Destruction and Rebirth

Thanks to WAA01 and Killerarmyguy for the edits.

******

My name is Nathan Hal; at the age of thirty-seven, I thought my life would be on the path I had set out, but that wasn't meant to be when I came home one day early from work (where I'm a rising bank manager for a well-known bank so I won't be giving their name), given it was our anniversary. How stupid I was. I never fucking saw the signs until it was right before my very eyes as my now ex-wife and her then boy toy intertwined on my fucking bed! I will never utter her name again, so let's call her 'Bitch'! The whore has to have a name right and the shoe fits. The nerve of the cunt to tell me to get out so they could finish! Well, I got out alright, right to a fucking motel. Fuck ever sleeping in that bed again or that house; there was no telling how many men she's been fucking behind by back.

A little about our former marriage before I go on. We married very young; that is what two stupid kids do when they're supposedly in love. I knew I loved her at that point in time; now, I wonder if she ever loved me in the first place. Anyway, a year into the marriage, our daughter was born, then two years after that, our son. I know what you're thinking. They aren't mine, given her whoring ways. But hate to burst your bubble they are, had them tested the week after I left their mother.

As I was saying, there I was in my motel room, paid cash. Didn't want that Bitch to know where I was if she looked online at the charge on our shared card. Well, it was ours until tomorrow when I paid the damn thing off and canceled it. I couldn't do much at the moment with my finances given the late hour of the day. So I knew I had to move fast once the sun came up tomorrow to protect what I had worked my ass off for. I wasn't letting her get one damn cent that I didn't have to give in the divorce settlement. Fuck forgiveness! I wanted the bitch to burn! So there I was, making call after call and internet searches for the best divorce lawyer in the city. Money wasn't a problem, I made six figures, and with a promotion looming, I could easily absorb the hit to my account. Plus, being in the banking industry, I knew all the loopholes to keep the courts from laying a finger on my money, yet that would have to wait till tomorrow when I went into the office if I went in. I was contemplating on heading home and packing my belongings while she was at work. Now whether or not the Bitch would notice my things gone, I didn't fucking care!

I know the Bitch tried calling me repeatedly, but I never answered. Then the texts started to come in, telling me I could come home now. That she's cleaned up, and it meant nothing. That this didn't have to mean anything if I didn't make a fuss out of it. Did the Bitch not fucking know me?! Then it got to begging when the hour struck six that night, and I knew the kids would be home inquiring about me, no doubt seeing how I'm usually home by then. Wondering when I was going to come home so we could go out to dinner for our anniversary. At this, I suspected the Bitch had lost her damn mind! Did she really think I'd want to celebrate our wedding anniversary after finding her fucking another man in my bed! She really has to be fucking stupid! That was when my daughter called, I did hate lying to her, but I wasn't going home not that night or ever again unless it was to pack my belongings.

"Hi, honey," I answered after steeling myself.

"Dad? Where are you, Mom's freaking out?!"

"Good!" I thought. This meant either she couldn't find me or that she was worried I already told the kids about what a slut she was. Both were plausible. "Sorry, baby, I had to go on a business trip at very short notice. But don't worry, I'm not alone; you remember Ms. Tyler?"

"Yeah, she was a nice lady, but why are you on a business trip with Ms. Tyler?" An evil grin spread across my lips at the sound of the Bitch's 'What!' that I could hear over the line. I knew the Bitch hated her guts. I never knew why; Kris, her first name, was a very kind woman and a lesbian, so I don't know why the Bitch always felt threatened by her. Now that I think about it, maybe she was afraid someone would sweep me off my feet and steal me away from the slut. As I thought on that, I wish someone had, then I wouldn't have wasted seventeen years on the cunt.

"Oh, the presenter for the conference which I wasn't going to since today is such a big day," my sarcasm was clear not that my daughter picked up on it, I said it in case the Bitch was listening in, "came down with food poisoning and had to drop out, so being one of the few managers who know the material my boss asked if I would fill in, and Ms. Tyler was already going so we're traveling together."

"But when will you be home?"

"I don't know, maybe a week, Ms. Tyler wants to explore the city while we're there so..." Just then, I heard the phone being snatched from my daughter's hand.

"Nat, you come home right this instance?!"

"It's Nathan or Mr. Hal to you, cunt!" I could hear she was taken aback by the tone of my voice. "You lost all rights to that name when I found you fucking another man on my god damn bed!"

"Nat... Nathan, I know you're upset; we can work this out. It meant nothing?!"

"It means something to me, you stupid bitch!"

"Fine! If you want to act like a hurt little child and not talk about this like reasonable adults, go right ahead. If you want to stay away, fine! But know this, I am going to be fucking every man I can from now on in this house!"

"Go right ahead, Bitch, you're dead to me now anyway," I heard her gasp as I cut the line.

And so it went downhill fast from there, especially after she came home the next day to find the house empty of anything that belonged to me. I had movers in to pack everything in a few hours so I wouldn't have to ever return to that house. I had it stored in a storage unit across town, paid in cash for three months until I could find an apartment in the city. My marriage might be over, but I wasn't about to disappear on my kids. I had an appointment with a lawyer the day after I moved out. I also had our shared bank account closed and half the money transferred to one set up in her name and moved what cash I wanted to keep out of the court's greedy hands offshore where she could never touch a cent of it; I was so amused. I made a big spectacle of hammering that worthless gold band into nothing but junk in front of everyone at work before tossing the hunk of metal away. If that didn't start rumors, I don't know what would. So after talking to my lawyer, she had a P.I. following the Bitch's movements; I don't know why but whatever. Don't really care; I simply wanted that cheating cunt gone!

However, things really, I mean, really blew up the moment the Bitch was served! I wish I could have been there! I bet the look on that cunt's face was priceless! I have to admit the lawyer's P.I. did get some very juicy tidbits, and I so was a vindictive bastard. Hey, if you fuck a married woman, expect fucking consequences. From what I heard, later on, none of those men that couldn't keep their dicks in their pants made it out with not a penny to their names. Especially the Bitch's boss! I heard his wife took him for everything, a whole twenty million! I rolled on the floor laughing hysterically when I heard that. It seemed his wife was one smart cookie and had a prenup with an infidelity clause in it.

Nonetheless, I missed my kids. The Bitch was messing with my court-appointed visitation days, which my lawyer handled. I didn't need to be there, but I heard the judge told her if she heard about one more missed visitation, she would throw the Bitch into the lockup for defying a court order. The first visitation or any others after that did not go as well as I hoped. My kids blamed me for breaking up our family. I told them I wasn't the one that broke us up. That was their mother, not going into too much detail, yet I did explain to them that I had walked in on their mother with another man in our bed that was why I couldn't be with their mother. Then the day my world came crashing down around me happened.

"Dad, do we have to keep doing this?" my sixteen-year-old daughter, at the time, asked.

"What do you mean, honey?" I asked, curious as to what she meant as we had lunch at a Hardees. I kind of found it odd that the Bitch was still sitting in the parking lot.

"I mean, do we have to keep coming on the weekends?" I felt my heart dropping to my stomach at those words as they left my daughter's lips.

"Do you not want to see me?" I asked as calmly as I could as I set my drink down.

"I don't mean that just on the weekends, we can still see each other on birthdays and holidays..."

"This what you want, too?" I asked, looking at my almost fourteen-year-old son.

"Dad, why do you have to make a big deal out of it. It's just sex?! Can't we just go back to the way things were?" My eyebrow twitched when my own son couldn't be bothered to look me in my eyes.

"So, I'm just, what, the giver of presents to you? Is that all I'm good for? See, that doesn't work for me, I'm your father, or I am not. Choose," I said sternly. I so hoped they wouldn't buy into their mother's bs. Apparently, I was fucking wrong?!

"Well, mom's boyfriend is nice; he takes us places when you aren't...."

"You fucking knew!" I yelled, slapping my drink off the table, causing my kids to jump in startlement. "Fine, you don't want me as your father any longer, so be it. Then I no longer have any children, have a nice life." With that, I walked out of the restaurant and their lives. Did I hear them calling after? Of course, I did, but I wasn't about to turn around so they could stick another knife in my heart. Not that I wanted to, but when your kids no longer want you, you don't really want to stay in the same city. Because I was a fucking wreck! I raised those kids. I went to every damn boring game they had and cheered. Why? Because that's what a father does, be there for their kids, at least the ones who appreciate them.

So when the promotion I was up for came in, I didn't even blink when they told me I would have to move to Charlotte, North Carolina, to take over the regional manager position for the southeast there. I had sold off the bedroom items I had bought for my kids, thinking they would want to be with me when I found a big enough apartment for us. Why keep things around when you know it's just going to make you feel even more miserable than you already are? Did the kids try to call? Of course, did I answer? Nope, if they didn't want me, it would be better on my heart not to hear their voices. A person's heart can only be broken so much before it's irrepairable. So when the time came to sign the divorce papers, the Bitch had the audacity to bring the prick she's been fucking behind my back along with her.

"This didn't need to happen N... Mr. Hal," the Bitch said with a smug look on her face which quickly faded when she noted my anger. "We could have worked out an understanding between us. But you had to throw away seventeen years...."

"No, whore, you did, the moment you allowed that prick between your legs, so don't blame this on me. And I wasn't about to let you string me along any longer so you could have a live-in babysitter while you slut yourself out."

"Alright, I'll admit I did, so what? I fucking had a blast doing it!" I looked down as my lawyer placed her hand on my arm, keeping me from doing something stupid.

"Ms. Smith, we aren't here for you to antagonize my client. If that's all you're here for, then I think this meeting is over, and we'll see you in court," my lawyer said, gathering up her papers as she rose.

"Alright, alright," the Bitch sighed.

The good thing that came out of all this was no fucking alimony! The Bitch thought that asswipe loved her and was planning on marrying him before the ink was even dry. Well, I say keep the fucking whore, at least make her turn tricks, then she would have earned that name. Pulling out my checkbook, the one check I was really looking forward to signing. Writing out the full amount for the child support for the next six years and giving it to my lawyer with a comment in the memo section that said: 'Eat shit, choke on it and die!' After signing the divorce papers and seeing the slight smirk on my lawyer's face as she read what I wrote, then sliding the check across the table as I rose. I no longer wanted to be in the same fucking room with the Bitch. I felt fucking soiled.

"What's this?!"

"That's the full amount for your child support, don't expect another check." I heard my lawyer say as I continued my exit from my former life.

"He can't do that!"

"There is no law preventing Mr. Hal from paying the full amount for his child support all at once."

"Nathan!" I heard the Bitch scream, yet I didn't give a damn. That was the last thing she would ever get from me. I gave my lawyer my new address to the condo the company had supplied for me in Charlotte so she could mail the divorce decree to me when it came in. Personally, I'd say burn the damn thing; I no longer wanted a reminder I was married to that low-down type of a person. I was gone an hour after the divorce signing. I no longer had a reason to stay in that city.

I heard from my parents, ad nauseum, how broken up the kids were when they found out I no longer lived in that apartment when they went over to it a few days after my departure. I'd like to say I didn't care, but they were still my kids even if they no longer wanted me as their father. I did find it strange that they would bother to go there in the first place. Maybe it was because I hadn't taken their calls in over three weeks, or maybe I hoped they saw the error of their ways. Either way, it was too late. They made their bed; it was time to get on with my life. Although they did implore me to speak with them to at least give them my new number, which I had changed the moment I left the city. Which I flatly and firmly said no. They wanted this I did not. It was time for them to learn actions have real consequences, even if it tore my heart out.

******

Seven years later...

I'm forty-four now; I'll admit even my wife will agree I was a bitter asshole for the first two years I was in Charlotte. Seeing how I arrived in my new home city with no wife or kids. I really didn't have much of a social life during those years. I threw myself into my work. With no social life, I also hit the gym. Granted, I did get a little pudgy, but I put my family or did, in this case, first before heading to the gym; how stupid was that given the way things ended? I met my second wife, Catalina, after my second year there. I have to say she had some balls marching into my office like she did and demanding that I pull whatever crawled up my ass out of it. I couldn't help myself. I nearly fell out of my chair, laughing my ass off, at the audacity of the woman. I had seen Catalina around the building but only in passing at the time.

"So you can laugh and smile." Catalina had this exotic, alluring tone to her voice as she smiled. I won't ever tell her this, but I kind of think she knows; I was smitten with her. I mean, no one ever talked to me like that, at least not at work. I kind of had an aura around me that said piss off and die. Yet, here was this five-foot-one-inch Hispanic woman that couldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds dripping wet mouthing off to the regional manager of the banking side of the business. Catalina has this fine ebony hair that's as smooth as silk. Those warm brown eyes of hers never held an ounce of anger in them. Not like mine did at the time. Those lush lips of hers just beckoned to be kissed. I tried to keep it professional; nonetheless, my eyes didn't heed my brain's command as they took in that petite body of hers, and I did like what I saw.

"Nathan Hal," I introduced myself after I rose from my chair.

"Catalina Rodriguez," she returned the greeting with that dazzling smile of hers.

And so, that began the rebuilding of my life at the age of thirty-nine. Don't get the wrong impression Catalina didn't automatically jump into my arms. Took me three months to build a rapport with her before she would even consider going out on a date with me. She got to know about my story and what brought me to Charlotte as I did with hers. Seems people who supposedly love you are the ones who are your worst enemies, can cause the most damange, given how she had caught her then-fiancée in bed with another man. Which took me aback a bit, but cheating is cheating, be it either man or woman. I felt for her, but I tried to reassure her that she found out then and not seventeen years down the road like I did. Ever so slowly, that anger I felt was no longer there. I made sure with HR that Catalina and I dating wouldn't cause any problems, which it wouldn't, seeing how she was in a different department.

It was around our fourth date that we finally had sex. Not that I didn't want to way earlier before then, yet Catalina was apprehensive in getting that involved with a man again. I can't blame her; it took me two years to trust a woman again. Dating Catalina was like night and day compared to the Bitch. When the topic of children came up, I grew silent; she knew I was holding something back. She does choose the weirdest of times to ambush me like she did when she asked me why I wouldn't speak about children when she was riding me hard and fast, and I loved it!

"They disowned me," I looked away; the hurt was still fresh even after all that time.

"What?!" Clearly, that took her aback; it wasn't something anyone would have done in her family. Catalina comes from a very close knit family. By that time I had met them, they were a very nice bunch of people even though I knew they were talking about me in Spanish. I didn't tell Catalina I was taking Spanish classes (because that's something one does for the one they love), so when she got angry, I could understand what the hell she was calling me. Let's face it, I'm a guy; I'm an idiot sometimes. I'm going to stumble. I am human, after all. "Oh, honey," Catalina cooed down at me as she took hold of my face so I could look at her. "I'm so sorry they tossed you away like that." Hey, I did not hate the fact that she buried my face in those firm breasts of hers when I told her everything that happened that day. "Have you ever thought of having more?" My eyes went wide while still in that heavenly valley.

"Catalina?"

"I know, I know, but we've been dating for a year now, yet I'm not getting any younger...." She was thirty-three at this point in time. "I love listening to you talk about anything. I love that you listen to me rant without you feeling you have to fix something. That you just let me vent." Trust me, that woman can vent like it was nothing. Don't tell her this, but sometimes I irk her a bit just to see her mad and let me tell you, she is hot as fuck when she's mad. And the angry sex? I thought I had died the first time we had that form of coitus. "I know we've both been hurt so deeply, but I want this. I want you."

"What are you saying, Catalina?" I asked after she had released my head. Although, in truth, I so wanted to be back in that valley.

"I'm saying...." She was so cute when she blushed as she was at that moment. "I want to have a baby, and I want you to be the father."

"Umm... honey, is this the right time to be talking about this?" I inquired while still hilt deep inside of her. Like I said, she chooses the weirdest of times to bring up very important topics. I had to bite my lip as she shook her head in a child-like way.