Love Conquers Infidelity

I gave her my phone and she handed me her phone. I put my name and phone number into her contacts folder. I took out one of my business cards and gave it to her. It also had my work phone and my work email which I underlined with my pen. I gave her my pocket notebook and pen that I always carry and she wrote in their names, address, home phone, and her email.

"This email, is it just yours? Does your husband have access to it?" I asked.

"It is mine and he has no access into it. My family and I often write in Italian so he would not understand even if he could get in," she explained. "My family all live in Trinidad. My Mother is living in Colorado Springs temporarily because she is in need of specialized medical care."

"Today has been stressful for both of us and we both could use some rest. There is a Hilton Inn a block away from here. Let me get you a room for a couple of days until you can get back into your house," I said.

"That is awfully nice of you. I admit that lying down sounds good. I would have slept in the chair at the hospital if I had to, but ..... Are you sure that you want to do this?" she asked.

"Annette, I am a successful businessman; I own my own company. I can easily afford to get you a room," I said.

I paid the dinner bill and we drove one block to the hotel. I helped her out of my car and I retrieved her suitcase from the trunk and carried it inside for her. As she was registering, I paid for 3 nights and I told the clerk if she needed an extra day or two to also charge that to my card.

When she had completed the registration, I said to her, "Annette, I will meet you here at 8 am tomorrow and we will have breakfast here. Then I will drive us to the hospital. Is that OK?" I asked.

She turned to me and held up her hands for a hug. She is much shorter than I, so I had to lean over to give her a hug. She put her arms around my neck and squeezed me tightly; then she kissed me on the cheek. She had tears in her eyes.

"Thank you. I really don't know what I would have done without your help," she said.

"We can talk more tomorrow at the hospital. A good night's sleep will do us both well," I said and I walked out.

******

Back home, I turned on some soft jazz music. I notice the wireless home phone showed that I had messages. I found that I had 13 calls and all were from reporters and news stations wanting a statement from me about my wife. I erased them all; I have no intention of giving anyone a statement.

I turned on the TV and watched the 7 pm news. The lead story was about a man and a woman who were beat up while having sex. They had live footage of each of them being brought out of the house on stretchers and put into ambulances. The reporter said that the police found them nude in bed. They were in the act of having sex when they were attacked and seriously injured. She went on to say that the police suspect it was a burglary that went bad. She also said that the man and woman were both married but not to each other. No names were given. I turned off the TV.

I got a writing tablet and pen from my home office. I like to make notes and "to do" lists. I don't drink alcohol anymore but tonight I poured a small glass of Ruby Port to sip while I figured out what to do. I started making notes on the tablet.

I wrote out exactly what I wanted to say to her parents, her sister and my parents -- just big picture with no details. 'She was hurt in a possible burglary and there were complications that were still being investigated. I did not have the full picture yet. She is in the hospital and expected to recover.'

Her parents were surprised and wanted to come right away; they recently retired and moved to Florida. I told them to hold off as she was in a drug-induced coma and there is nothing anyone can do for her. They had not seen the TV coverage of her. The same thing happened when I called her sister who lives in Nebraska, except she had seen the TV coverage and she had a lot of questions. I told her that I would call back when I knew more.

I called my parents and told them everything that I knew except for my hitting the guy. All they suggested was to be patient and listen to her story when she is able to talk and don't judge her yet because she may not remember everything or remember it correctly. They told me that they loved me and would be there for me if I needed them.

Next, what to do about our marriage? I should do some pre-divorce maneuvers while she is in the hospital -- just in case.

Finances - every cheating wife story I have read talks about separating finances; however, ours are already separated. When we married, we already had separate banking accounts and still have them today. Our 401K and retirement plans are already separated. We each have a car and each one has only one name of the title. We even have separate credit cards. The only thing that is in both of our names is the house.

Evidence -- I don't need a private detective to gather evidence. If I want a divorce, I can use the news footage and the doctor's report that they had sex. I went to my home office and logged onto the internet using my desktop computer. I went to the Channel 31 News website and I downloaded the video of my wife being taken out of the Barnes' house - just in case I need it.

Lawyer -- I am probably going to need a lawyer so I called Ralph Flannigan at his home. He is the corporate lawyer that I use for my business.

"Hello, this is Ralph Flannigan," he said.

"Sorry to bother you, Ralph. Did you see the news tonight?" I asked.

"Yes, I did. Do you know them?" he asked.

"The lady is my wife," I replied.

"Oh no! Not Ann. I would never have thought that she would do something like that. So how can I help you?" he asked.

"Two things: First, I may need a divorce lawyer and secondly, the police suspect that I might have been the one who assaulted them so I need a criminal lawyer. You can leave names and numbers at my office tomorrow," I said.

"I will not ask if you did it, but I could understand it if you did," he said.

"I will answer you this way. I am a businessman and not a fighter. Why physically hurt him and get put in jail? The physical pain he feels is only temporary, but rather, hurt him in a business way. It is better to cause him to go bankrupt and divorced. That way he will be suffering for the remainder of his life. As for my wife - why would I hurt her? What would it accomplish? She has done something stupid and it hurts me, but I still love her. You cannot turn off love like a light switch," I said.

"Well said, Jim. I will call your office tomorrow with the names. If you need anything else, just call me ..... any time," he said.

Now I need to think about the elephant in the room -- the actual cheating. What am I going to do about that? Inside my head, I kept seeing him fucking her on the bed. That is my pussy! She gave it to me at our wedding. She can't allow just anyone to use it!

I was raised that you did not fool around with a married lady. They wore a ring to show that they were taken and not available. When I was growing up in my little hometown, if a man played around with another man's wife, he would be in the hospital for several months and the whole town would know all about it.

Ryan: I have had some physical revenge with him. I can take my revenge farther by suing him; however, he has a nice, innocent wife who is going to have their first child soon. I do not want to hurt him financially because it would affect his wife and child and they are innocent.

My Wife: I am not certain that my wife was really into the affair because I did hear my wife say that she was trying to leave when he started to fuck her ass. However, I did see her put her arms around his neck and she did kiss him back. Also she was all "lovey dovey" walking out of her office with him. Hum! Damn! I love her so much; why is she doing this?

I think I need to hear her side of the story. Was it a one-time thing or was it something that has been going on for a long time? I think I would treat her differently depending. Anyone can slip up once or twice. (I only say twice because when I make a mistake, I usually do it again to see if I get the same result. Duh!)

If I had an affair instead of her, I would want her to forgive me and work through it to keep the marriage because I am not sure that I could live without her. However, if I find that this is a serious, ongoing affair, then that tells me that she no longer loves me and that would require a different outcome. Somehow, I doubt that. She is always home right after work and she never has drinks after work with her coworkers. She is always home on the weekends. So when would she have time to have an affair? Maybe this was a one-time thing. She has been very nice to me at home and the sex continues to be wonderful. What the hell is going on?

If I find that it is an ongoing affair, then I would have to divorce her. I have the photos and the video of them fucking. That is adequate for a divorce, but do I want one. No! She is everything I ever wanted in a friend, and equal, and a lover.

If I decide against a divorce, then what do I do about her? Put a locator on her cell phone? Make her check in with me all the time? Make her quit her job? Put a GPS transmitter on her car? Make her go to counseling? I am trying to run a business, so I do not have time to watch her all the time. Beside I don't want to live the rest of my life wondering if she is cheating on me.

Part of what I love about her is that she is independent and not afraid to stand up to me, and I like that. I treat her as an equal and not as a typical wife. She has spirit and spunk. If I put too many restrictions on her, I fear that she would turn into a slave to me. I certainly don't want her walking on eggs all the time and being afraid of me.

I will make no decision now. I need to talk with Ann to get more information.

The last item: I put on surgical gloves and I retrieved all the stuff I took from the house from my briefcase. I checked Ann's phone; all her phone calls and texts were deleted and the trash folder was clean. There was one text this morning from a "Baseballboy" that simply said "surprise @lunch." I did load a cell phone locator program on her phone for the future. I turned off the phone and put it beside Ann's lunch that she forgot to take this morning.

Next, I checked the guy's cell phone. I found emails between my wife and him but most of them were of him flirting with Ann. However, I did find three interesting ones from him to my wife. One dated the afternoon of May 1st that said "best one ever! don't get that at home"; two others dated May 15 and 16 just said "wow u r the best great time". I downloaded all of his emails and my wife's responses to the computer server at my office using my home Wi-Fi.

I tried to open his laptop but it was password locked. I have a friend, Steve, who might be able to get into it. He is an outstanding IT person and runs his own IT business. I put Mr. Barnes' cell phone and laptop in my briefcase and locked it. I threw the gloves into the trash.

The last thing I did was to upload the videos and photos I had taken of them on my phone to my server at my office. I left the photos on my phone but removed the fucking video.

I finished my glass of port and went to bed. I had a hard time going to sleeping without Ann beside me because I am so used to her snuggling up to me. If we divorced, I would never be able to sleep again. I really love this woman!

I eventually took two sleeping pills.

Day Two

The next morning I woke up about 7 am. I did a quick shower and shave. I dressed and drove over to the Hilton Inn. When I got there, Annette was already sitting at a table waiting for me. We ordered breakfast and she told me that she slept well last night. She even looked better today. We finished our breakfast and headed to the hospital.

At the Hospital

Sometime after Annette and I had left the hospital yesterday, they moved my wife and Annette's husband to regular rooms and out of the Emergency Room section. My wife was on the third floor and he was on the fourth floor. We rode the elevator to my wife's floor and Annette gave me hug. I left the elevator and walked to my wife's room.

I pulled up the chair and sat beside the bed. She was still unconscious so I took Ann's hand and held it. I tried to talk to her in case she could hear me. Her head was bandaged and she still was connected with wires and an IV,

I checked my emails on my cell phone. Nothing from my office -that is good. I called my office and got the names of the attorneys from my secretary.

A couple of hours later, the doctor came in and checked on her.

"Anything new?" I asked him.

"No. She is sedated and her vital signs look good. We are watching her brain waves and they are getting back to normal," he said.

"Thank you, doctor," I said as he left the room.

******

About lunch time, I decided to leave and take care of some business.

As I drove out of the parking lot, I called the criminal lawyer. His secretary said that he had just returned and could give me an hour.

His office was on the 30^th floor of a high rise in downtown Denver. He must make a lot of money because his office suite was totally finished with beautiful wood-covered walls and fancy wooden doors. Jacob Horowitz was a tall, thin man with gray hair. He wore horn-rimmed glasses that made him look very sinister.

I explained what happened, including the burglary information, and how the police thought I was responsible. Told him what I had given as my alibi.

"Did you know that your wife was having an affair?" he asked.

"No. There were no indications that my wife was having an affair," I said.

"Do you know this man?" he asked.

"No and my wife has never mentioned him. I met his wife at the hospital and she had no knowledge of the affair either. His wife said that they have no money and she is pregnant -- due to deliver in a couple of weeks. The police have roped off their house so she has no access for clothing and no place to stay. I am paying for a hotel for her so that she has a safe place to stay. I am not wealthy but I can afford to help her until the police release her house. Since I go to the hospital every day to be with my wife, I drive her back and forth," I explained.

"Why are you being nice to the guy's wife? Are you feeling guilty?" he asked.

"When I was right out of college just like the Barnes, I was poor too. I can afford to help her and yes, I feel sorry for her. She is innocent in this affair. Am I feeling guilty? .... Maybe a little because my wife is partially responsible for all this," I explained.

"Mr. Reynolds, most of my clients are criminals who have been charged with a crime. I ask all my clients the same question: Did you do it?" Mr. Horowitz asked.

"NO, I did not. I have explained to you about my alibi," I replied.

"OK. It doesn't really matter. You see, most of my business comes from representing criminals in a court of law. Hell yes, most of them are guilty; they know it and I know it. It is my job to try to get the charges dismissed or reduced. When they are found guilty, then my job is to get them probation or a lighter sentence. That will offend a successful businessman such as yourself but someone has to represent these people, and I admit that I make a good living representing the scum of humanity. None of the other attorneys in this city want to do this work so I have no competition. Several times a year I get a rich guy who is on his 3^rd or 4^th DUI and he will pay me anything to keep him out of jail," he said.

"I guess I understand but I don't like criminals getting off," I said.

"I will go to the police station tomorrow and see what they have and I need to check your alibi. I want to you to continue doing whatever you normally do. Do not change your routines and avoid all trouble especially traffic tickets. Do not talk with the police unless I am with you. Got it?" he explained.

I wrote him a $4000 check from my company as a retainer. I will tell my accountant that I was consulting with the attorney on a business matter. I left his office and walked to my car.

I decided to hold off seeing the divorce lawyer. I wanted to talk with Ann before I did anything. I would want her to treat me the same way if I had the affair.

I drove to the business that my IT friend owns. I gave him the computer and the guy's cell phone. I explained to him the police version of what happened and told him to get what he could from the guy's devices. I told him to save anything useful to a memory stick and to keep it until I asked him for it. I told him to destroy the phone and laptop for me.

I called my office and had some of my staff to handle certain things for me based upon phone messages. The man I left in charge seemed to be doing a great job of managing the office.

I drove past the Barnes' house. The yellow police tape was still up round the front of the house and it still included my wife's car. There was a red piece of paper on the front door which usually informs the public that the house is a crime scene and no one may enter.

I called Annette to see how she was doing. She was sitting with her husband and he was also in a drug-induced coma. I asked her if she would like to go to an early dinner and she said yes. I drove to the hospital and met her in the main lobby.

"What do you want to eat tonight?" I asked her.

"I am missing my family so do you know any good Italian restaurants?" she asked.

"I know a small one that is owned by an Italian family. The food is exactly like the Italian food in my hometown," I said.

We got into my car and I drove to the restaurant. We ordered our dinners and sat talking. She told me about her family and her hometown. I had driven through her hometown many times but I had never stopped to explore it.

Our dinner arrived and we continued our conversation during the meal.

Annette told me that the police interviewed her this morning.

"I could not tell them anything as I was in Colorado Springs with my mother. They told me that they had tried to talk with Ryan before they sedated him, but he could not remember anything and the doctor confirmed his loss of memory," she explained.

"They talked to me yesterday. They suspect that I might have done it, except that I have a solid alibi. I assure you that I did not do it. Your husband would be in much worse condition if I had caught him fucking my wife," I replied. "I drove past your house today and it is still a crime scene so you cannot go home."

"I am sorry that I have to continue staying at the hotel. I know it is expensive, but I have to tell you a secret. We do not have any savings and our credit cards are almost maxed out, so I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you are doing for me," she said and her eyes began to water up.

"The hotel bill is quite small compared to most of the expenses for my company. My accountant will hardly notice it. I feel that my wife has some responsibility for your situation so please allow me to help you," I said.

We left the restaurant and I drove her to her hotel again.

"I'll meet you at 8 am again tomorrow for breakfast here. OK?" I asked.

"That would be great. I am not fond of driving around in Denver yet. Would you like to come in? I am feeling lonesome and would welcome the company," she said.

"Annette, you are a wonderful lady but I cannot go to your room with you. I am still married and ......" I explained as she interrupted.

"No, silly. I am just lonesome and it is still early; we can talk in the restaurant or the lobby. I feel like talking and you are easy to talk with," she said.