The Medical Record Ch. 05

I checked. There was one message I had missed. I played it back.

It was from Janet. "John, I told you I am not going to some shrink you chose, regardless of Sis's recommendation. You have to come back so we can talk this out between just you and me. Now get your act together. Don't expect me to drive 15 miles to talk to your shrink." Her voice was demanding and tinged with anger.

"Tony, I'm sorry to have wasted your time today. What I need is divorce lawyer, not a marriage counselor. Let me pay you for your time. Please send me a bill or I can pay you by check now." I rose to leave. I was depressed and angry now.

"John," he rose and put his hand on my shoulder. "You are hurting really bad right now. You still need me regardless of what happens to your marriage. Please come back at least by next week same time. I truly want to be a friend and to help you professionally."

"Okay, Tony, I'll be back but I am going to start divorce proceedings a.s.a.p. Maybe that will get her attention." I stopped and wrote out a small check as I left his office.

Back at my apartment, I called my malpractice carrier and got the name of the defense legal firm that they had on retainer. After several telephone calls, I got a divorce lawyer's appointment for the next morning. I had to work from noon to midnight so a quick shower and I was off to the ER.

At the lawyers office I unloaded on him. He got the whole story including the swapping, but not my tryst with Sis. I told him about the final straw breaking me. That was Janet making plans to be with Bob again privately.

"Mr. Stern, (that's the divorce lawyer sitting across his massive desk from me.) I want to get her attention. If I start legal proceedings perhaps that will get her into counseling with me. If not, then I want out and quick. Just make up something preposterous and awful sounding and serve her. I'll take it from there. I want your quick response. Will you do that?"

"John, I'll get on it immediately. The papers can be filed by tomorrow morning. I'm not going to use the really aggressive language we lawyers can use though. Those kind of words might torpedo your hopes for counseling and ultimate reconciliation. If I can find her, she should be served by late tomorrow afternoon. Be prepared for her verbal assault or a crying session. Good luck and keep me posted."

I went to work still angry at what Janet was doing to me. Nevertheless, I felt better having taken definitive action. Tomorrow is showdown day. I wondered what would happen. I wondered if I wanted one outcome more than the other. A clean separation and rapid divorce would clearly be the easiest immediate answer. The long term fall out might be much less enticing, especially to my two sons.

The next day I tried to call Janet again. This time she answered from home.

"Hi John" was her less than cheery greetings.

"Janet, your refusal to meet for counseling forced me to talk to a lawyer about divorcing you. You will be served this afternoon. I'm hoping this will encourage or perhaps force you into reality and into counseling with me. Your response will determine our future." I spoke directly but with as little malice as possible.

"I can't believe you, John. You leave me without a cause. You won't come home and talk this out. Now you try to intimidate me and force me to see your shrink." She was clearly pissed.

"It's up to you Janet. I'm planning on a future without you. You are forcing me to do that. What you did by talking to Bob and planning a private secret fuck session is intolerable. Our marriage can be rehabilitated but only with counseling. Every day we live apart makes the next day apart that much easier." I wasn't going to back down. Not now or ever again would I do that. She led me into the disaster I had feared.

"John, I will not go see your shrink. Got that! You are the problem, not me so grow up and take responsibility like the man you should be." She was defiant. I knew she had a bitchy side to her but it never was long lasting. We had always kissed and made up. This time there would be no kissing or making up, I feared.

"Okay, Janet, have your way for the moment. The divorce papers will soon be in your hands. I suggest you get a lawyer and be prepared for a nasty battle. This time you will lose and lose big time. My lawyer says if one party refuses counseling, the judge will take that into consideration when approving the settlement. Good bye my soon to be ex-wife."

"Damn you, John. This is all your fault. You walk out on me. You won't talk to me and now you think I should see a shrink. Well it won't happen. You will pay big time for this mess you created." She was vehement. I was pissed.

I hung up and turned my phone off. I went to the electronics store and got another phone with a new number. My old phone went in the trash after a good beating with a hammer.

She had promised me to take me to the cleaners. That meant I finally had to protect myself. Visiting my bank I took everything and moved it to a new account with my name. Joint credit cards got canceled and I got a new American Express card.

I decided that Janet was not going to be part of my future life. This brought more sadness but I could just not get past what was going on between us.

Nothing involving me happened for several months. The lawyers talked. Janet tried to talk to me but I refused. I sent her the message again that we could talk in the counselors office only, or via the lawyers indirectly.

As part of the settlement, I was required to meet with Janet one last time before the divorce would be finalized. At least this meeting would be on a more neutral ground or so I thought. She insisted it be in her lawyers office, not my lawyers office. I insisted that it be recorded. We had an argument about that but she won. I really didn't care anymore. We had come to financial terms already so all I had to endure was thirty minutes with her. The meeting went something like this.

We met in her lawyers conference room with my lawyer in their office but now in the conference room. The room seemed sterile.

"Janet, This is your time to tell me whatever it is that you wanted. I will listen and respond when you tell me it's my turn. If I don't get a turn within the thirty minutes, then that's okay with me." I waited.

"John, I demanded this private time with you because you wouldn't come home and talk to me." She paused and looked at me, expecting a reply. I said nothing.

"Well, if you don't want to talk then I will. First, we wouldn't be here if you had come home to talk." She paused again. "Don't you have anything to say?"

"Janet, I will reply but I won't argue. You know that I came home once and you started an argument and I won't argue with you. I asked you to come to counseling with me and you refused. I have tried to save our marriage but have been unable to. Now go on talking. Just remember I wont' argue with you. If you really want to save our marriage even at this late stage, all you have to do is agree to counseling. Do you really want to save our marriage or not?"

"John, I don't need a shrink. I told you that. What I want to say is that I'm sorry you took this so very wrong. For several years I wanted to expand my sex life. You are very good in bed but I wanted the experience of other men before I got to old. I didn't want to look back in my old age and wish I had done that. I still want to do that but I want to be married to you to." She continued.

"Having an open marriage or swinging, as some call it, is something that many couples do and still have a strong marriage. I want both a strong marriage to the father of my children and I want to experience other men. I have even thought of having sex with women before I am old and dried up. Why can't we both do this? You certainly enjoyed Jennifer then got all out of sorts for no good reason. I guess your insecurities are just to strong to allow your loving wife some latitude " She showed no signs of sadness or remorse.

"I can separate love from sex and apparently you can't. Now you have forced us out of the loving relationship we had for so many years. I was growing and you were stagnant. I wanted some freedom and you wanted me as your slave." She was becoming animated and raising her voice in frustration and anger. I just sat quietly. I had prepared for this and felt no intimidation. I still had the traditional values we both shared at one time. She is the one to pull away not me.

"Are you through, Janet?" I inquired softly.

""I'll probably never be through with you John. I still love you and want you home with me." She sighed in what appeared to be desperation.

"Janet, I will not share my wife. What I agreed to with Bob and Jennifer was wrong. I now see that clearly. I believed it was wrong even when I consented. It was my weakness that allowed that to happen. Your drugging me just made my weakness more complete. I cannot understand love the way you do. To me, sex and love are one. Anything else is wrong. Love without sex is wrong and sex without love is just as wrong."

"You told me you believed that when we got married. We were both virgins and had reserved sex for the one we were committed to in marriage. I still believe that. It is you who have changed. I suspect that Jennifer and Bob and possibly even Sis have had a very bad influence on you. Love involves honesty and trust. When you promised fidelity to me then immediately talked to Bob and made plans for another fuck session, you destroyed my trust in you. You lied to me. You destroyed the bond that glued us together."

"Now I have had my say to you. Someday you may regret this divorce but you may see it as necessary to become the free spirit you apparently want to be. I will not support you new life style either financially or emotionally. I do wish you a good life and hope to never see you again."

The divorce went through as previously decided. She wanted alimony but after introducing some additional evidence, the judge decided in my favor.

Life goes on. The new ER nurse and I are dating. She agreed to extensive premarital counseling along with the one carat diamond engagement ring. Six months later we were married and moved to another town to start our lives together.

Janet is history. The future is mine. Hard decisions sometimes aren't really so hard. Thank you Janet.

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Epilogue.

Janet actually got pregnant with Bob's child several months after I walked out. She had an abortion without letting me know, of course. My doctor connections let me know. We got a copy of her medical record as evidence during the divorce hearings before the judge. The medical record was hard evidence of Janet's tendency for infidelity. The judge took that into strong consideration. It's good to have friends who truly have your best interest at heart. Interesting how a medical record started off making me suspicious and finally her real medical record sealed her fate. I thought she intelligent but she was really dumb.

Several month after the divorce was final, Sis called me.

"John, I need to tell you something that Janet just confided in me. She never said anything about this before."

"Sis, you know that I really don't care about Janet or what she is up to but if you have a need to tell me then go ahead."

"John, Janet confessed to me to having sex with several other men over the course of the last eight years or so."

Sis, I had suspected this but she had denied and I finally believed her."

This had started back when our sex life had taken a turn for the better. She had lied to me for over eight years. Her experience with a condom sheathed cock had indeed been recent.

"Thanks, Sis, I suspected that. There are many things I suspect about Janet that now prove to be valid." I was glad to be rid or her.

"Sis, let me tell you some things now that we are gossiping. After I left her and even before the divorce, I found that Bob and Jennifer were swingers in a small private group. Their drugging me and then the swap was simply Janet's way to try to draw me into joining the swapping group with her. She fucked all the men in the group anyway. Now she didn't need my permission or tolerance. She doesn't even need to hide it all." I was glad to be rid of the new Janet. I still love the old Janet but that Janet was gone forever.

Sis and Dick and I remain good friends. They both understand what distrust and infidelity can do to a monogamous marriage.

I don't know what ultimately happened to Janet and really don't care to know. She is bad past history, best forgotten.

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