My husband dumped me on Valentine's Day after he admitted cheating with neighbour

 Lucy Manley and Abdi during happier times   Photo:Courtesy

As the rest of the world celebrates the most romantic day of the year, a British woman,  Lucy Manley will be counting down the hours until today is over.

For it’s the first anniversary of the moment the husband she’d lavished with love, money and the chance to live in Britain repaid her by dumping her on Valentine’s Day.

He revealed he’d been having sex with another woman and announced Lucy had to go because “it was too stressful to juggle two women”. Then she found out he’d also been sleeping with her neighbour.

Now she realises the undying love pledged by Abdy, 28, seemed to run out right about the time he was granted leave to remain in the UK.

Distraught Lucy, 32, who spent £10,000 on Abdy, said: “I loved Abdy so much but now I’m not sure if what we had was ever real. I worked so hard to get him the papers to live in the UK because I wanted to grow old with him. I’d ­excitedly planned our future together.But he repaid me by betraying me in the most awful way on what was supposed to be the most romantic day of the year.He didn’t even apologise when he told me he’d been cheating”.

In 2011,  when Abdy was finally allowed to come to the UK on a temporary basis after Lucy forked out £4,000 for fees and the services of a top solicitor.

She recalled: “When I picked him up from the airport I felt nervous. “We’d only spent a few weeks together and now we were going to be a married couple. But when I saw him, all of my fears melted away and he wrapped me in a huge hug. We got home and were quite emotional.

“For the next two years, we were like any other couple. We enjoyed weekends away and meals out and we spoke about having children.”

In October 2013, they received the news they’d waited almost four years to hear: Abdy had been given ­permanent leave to remain in the UK.

Lucy said: “I was ecstatic and felt so relieved. It had taken so much time and money. I had tears in my eyes but Abdy didn’t seem as excited.

"Over the next few weeks, he became cold and distant. He started to stay out all night and refused to say where he was going.”

It all came to a head on Valentine’s Day last year after Lucy found texts from a woman called Helen Joyner on Abdy’s phone.

He claimed she was just a pal, but finally admitted the truth – he’d met Helen, 49, from Bristol, when she was on holiday in Sharm and had seen her on and off ever since.

“I wasn’t expecting flowers,” Lucy said. “But I never expected he’d be so cruel as to say our marriage was over on Valentine’s Day. I was devastated.”

A week later, she received a call from Helen, who told Lucy she’d rekindled her holiday fling as soon as Abdy was given permission to stay in the UK permanently.

Lucy said: “We discovered there were times he’d dropped Helen off at the airport in Egypt and picked me straight up. It was sickening.”

Abdy was literally taking Lucy back to the bed he’d shared with Helen.

And while Lucy was still reeling from finding out about Helen, heartless Abdy had another blow in store.

She spotted his car outside the house next door. When she confronted him, he admitted sleeping with their neighbour Jen Allen, too.

That fling lasted weeks before Jen, 28, ended it.

Both she and Helen gave statements admitting having sex with Abdy when Lucy applied for a divorce last July.

It was granted on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour. Lucy is now trying to move on.

She said: “I’ll spend this Valentine’s Day on holiday with my best friend.

“I still want my happy ending. I’d love to marry again and have the family I dreamed of with Abdy.

"I’m happy to be single this ­Valentine’s Day. But it’s going to take time before I can trust a man again.”

Abdy claimed he’d only admitted the affairs to get a quick divorce and denied cheating on Lucy.

But Helen said: “I met Abdy in Egypt around the same time as Lucy. He always said he didn’t want to be with her. He just wanted citizenship.”

Jen also admitted having sex with him, saying: “It makes me sound bad but it was only a couple of weeks.”