January the 25th, 2014 is the day my life, as I knew it changed forever.

Jake came into the kitchen, pale in the face and hugged me; “I’m sorry, I love you, but they’ve come to get me, I’ve been busted,” he said.

Within seconds police had him on the ground and started going through my house.

My perfect house, my perfect life, they were literally tearing it apart.

They took Jake away in handcuffs. That was the last time I saw him outside of prison. A police officer came to the house that night and asked me to accompany them to a nearby station to make a statement. Two detectives came into the interview room where they’d ask me to wait. They told me their names and started recording. It was all a blur except for their next words.

“Your husband, Jake Symons, is the key suspect in a steroid importation investigation we’ve been running. Details have emerged showing money transfers running through a bank account in your name. Can you tell us more about that?”

I was speechless, but after a long interview, I signed a statement declaring I had no knowledge of the accusation. Jake had opened the account in my name two years earlier. Another guy, Jakes best man at our wedding worked at a bank and helped him do it.

You think you know someone right?

That night I decided to hit a bar and drink. I had so much on my mind that all I wanted was to be numb. A guy out of nowhere came up to me, “Hi, I’m Brett, want some company?”

“Hi Brett, I’m Jenna, sure.”

Before I knew at Brett and I were back at his place, and well, one thing led to another. I’m not proud of it, but it happened.

I woke early the next morning and went home. I was due to meet Jake and his Lawyer at the police station at 4 pm.

Back where it began in that interview room when a well dressed cocky looking guy in a suit walked in. He was busy sorting through his files and still had his sunglasses on inside which I thought was odd. Next, they brought Jake in, still handcuffed, his head almost in his lap with shame. The lawyer took his glasses off and immediately I recognized him, it was Brett from the night before, I wanted to crawl under a rock.

“Hi,” he said introducing himself to Jake, “my name is Mark Stefano, I’ll be your court-appointed lawyer.” Mark then turned to me as if he’d not realized who I was and said, “Hi, I’m Mark, and you are?”

“Hi Mark, I’m Tess, Jakes wife, nice to meet you.”

At that moment, Jake looked up and watched as Brett, or should I say Mark and I shared an uncomfortable stare and a longer than necessary handshake, and then the clock struck four.

The above short story was a part of a 500-word flash fiction competition. The criteria were as follows:

1. Your story’s title is THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. (It’s going to help your chances if your story relates to this in some way. How you do it is up to you!)

2. Your story MUST feature the following three words (as chosen by our Easter Challenge winners): BUSTED, EMERGED and KEY. No variations allowed.

3. And finally (literally!) your story must end with THE CLOCK STRUCK FOUR. (This can be its own sentence or the end of a larger one, but they must be the final four words.)

Let me know your thoughts!