February Sucks - What If She Didn't...

Linda screamed "Oh my God Jim what have you done. What have you done?"

"At I guess, I'd say I've fractured his knee cap, snapped his cruciate and possibly his medial ligament."

I squatted down next to Marc: "You never did fully recover from the tackle in the season opener did you. It explains why you were having such a shit season. I had the same injury in high school, can't remember crying about it like you though tough guy. You see it turns out I'm not such a good guy after all."

Through the crying he managed to shout "You're fucking dead, dead, do you hear me! but only after I've sued you for every penny you've got."

"You can try, but I have this recording, which if I stop it at the right spot will demonstrate I was protecting myself and property from unlawful entry. Also it will be sent to every newsroom I can think of, let's see how that will tarnish your reputation and how the club will react. How many other husbands do you think will come forward with similar stories, dozens from what I hear?"

Linda fussed around him and kept apologising, tears streaming down her face. Despite everything she was apologising to him, another level of betrayal. I went to the den leaving her to it. I thought he would call the police or his team mates and I'd get a beating but in the end it was a private club ambulance than came and picked him up. Maybe he didn't have as many friends as he thought or they knew this could all blow up sooner or later and wanted no part of it.

The video was of the inside of my pocket but the audio was crystal clear. I cropped the recording just after the sound of his knee cracking, saved in on my computer and sent a copy to my brother and my work and home emails in case I needed it for the police or God forbid a law suit.

Once he was gone, Linda approached almost hysterical:

"What have you done, have you gone crazy, you've might have ended his career?"

"You did this Linda, not me, it's all you and him. From my point of view I think I acted quite, what is it...yes: 'reasonably'. I've done the right things despite the extreme provocation. You heard what he said, his intentions, do you think you would have been completely safe with him? You realise I might go to jail and for what: protecting you, and after all of that you're concerned about him and not your husband. Maybe I'm not as good as guy as you thought, or I am but was driven to despair and broken by the actions of my supposedly loving wife."

"I am your wife... I, I do love you."

"You might love me a bit more now that I'm more like him; I just did what he would have done: exploited a weakness, doing what I wanted regardless of the impact on others. It makes me less of a man not more. His weakness was his knee, our weakness is you. I was going to give you this tomorrow, but it seems appropriate now."

I handed her an envelope "It's the paperwork to start a divorce."

Linda turned pale as a ghost. "No..." she whispered. "You can't.. I haven't done anything" she was sobbing uncontrollably... "I haven't even been with him."

"Not for want of trying though and mentally you have been with him for two weeks, with barely a thought about me or the kids. Actually I decided last Friday but tried to give you every chance to change my mind. You should have listened to your mum she knew exactly how I would react and she's right about not being able to get back on that pedestal. I love so much that if you had been drunk or made a poor decision, I might have been able to forgive you, but this is something far far worse. You've humiliated and betrayed me, it's absolutely clear to me that you don't care enough about me; you really are a self-centred bitch. I just couldn't see it before but you've opened my eyes. So you can have your precious freedom and go fuck the whole team for all I care."

"You won't leave me, I know you're angry and that's fine but you will forgive me and realise it was just ..."

"Sex, yes, you've tried to make that point, you're even stupid enough to believe it. Why don't you phone your mum or dad see if they agree. I know you thought I'd run away be hurt for a while then come back to you, but that isn't happening. I'm staying and you're leaving, your mum was expecting you tomorrow but you can surprise her tonight. Spend some time with the kids, because I'm going for custody."

"I'm not leaving; I'm not giving up on us."

"You already gave up on me and you are leaving or I will throw you out on the street and your things with you."

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen, I'm sorry, please forgive me."

"You're sorry about the consequences, not about your intentions. You thought you deserved something or someone better. I've just come to a same conclusion, I really do deserve better."

Epilogue:

It was 6 months after my divorce and my 4th date with Rachel. I kept looking for the self-centred traits I'd missed with Linda but couldn't see them. We'd even bumped into Linda's parents and they seemed to approve. Linda had used her share house value and savings to buy an apartment and was doing ok. She was sad I think but didn't fall to pieces, it just wasn't in her nature as much as I might have liked that. I could have made the recording public but it would harm the kids in the long run. In the end we had agreed joint custody and despite everything she was a good mum.

As for Marc fucking LaValliere... he spend 6 months in a private rehab clinic and was traded in the off season, rumours had spread somehow (I have no idea honestly) about his off field activities and a number of husbands were keen to meet up with him, probably to enquire how that knee injury was coming along.

I looked into those green eyes again: "On that first date, I asked you if you thought I would forgive Linda, you said you thought you knew but I had to work it out for myself. What did you think I would do?"

"Oh I was never in any doubt; you were going to divorce her. It was inevitable you're not the type of guy to accept that, it has got to be 100% commitment. I knew it even before you rejected my first offer of a date."

"It makes me sound quite extreme when you say it like that; does it put you off me at all?"

That smile again "No, besides we're quite similar...Linda sounds an awful lot like my ex-husband and there was no way I was taking that cheating bastard back in a million years."

I laughed again; it was becoming a common occurrence when Rachel was around.