Who Has It Worst?

"Does anyone else know about her affair?" panelist #2 asked, almost afraid to delve into this mess any further.

"I don't think so. I found out that this Jeremy guy is married too, and a co-worker of hers, so there is a real incentive for her to keep things quiet, and since I found out I've made subtle inquiries of her friends and family members and I don't get any vibes that anyone else knows," Tom solemnly replied.

"What's your present situation?" Andy asked.

"I left the house that day, called my girls that night, and haven't been back in the ten days since except to get some clothes and other things one day when my wife was at work, and to see my girls for a few hours each of Saturday and Sunday. I took them to a park and the zoo to get away from the house," Tom responded.

"Have you had any discussions with your wife since you left?" panelist #21 asked.

"She's called me twice. The first time she was pleasant, though unyielding. The second time - which was just yesterday - she told me to get my head out of my ass and get back home because the girls and her parents were asking too many questions, and that if I didn't get my act together and get with the program that she would be filing for divorce based upon abandonment," Tom answered trying his best not to make eye contact with any of the panelists.

"Would divorce be so bad?" panelist #8, one of the single guys, guilelessly inquired.

"She's the mother, the kids are young and female, and she would be vindictive and make every effort to get sole custody and turn the kids against me and deny me access. It would ruin my life," Tom responded, wiping away tears.

"Thanks Presenter No. 2," Andy said softly with compassion in his voice. "Please send in No. 3."

Tom exited with his head down, almost running into Stan who was just a few feet from the conference room door.

"Sorry," Stan said, putting his strong hands on Tom's shoulders. "I couldn't take listening to you any more so I've been waiting here for the last ten or fifteen minutes."

Tom nodded his head and returned to the viewing room while Stan barged into the panelists' room.

**************

Stan made quite an impression on the panelists with his dramatic entrance and NFL lineman size. Seeing the shocked looks on their faces Stan started out with an apology. "Sorry about that brusque entrance," he said. "I'm kind of charged up by my situation and I've been fighting with myself to control my temper for several days and I'm starting to crack."

"If your story is anything like the other two," Andy quipped, "we understand. Please go ahead Presenter No. 3."

While not as articulate as Tom and Jack had been, but just as genuine, Stan related his situation. He had recently found out that his wife Joyce had been having an affair for a long time with a single guy that he was friendly with, if not good friends with. They had not really made any attempt to keep their relationship clandestine and what hurt Stan almost as much as the affair was that many people that they mutually knew, as well as her parents, brother and sister-in-law, knew about it but never told Stan. Because Stan was a freelance expert IT guy - that revelation shocked Jack, Tom and Will who were in the observation room, who had assumed that Stan was a tradesman or construction worker - his wife and lover never did it in his house because they knew that his house was wired with cameras and all sorts of sensitive electronic equipment.

One of the bigger blows to Stan's ego was the fact that his wife had duped him into giving her cash on several occasions which she then used to rent motel rooms with her paramour.

"Have you confronted her yet?" the always inquisitive panelist #1 queried.

"No - and I have to tell you why. In the past I have had problems with anger management. I have received counselling for it and for the last few years have been able to successfully control it. However, I am angrier now than I have ever been in my life. I'm terrorized that when I confront my wife she will say something that will set me off and that I will kill her fuck-buddy - and maybe even her. I am a powerful man and if I hit someone even with what I consider to be a minor blow death could ensue, and then I'll spend the rest of my life in jail," Stan related, ending with a big sigh.

"Do you have children?" panelist #1 continued.

"Thankfully, no."

"Has your sex life with your wife degenerated?" was yet another inquiry from panelist #1.

Stan exhaled. "My information is that she has been having this affair for about six months. About that time her amorous inclinations did decrease. However, since I found out about this situation - about ten days ago - I have not been in any mood to have sex with her, yet she surprisingly initiated sex with me twice in that time. I treated her like the whore that she is when I fucked her those times - including three times in one of the sessions. That did not seem to adversely affect her enjoyment, although since it was out of character for me since then she has been cautious around me. I think that she can sense that I am trying to exercise self-control around her. I have a tendency to unconsciously clench my fists when seething, and I smashed one kitchen chair to smithereens and didn't provide a real explanation for it when she saw the vestiges of it."

"Are you interested in reconciliation?" panelist #8 inquired.

"I'm not sure. Probably not, but I might consider it if we have a complete break from everyone in our past. Since I'm the wronged party, though, and make more money than she does, I don't want to be paying alimony to her for cheating on me - especially in view of the public way that she's done it," Stan replied as his face started getting red.

"Thank you, Presenter #3," Andy said. "Please send in Presenter #4.

Stan summoned up all the self-control that he could muster as he exited the conference room. Talking about his problem to a room full of strangers agitated him more than he anticipated that it would. He was surprised when Will hugged him once he got into the viewing room, not only because of the act itself but because of the calming affect that it had on him. Jack and Tom both patted him on the shoulder too.

****************

Will was always well-dressed. He was a clothes horse and could afford the most expensive duds available. Watching his three new friends make their heartfelt presentations, however, had caused him to sweat and for the veins on his neck to enlarge, tightening his collar. Therefore, totally out of character for him, he had not only removed his tie and opened his collar, but he had taken off his suit jacket.

Unlike Stan and Tom, Will was used to making presentations to groups of people and having relaxed his attire his presentation was relaxed too. He was able to relate his tale with less passion than the first three presenters had exhibited.

"My circumstances are the way that they are because of my family situation. I have several family members in public offices - I can't disclose which ones - and they constantly espouse Conservative Christian values. My wife is taking advantage of that situation," Will started out while pacing back and forth in front of the panelists.

Will went on to tell the panelists in excruciating and embarrassing detail how his young wife is having affairs with two different guys and taunting him about it. The day that he went to the bar she had threatened to make him watch a guy, "almost as big as Presenter #3," fuck her "so that you can get some pointers." She has threatened him that she will refuse to attend important business and political events with him if he doesn't go along with her liaisons and watch if she demands it, and if he tries to divorce her and enforce the prenuptial agreement that she signed she'll allege that he made her fuck other guys while he watched because he's a pervert, and will do everything imaginable to embarrass his entire family. Her lovers will testify that Will asked them to do it and that she was reluctant.

The panelists were pretty much in stunned silence when Will finished. Finally, prurient panelist #1 asked "Will her doing as she threatens actually hurt your family?"

"I'm not willing to take the chance. The public is funny. They could eventually pity my family and that would help them - but it could ruin things for them too," Will hypothesized. "It would certainly ruin my relationship with my family; they didn't want me to marry her to begin with - they thought that she was a gold-digger and tramp, and unfortunately they were right."

Andy looked around the room and not seeing anyone else interested in asking questions he said "Thank you Presenter #4. Please return to the viewing room and I'll meet with you shortly."

Will left, after which Andy reiterated the instructions to the panelists as to what they were to do. "Meet back here in an hour and five minutes, at 1:00 p.m., and we will begin our discussions. Lunch is available on the other side of the movable divider in this room, or you can go out someplace, whichever you desire. Just be sure to be back here at 1:00."

**************

When Andy walked into the viewing room he found four somber guys. "That sure was rough on you guys, wasn't it?"

"It was as rough watching my new buddies as it was on me," Jack groaned.

"You got that right, bro," Stan chimed in as Will and Tom nodded in agreement.

"Are you guys interested in watching the deliberations, do you want to come back once a decision is reached, or do you want me to just call you with the results? What's your pleasure?" Andy asked.

"I'm emotionally spent," Tom said. "I'd be ready to put a gun to my head if I had to watch the deliberations."

"My feelings exactly," Stan agreed.

"I'm not going to watch," Jack announced.

"Tell you what," Will said. "If you guys trust me, why don't I stay until the deliberations are over - I don't know if I'm masochistic enough to watch, I'll decide that later - but I'll call each of you and tell you the results. Then when we next meet I'll give you the written comments from the panelists. How does that fly?"

"I trust you implicitly, Will," Stan stated, standing up, walking over to Will, and giving him a big hug.

"Me too," Jack said, following Stan's lead.

"Ditto," Tom declared.

After eating a yogurt for lunch, because he had no appetite, Will decided he would watch the deliberations. They were much quicker, but more painful, than he imagined.

All of the panelists agreed that all four of the situations were really fucked up and unfair. They thought that Jack had the best opportunity to salvage his situation and that maybe Stan might find a way out too. However they considered Tom and Will's circumstances to be hopeless, Tom's worse because of his kids. Some thought that Will's concerns were overblown and that he could easily jettison the bitch. The panelists agreed that they were ready to vote after only about fifty minutes of discussion.

They had a "winner" on the first ballot. Tom got eleven votes, Will six, Stan four, Jack none. They agreed that three of the panelists and Andy would write up the results and the other eighteen panelists went home - all between somber and distressed. The write-up took another half hour, and then Andy delivered it to Will.

Will called his three comrades, relayed the news to them, and made arrangements to meet Saturday morning to plan how to extricate Tom from his miserable situation.

Will was true to his word too; he put the might of his wealth behind the plan, and the other three were resolved to do anything that they could. Will had a divorce attorney at Branson Commercial Realty's conference room to explain all the nuances of "family" law in their State.

The four conspirators peppered the expert with questions for two straight hours with inquiries about custody, alimony, enforcing a pre-nup, violence, protective orders, possession, comparative rights, filming, private investigators; everything having any possible relevance to their situations. When the divorce attorney left Will ordered in lunch and they started their discussions in earnest.

Tom told them, after consideration of everything that had occurred, that he had no love or respect for Amy anymore. He considered divorce was inevitable - he just didn't want Amy to get sole custody of the kids.

"You've set your sights too low," Jack stated. "I've got the germ of an idea on how you can get sole custody yourself, pay no alimony, and get child support from her."

"I'm listening," Tom skeptically replied.

After brainstorming for an hour all four were smiling. "We just may be able to pull this off," Stan grinned.

"Fuck yeah!" Tom screamed, pumping his fist into the air.

Tom called Amy, said that he was coming home the next morning although he would be sleeping in the guest bedroom, and left. Jack, Will, and Stan talked for a while longer then each got to work on their assignments.

"We're not fucking around guys - this is war," Jack said as he shook both Will and Stan's hands when Jack and Stan left.

***************

Friday, six days after the four amigos had made their plan, and after about twenty hours of work each by Stan and Jack, and thirty by Tom, as well as the expenditure of about $35,000 by Will and as his own time contribution, everything was in place.

Amy was busy having a nooner with Jeremy in her marital bed when her six and eight year old daughters burst into the room. "Mommy, Mommy when are we going to...Eeeek!" the eight year old shrieked.

"Why is that man hurting you, Mommy?" the six year old screamed.

Sweating and chagrined, Jeremy and Amy scrambled to get their clothes on as the eight year old ran out of the room yelping and the six year old was frozen in place on her knees crying hysterically.

A partially clothed Amy was trying to comfort the six year old while Jeremy got his ass out of there. As he scrambled to get out of the house Tom and Amy's part-time nanny, the woman who had brought the kids home from school, was waiting. With the frantic eight year old hiding behind her skirt she smacked him on the side of the head with a frying pan, knocking him into a mirror and cutting his head so that blood spurted all over the place. The nanny hit him twice more on his back before he stumbled out of the house, bruised and bleeding. The retired next door neighbor diligently wrote down his license plate number as Jeremy laid rubber leaving the cul-de-sac.

The nanny had already called the cops before she smacked Jeremy the first time and the phone was still dangling off the receiver so that the 911 operator was recording all of the nearby sounds in the house. The cops were there within minutes and it took four of them to calm everyone down and try to make sense of the chaos.

Tom was sitting calmly in his office when the police sergeant called. Tom expressed the requisite level of concern as he talked with her on the phone. After he hung up he cheerfully gushed to his secretary, "Elaine, I'll be gone the rest of the day on a family emergency. Tell anyone who calls that I'll reach them Monday," as he left his office.

Things didn't go well for Amy - or Jeremy. At first Amy lied to the police. When Tom got home and played the video of the entire incident for the police Sargent and emailed it to her office at her request Amy had some "splainin" to do. Jeremy had already been identified by his license plate and was being questioned by police at the local hospital emergency room.

A CSI team collected blood samples from the floor and wall near the broken mirror and confiscated the sheets from the bed in the master bedroom. Amy was taken in for questioning and read her rights. Since lying to the police was against state law - including obstruction of justice - and she was also charged with child endangerment - she was held in jail over the weekend since there was no magistrate available to grant bail.

After Amy's parents bailed her out on Monday, she was met by a process server at her front door and served with divorce papers and a temporary restraining order requiring that she stay clear of her children, husband, and house until a hearing could be held. A deputy accompanied her into the house to get some clothing, personal items, and her car keys.

By the time that Wednesday rolled around, Amy's attitude had undergone a 360 degree change. She called Tom, who was happy to talk to her. "I don't know how you did it, but you got me, Tom. You win. What do you want?"

"Why Amy, honey; didn't you read the divorce papers. I want sole custody of the kids, child support, and you out of my life for good. I understand from Jeremy's wife that he'll soon be a free man so the two of you should get together and have a nice shitty life," Tom replied trying to sound as sarcastic as possible just before he hung up.

Thursday, Will, Jack and Stan met at Bronson Commercial Realty and conferenced Tom in by phone. Tom's daughters were having a hard time and he was reluctant to leave them even with his parents, although his Mom was staying with him to help out in getting them to school, etc.

"Guys, I don't know how to thank you. I mean, you all treated it just like it was your problem and performed beautifully," Tom gushed.

"Hey, that was the deal, dude," Jack replied with a big smile. "It was an honor to help. And don't forget that we have one more arrow in our quiver. Amy will shit a brick when the police inform her that the blood that they drew from her at the police station tested positive for HIV."

All four laughed.

"When are you going to tell her that the HIV test is a fake?" Jack asked Tom.

"I'll never tell her it's a fake, but will be sure to somehow see that she's tested again - after I get sole custody of the kids. I don't want to ruin her life like she has tried to ruin mine," Tom chuckled.

"Amen," Stan laughed.

"Those cameras and emails to the kids' school and the part-time nanny, and that pieced together phone message, all ostensibly from Amy's phone, were priceless, Stan - and here I thought that you were just a big dumb jock," Tom continued to gush.

"Glad to ruin your stereotype, fella," Stan chortled.

"And, to pay all those bucks, Will; WOW!" Tom said, his voice now starting to crack with emotion.

"I'm a little distressed, though," Will replied, "on how easy it was for my associate to bribe someone at the police station to substitute the blood sample Jack got for us for Amy's. Well, even though that sucks we must have done something right to get the bonus of the part-time nanny knocking the shit out of that asshole Jeremy," Will chuckled. "Did you know that grandma was so fierce?"

"Hell no," Tom replied. "But she's getting a raise plus I'm gonna make sure that I stay on her good side from now on."

After the giddy quartet exchanged some more verbal back-slaps Tom got serious.

"Listen, guys. I know that the deal was we would just handle the so-called 'winner's' problem; but that's not fair. I think that we can handle all of them, one at a time; and we have to act now - we can't wait until my divorce is Final. The bad ass attorney that Will got for me assures me that, given the circumstances, I'll get sole custody."

"Do you have a plan, Tom?" Will asked.

"Hell yeah, I do. It will take some physical pain on your part, Will, but it will end up with your wife in jail, one of her paramours disabled, and the other one willing to testify on your behalf. It does require Stan to do extra duty too - are you up for it big guy?" Tom replied.

"I've had to take prescription drugs to calm myself down to keep from killing my wife and her friend," Stan responded with an edge to his voice. "I'd love to go off the drugs for a while and be able to vent my frustrations - that is assuming that you have a plan for me next, Tom."