Always Faithful

"I'm glad you remember my name, Janice. So how are you?" He wasn't smiling like he was the last time she saw him. "Are you having a good life?"

Janice's face went blank for a few seconds before she began to tear up. "No, I'm not!" She dropped her phone back into the purse because she needed that hand to find a tissue to wipe her eyes. "Someone sent pictures and video of that night in Minneapolis to my husband." The tears became more obvious as she continued, "When he got them he started screaming at me, calling me all kinds of names.

Now he's divorcing me. I don't even know where he is any more. He quit his job and left town, and all I can do is speak to his lawyer." As she was describing what had happened she realized that the three men behind her car were exchanging high-fives. As she looked back to Brent she saw that he was grinning at her.

Realization came to her and she almost shouted, "You! You sent him those pictures and that DVD! Why would you do that to me? You've ruined my life! How could you do that to me?" She was angry enough now that her tears subsided. Her face was red and had become a tight mask as she tried unsuccessfully to control her emotions.

Brent stood there smiling at her for a few moments before answering, "You brought it on yourself, Janice. Remember Semper Fi?"

Her look changed to one of question and curiosity. "What does that have to do with what you've done?"

"Semper Fidelis means 'always faithful', and it should have meant a lot to you when you were married to Adam. You remember him don't you? Your first husband... Sergeant Adam Dorsey... the Marine. The one you said was killed in action in Afghanistan." His voice was taunting in its tone, and she became a little fearful, although he maintained the same distance from her, and the three men behind her car had done no more than move so that they could watch her.

"I still don't understand, Brent. What does what you've done have to do with Adam?" Janice was bewildered now, and the curiosity pushed her anger and tears into the background.

"Well, I guess you need to hear 'the rest of the story' as they say. It all started with that 'Dear John' letter you sent him. How you could send something that hurtful, and so unexpected, to someone fighting a war in a foreign country is beyond us. All he ever did was talk about you and your life together.

It was so bad we used to call him Janice as a nickname. He worshipped you, and you must have known that. When you sent him that disgusting email, right out of the blue, you tore his heart right out of him."

Before he could continue one of the men standing at the rear of her car added, "You gutted him like a fish."

Another of the men piped up with, "He must have lost his mind when he read it."

Janice looked confused and said, "What do you mean. I just told him it was over, and that I had found someone else. I didn't blame him, or try to hurt him."

Brent reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded piece of well-worn paper. When he got it straightened out he read --

"Dear Adam;

There is something you need to know. In a few days you will be receiving divorce papers, as I have decided to end our marriage. It's not your fault; I met someone who has so much more in common with me than you do. He is a teacher, like me.

We'll be paying the full cost of the no-fault divorce, and I'm not asking for anything from you. I put all of the furnishings and contents of our rental house into storage, and have paid the charges for one year. I've paid the rent on the house until the end of the month, but I'll be gone by then.

Please don't fight me on this, as it will do no good. The lawyer will be handling everything for me. His name and contact details will be with the divorce papers. I'll be canceling this email address once I send you this message. Goodbye. Janice."

"This has to be one of the most coldhearted things I've ever heard of, Janice. All Adam ever did was talk about you and the plans that the two of you had for the future. That house you gave up was supposed to be your home. Adam had arranged with the landlord to buy it when he got out of the Marine Corps.

He used to show us his plans for it. He even had the drawings on his computer. There were going to be two additional bedrooms for the children he planned on having with you."

Tears had formed in Janice's eyes again, and she blurted out, "I didn't intend to hurt him! We talked about children, but I didn't know he was that anxious for them. I know he had spoken to the landlord about the house, but I didn't know there was an agreement made. I can't help that I fell in love with someone else." Her tears flooded back as she continued, "And now he's gone! He hates me! He even quit the job he loved to get away from me."

"You won't be getting any sympathy from any of us, Janice. We were all the best of friends with Adam, beyond the fact that he saved our lives, and the lives of some of the others Marines, more than once. He was a great soldier, and a born leader. He'd be alive today if you hadn't sent that damned email."

Janice was still sobbing, but she managed to get out, "What do you mean, he'd still be alive. He was killed in action. I got the official forms about that. He was killed by an IED."

Brett replied scornfully, "Yes, he was killed by an IED. It wasn't by enemy action though. He triggered it himself, on purpose, and he was blown to bits."

One of the other men continued, "One of the surveillance drones spotted an IED being placed, but had no ordnance left to fire at the two Taliban who set it up. We all got the coordinates, and knew the place we had to avoid until they sent Explosive Ordinance Disposal to disarm it. The day after he got your damned email we were on a patrol that took us near the location of that IED."

Brent took over the story again as he said, "Adam hadn't been right since he got it. He wouldn't talk to us, and it was obvious that he was really upset, but trying to hide it from us. I don't think he even slept that night before our patrol went out. I tried talking to him several times, but he wouldn't open up to me.

When we got to the area where the IED was placed, he called a halt to our forward progress, and told us to take a break. The next thing I knew I could see him walking towards the location the EOD had flagged on our patrol map. I started running after him, telling him to stop, but he got to the location just after I noticed what he was doing."

Brent had tears in his eyes, and he wiped them away before continuing, "I could see him walking back and forth in the vehicle ruts, looking for the trigger. He stepped on it when I was still almost 100 yards away from him.

The IED must have been a large one, at least half a dozen artillery shells, probably enough to have blown an Abrams tank all to hell. There were only small pieces of him left after the dust cleared. That scar on my chest was caused by a piece of shrapnel from of one of the shells. Or maybe it was a piece of Adam's body armor. I have no idea."

Janice was still visibly upset when she said, "That's not what they said in the papers they sent me. There was nothing about him causing the explosion on purpose. There was nothing about his death being a suicide."

Again, one of the men at the rear of the car spoke up with, "Brent had the Lieutenant write the reports to make it seem like he was killed by enemy action. None of us wanted to see Adam's official records end with a finding of suicide. The rest of us who were there were happy to go along with it."

Janice was doing better at trying to control herself as she said, "Well, you certainly got your revenge. My life is ruined, and so is Arthur's. He didn't deserve this."

Brant was quick to reply, "We think he certainly did deserve it. He had to have known you were a married woman when he got involved with you, and he is every bit as guilty as you are in Adam's death. He won't get any sympathy at all from us."

It was obvious that Janice was starting to lose control of her emotions again as Brent continued, "There is one person who should have been here when we told you what this was all about. It was her idea, but she couldn't come."

Janice had been listening, and quickly asked, "What do you mean, 'her idea'? Was there a woman in your squad?"

Brett replied, "No, this was my wife's idea, but our son has a cold, so she stayed at home with him. We were trying to figure out how we would exact an appropriate revenge for Adam. The only things we could think of involved violence, but I guess that's almost understandable considering everything we've all gone through over the years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We were talking about it at my place, having a beer in the living room, and I guess that my wife was listening. She said that since you had been cheating on Adam, and his suicide was caused by that and your decision to divorce him, it was fitting that we try to cause your second marriage to end in divorce, again because of your cheating."

Janice was shocked and said, "You mean you planned all of this? You planned everything that happened in Minneapolis?"

"My wife gave us the big picture of how we could do it, and the four of us did what we could to make it happen. Adam told us everything we needed to know to carry it off, plus a lot of things we didn't need to use. The music you prefer, the type of drinks you like, and even what turns you on sexually. I didn't just accidentally squeeze your nipples or concentrate on your neck and ears. Adam filled us in on all of that, many times over during the months we spent with him.

He adored you, and he couldn't stop talking about you. There was another person who helped as well. Ernie, over there, has a cousin who was a Marine, and he got a temporary janitorial job at your school to help us find out whatever we could about you." As he was speaking one of the three men raised his hand.

Brent continued, "We weren't sure how to do it, and were originally planning on trying to get close to you in Duluth. My wife had volunteered me to be the one who tried to seduce you, because she claims that I have a real 'gift of gab'. She said my 'charm' worked on her, so I should be the one to try getting close to you. Sure, she was a bit jealous, but she knew what Adam meant to us. I'm trying hard to make it up to her, and we're going to be all right."

"Ernie, Ramon and Frank followed you around Duluth, trying to get a handle on your routines, when all of a sudden we found out through Ernie's cousin that you were going to be going to Minneapolis for that convention." As he had mentioned their names, the other two men had raised their hands, making sure that Janice knew who they were.

"They took turns following you around Minneapolis, and when they saw you go into that restaurant alone they let me know and I hurried over so that I could see what might work in my attempt to meet you. I don't think it could've worked out better. Then the next night they let me know when you went into the bar with your friends.

From there on I was just winging it, giving you the chance to show your true colors. Every step of the way I gave you the chance to say no. You never did put a stop to what was happening. I guess that saying 'once a cheater, always a cheater' isn't too far wrong."

"Frank had set up two high-quality cameras with sensitive microphones in the suite I had, and they got every second of your infidelity in perfect detail. He edited the two videos to produce one that showed everything that happened from the best angle. By the time your husband watched it, if he could stand watching it all, he knew exactly what you are; a cheating slut. It's no wonder he left town."

His final words had reduced her to a sobbing wreck. She collapsed onto the front seat of her car, her feet on the concrete of the parking garage while she held her head in her hands. The four men watched her for about half a minute before Brent signaled that they should go back to their SUV and leave. Just before walking away he said, "Like I told you before Janice, 'have a good life'."

He didn't get a reply this time.