A Hero's Return Pt. 01

"Yes Kathy it's really over, you made sure of that."

"But I love you so much."

"No, you love the life we had, but you threw it away. Now you get to go find another life."

"What about Stacy?"

"She wants to go live with my mom till my deployment ends."

Kathy finally broke into sobs, "oh god what have I done?"

The following day there was a picture on the front page of the local newspaper with a banner headline that read, 'Who is the mystery married woman coming out of a hotel room with Mayor Connelly?' Underneath the photograph of Kathy and the Mayor kissing as they exited room 1114 was the caption, 'Does her Army husband, serving in Afghanistan know what's going on?'

The accompanying story gave details about the charity event the two were attending together and that hotel records clearly show the Mayor had booked the room for the night and that the couple were photographed leaving that room at 2 in the morning. The story also said that there had been unsubstantiated rumors that the two had been meeting regularly for the past six months while the woman's husband was deployed in Afghanistan.

There was more to the article with the newspaper stating that it was their editorial right to bring the story to light due to the stature of the man involved and the nature of the offense against a soldier stationed in harm's way. The shit just hit the fan.

Within minutes of the story hitting people's doorsteps the Mayor's office went into damage control claiming that the story was a complete fabrication, that Mayor Connelly would never do anything to jeopardize anyone's marriage, let alone the marriage of a soldier serving his country overseas. They went on to state that the photograph was obviously a fake and that some unnamed sinister individuals were out to get the Mayor and that he would be holding a press conference later that afternoon to set the record straight.

It all sounded good, but unfortunately over the past six months too many people had seen Connelly and Kathy together. They had never been careful about showing their affection for each other in public so one by one his friends and supporters began to distance themselves from him. Several people anonymously phoned the newspaper to confess they knew for a fact that the couple had been having an affair because they'd witnessed it on more than one occasion and they expressed outrage to discover that the woman's husband was deployed in the Army while the affair was taking place.

That afternoon Mayor Connelly held his news conference, but none of his friends on the city council stood with him. In fact the only people backing him up were his staff and even half of them were strangely missing. The newspaper and TV stations were there though and they recorded the whole thing as Connelly extolled his horror at being accused of such an unthinkable thing. He assured everyone that he and the woman in question were merely acquaintances and had never done anything to bring shame on them or the woman's husband.

Halfway through his little speech, Kathy pushed her way through the onlookers and went to the microphone and to Connelly's horror told everyone, "my name is Kathy Crawford, I am the wife of Army Major Robert Crawford and for the past six months I have been having an affair with Mayor Connelly." At that point Connelly tried to shove her out of the way claiming, "I don't know this woman, she's lying!"

"Yes you do know me you son of a bitch and it's time we both admitted what rotten shits we really are. I am so ashamed of what I've done to my husband that I want to die, but I will not stand here and let you lie about it."

She turned to face Connelly, who by now had turned red with rage and embarrassment. "Robert you knew I was married and that my husband was in Afghanistan and still you pursued me and I was such an idiot that I listened to you and now I have embarrassed and lost the only man who has ever loved me."

Tears were streaming down her face. "I am so ashamed and heartbroken and I will be sorry for the rest of my life." At that point Kathy looked directly into the TV cameras and said "I'm sorry Bob, I love you" and she left through the crowd while the reporters all started barking questions at the Mayor who turned and stormed back into City Hall.

I have to admit that having the world hear that I was a cuckold damaged my already fragile ego, but I knew the chance I was taking when I went to John Foster my newspaper contact.

The next day when the president of the city council announced that the Mayor had resigned from office and that the council would run the city until such time as a new mayoral election could be held, I should have felt satisfaction, but all I felt was a deep empty loneliness. I missed my wife more than I ever imagined possible. My reporter friend called me that afternoon to tell me that Connelly had packed up and left town leaving no forwarding address and that my soon to be ex-wife hadn't gone with him.

I spent as much time with my daughter as possible in my remaining leave and the last week I allowed Kathy to move back into the house and Stacy and I went to my mother's home sixty miles away where I enrolled her in school, promising that I'd be back to get her as soon as my deployment was over. The next week I was on a plane back to Afghanistan, my heart filled with a burning anger that I planned on taking out on the enemy that was lurking in the desert.

End of part 1.