MY MARRIAGE WAS A SHAM

Sipping on a glass of champagne, I took in the sight of my friends and family enjoying themselves. ‘Thanks for coming, everyone,’ I smiled, raising my glass in a toast. It was June 2013, and I’d thrown a big party in a hotel to celebrate turning 40. ‘Happy birthday,’ my husband, David, then 51, said, clinking my glass. We’d been married for 15 years but David and I had been drifting apart for a while now, and as I watched him mingling with the other guests, I couldn’t help feeling sad about that. I longed to rekindle our romance and the spark we’d had when we’d first met.

I was 24 at the