John and Diane Pt. 02

I know because I overheard you talking to that man Tom on your little black cell phone, the one that you always hid. I heard you laughing with him, and you were telling him that you love him. Why don't you love Dad? Dad is the person that does the most with me and the others.

Laura and Britt are sad about leaving but Keith and I will try really hard to be their big sister and brother and I know that Dad will really be the one that will be there for us. He taught us so much last summer on that trip we did to Canada. I know that he will teach us lots more. He taught me to ride a bike and tie my shoe laces and lots of other stuff. Last summer he taught us all to swim; that's important.

Dad talked to us all about leaving home a few months ago. He told us all that you and he tried this year to make things better, but he knew that you didn't want to be married to him anymore. I watched you really close for a long time now and I understand what he was talking about. You did things that I didn't understand at the time but when Dad told me more about you and that man Tom, I understood then.

I'm going to miss my friends at school, but I know that I will make new friends in the place that we go to.

Will you be living with that guy Tom, now that we're not here? I suppose we won't know since we won't be here to see. If you do live with him, please tell him that I do not ever want to see him or talk to him. He is not my father. I can't speak for the others about that, but I think that if they were to find out they would say the same thing.

I don't know when I will see you again, Mom. I did love you, until you stopped loving Dad.

Here's a hug; you might need it, Mom.

Andrea

PS, Dad doesn't know what I wrote to you, and he told me he won't ask about it. I don't plan to tell him, this is just between you and me.

Bye, Mom.

**********

Diane collapsed on the floor and wept.

**********

Tom

My burner phone started making a noise in my desk. It's the one that Diane normally texts me on. I keep the ringer turned off, but it was quiet in my office just now and I could hear it vibrating in the drawer. I looked at the text: "I need to see you right away. Meet me at the apartment in an hour."

We weren't planning on seeing each other for a while. Her husband was taking time off and wanted to use that big camper that he bought. He and their kids liked traveling around the country in it. I don't really consider them my kids. Yeah, I got her pregnant; but she was the one that wanted me to do that. I know that's a bit weird, but the woman is a great fuck. She's very talented with her mouth on my cock, she could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. And her pussy is willing and eager and very tight; even after four kids.

What the fuck does she want?

I showed up at the apartment and went in to get a beer. Diane came running through the door a few minutes later with a large brown envelope in her hands. She looked very upset. She flung the envelope on the table.

"Tom, he did it. He left with the kids this morning. I got served this (she pointed at the big envelope) when I was getting back from shopping. What the fuck do I do?" She sat in a chair and put her face in her hands.

A moment later Diane got up, went to the kitchen and got a glass of wine. She came back to the table, sat down, and took a large drink from her glass. She looked at me with fear in her eyes. I'd never seen that before; usually only lust.

I took the envelope and dumped the contents out on the table. I sorted through the papers and found the Application for Dissolution of Marriage document. I quickly scanned it and then looked at the rest of the things that were there. The pictures were very plain. There was a note attached to them saying that these were a sample of the less graphic ones that would be supplied if needed to support the divorce process. Fuck!

Diane looked at me when I put the last of the papers back on the table. She rummaged in her handbag and pulled out an envelope with her name printed on it and handed it to me. "Read this."

I did. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!

I put the letter down on the table and went back to the divorce paperwork. I found the page that needed her signature. I pulled out a pen. I handed it to her. "Sign, now." That's all I said.

She looked at me and started to say something, but the words didn't make it out of her mouth.

I said, "You need to sign this now. John will make our lives miserable if Margaret finds out about us and your kids..."

"They're your kids too, you know."

I quietly said, "Yes, they are." I sat for a few minutes, taking a big drink of the beer and trying to see a way out of the mess that we had gotten into. There was only one way to fix this.

I turned back to Diane, "Sign the fucking papers! Just do it!"

If Margaret were to find out about Diane, my life would become hell in an instant. Her family were politically connected in the state and contracts for the business would dry up overnight. This would be a giant shit-show in a dumpster fire. There was no other way to save my ass in this. Besides, I really like that big house that I live in and the hob-knobbing with the senators and congresspeople and other officials and well-connected people that keep us in the very profitable contracts that we regularly get.

I looked at Diane and held the pen out to her. "Diane, sign. John has won and we need to salvage the rest of our lives." In an instant, my interest in Diane was evaporating. I liked having a married woman in my bed when I wanted her and getting her pregnant four times was a real turn-on, but now? Diane was fast becoming a major liability to me. I had to get her to sign, and I would do whatever I needed to do to make sure that this went no further.

Diane looked at me, suddenly looking ten years older. She took the pen and slowly turned to the papers. She signed her name at the four places with the yellow tags and then collapsed into the chair.

Whew! That was close.

**********

John

On the road again. I know, bad, right? Didn't Willie sing that?

The kids are all having fun as we make our way west. When we left Albany, it was very quiet in the truck for the first day. We were driving west, and my goal was to get us a few miles away from Albany before we stopped. I made a reservation at an RV park, and it was almost supper time before we pulled in. We were all very tired and I got us all fed as soon as the camper was hooked up to power and water and the slides put out. That night we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows, and we talked a lot.

The kids asked a lot of questions. They wanted to know about the place we were going and what we would do when we got there. I knew that they deserved to know what the plan was.

"I know that you all want to know what the next few weeks are going to bring. Well, there will be adventure and there will be hiking and there will be bugs and there will be cuts and scrapes (I looked at Laura and Brittany as I said that and they laughed remembering our time in Ontario last summer) and I shared a bit of it with Andrea, because she's the oldest, but I swore her-to-secrecy. So, it's time that you all know where we're going and where we're going to call home."

All eyes were on me and there was silence from all four.

"Do you guys like to ride horses?"

There was a collective scream from the four of them.

"Well?" I waited. "Would you like to ride horses...." I paused for dramatic effect. "On a ranch in West Texas?"

All of the kids jumped up and ran around the campfire pretending they were horses, hollering and shouting. I wasn't at all certain that I was doing the right thing. I mean, this would be extreme culture shock for them, and me.

**********

What the hell was I thinking when I bought that ranch that was up for auction outside San Angelo. It was being sold by an older couple that ran it for years as a cattle ranch; but their children didn't want to be ranchers, and they all moved to bigger cities when they got university degrees and got married and had kids.

The folks that sold it wanted to move closer to their children and grand-children and so they decided to auction it all off. I bought the land and the house for just over two million. The house is big, a huge log house, not that old, with five bedrooms and six bathrooms and is in very good shape; but I know that I'll do some renovations to the place if we decide to stay here for any length of time. The place even has a gun room; maybe that will become the library, who knows.

The land is just over 1500 acres, more than big enough to ride for a long time and not do the same loop over and over. There are several out-buildings, some that I'll likely tear down and one, in pretty good shape, closer to the house that I'll make into a horse barn. One of the local farmers wants to graze some of his cattle there so the land will produce some income to offset the expense of owning the place. I ran the numbers for a year and it's quite doable.

My biggest concern was a good school for the kids and the city is only a few miles away. There are good schools there and all of the things you might expect from a modern city with a population of 100,000. But what the hell was I thinking - West fucking Texas; of all places. I might as well take the kids to Australia. The culture shock would be about the same.

**********

Three months later

John

Holy shit! The kids and I arrived in San Angelo in late July after slowly making our way across the country from Albany. I made a point of taking a very indirect route just so that Diane would be less likely to try to intercept us at some point along the way. I needn't have worried; I talked to my lawyer, and he proudly reported that Diane had signed the divorce papers without so much as a squawk.

She actually got a lawyer to look over the package that my guy had put together. It included the house, all the furniture, our bank accounts, both cars and some money to keep the house going for a year. She could do whatever she wanted with it any time. The house was worth about $600,000 with a mortgage of about $150,000 still to be paid. So, if she sold it, she could walk away with almost $450,000. My car was an old Subaru Outback, so she wouldn't get much for that, but her car is a newer VW Passat. It was a top of the line model and would last for a long time if she looked after it. If she wanted something flashier, maybe Tom could fix her up with something.

She could easily furnish a new house or apartment with all the stuff that we had. I even left most of the clothes that were in my closet. The kids did the same. We only took the things that we wanted and some cold weather and wet weather gear. I knew that we would get new things in Texas after we got settled and figured out what we needed.

My guy included a few things in the package to drive home the point that I was fucking pissed at Diane for all her years of deception and lying to me. There were certified copies of the DNA tests that were done on the kids and me. I asked for a court order to complete the package to have Tom compelled to give up a DNA test to be compared with the kids. He agreed.

My high-value target in all of this was that Diane agreed that I would have sole custody of the children and she was not going to ask for any visitation or custodial conditions. That meant that the kids were with me, and Diane would be completely out of the picture.

The clincher in all of this was that if she didn't agree to these conditions, my lawyer was going to send copies of everything to Toms wife and file a lawsuit against him for all the back years of child raising costs and $25 million for mental anguish inflicted on me by him and Diane. It would be a very public and nasty court battle that I knew he would be very much wanting to avoid. And he did. If this sounds a bit like blackmail, maybe it is, but I don't give a fuck. I wanted some pain and anguish on Diane and Tom's part. I wanted them to realize just what a pile of shit they would be in unless they gave me what I wanted.

Tom presented himself to a DNA lab, along with my lawyer and his lawyer to verify it was him, and had his DNA collected and tested. The result was as expected.

Tom also had to agree to employ Diane at a predetermined salary until her normal retirement age and pay her a full pension at that time. That meant that she would be financially secure enough to pay her own way. She had to agree that she would never ask me for any financial support. Also, she had to change her name back to her own name from before we were married. She did that.

It was done. This chapter of my life was closed. The kids and I were making a new life.

So, here I am, not yet forty years old. Four kids, between twelve and seven years old. I own a ranch in west Texas and have about seven million in the bank. What do I do? Well, I do whatever the fuck I want to. That's what.

And I did.

**********

We moved into the house and got things sorted out before school started. We needed furniture and bedding and pots and pans and all the stuff that makes it a home. The kids were great. They helped me every day with lists of things to do and they worked like little demons to make this our home. And they really got to like it.

The biggest day was when we went to a horse ranch for the kids to take riding lessons. They were all so pumped up that they couldn't contain themselves. The riding instructor was a young woman who looked the part of the country girl. She wore a checked shirt, tight jeans, cowboy boots and white cowboy hat. I thought that I had just woken up in an episode of Yellowstone. Her name is Naomi.

Naomi is a veterinarian and in her spare time does riding lessons and in her other spare time is also a barrel racer. Now, I didn't really know much about barrel racing. But I would learn. Naomi would teach us.

The first day of riding lessons was fun and awkward. Fun because this was something that the kids really wanted to learn and awkward for me because it was clear that I had never been on horse in my life and this first time was...interesting. Naomi picked horses for the kids that were very gentle and well trained. She told me that she wanted them to get comfortable in the saddle first and then they would progress from there.

She looked at me. "Okay, lets meet the horse you're going to ride, John."

"What? Me? No, no, no. I don't really want to ride a horse. I was thinking of getting a side-by-side quad to drive around the ranch instead of a horse."

She looked at me with disdain. "Well, y'all can still get the quad, but your kids are going to learn to ride, and you need to be able to ride with them, so stop your arguing and take the reins of this horse. This is Pete, he's about ten years old and will treat you right if you treat him right." She leaned in and lowered her voice a bit, "besides, the kids are watching you, you better get on the horse."

She was absolutely right. I got on the horse. Complete with my hiking boots and jeans and windbreaker. I looked out of place and felt out of place.

Naomi and I talked after, and she recommended that I get the kids outfitted with clothing better suited to riding a horse. She even offered to come with us shopping in town to make sure they got the right things. She asked if my wife was going to be riding and when I told her that there wasn't a wife anymore, she just nodded, and I could tell she was filing that little tid-bit of information away for later use.

Naomi's patients are mainly horses and cattle, and the odd dog and cat. She does the riding instruction thing as a side gig, for fun and to meet people. When she took off her cowboy hat her dark brown hair fell around her shoulders and you could see her eyes; well, she was beautiful. Really beautiful.

Naomi is 32, single, never married. She grew up in the area and her family are all still in the area. Her whole family has been around horses their entire lives. She grew up riding a horse and so for her it's only natural. She has a great technique for teaching kids (and adults) how to ride and after only a few sessions the kids were able to trot around a fenced-in ring. She had them wear helmets designed for riding and I made sure that they were all properly adjusted.

The regional rodeo was going to be in October, and we all planned on going, mainly to see Naomi compete. Andrea loved the barrel racing and told me that she wanted to learn to do that. Oh-oh.

**********

Diane

I waited for a few months hoping that John and the kids would come back, but when they didn't, I sold the house and moved to a one bedroom condominium. It was just me now, so I didn't need anything bigger.

I thought about getting an investigator to try and find them, but every time I did, I remembered that John would tell Tom's wife and family about us, so I didn't. It hurts a lot every time I think about the kids. It hurts when I think that I caused this.

Couldn't John just live with the fact that Tom was the kids father? Couldn't he just accept it? I mean, I loved him all the same. I was a good wife to him. We had a great life together. We had all the things that we had planned to have when we got married. We were a good family, we had good jobs, a great home and...fuck! Why do men get all wrapped around the axel about these things. It was only sex. I gave John lots of sex; and I know he enjoyed it. I know fucking well he did. My time with Tom never took anything away from John. Tom only got what was left over from John and I.

The time that I spend now with Tom is a lot less. He says that his wife is very suspicious of him, and she found out that John left with our kids. She knows all about Tom's fathers philandering history, but she doesn't know that Tom is the father of my kids. Tom has told me repeatedly that he wants to keep it that way. So, my itch is not getting scratched all that much.

The divorce will be final soon, and I can pretty much do whatever I want. I'm still young and in pretty good shape for a woman that gave birth to four babies. But I have a giant hole in my life now. I come home to my condo, I eat supper and I stare at the television and then I wake up and it's almost midnight and another day has gone by.

**********

John

"Hey, get your stuff and get in the truck! Let's go!" I was shouting.

The kids are going to be late for school if they don't shake-a-leg and get out the door. It's about a twenty minute drive to their school. The school is pretty good. It's a public school and I've been able to meet all their teachers and have made sure that the teachers and the school principal know who I am and how to get in contact with me if there are ANY problems with any of the kids.

We have a study room and library set up in the house. It's the old gun room. The gun cabinets are out and book shelves are in along with desks and computer stations for their laptops. I got them all new tablets and laptops and we installed a business grade printer/copier with toner cartridges that last a long time. The room is reminiscent of a top-caliber (pardon the pun) study hall at a good university.

None of the kids give me any grief about homework and I'm always there to help out with any questions. We even have a 65 inch TV set up on a wall that the kids can stream things to. I upgraded the internet link to the house to fibre-op cable and now we have blindingly fast internet speed.

I also spend a bunch of time driving the kids to activities in the evenings. But their favorite activity is riding horses. During the day, when the kids are in class, I've been spending time learning to ride. I get to the riding stables and saddle up a horse and ride for an hour or two. I'm getting better with controlling the horse and much more comfortable in the saddle. I'm not nearly as nervous about being on a horse as I was at the beginning. Even Pete the horse knows it.