Just Accept It - My Version

"You didn't run, why not?"

"Since you and Laura got together, she didn't show any signs that she would take after her mother. Then the girls came along, so I stayed." You said I needed to be a man, can you help me do that? I need help, I can't be alone in this unless I just disappear as originally planned."

"Ok Gary, I'll help you if you help me and the girls. This is what I want you to do today. My lawyer has given me this dictating recorder. Here is the headset with the microphone," I helped him put it on, "Now you are going to tell the whole story from when Margaret told you to accept her having lovers until today. When you have done that, I will bring the recorder to my lawyer and her secretary who will write it out as an affidavit and present it for your signature in the presence of a notary public. Can you do that and I want you to start now?"

He nodded and started his tale.

It was a very sad tale. I could not understand that he I couldn't understand how he could be that docile and weak. He had his life in the office where he was both strong and successful and he lived on that. At home he became an invisible man to both Margaret and Laura.

He told a couple of interesting things that I didn't expect. Margaret had informed him when she had affairs and with whom. Therefore, he had started to make a list with names and dates when the affair started and when it ended. In all, she had had 31 lovers he knew about and the affairs had lasted from about one month to up to six months, only one had lasted almost a year.

At this point, I asked where he kept his list. He had it in his desk drawer, somewhere Margaret wouldn't be able to find it. He offered to supply a copy as an attachment to the affidavit.

The second piece of information came at the very end and was worth gold. It was the ultimate nail in the coffin for Laura. He stated that:

"About two weeks ago Laura came to visit us. We sat all three in the living room, I was reading the paper and they talked. As usual, I was invisible to them, but what they said got my attention. They talked about how Margaret had started to educate Laura at the age of ten. The importance for her to understand why and how the female superiority was meant to be. They both agreed that it was a little late and that they should start educating your girls when you had settled in your designated role. They discussed how they could work with role-play and dolls, small male dolls and bigger female dolls and they had a good laugh at that.

I was planning to warn you, but I am sorry I was too late, although, I am not sure it would have made a difference. They are both total delusional.

I think this is the end of my story, Henry. I am so sorry for not being there for Laura and let Margaret do what she did. I can't see that I can help her now, she has no respect for me at all."

"Thank you Gary, I will take this to my lawyer and you will be contacted within a couple of days. In the meantime I think you need to follow my advice if you want to come out of this with your back straight. I think if you do you will have a chance to earn a little respect with Laura in the short perspective and hopefully more in long run. What I suggest, not only suggest, but almost demand you do are:

First of all, you have to distance yourself from the grip of Margaret. You don't love her anymore. You can do that by not going home today, book yourself into Hyatt on Main street. When she calls you, just say you are in big negotiations and will be unavailable for a few days and that you will be home not later than Friday. Buy yourself the few necessities you may need, do not go home.

Second, you contact a real estate agent and find yourself a flat. A flat that is large enough to accommodate both yourself and Laura. You must be her father and lifeline. When I throw her out, she must have a place to go and that should not be to Margaret, she would most likely totally destroy her.

I will confront Laura on Friday with my petition for divorce. Instead of going home on Friday as you have told her, you tell your wife that she can live in the house and that you will pay the utilities plus a reasonable monthly stipend for her personal use, but you will never live with her there."

"Are you serious?" He replied shaking his head looking completely lost.

"Yes, I am. DON'T GO HOME, your only chance is to get away from Margaret now! Be a man, take charge of your future and be a support for your daughter, she needs a father. You haven't been before, this is your last chance, GRAB IT!"

"I don't know if I can do that so sudden, Henry. I need to think this through."

"Listen now, Gary. On Friday, your wife will be served with restraining order making it impossible for her to see her grandchildren. She is poison. If you go home today I will include you in this restraining order and you will be lost. Your choice! Make up your mind, NOW!" I almost screamed at him.

"But, if she calls, I don't know if I can lie to her."

"Ok, send her a text message, then shut off your cell phone and let it be in your office. Tell the receptionist that if Laura or Margaret call, you are away and sitting in important negotiations and cannot be disturbed."

"I don't need to go to an hotel, we have a guest flat I think Wilson will let me use for this week. More private than it is in this building."

"All the better, but I repeat sever the chain your wife has around your neck and do it today without further doubt. Talk to the receptionist first, then, send the text message to Margaret. Once that is done, you will feel like a heavy load has been removed from your shoulders, guaranteed."

*****

To my surprise Gary did go through with my suggestions and kept in hiding during the next few days.

I used the time to line up my "virtual guns" ready for the "ambush" I had planned for Friday. You know, attack is the best defence.

Thursday evening, all set to go, I sent Laura the following text, "After you drop girls off, meet me at 10?"

Only a few minutes later came the reply: "OK, why not tonight?"

It was funny sitting in the basement, she in the living room above my head writing the answer: "Sorry, busy tonight. I'll meet you at the house at 10am."

*****

The next morning, I arrived at the house as agreed, having two women in tow. I locked myself in and asked my two helpers to stay a few feet away and out of sight until my wife had greeted me. I was very unsure how I would be met.

"Hi Laura," I said to her when she came to the door.

"Henry, nice to see you, but I am angry with you staying away for so long. The girls are missing you and you have imprisoned me in this house for a whole week. Your duty should be to care for the girls in the evening so I could go out once in awhile. I told James you would be home today so I am planning to see him this evening. But we really need to talk Henry."

With that tirade over, I turned my head and asked the two ladies to follow me as I headed for the living room.

Laura looked at them and me with a surprised expression on her face and she asked, "Who are these women, Henry?"

"Laura, you can sit in the easy chair over there, I will sit in the sofa, Miss Susan Black, my lawyer, can sit here, and Mrs Ruth Nelson, who is an observer, can sit in this chair."

"What's going on, Henry? I thought we should talk about our situation alone, not with other people present."

"We are going to talk about our situation, as you say, I would rather say we shall talk about your actions which have destroyed what I thought was a loving marriage, Laura."

"Please Henry, can't these two women leave and so we two can talk together quietly and sensibly?"

"No Laura, first of all, I would like to play for you the conversation we had before you left for your first date with James."

The recording was played and I could see that it hit home. When she heard what she had said that evening, I think she understood I would fight.

She said, "How could you record this, you should have informed me that the conversation was recorded. You can't use this against me."

"Yes I can. Now listen to the telephone conversation I had with your mother, you encouraged me to talk to her, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

I played the recording, looked at Laura and said, "You were right, your mother was well on board. I had no idea that your father had been through the same. But unlike me, he caved in."

"But, Henry, it was only a warning or an experiment to see if you would allow me to do it. I did not have sex with him that night. I still have not done anything."

"Laura, listen to these two short recordings, the first one is you talking to yourself when you got home and the next one is your side of the telephone conversation you had with your mother the next day."

I played them, looked at Laura with a sad smile and asked, "Was it worth it?"

"It was only this one night, Henry, please believe me, I will never do it again."

"When we came in today, I and both of these women heard you had arranged to see James this evening, no I don't. I have been living in the basement the whole week Laura, keeping an eye on the girls and you. Every night I have been upstairs and kissed them goodnight. On Wednesday you had a visitor, James, I think. I took one of the baby monitors up and sat it outside your bedroom. It was recording your activities and what both of you said until you fell asleep. Then I went up and removed it. Should I play that recording as well?"

Laura started now to cry and said, "NO, please don't."

"Laura, it is time to pay the piper. You have two choices."

"Paying the piper? What do you mean, Henry?"

"It's an expression used about people who have to pay for the consequences of their actions."

"I see," tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"The first option you have is to accept my divorce petition my lawyer has prepared. You will receive it when we are finished talking. Basically it means you will leave the marriage and you will get half our assets, which are not much. I will have full custody of the girls and you will not be allowed to be alone with them for the nearest future. You are an unfit mother. You are to leave this house and if you want to work on a future where a normal relationship with our girls can be made you must not run to your mother. For your information, your father has left her and he is buying a flat large enough for you to live with him.

He will support and help you as that father he has not been before. He will help you through the next year or more until you are able to stand on your own two feet. He will support you so you can get an education and secure a decent job and be there for you through that therapy you so sorely need. Your father has become a man again and cast off his yoke your mother put on him and he has full control of their finances. Your father has financially tied your mother up nicely, I can add. You will be well protected if you let him help you.

Any questions so far?"

Laura looked at me with a hateful glance saying, "You are out of your mind, first of all, you cannot claim me being an unfit mother and my mother would clean out my father in a divorce. This I will not accept!"

"I will comment on your last statement first. When your mother started her cheating and gave your father his ultimatum, you were about six at the time. He caved, but he was not stupid. So all these years he has prepared to just disappear leaving her with the house and not anything more. She or her lawyers will find nothing of value. He will not divorce her, she will stay in the house and he will pay the utilities and a modest monthly stipend for her to live on with two provisions, one being you are not to live with her and second, no men allowed. If any of those conditions are broken, he will stop paying her anything.

As to your first comment about your fitness for motherhood, I would like to inform you that your father in an affidavit about his life with your mother said the following," and I read out what he had said,

"About two weeks ago Laura came to visit us. All three of us sat in the living room, I was reading the paper and they talked. I was as usual invisible for them, but what they said got my attention. They talked about how Margaret had started to educate Laura at the age of ten. The importance for her to understand why and how the female superiority was meant to be. They both agreed that it was a little late and that they should start educating your girls when you had settled in your designated role. They discussed how they could work with role-plays and dolls, small male dolls and bigger female dolls and they had a good laugh at that."

I made a pause waiting for a comment, she was sitting still, thinking, shaking her head, looking bewildered and said with a sigh, "Do you expect me to turn to dad when he stabs me in the back like that?"

"Yes Laura, because he wants to save you."

"Laura, I told you Mrs Ruth Nelson is here as an observer. I can inform you that she is here as a representative for the town's Child Welfare office. I will ask her to clarify this for you."

Mrs Nelson picked up a document from her bag and said to Laura, "I have heard and studied all the evidence your husband has presented to you today. Based on the solid evidence, we in the child welfare office, see that the girls will be safer with the father than with you. Based on what your mother has made you go through, we consider you a victim. You have planned to do to your girls the same as she did to you, so we do not see you a fit mother at the present state of affairs. We can almost guarantee you, if this go to court you will not get full custody of your children, the evidence is too overwhelming, I am sorry to say. However, this does not mean you cannot come back and play an important part in their lives later after the therapy you really need. You should take what is offered and try to restructure your life.

For your information, I have here a court order that I can use. If you want to fight for the custody of the children I can go directly from here to the girls preschool and pick them up and place them in a foster home until the court decides who they should be with. The ball is in your corner."

Laura was a beaten woman, I didn't know what to expect, but to see her this broken down was something I couldn't have imagined. With her teary face, she looked at me, "Why didn't you just kill me?"

"The mother of my children, of course not. They need a good mother, a mother who knows what's important in life, who can teach them solid values. You can't do that now, but if you really want to be that mother you can do it in the future. You have to work hard, to get an education and get realities in straight order. You really need a soul search and you and your father can together form a new life. One thing you must understand, I will be there for you, but not as a husband. What you did killed my love for you."

"Henry, have you already found another woman since you play so hard?"

"No Laura, another woman is the least and last thing I can think about now. I am shell-shocked and probably will be scared of women for some time. But in the future, I hope I will meet a woman that will love me and only me without the need of the fantastic sex men like James provide."

"You said I had two choices, what is the second?"

"You can decide to fight it, that is the other option."

"If not, I am to accept to your proposal without legal advice, is that it?"

"No, here is one thousand dollars in cash, here are the yellow pages. You can phone any lawyer you find here, ask him or her to come to our house and go through the proposal with you. Miss Black will supply all the evidence we have for his or hers evaluation. You can go to the kitchen and start phoning."

She did go to the kitchen and we heard her making several calls. After awhile she came back and told us only one could make it today, but we had to go to his office. When she told us who the lawyer was, Miss Black confirmed that he is one of the best and will give her sound advice.

My lawyer and Laura went to his office together and Mrs Nelson and I went to pick the girls up at the preschool.

When she came back through the door she came to me and threw both her arms round my neck and cried. "Please don't find another woman before I have redeemed myself, I love you and I will do as you say. Take good care of the girls and I will never say anything to them to give you distress. Please forgive me, I will be a better woman and I want my girls to be proud of me."

"Just accept it," I said.

"Yes," she said,

with teary cheeks, "I have spoken with my father, and I will move in with him today. He has found a decent furnished flat we can use until he finds and buys a permanent home. He sounds like a new man, Henry. What have you done with him?"

"Helped him see the light, you should know that at work he is strong, able and has a lot to give. He just has to get away from your mom's influence. So whatever you do, never suggest that he should try patching up his relationship with her, neither should you."

The End.

Epilogue.

Some readers will say this is an unfinished story. I do not. But for the benefit of those readers I can tell them that Gary and his daughter settled into a flat where Laura had her own private set of rooms. She started therapy and decided to go to college for a nursing degree.

Three years later she was RN and started a new phase of her life, found her own flat and set of friends. She started to visit Henry and the girls a few weeks after the separation, first she saw the girls with Henry present, but soon she could be alone with them without Henry being worried. They loved their mother and she was a loving mother for them.

Henry did not start dating for the first year, but you remember the Girls-On-Wheels? He started to meet them on their outings and befriended a very nice young woman, Ellen. They became a couple, Ellen had been dumped by her fiancé when they found out she could not have children. Henry was fine with that and she was happy to be part of a ready-made family.

When Laura saw the romance between Ellen and Henry flourish, she gave up her hope, wished him all happiness and started dating herself. She got to know one of her father's clients, a very successful entrepreneur. He had not been married before and she told him how she had treated Henry. He accepted her anyway, they married and she gave birth to another set of twins nine months after the wedding, boys this time.

Margaret lost her husband, her daughter and grandchildren. She had used up all available men for sex and became a lonely and bitter woman.

Gary, on the other hand had many good golden years, he thrived being a grandfather and had many friends, especially among the many both healthy and beautiful widows. His golden years could have been an interesting story in itself!

Definitely The End.