My father's secret life and why Tana Ramsay's story stirred painful memories ...

We hadn’t even buried my father when I came across evidence of an affair. There it lay under a pile of papers in his study – a small red envelope with his name on. It wasn’t my mother’s handwriting, but it was recognisable nonetheless. ‘With love always, R x’ read the words inside the handmade Valentine’s card. I felt sick. Of course. It was Rita – my mother’s best friend.

How could he? How could he?

My mother was in the kitchen. Once more she had given in to grief and I could hear the familiar sobbing. Putting Rita to the back of my mind, I went to comfort her. I didn’t have the head space for this right now. I could barely believe that my dad had died – a heart attack at 65. My mother, younger sister and I all felt lost and utterly drained.

Rita had phoned the day before. I hadn’t heard her voice in years. She reminisced about all the wonderful times our two families had spent together – holidays, outings, Sundays in the garden. As young as six, I would run across our cul-de-sac to show her my new outfits; my mother supported her through her divorce and her father’s death. But she couldn’t get to my father’s funeral, she’d said. She had come down with a virus. Now I knew the real reason.

My sister was days away from giving birth and my mother too overwhelmed with grief to tackle the practicalities of letting people know and organising the funeral, so it was left to me. I searched through my father’s inbox for email addresses of people who’d want to know what had happened, and there it was again – Rita’s name, this time in an email sent almost a year earlier. I took a deep breath and clicked.

It was friendly rather than romantic, making reference to a visit she had recently made to see my parents from her home in Scotland (she’d moved away ten years before). But there was a PS. ‘Just found your last Valentine’s card – you were so romantic!’ Your last? How many were there? I stamped my finger on the ‘delete’ button in anger, although not before taking a printout, which I shoved in my handbag – I wasn’t sure why.

I had taken it upon myself to sort out my father’s study, but rather than taking my time, I now had a sense of urgency. What if my mother decided to get stuck in after all and found something she shouldn’t?

$50 Red Envelope Gift Code giveaway | Eighty MPH Mom

Red Envelope for Father’s Day Gifts

When I hear the name “Red Envelope”, my heart does a little dance.  This is a company that I have had the pleasure of ordering from several times – I even did a Red Envelope review previously.  When I was offered the chance to do another review, this time to promote Father’s Day gifts, I was pretty darned excited.

The only downside to doing this review is I had to choose an item!  That may sound fun {and it was}, but it was certainly no easy task.  Red Envelope has so many gifts to choose from, including gifts for him, her, for home, jewelry, and so much more.

Since my husband has the biggest sweet tooth I know of, I decided to order goodies. They all looked delicious, but I chose the 16-Count Cupcake Sampler. My hope was that my loving husband would share a few with me  This assortment is amazing.  The cupcakes arrived neatly packaged, and with ice packets to ensure that they stayed cool and fresh during shipping.

This is the most heavenly cupcake assortment I have ever tasted.  It included Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate on chocolate and Vanilla Bean cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  Each cupcake has a piece of candy on top and the presentation is fantastic.  I’ll be you want to know how they taste.  Oh my goodness, are they good!  I often worry when ordering baked goods online, that they might be dry, but that certainly is not the case with the Red Envelope cupcakes. They are rich without being overly sweet.  They are moist and so tasty.  It really is hard to eat only one.

Obviously my husband decided to share his early Father’s Day Gift with me, and I was a happy camper.  No we can continue to co-exist peacefully.

In addition to the cupcakes, Red Envelope has so many other gifts for Dad .  You will definitely find something for every dad out there on the Red Envelope website.  Instead of getting the usual tie for a gift, you can choose from a huge selection of unique gifts for Father’s Day !  For instance, this Leather Excursion Travel Case:

Or maybe something for him and her…how adorable are these Reasons I Love You pajamas?  I love these!

THE GIVEAWAY:

One winner will receive a $50 Red Envelope Gift Code, just in time for Father’s Day!

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