Dire Consequences

The various conversations at the table stopped. Jack looked around and said, "I've been thinking about different options. Haven't quite decided what to do yet."

His father looked at him and said, "Good! Maybe after dinner we can talk about those options and help you decide." He turned to Marie and said, "Pass the potato salad please."

Donna shot a look at Jack and Jack took a bite of salmon. I wanted to laugh. Sara looked at me and I swallowed the need. I'd seen that look before. I noticed Elle picked at but didn't eat much of the food.

When it was time Sara and I gave each person things to carry into the kitchen. May and Marie did the dishes. Jack and Donna stayed in the back yard collecting the trash and bagging it. Jack carried the full bags to the trash cans in the garage and put them in. He saw a good sized stack of two foot by two foot boxes in the garage labeled "Jack's."

He stood in the garage for a long time looking at the boxes. Finally Donna came and got him. When they came in the dinner was cleaned up and there were two seats waiting for them in the living room. Nervously they took their seats. Elle had a pad on her lap. Jack's mother had a pad on hers. I had an envelope, a nine by twelve envelope, on my lap.

Jack's mom started to speak and Elle looked at her. She stopped. Elle spoke.

"We want some answers. Everyone in this room is intimately effected by actions the two of you have taken. When I started writing down the questions I want answers to the first one was why. Then I realized you told me why. You fell in love with Donna. I want to ask a few questions for myself and then open it to anyone else. Jack, did you ever love me?"

"Yes! I've loved you since we were in college." He was about to go on but Elle cut him off.

"Was there an event, a specific something that had you stop loving me? If so, what was it?"

"No! It wasn't anything you did. It is me. I don't know what to say."

"But, you don't love me any more, you now love Donna?"

"Yes. I love Donna."

"Donna, what did you do to encourage Jack to fall in love with you?"

"Nothing. We've been friends for years, working next door to each other and it just happened."

"So you don't take responsibility for causing him to love you?"

"No. It wasn't by intention. I wouldn't do that to anyone."

"And Jack, you had an accident. You fell in love with Donna. You aren't responsible either?"

"I never meant for it to happen. I don't want to hurt you."

Jack's mother was done waiting for her turn. "John, I am more disappointed in you right now that at any time in your life. You leave your wife and daughters and sit here and say it isn't your responsibility? Did someone hold a gun to your head? Threaten to kill you or the girls if you didn't let her suck you off?"

The intake of breath shocked the whole room. No one had ever heard grandma talk so plainly.

"Mom, it wasn't like that! It didn't start that way at all."

"I was at your wedding! You promised before God and all assembled to love, honor and cherish Elle. What good is your promise? Is running off with Donna honoring Elle? Is it cherishing her? Is it loving her? Well?"

"No. I meant it when I said it. I didn't mean this to happen."

"Who did?" It was Jack's father. He hadn't said much in the ten years I'd known him. When he did speak people listened.

"What?" Jack asked.

"I'm not buying for a half second all this crap about it was an accident. I'm seventy years old and my pants have never unzipped except when I wanted them to unzip. I am in love with my wife, because I say so! Donna says she didn't intend to help you out of love with Elle. Shit! She was and is willing to sneak all over the damned nation to have you in her bed. She intended to help you right out of a family! Can that possibly be love? Look around the room. There are nine people here who want the best for your life. We want you to live with honor, integrity, joy and no regrets. What does Donna want?"

"I want Jack!"

"You want a man who can be led around by his dick? You want a man who is weak and has no honor? You want a man who will never be able to stand tall ever again?"

May stood up. "I have loved you my entire life. In my room there was a picture of you holding us in the delivery room. I loved looking at the joy on your face in that picture. I took it down. That look wasn't what I thought it was. I've always thought it was love. You walked away from me without even a backwards glance. You walked away from my sister and my mother too. You've told me a thousand times how there are consequences for my actions. Here's one for your actions. You are not my Dad. You are Jack. Dad is a title bestowed by love. You took the love when you walked away." She turned and walked out the back door.

Marie put her hands over her face and cried, then stood and said, "You need to love both of us or lose both of us. JACK!" She followed her sister out the back door.

Elle looked at Jack and said, "Cost you two daughters, so far. I want to know Jack, what are your plans?"

"What are you asking?"

"Have you seen a lawyer? Will I be served divorce papers sometime soon? Are you moving in with Donna?"

"I don't know."

Donna turned and said, "You said you were just waiting for the right time to get a divorce. Now, you don't know? What the hell did I see in you? This is pathetic. I'm even more pathetic than you. I picked you! I want your shit out of my place before Monday morning. You're not welcome there any more. We're done!"

She got all the way to the door and said, "Shit! I rode over here with you!"

I stood up and said, "I'll drive you home." Sara nodded and I opened the door for her. She gave me directions and I got her home. As I parked my car I asked, "How long would it take for you to move out of Denver?"

"Why?"

"Because if you are here in a month the video will ruin your life. It costs six dollars to copy a DVD and I have at least six hundred dollars set aside for the project. Now, get out of my car."

She got out. When I got back to the house Jack's car was gone. I took the grandparents back to their cars. Sara and Elle went with me. We have all remained close. A week after our big dinner Jack got drunk and showed up at Donna's house. He had been replaced by a big trucker who didn't like being interrupted. All three were drunk and Jack ended the evening in the emergency room having suffered a beating and missing the end off his cock. The police and Donna never found it. I believe Donna knows exactly where it went. Two days later Donna left Denver. Her parents got a copy of the DVD.

After the divorce, Elle owns the business and Jack works for her as well as paying her alimony. Neither daughter will speak to Jack or stay in the room if he is there. The divorce is final and Elle is looking for a good man. Know one?