Rivalry

The owner followed her to the limo waiting for her, trying to find out what caused the slap and asking what he could do to appease her. She waved him off and then pointed. He looked up and saw a billboard that had the following in large letters: "My wife made a cuckold out of me." It then showed a picture of David with a UK shirt on and a picture of Vivian with her Cardinal sweatshirt on. At the bottom of the sign was a message: "For proof, call xxx-xxx-xxxx."

When the owner went back inside, he asked Vivian for an explanation. She tried to avoid the cuckold issue by saying that she and David were legally separated so she could legally be with whomever she wished. The owner called the number on the billboard and was treated with a recording from the meeting Vivian and Allen had with David. Vivian was fired on the spot. After going home to cry, she called her lawyer to see if she could sue David and/or the billboard company. He checked the billboard and the recording and told her that if it was true, it was not libel. Given what was said on the recording being true, it was doubtful her suit would hold up in a civil trial. In any case, it was not a sure thing, especially with a jury chosen from a pool who knew the family name well.

Vivian called Allen. Before she could say anything, he asked if she had seen the billboard. She said yes and commented on being fired because of it. He wondered why she would be fired. They soon realized they were not talking about the same billboard. The one Allen was talking about had a picture of Allen in a Cardinal exercise outfit and David with a UK vest. The inscription read: "I have filed a lawsuit against this man for Alienation of Affection." Allen called his attorney. He was told the alienation lawsuit had to be bogus.

"There is no Alienation of Affection statute in Kentucky anymore," but the lawyer called the information number listed. The recording admitted that there was no applicable statute, but it was true that a suit for alienation was filed and recorded in circuit court. It was subsequently thrown out because of no applicable statute. The billboard was technically accurate. It only said a suit had been filed. Since Allen was a wholesale buyer and did not have customer contact, Allen was able to keep his job.

Vivian was becoming unraveled. She now had no income. David was creating expenses she could barely afford. No one could find him or the money. Allen was bogged down with his own divorce. What next?

She shouldn't have asked.

She spent a day looking for a job without any luck. In several cases, the potential employer made it clear that her treatment of her husband made her toxic. She heard 'We take care of our own' more than once. Since Vivian and Allen were both Yankees by birth (Louisville is a northern city according to most other Kentuckians except during the Derby) and were Cardinal fans, they had that going against them in this UK-leaning Southern town. Vivian thought that her and Allen's assumption that David would want to avoid humiliation backfired. David's pronouncement of being a cuckold to a UofL fan gained him sympathy. It gained them anger from the community.

Vivian came into the house and noticed at once a familiar but unwelcome odor. "Skunk." Again, the exterminator. A family of skunks was removed from under the house. Odor reducers went full blast. Clothes had to be washed in tomato juice. Vivian cried beyond Allen's ability to assuage.

Vivian wanted to move. She never liked the house anyway. Allen told her that she could not afford another place for more than a couple of months. His wife had allowed him to stay in the guest bedroom for a while, but Vivian could not move there. Their financial situation's salvation depended on the divorce settlement which looked like would take a year. They had to stick it out.

The next day, Vivian got a feeling that David had been in the house, even after the most recent change of locks and updating of the alarm system. It was almost like he was still living there. "The basement!" Her mental defense system was worn down enough for her to do the unimaginable, go down to the basement. Vivian chugged a shot of tequila for support. After a deep breath, she opened the basement door and turned on the light. Instead of the dark, dank home for despicable critters she expected, it was bright and cheery. She went down the stairs slowly carrying the poker from the fireplace for protection. The basement was now one big room with a bright coat of paint and a tiled ceiling. There was one door on the far wall. She went and opened it to see a toilet, sink and shower. After inspecting every square inch of every wall and banging the walls with the poker, Vivian could see nothing out of the order. She went back upstairs.

Allen got a call from his wife. "You dirty son-of-a-bitch. You may have given me a STD. You think I have been a bitch in our divorce up to now, wait until you see how I'm changing the divorce petition."

"What the hell are you talking about? Who has a STD?"

"I just got a call from the health department saying I had been named as ONE of the women by a man who just found out he had a STD. Since you are the only man I had sex with, it had to be you. I don't know which I am most mad at, you giving me a STD or that I'm only ONE of the women you may have spread your disease to. You told me that you and Vivian did not have sex until she and you had filed for divorce. The health department person said the man had been infected before that time. I can't believe I gave you the benefit of the doubt when David put up those billboards. I thought he was just upset at being divorced. Now I think all those stories about poor Vivian and her rotten marriage were just a coverup for your getting extra sex on the side." She hung up.

Before he could get his head on straight, Allen got a call from Vivian. "You bastard. You may have given me a STD."

"Oh no, not again."

"What? You mean you've given women a STD before? You scumbag!"

"Stop, stop. I haven't given anyone a STD. Who told you I had a STD?"

"I got a call from the health department. They said that . . ."

"A man named you as one of the women yada, yada, yada."

"So, you know."

"My wife got one too. How do you know the person who called was really from the health department?"

"Well, who would make up something like that?" Instantly Vivian answered her own question. "Damn that David. I bet he got some bimbo to make that call. I'm going to kill that SOB. He's trying to drive me crazy and right now he wouldn't have to drive very far." Allen helped her calm down. He promised to come over as soon as he could tolerate the odor.

He had not able to stay with her as he was particularly averse to skunk odor. Vivian had to sleep alone a few days, if she could sleep. She had to be prescribed sedatives to sleep. With the pills, she slept soundly. The second morning after drug induced sleep, Vivian awoke to see her Cardinal bedroom in shambles. On further inspection, she found valuables missing and evidence that someone had broken in the kitchen door. The house alarm had been turned off. She was sure that she had turned it on before she went to bed. Once it hit her that someone had been in her bedroom and could have done anything to her, she panicked. She called the police reporting someone had tried to rape and kill her.

Once the police came, they saw the evidence of a burglary but no evidence of rape or attempted murder. She accused her husband. When the police questioned why he would want items of rather questionable value, she told them it was just one of several events that had been devised to torture her. The events she described, however, could easily be seen as coincidences to an objective party. They asked how they could get in touch with him. She said he had disappeared. When asked if she had filed a missing person's report, she admitted she hadn't. She was still hoping he would return and finish the divorce. The police said they would put out an APB on him as a 'person of interest.'

Having been kicked out again by his wife, Allen moved back in with Vivian. She made him sleep on a mattress in the doorway to the bedroom, so any intruder would have to step over him to get to her. She refused to take sleeping pills again in case she had to defend herself, so she got little sleep, which increased her edginess and growing paranoia.

One morning she headed out for a job interview when Allen called her and told her to stop her car immediately. He drove his car to hers and explained that there was a huge puddle of brake fluid under where her car had been parked. Vivian assumed David was now trying to kill her. She went totally bonkers. Allen had to have her hospitalized.

Allen called the police and said this was an attempted murder case. The police looked at the brake fluid spill and went to the mechanic her car was sent to. The mechanic said that her brake fluid was fine and there were no signs of a leak. Allen was so involved with calming Vivian, he had not done a basic examination of her car's brake fluid level.

Vivian wasn't the only one whose nerves were frazzled. Allen came to the conclusion that he had to make some decisions to salvage what he could of his and Vivian's lives. He had to concede that David had outsmarted them. He was able to be objective enough to realize that he and Vivian had brought this upon themselves by betraying their marriages. Now it was time to escape with as little additional damage as possible.

Allen called David's attorney and asked for a meeting, without his and Vivian's attorney. David's attorney advised against meeting without their attorney but finally agreed to meet. Allen offered, "What will it take to end this mess?" David's attorney got the impression their spirits were broken. He jumped on it.

"David gets the house, she gets $500,000. That's it."

"That's ridiculous."

"Okay. We'll see you in court. Whenever that will be."

Allen just couldn't see things continuing as they were for that long. He and Vivian needed to get away. "Deal, if you throw in a year of housing support and we get the money by the end of the month. Get the papers done. I will see she signs them."

David's attorney was happy as they were, that they were settling for 1/12 of what they might have gotten if they could have held on. He was not absolutely positive who was providing the 'incentives' to Vivian and Allen to settle, but he had his suspicions. And, no, he did not want to know for sure.

Allen made a deal with his wife for a lot less than $500,000, but the horror of the last few months was over. It wasn't ethical and probably could be challenged in court, but Allen got Vivian's signature. It seemed to please her when she was told it was all over. Allen assured her that they would go somewhere David would not bother her again. After the divorces were over, Allen and Vivian moved away and tried to start a new life. A few days after they settled in, Vivian received a package. All of her missing jewelry was inside. There was no note enclosed.

David did not move back into his house. He had never left. Even though Vivian had looked in the basement, she would have needed to know where the remote control was that opened the handle-free door. Nothing on the walls indicated they were anything other than walls. In fact, one whole wall was a door. The hidden wall/door opened to the panic room that David had built himself. Panic rooms were his specialty. In fact, he had agreed to be a consultant for the Webb Brothers because of his ability to construct them in the most unobtrusive way possible.

David was glad to come out of hiding. He was beginning to get claustrophobic. His virtual reality glasses helped. That and dozens of videogames. He brought in the cleaning supplies as the room had not been cleaned for a long time. He was glad to be able to take out the garbage normally. It had been a difficult chore to gather his trash in a bag and then sneak out late at night to a dumpster away from the house to take the garbage to.

David went to the police, many of whom he had known all his life. They said they could not find any chargeable offense in someone doing things that would devalue his own property. For example, David could not be charged for 'breaking into' his own house. Since the jewelry had never left the house and was back in the possession of its owner who declined to file charges, nothing was pursued. They really didn't want to look very hard. David was one of theirs.

When his neighbors and others noticed he was back, they asked where he had been. Some thought he was being smart by saying, "Nowhere. I've been at home." He really didn't want to divulge that his house had a panic room. David got back in everyone's good graces, however, by having neighborhood get-togethers, treating each neighborhood in turn with food and games for the kids. The party in his own neighborhood was extra nice as David had to assure all that the bed bug problem had been thoroughly taken care of. David had the money to spare and he was happy that a big chunk of that went to Allen's ex-wife, who was into catering and bouncer rentals.

David had a private investigator keep up with Allen and Vivian. He was glad to hear that Vivian was at her and Allen's new home even though she still had therapy on a regular basis. Allen seemed to be doing a good job of taking care of her and starting a new life. It seemed he really loved her. David was about to send a $100,000 check as a wedding present, but he was told that Vivian had thrown Allen out after finding out how little he had settled her divorce for. Before long, she was back in the hospital. Allen waited for her.

In his speech to each neighborhood gathering, David thanked everyone for the 'community support' he received during the divorce trauma. He ended each gathering with a round of "On, on U of K."

Several people wondered if David and Allen's wife might get together after the divorces. They stopped wondering after they found out she was a Tennessee Volunteer fan.