Revelation Blues Pt. 04

After another fight with Mary, about money this time, Aldo decided to go out for a drive. It must have been nostalgia that guided him towards his old gallery. He was so distracted and so surprised by what he saw he nearly drove into the car in front of him. Carla was standing in front of HIS gallery pointing things to a man wearing a work helmet.

He parked the car in a hurry and ran towards them.

"Hey Carla!"

"Oh, hello Aldo," she barely recognized him. She turned towards the site supervisor and asked to be excused for a minute.

She looked back at Aldo, he looked older, almost haggard, "Haven't seen you in a while!"

"What are you doing here?" He had no time for small talk.

"I am here to see how work is progressing on my new boutique." She was beaming.

"Your new boutique? What happened to the other one?"

"I still have it. I have a manager now taking care of it and I help from time to time. This is my third boutique. We bought an existing one in Bal Harbour a couple of months ago, but this one will be brand new."

"Who's we? Who's the owner? Is it RET Delivery Corp.?"

"No, never heard of them. 'We' is me and my business partner, his company owns the premises and I run the business and own 50% of it. My partner recently purchased the three premises from their former owner, I don't know the details but I understand the former owner had some financial problems and sold the premises to my partner for a very good price."

"Who owns the premises now?"

"I told you, my partner company, it's called DJ Promise Enterprises, it's based in the Bahamas."

"You know this was my gallery!" He was almost talking to himself.

"Yes of course I know Aldo, I've been here a few times. I was actually surprised when my partner showed me the premises and asked me if they were suitable for a third boutique. I called Wanda and she told me that you sold it and negotiated a very good deal."

Carla didn't understand why Aldo suddenly turned and walked hurriedly towards his car. She never heard him swear and curse so much before. She wondered if that was the Mary effect.

* * *

Scott accompanied Dean to California. His son was to spend Christmas with his grandparents, uncles, and aunt.

Scott was invited to stay but he politely declined. He knew there would be questions and he didn't want to answer them. That was Mary's problem to deal with. Mary was his past. He had a future to plan. He wanted however his son to stay in touch with his maternal grandparents, they were good people, he loved them, and they weren't responsible for what Mary did.

They met Dean's grandparents at the airport, they greeted them and wishes for a Merry Christmas were exchanged. Knowing that Dean was now in safe hands, he took the next flight back to Miami.

Scott was to fly to Nassau for a couple of days to take care of some business then fly to the Channel Island to spend Christmas with his parents.

He had promised Dean that this would be the first and last Christmas they would spend separately. He would be back in time so that they could spend the New Year together.

* * *

Scott met with Perry Wallace for dinner at Nobu. Perry was the nominee director of both the defunct RET Delivery Corp. and the expanding DJ Promise Enterprises. They both loved Japanese food and Nobu was the best.

The names of the two companies were meaningless, but not to Scott. They reflected both his desire to deliver his retribution and his desire to get custody of his son. One company, like his retribution, was to serve a purpose then be wound down. The other carried with it the promise of a better future.

Perry Wallace updated Scott on the work progress at the new boutique. Carla was doing very well indeed, their trust in her proved to be fully justified. Scott told Perry to look after her, she was a good woman and deserved a good life. He still didn't want Carla to know that he was the mastermind behind, and owner of, her partner company.

They discussed other projects Scott had in mind. They involved several investment projects, a new consulting company, and buying a villa in Miami.

* * *

Scott was about to leave his apartment to catch a flight to London when he received a phone call from Mary's sister. She must have gotten the number from Dean.

Officially the call was to thank him for bringing Dean over and wishing him a Merry Christmas. But Scott knew better. He figured that Dean had already spilled the beans.

He didn't have to say anything. Mary's sister awkwardly broached the subject then apologized on behalf of the family. She told him that they finally got the facts straight, discovered all the lies, and were trying to come to term with Mary's shocking behavior.

She told Scott that when Mary informed them about the divorce, she told them that Scott was leaving her for someone called Carla. That didn't surprise Scott, once someone starts a lie, it's hard to get out of it. That also explained their silence at the time.

She briefly mentioned that she spoke with her sister the previous night. Mary didn't sound happy at all. She was crying and complaining about her new husband. Mary wanted to come back home but her parents were not keen on her staying with them, they hardly spoke to her last night.

Mary's sister wished Scott well, she told him not to be a stranger, and to come and see them with Dean any time he wanted. He would always be welcome in their family. Scott thanked her and told her that he wanted Dean to see his grandparents, at least once a year and that he would make sure that happened.

Scott made a mental note to continue transferring money to Mary's parent's bank account. He had to stop for a few month as this would have led Mary to raise all sort of questions. Now these reasons are gone. It wasn't the money really, although it helped. It was the symbol that he, and Dean in particular, will always be part of the family.

* * *

Sitting in a comfortable seat on his flight to London, Scott closed his eyes and leaned backward, reflecting upon the events since his divorce.

In retrospect, he thought, there may have been other ways he could have dealt with the failure of his marriage and its aftermath. He just couldn't think of better ones at the time.

Once he knew the extent of Mary's deception, his course of action was set. But divorce wasn't enough. All the people involved had to pay, and he made them pay.

He didn't feel sorry for Aldo. He wasn't collateral damage. He deserved all that came his way.

Don's future was somewhere between the jail and the gutter. No hope of rehabilitation there.

Fiona paid a small price. Maybe not enough compared with her acts, but hopefully enough to make her regret playing a part in this sordid affair. She had a kid to look after and anything else would have hurt an innocent.

Last, he wanted Mary to feel what it was like to lose things that were important to her. Losing Scott wasn't enough to teach her a lesson. He wanted her to lose the things she was desperate to keep. Losing money was going to hurt her, but not as much as losing Dean. When Aldo came into her life, Scott couldn't imagine a better way to deliver his retribution. Those two deserved each other.

Did he succeed in his retribution? He thought he did. He was a chess player, a game of small unspectacular moves. Winning or losing depended on the player's ability to think forward, to anticipate, and to maneuver pieces in an intelligent manner. His retribution wasn't spectacular, but it was maneuvered well, and it delivered the desired results.

No matter how successful his retribution, it would never compensate for the deep hurt and profound sadness caused by the collapse of his marital life. But this too shall pass!

Nothing is forever!

- THE END -

* Information that may interest some readers *

This part was added to provide interested readers with some explanations about the story. It was intended to be posted separately, but as I was posting the last Part, it made sense to include it here.

This story, although fiction, is somewhat based on true events as reported to me over time by the various protagonists and antagonists. All the persons identified by a name in the story actually existed. The real names and locations have been changed and the adaptations made to the story are mostly intended to protect the guilty.

One challenge for readers who are so inclined would be to try and identify the facts from the fiction. The most unlikely part would surprise by their realism.

None of the characters depicted in this story is perfect. None was meant to be a 'hero'. They all have flaws. They are simply human!

The story was written over a long period of time, mainly due to time constraints. Bits and pieces at first, glued together as I gathered information and details to make it what it is now. I wish I had been able to have it edited or at least reviewed by someone else to help improve it, but time constraints, again, did not allow this to happen. Having said that, I always start with the big picture and dig for details. Amazing what you can find in the details. Also, the fact that it was written over a long period of time may have led to repetitions, for which I apologize.

My apologies also for any inaccuracies or mistake, linguistic, financial, legal, or otherwise. I tried researching the various financial and legal areas described in this story, but I am sure something managed to creep through unnoticed.

I would like to thank everyone that read the story and particularly those who voted or contributed with comments. Constructive criticism is always welcome but don't let that deter anyone from posting things that are not inherently constructive :) I've read many comments on this site, sometimes more interesting than the story itself, so I value all comments.

* * *

Two reasons drove me to write this story.

The first is that, over a year ago, I was reading an article on the web stating that statistics suggest that an increasing number of women are cheating on their husbands. A famous sayings was quoted in the title of that article; 'Men who are victims of female infidelity are usually the last to know' (Ruth Houston, The Examiner, April 26, 2011). I wondered why the husband was more often than not the last to know. Surely these husbands are not idiots, blind, or indifferent.

This also goes with another famous saying; 'love is blind'. I also wondered, can love really be that blind? I researched the origin of the expression and tried to find a scientific foundation justifying that expression. I came across several articles, and particularly the one about the effect of love on people's brain. For those interested, the research paper was published in 2003 by Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki from the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London. It is titled "The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love". I hope some authors on this site will read them and maybe be inspired to write their own stories based on such research.

For those who prefer a quick summary, here is the main quote from another article also quoting Bartels work:

'... both forms of attachment [romantic and maternal love] suppressed activity in regions associated with negative emotions, as well as regions associated with 'mentalizing' and social judgment. This suggests that strong emotional ties to another person inhibit not only negative emotions but also affect the network involved in making social judgments about that person. Overall, the results lead us to conclude that attachment processes employ a push--pull mechanism that activates a specific pathway of the reward system of the brain. At the same time, circuits that are responsible for critical social assessment and for negative emotions are deactivated.' (http://neuropolitics.org/defaultdec09.asp)

So, is it that only husbands that no longer 'loved' their spouses, albeit still having some form of 'reasoned affection' for them, can be lucid enough to see the signs early enough and prevent the consequences on the couple and the family? Yes, I have a tendency to be provocative at times but only to the extent of encouraging a healthy and vigorous debate.

The second reason is analyzing the feelings and emotions the spouse goes through, in this case the husband, as knowledge is acquired and truth revealed. Situations differ of course, some feelings are dominated by anger, bitterness, sadness, and even in some instances relief. Some people have immediate reactions, others have delayed reactions. The behavior of the individual is often dependent on their beliefs, upbringing, social status and, above all, their personality. However, one thing struck me as being consistent in every divorce I knew of or heard about, that is the need to reminisce and reconstruct the past in order to find that moment in time when things took a dramatic, often irreversible turn. Of course, as always, there are at least two versions to each story.

One thing I tried portraying in this story is how an unsuspecting husband discovers the depth of the betrayal. One could legitimately wonder how the husband was so blind and why he was so unsuspecting, for so long, about what was happening in his married life. To his discharge, no one sees his or her partner behavior when they are not with them. But then so much has been said and written about the 'signs'. In this case, there were 'signs' or anomalies of behavior. The husband noticed them, yet failed to understand or appreciate their true meaning. Does it get to a point where either a comfortable life, blind trust, lack of attention to details, thinking that our life is safe and secure and hence divert our focus, or is it pure and simple lethargy where one fails to understand, or indeed sometimes subconsciously ignores, the signs.

As this story hopefully also portrays, sometimes the nature of one person contains within it the elements that would ultimately lead to the destruction of the couple, if not the family, and these elements are often embedded in the nature of that person well before the couple meets. I am referring to the character of Mary in this story.

I could not but notice that in a number of stories I read on this site, the husband 'loves' his wife and, often equally, his car. When one purchases a car, we get some sort of road-worthiness certificate from the seller that assures us that the car has no major defects. I wondered if one should also seek some sort of marriage-worthiness document before committing to another person. Maybe a business opportunity there! Still provocative, and a bit of humor occasionally doesn't hurt. I hope!

* * *

Some references to two specific mechanical pets and quotes from various authors and poets are my personal touch to the story. Some are winks to authors on this site whose work I very much enjoy reading (it's easy to know who they are, they are in the favorite section of my profile).

I highly recommend reading Ovid, before marriage for wisdom, during marriage for guidance, before divorce for reference, and after divorce for consolation. I remain convinced that Ovid would have been one of the greatest authors in the Loving Wives category. His writings are freely available on the internet.

For those not familiar with the Channel Islands, here are a few words of explanation. The Channel Islands, as their name indicates, are located in the British Channel, between England and France. They are not part of the United Kingdom but they are a part of the British Isles. They have their own, unique constitutional laws and legislature that provides them with total fiscal, financial, and judiciary independence from the United Kingdom. Although in Europe, they are not part of the European Community and hence not subject to its laws and regulations. The Islands have no capital gains, inheritance, wealth, or sales taxes among other fiscal advantages, hence the reference to them being 'Tax Havens'.

* * *

I am considering writing another, hopefully much shorter, story based on Sacha Guity's famous words "When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her". Stay tuned.