Even, Stevens

My story isn't as simple as I would like to believe. My family immigrated to the US, and settled into a small Jewish community in a mid sized southern city. As in small communities, families are closer and somewhat bonded by their ethnicity as our was. Our parents were close friends as their parents were the originators of our community. Temple activities and family gathering for Holidays were bonding agents for the future generations. There were not any boys my age growing up so I had my older brother and my two friends growing up were girls. Sarah's mother and my father were friends growing up next to each other. Coming from eastern Europe, our community was mostly populated by business owners and shopkeepers, but Sarah's father was an attorney. A professional man. Rebecca Katz's family owned and operated several upscale women's clothing stores. My mother and Rebecca's mother had been best friends growing up, and had a desire to unite their families. My family was in the scrap metal business, Solomon and Son Scrap Yard. Our business was not shiny and pretty so we were not held in as much high esteem as other families. Not shunned, but definitely looked down on by some people.

In the old country it was not unheard of marrying children to strengthen community bonds. In an effort to unite their families, Rebecca's mother and mine pushed us together as much as possible even though Rebecca's father was not on board with their plan. He wore suits to work while my father wore a shirt with his name on it.

As we became teens, I wasn't against it. Rebecca was pretty. Tiny and pretty, you would call her a cheerleader build today. Even though I knew my destiny was being taken from my hands, it was Sarah that melted my heart. She was attractive but thicker and curvier than Rebecca. We connected on a more emotional level than Rebecca and I did. The three of us were inseparable through high school until Sarah went north to study law while Rebecca and I would get married before we were old enough to buy beer.

I went to our local four year university and worked for my father and Zayda. I learned more from them than I did from any university professor. By the time that I graduated with my finance degree, I was the father of two bouncing baby boys born a year and a half a part. Max was the oldest and named for my mother's father, and David was named for Rebecca's grandfather.

With my formal education completed, I offered Rebecca the opportunity to get her degree, but she was happy to be a stay at home mom. In hindsight, I am glad that she did. I believe that was important for our sons. She was definitely the prettiest soccer mom for the next twelve or thirteen years.

My informal education began with my father and Zayda. It was important to Zayda that I understood I should never let anyone know about our family wealth. Even my Bubbe didn't know their wealth. Zayda's father had lost everything, all of his wealth, to the Nazis when they took over Poland. Our salvage business was our bread and butter, but in our family, it was important to find the opportunity that would make us wealthy. My grandfather/Zayda was into gold and silver, Dad was into the stock market, my brother traded currencies, and it took me a while to find mine. I started with commodity trading, and I made money, but I found what really interested me was commercial properties.

I remember Dad smiling at me, "Let them think that you're some working schmuck. Inside you'll know that you could buy them with your pocket change."

My sons were old enough to start their training in finance. At sixteen and seventeen, I stressed to them that it is important to not be a 'hyper consumer'. Use your money to build wealth, not buy the next shiny object that catches your eye.

A shiny objects that catches an eye is Rebecca. Once the boys were in high school, a friend of hers got her to come work with her at Stevens Real Estate. She started answering phones, and setting appointments. After a month or so, she noticed the big commission checks that the agents received that she decided to get her licenses to sell real estate. Her Boss, Stevens, was happy to mentor her and help her pass the exam. He was a little too close for my comfort to my wife. He would help her close the first three or four sales.

With her first commission check, she traded our Ford Explorer for a BMW coupe. She thought that she needed to look more 'professional' to help close her sales. It's bullshit to me, it's the Katz in her coming back to the surface.

We had been married nineteen years, and I love her. I do, and I am a jealous husband. I try to control it as best as I can. Rebecca had been a wonderful wife and mother. She had worked hard to keep herself the same size as when we married, and I appreciated her efforts. She was not the most passionate lover, but she was willing partner, and she hardly ever refused my needs. I tried to be the best lover that I could be. This all changed after she had been selling real estate for seven months.

Her flashy sparkly toys and outfits were making it difficult to be portrayed as a working stiff. None of her money went into our account for the family, she blew through it quickly. She worked more evenings showing houses, then drinks out with the Stevens crew. I don't think that she realized that we had sex less, but I had the feeling that something was different when we did. I think it was sloppy seconds sometimes.

If she decided that she wanted a divorce, I'd give it to her. Her father's prenup protected me. Her grandfather had left her a Trust Fund but she couldn't access before she was mature, he assigned forty years old. I cared about her, and loved her, but it was an arranged marriage. There was love but not a passion between us. What bothered me was the disrespect of it all.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the company picnic.

Max and David had a baseball game that afternoon, so the three of us didn't get to the Lakeside Park picnic site until after three pm. I loved the looks that I get from Uppity people when I pull up in my work truck, a ten year old Ford F150 crew cab truck with Solomon and Sons painted on the doors. People like that cringe when I park next to their Audis and Beamers.

While the boys helped themselves to the catered lunch, I looked for my wife. I ask around and her coworkers had strange looks on their faces so I knew that each was keeping a secret.

I looked and saw the boys eating at a picnic table, so I headed toward the path that lead to the lake where I saw Rebecca and Stevens walking hand in hand up the stone pathway back to the picnic like a couple in love.

When I headed directly toward them, several men that worked with Rebecca made an intercept course toward me. We all arrived at the same place together.

Stevens smiled a smug smile. "Rebecca, look it's your husband 'Scrappy'." The men and Stevens laughed a fake laugh while my wife looked uneasy. I didn't care that Stevens wanted to disrespect me by calling me names, that I could buy all his assets allowed me a satisfaction, but the disrespect that I couldn't take was that he was fucking my wife. That explained a lot to me like how our sex life was greatly reduced, and why she was working late so much.

Looking Stevens in the eyes, I said. "If you think trying to belittle me will bother me, you're wrong. I get that you think you need to belittle me to make yourself seem better. I don't care about that." He looked angry at me. "What I do want to know is how long you have been fucking my wife?"

Smugly he boasted, "That is none of your concern, you do not own her."

Rebecca slowly drew behind Stevens with her head downward. She was embarrassed that I was causing a scene, but more importantly that she was guilty and I found her out. "I may not own her, but I have a contract with her. Signed and recognized by this State where we pledged before God and our families that we would forsake all others 'til Death do us part."

I looked at Stevens. He knew that I was angry, and he didn't want this to get physical with me. "Stevens, I've put up with your snide remarks over the last six months, in an effort to belittle me, but it doesn't bother me. I've dealt with pricks like you my whole life."

"If you want my wife, you can buy out her contract with me. She's gonna make 80k by year end, so she should work another 30 years until retirement age so that 2.4 mil, I'll give you a bargain buy-out price today of 2 mil."

Rebecca squinted her eyes at me. She knew me, and understood that I was saying she was a whore, and I was her pimp. Selling her to another pimp.

"Oh, right. You're not that liquid are you? And, besides, you have a wife. Wonder where she is today?" I looked around.

His goons, grabbed me from behind by my shoulders. "You can't talk to Mr Stevens like that. The one on my left, held my arm with his left arm, and hit me in the head with something. It hurt like hell. I heard the boys holler for me as I focused.

I stomped my right foot down on the right goon's left foot. He loosened his grip enough to pull my right arm free. I slammed my right fist in the left goons nose. He let me go as he needed both hands to hold his gushing nose.

My boys got there quickly. I turned to Stevens and Rebecca. We were drawing a crowd by now. "Fine, you want her, she's yours. Rebecca, I terminate our contract effective immediately, and have your dad send some of his guys over tomorrow and get your stuff. Day after tomorrow, it's in the trash."

Max and David urged me to leave as we walked back to my truck, Stevens could not keep his mouth shut. "You're nothing but a piece of shit junk dealer, and that's all you're going to be!" He hollered after me.

I turned and came back at him, he started to back up slowly. He could see the steam coming out of my eyes and nose. He pulled Rebecca in front of him, and between us. She tried to calm me down. I slapped her hands away when she tried touch my chest. I wanted Stevens employees to see what a coward he is. I relented at the urging of my sons.

Looking at my wife, I frowned. "Fine, Rebecca, he can have you. I knew you would leave us the day you bought that Beamer, but you couldn't keep your legs closed for another two years until the boys were off to college?"

Once in the truck, Max couldn't wait to say, "Dad, from what you and Granddad have been teaching David and I, you could buy that schmuck from the money in your back pocket."

I nodded 'yes'.

"Boys, there's a couple lessons to be learned from this. I am tired of the disrespect from people like Stevens. It doesn't matter if it's a Jewish thing or because they think that they're better than me because I wear a work shirt with my name on it. That's something that I want you learn. You're not better than anyone else unless you're taking the moral high ground, and they're a piece of crap. I am very upset that your mom has decided to cheat on me, but I will get over it someday. Number two is I don't get mad, I get even. I won't do it tomorrow, or maybe next year, but I will get even."

From the rear seats, David reached up between the front seats with a business card. "A lady told me to give you this."

I took the card and glanced at it. Maybe a potential ally. "Vivian Spenser."

Four hours later, the boys and I took the last of their mother's belonging into the garage. I had a mountain of black trash bags in her parking place.

I had the boys grab their laptops, and join me in my office. "Max, I want you to go to the real estate title office, and find me every piece of real estate that Stevens owns. David, you get to find me everything that you can about who he owes money to from mortgages to credit cards."

"How do I do that?"

"This is a learning experience. Go to your uncle's house. Tell him about today, and what I need done. He has a guy for that. I want you to watch his guy and learn from him. You're great with computers but this guy is the best."

"I don't expect this done in one day, it will take time."

While Max drove David to my brothers, I took a minute to look at Family Law Attorneys. On the second page, I saw Sarah's ad with her picture. I didn't know that she returned to town. I wondered about her from time to time, especially when I ran into her much younger brother around town.

Obviously, she was in her father's firm. I made a note of the number and set a event on my phone to call on Monday.

Sunday afternoon, it was getting later and no one had come for Rebecca's belongings. I took out my phone and called my father-in-law. "Hey Dan, when are your guys coming for Rebecca's things?"

There was a silence, then, "I don't understand. Why would I be doing that?"

This was what I dreaded. "Rebecca has decided to trade up, and is banging her boss, Stevens. So, Dan, I have kicked her out. The boys and I bagged her stuff up, and I told her to have your warehouse guys come pick it up today, or it's in the trash. Do you need more time? I'll wait until Tuesday, if you like?"

I told him about yesterdays events and how she had been pulling away from her family for several months.

Another silence as he digested everything. "I'm sorry, son. We didn't raise her that way."

"I know, sir. But I want you to know that I respect you, and I want to come over and bring the jewelry that your wife gave Rebecca so she has it. I'll keep what I gave her so maybe someday in the future your grandsons can give it to someone they love."

As I started to disconnect the call. "Dan, I don't trust Stevens at all. I think either he wants her Trust Fund or he plans on getting you to invest in some scheme of his. Stay vigilant, sir."

Monday, I met with Sarah. She was as pretty as I remembered. Her full figure had that matured in the right ways. I was gobsmacked. She hugged me when I entered her office, and she pointed to a chair. I sat while she sat in the chair next to mine. "It's great to see you, I didn't know you were back home."

She looked at me strangely.

"I can't represent you. I know both of you, and we have been friends since childhood. I won't pick a side, but that being said, I have expected this for some time. Rebecca and I have lunch every Thursday."

"You do?"

"Did she never tell you?"

"No, I have no idea what you're talking about. Every week, for how long?"

"Six months or so." She looked like she was analyzing something. "Anyway, I could tell that she was different and she was hiding something, so being an attorney, I assumed the worst. That's why I can't represent you."

She took my hand in hers. "I told her I knew that she was someone's side piece, and I couldn't represent her in a divorce when it comes, and that it would come. Cheaters always get caught, and I plan on snatching up her ex-husband when he's single."

I teared up. There was a happiness swelling inside me. I couldn't believe that this woman could possibly want me.

"I don't date married men, so It's going to be a while." She smiled. "Maybe we can go to lunches as friends and get to know each other again."

"That would be nice."

She stood up, and soothed her outfit. "That being said, follow me down the hall to my cousin, Gerald. He's waiting for you, and he will be handling your divorce. He has the PI reports, and documentations."

"I don't have a PI?"

She smiled as she opened Gerald's door. "It was handled by a concerned citizen about her lifelong friend." She gave him a warm hug before gently pushing him in the door. "Ger, will take good care of you."

Gerry had put on a lot of weight and like me was getting a some hair loss up top. I sat in the chair that you motioned to. He stepped around and shook my hand, before sitting on the edge of his desk. "It is my understanding that there is a pre-nup, if so this make things much easier. Did you bring your financials and any information that I might need?"

"It's all in the messenger bag. The prenup, financials, property and assets, and written notes about her actions the last few months up to the incident at her company picnic." I stated.

Gerry went behind his desk, and opened a drawer. He handed me a thick envelope. "In here is a detailed report from our PI. The dvd should probably be viewed in private." He patted my shoulder. "In my experience, don't take anything she says in the dvd to heart. Cheaters always bad mouth their spouses to their new lovers."

He motioned me toward the door. "I'll get to work on this ASAP so 'someone' isn't riding my ass." He smiled. "I will reach out in a few days."

When I got home, I couldn't decide if I wanted to watch the dvd, so I went Plan B, and I called Vivian Spenser.

Her voice was very pleasant over the phone, and I expected it as she was a top producer for Stevens. She went right to the point. Vivian had observed the events at the picnic. She was pleased that I had found out about my wife and Stevens.

As I expected, she confirmed that around the office, they had been 'sexing it up' for several months, but she could not confirm it. Only speculation, but she felt that Stevens was planning something that had taken his focus away from his business.

"Are you planning revenge on them?" Vivian asked.

"Of course, but it is a long range plan. An set of eyes and ears inside would be useful. Would an five hundred per week get me a set of eyes?"

"I believe that it would."

Apparently, father-in-law didn't want to pay his guys to haul off Rebecca's things so I called a local women's shelter to arrange pick up of her belongings. I was putting the dvd in my computer when the door bell rang. It was a homeless looking men in a van that arrived for the pick-up.

It seemed that God didn't want me to view the dvd of my wife's greatest hits. I helped the men load the van, and I slipped each a fifty dollar bill for their help.

In the usual fanfare, Rebecca was served at work, along with Stevens. The office gossips machine was working at one hundred percent. I set aside the evening for retaliation from my wife, but she was strangely quiet.

My attorney, Gerald, called and told me that he had been contacted by Rebecca's attorney. She was not accepting the terms. Gerald laughed. He had a meeting scheduled for the afternoon with her attorney.

That evening, the boys were out with their friends when I received two phone calls, the first was Gerald. My wife's attorney, once he watched the dvd and read the PI reports had advised his client to sign the divorce papers before I took her to court and got half of her Trust Fund, as per the Prenup. especially since I did not ask for any part of her trust, she should be happy about that.

My second call was from Vivian Spenser. She had snooped around after hours and found that Stevens had the dream of building an entire subdivision outside of the city. He wanted to build his own 'planned community'. He was buying parcels already. She sent me a picture from her phone of the map, and the plans. Vivian was worth every dollar that I had paid her.

Somewhere I knew that Stevens was fuming. My commercial real estate business, Max-D, had purchased the key parcels of land for Stevens sub-division causing him to redesign around my parcels.

When he tried to purchase more land across the highway as his Plan B, he found that Max-D owned parcels in a strange pattern that limited how he could design a sub-division. More cul-de-sac, than a sub-division.

The divorce was finalized quickly, I'm guessing that someone was getting it fast-tracked. I went to court in my work blues, name on my pocket while Rebecca was dressed to the nines. I think she may have looked a little sad, but I'm not sure. Honestly, I didn't hate her, but she really disappointed me. We had some good times, and I got two great kids from her.

With the divorce finalized, I couldn't help but want to watch the dvd. I had to know what she did with him, maybe a 'why'. What I saw when I clicked play on my computer, did surprise me.