass from her, I could see neither the justification nor the need to act possessive.
So I made my peace with the fact that my wife would be going to the hospital everyday to spend at least a couple of hours with this other man in her life. I dropped her off and picked her up the first few days. But then she said she'd feel more comfortable just taking a cab. I gave her space on the Dara time. I was sure she did some hanky panky there and occasionally gave me updates. But I largely left her be.
I did pick up on some rumblings among the neighbors though. Like the way they used to look at us and seemingly whisper something amongst themselves. And then a neighbor made a snide comment to me about how everyone appreciates Menaka visiting the watchman in hospital and helping out. The tone seemed to suggest that he thought my wife and the watchman were having an affair. I saw Banke also often talking to people. I wondered if he was spreading the word too. It was true after all so I didn't know what could be done about it. I myself didn't really care what other people thought or said. Menaka used to. But if she was fine with it, who was I to interfere?
"Listen, I'll be a little late. Have something to do." Menaka called me one evening after visiting hours at the hospital ended.
"Oh, what is it?"
"Nothing. I'll tell you later. Just pick up Ayan from tennis practice." There was a finality in her tone that suggested she was done talking.
"Okay."
I said. And then I heard faintly in the background, a male voice whisper right before the phone cut out,
"Kya jhanjhat bra hai" (what a complicated bra)
So my wife was being undressed right now by someone! It didn't sound like Dara. And I had just seen Banke in the building. So it had to be either the maid's husband and brother. Or maybe she had taken yet another lover.
For the first time in a while, I felt that strange nervousness of ignorance. Since installing the cameras, I had pretty much a ringside view of the action. And her emails and conversations would fill in the details. From far away.
But right now, maybe just a kilometer away from me, my wife was having her bra removed by some man whose identity I did not know. That gave me a strange kind of nervous chill and also turned me on. My wife the slut. Just casually telling me to pick up our son so she could bang someone. She was so much like me.
I picked Ayan up, fed him, got him showered etc. I was wondering if I should order food for dinner when the door opened and in walked Menaka with a couple of grocery bags.
She was in a T-shirt and a long skirt and looked very radiant. Her increasingly common just-fucked look with a pink hue on her cheeks.
"I'll start dinner." She said and headed to the kitchen. I followed her.
"So?"
"So?" She replied washing the vegetables.
"Anything new to share? What were you up to?"
She was silent for a couple of minutes. I didn't press more. I knew my wife well enough to know that she would eventually share. At her own pace. She was having internal moral struggles of her own everyday.
"I was with a man. A new one. The hospital security guard. It wasn't my choice. More like blackmail."
"Ok..."
Menaka waited as if to give me time to yell at her if I wanted. And a part of me did want to. Not about the sex. I didn't care if half the town humped my wife as long as it was just casual and consensual. But she seemed to suddenly be in a series of blackmail induced sexual encounters which are not good for personal safety. I held my tongue for now. She continued.