It's Against the Law Ch. 02

"No, no, that's not why I'm calling," I hurriedly told her, "I'm afraid that's not going to happen." There was a brief silence on the other end.

"Please, Dalton; you have to forgive her...please, I don't know what she'll do if you don't. She told us everything; she made a mistake, honey, she'll never do it again, I know she won't."

I knew this was going to be a hard call but I wasn't counting on her mother to make it even harder.

"Mom, I'm sorry, I really am; I'm not trying to be a hard-ass here but I just don't see how we could ever make it work after this; I still love her with all my heart, but every time I see her now all I feel is pain; I don't know if that will ever go away," I said sadly.

She said nothing for almost a minute and I could swear I heard her crying, this was so hard on everyone.

"Jean is upstairs, honey, she left her phone down here; when I saw it was you...well, I was hoping..." She didn't finish her sentence, "I'll go get her," she said.

"Hello," there was the voice I lived to hear for so many years.

"Hi, Jean, how are you?" I said with my heart in my throat. I could hear her struggling on the other end, I knew she was aware of what was coming and it was all she could do to stand there waiting for the curtain to fall.

"Ar...are you," she whimpered slightly before taking a breath, "Are you calling with bad news?"

"I'm afraid so, Jean; I'm sorry, I love you so much and I always will, but there's just no way we're going to be able to work this out," I told her regrettably, "Every time I saw you it would remind me of the pain, I couldn't live like that, Jean; I just couldn't. Monday I'm going to file, I think it's best we get this over with and get on with our lives."

She had tried to prepare herself for this, I could tell. "Okay," she said in a voice so weak I barely heard her; "I won't fight it, honey, I'm not even getting a lawyer, whatever you feel is fair is fine. Dalton, I love you too, my darling; I will never forgive myself for what I've done to you but I pray that someday you will," she disconnected without another word.

She didn't sound good, I was genuinely worried; she was really taking it hard. I called the house phone to tell her parents to keep an eye on her. This time her dad answered. I told him about our conversation; he said her mother was upstairs with her and he promised to keep a close watch over her; then he expressed his sorrow as well. He said he understood my decision; under the same circumstances he said he'd do the same thing, but that didn't help the torment everyone was feeling. I agreed.

Monday morning I called my attorney for an appointment but between his schedule and mine I couldn't get in to see him until Wednesday.

Jean kept her word; her dad told me she signed the divorce papers without even reading them first. Since there was no way she could keep up with the house payments, I bought her half; Jean took the money and would move into an apartment when she was ready. Even though I made almost ten times the money she did Jean refused any maintenance the judge wanted to give her.

From that point, all we had to do was wait six months for the final decree; things went along pretty uneventfully for the next three months, then my phone rang...

Continued...