Never to be Seen Again

There was no reply from Luke that day or the next day. The third day she called his office and got his executive administrator, Brenda. Brenda was very close to Luke, idolized him in fact, and Luke had confided in her what had happened between Chad and Becky.

Brenda picked up the call from Becky and told her in no uncertain terms that Luke was busy, had instructed her to not put through any personal calls to him, and that he would appreciate being left alone until he was ready. Becky assumed she meant ready to talk, but she hadn't really said that. Well, for now, Becky knew that Luke needed time and had asked for time.

Becky got a call from Chad and now knew that Luke had indeed gone ahead with the termination of his job. She also heard that Chad's wife had kicked him out and he was back staying with his parents. He hinted that he would like to come over and talk to Becky about getting Luke to forgive them, but she told him to fuck off and that she never wanted to talk to him again. She was putting a lot of the blame on him, although subconsciously she knew she was kidding herself and she was just as guilty if not more than Chad. She still couldn't wrap her head around why she really did it and how stupid she could be to jeopardize everything she had with Luke.

Becky gave Luke a week and then couldn't stand it anymore. She called his cell, but it immediately rolled to a recorded message saying the number was no longer in service. She called his office and was told that Luke would not be available and she should stop calling. That was too much for her to take. She had to go on the offense.

She had wanted to keep her affair private, hoping and assuming that Luke wouldn't want family and friends to know he had been cheated on by her; but now she started to call all of his friends and ask if they knew where he was staying and what he was thinking. All of them simply told her that they had nothing to say to her and that Luke had told them it was a private issue between him and her. The way they treated her with such little respect and empathy made her understand that Luke had likely told them about her affair, and this added to her shame and sadness. Becky finally called Luke's parents to see if maybe he was staying there, but when they picked up the phone and she identified herself and said Hi, they hung up on her. She called again and they let it roll to voicemail.

She got in her car and drove to Luke's manufacturing company and persuaded security to let her into the lobby. They called down Luke's executive assistant Brenda and she walked up to Becky and asked her bluntly what she wanted. Becky was close to tears and said "I want my husband to come down her and talk to me right now. He needs to respect his wife enough to talk to her and enough to let me explain"

Beth just looked at her and said, "He needs to respect his wife, just like she respected him and their marriage? Maybe you need to think a lot harder about what you have done. Regardless, Luke no longer works here. He has sold the company and left the area and has been very specific about not forwarding any information on his current state, well-being or location to you. Now please leave or I'll have security escort you off the premises."

Becky rushed home in total confusion. Sold the company? He would never do that. Left the area? Why wouldn't he talk to her? She got on her e-mail and tried to write him a long letter of apology, but when she sent it to both his personal and work e-mail addresses it bounced back as an invalid address. She tried his parents again, but they had blocked her number. She went back up to the spare bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

For the next 4 weeks, Becky lived like a zombie. She had heard nothing form Luke, no word on where he was or how he was dealing with their marriage. In her frustration, she hired a Private Investigation firm, and they eventually sent her a report with limited information. They told her that Luke had sold his company and although the exact price wasn't public, it was estimated to have gone for over $20 Million dollars. They told her that he had closed all of Becky and his joint accounts and credit cards, cancelled his phone and internet and e-mail, sold all of his possessions of value and had evidently left town. They told her that Luke had paid off the mortgage to the house and put the deed in her name. They had been unable to get anyone of his friend, workmates, or relatives to tell them anything about his location or how to contact him.

8 weeks after Luke had left, a man came to the front door handed Becky a manilla envelope. She could see it was Luke's writing on the address label, and she ripped it open hoping for some information. The first thing that fell out as she opened the envelop was his wedding ring. Then some documents, and then a photograph that was cut into strips. As she pieced together the photograph, she quickly saw it was their wedding portrait, that had been sent through a shredder. She broke down and cried for several minutes until she was able to open the rest of the contents of the envelop. There were legal documents and a written letter. There was also a USB stick in the envelope. She grabbed the letter and began to read it.

"Becky, I know you wanted to see me, talk to me, and you were confident that we could get past your affair. You considered it just meaningless sex, a mistake, something that I should just forget and that we would go back to the marriage we had before you decided to break our wedding vows and my trust. I was amazed that you could kid yourself into thinking it would ever be the same or even close to the same. I know that you could never have loved me, at least the way I loved you, to be able to cheat on me like that. "

"You didn't seem to understand the hurt and pain that you caused. No one has ever hurt me that badly and for it to come from the woman I loved more than life itself was too much to ever forgive. I would never be able to trust you again, never be able to touch you and make love to you without seeing what I saw. Perhaps you don't remember it as being that bad or that big of a deal. If so, I have enclosed the video of you and Chad destroying our marriage. Your words alone are enough to break my heart over and over every time I think of them.

"It became apparent to me from the calls I initially received from our very close friends and relatives about how I could leave you and why I would be so cruel as to disappear from your life that you never took responsibility for your actions with them or likely with your family. I am sorry to say that this same video, with a different letter, has now been sent to those people so they understand the depth of your betrayal and how there would be no getting over this. I have been so devastated and destroyed by you that I supposed I wanted some revenge in return. I am not happy about my actions but believe they were the only road open to me."

" I have decided that from this day forward, you will never hear from me again. You will never see me again. And I will never return to our house, our town, maybe even our state. I guess I will never understand why you did this. If it was something missing in me that drove you to this, or if it was something missing in you. I hope you figure it out before having another serious relationship and I hope that you remember my pain before you would ever consider cheating on anyone again. I hope that someday in the near future I can get past the pain, humiliation, and disrespect you have put me through to remember the earlier times in our relationship that were filled with love. I hope that sometime, instead of the hate I feel for you, I can feel at least indifferent, or if I become truly the man, I would like to be perhaps I can find forgiveness or understanding. Regardless, you will never see that day, perhaps you don't really care at this point, I guess I'll never know and that is something I too will live with.

Goodbye.

The last set of documents in the envelop were entitled Divorce Dissolution, but at that point Becky couldn't see through her tears and she slumped to the floor.

EPILOQUE

It had been 5 years since Luke had disappeared, and true to his letter, Becky had not heard a word from anyone about his health, his spirit, his location or his life. Luke had been quite generous in the divorce decree, offering her $1 Million dollars and the house and possessions in lieu of any ongoing financial support.

Her lawyer told her it was the best offer she would get as the $22 Million dollars that Luke sold the company for was not held in the United States and would never be available for any court ordered restitution anyway. Becky really didn't care, in her mind she deserved nothing and she would never fight anything that Luke had decided was fair.

Her life had been very rough at first, as her friends and family saw the devastating video of her fucking Chad in her marriage bed. She understood how much she had really hurt Luke and how she had driven him to hurt her back by sending out the video. She also understood it was a quick way to stop anyone from asking her or him about what happened and if they could get back together again. She had felt extreme humiliation, embarrassment and hurt in having her friends and relatives see that; but she understood it still wasn't as bad as what seeing and hearing that had done to Luke.

She lived with her shame, and at her parents urging, had decided to go to a therapist to work on her sorrow and her depression and try to turn her life around from the gloom that hung on her like a coat and affected her in every aspect of her life. She had had a few dates, but she really couldn't seem to ever enjoy herself or let anyone into her personal thoughts and pain, so nothing ever progressed beyond a few painfully awkward dates.

She had had a few one-night stands to try and find some comfort in sex and they had been so awkward, so degrading, and such a dismal reminder of what she once had being reduced to this; that she could not longer stand the idea of meaningless sex again. When Luke had left, he had taken the photo album of their wedding, and she had been left with very few pictures of him and her together, and each day the memory of his looks, his voice, his spirit and personality, and his loving touch faded more and more from her life.