Roxy

"Then the sex started to slow down. It happened so slow that I never noticed until one day I couldn't remember the last time we made love. When I mentioned that to her, she became angry and accused me of trying to remind her of her sterility. We had an awful row and nothing I said could calm her down. She was yelling and crying and I had no idea what to do. It ended with us not speaking and then soon after that, she started sleeping in the spare room and our sex life didn't exist.

"Then all of a sudden, things around the house began to change again. She started laughing again, she took more time fixing meals, she began to want to spend time with me in the evenings and she began to ask about my work. It was almost like it used to be in the bedroom and she moved back into our bed. The sex was again hot and heavy and as often as I liked. But her interest in my work and my business increased until I became concerned. I knew her interest up to then had only been concerned with how much money I was bringing home and what she could buy with it. Now, she wanted to know more: how I deposited the money into our accounts, how I got the money if I was the owner of the plant that supplied it, and other questions the old Roxanne would never worry about.

"Now Sam, I told you I was very smart, a genius to be honest. It took me about a heartbeat to put two and two together and come up with one hundred. Consider as I did: no sex, then back on again; a change in behavior; questions about the plant and where the money came from; treating me like a king. Make you wonder Sam? Make you think something was rotten in Denmark? Well it did make me think and it took me all of two seconds to come to a conclusion. My beautiful wife was cheating on me and had decided to try to skim what she could from me without making me suspicious. Maybe she had more planned, but this was enough to get my juices flowing.

"Someone who looks like me is always ready to accept that someone else may try to suck up to me for my money. If someone was nice to me, I questioned it. Roxanne's interest in me had always surprised me but I did understand that I was what she always wanted: someone to take care of her and provide her with all the money she needed. That she was able to put aside my looks was just a bonus, or so I convinced myself when we were married. Now, I had to accept that all she wanted was my money: she didn't want me any longer. I had to admit, I had always loved her for accepting me, but that was before she decided to betray me. Now, while I still loved her as much as before, I was saddened to know she was no different than everyone else I had met over the years. I just had to be thankful for the time I had with her. She was beautiful and everything any men could ever hope for. I had her for almost five years, four and a half of them good ones, but now it was over.

"It took me almost a month to get over it Sam. It hurt at first; the anger began to build and I screamed at the fates that made me who I was. Night after night I lay in bed and asked God why he gave me hope and then took it away. It was cruel and inhuman. He took my mother and father and left me to survive. Now he was taking Roxanne. But finally, the man I was took charge and the heartache began to fade. One day, after waking from a restless sleep filled with questions and self-pity, I simply gave up. I had been a fool and I had deluded myself into thinking that someone like her could actually love me for who I was. Fine! I would do what I had to do.

"I won't bore you with the details Sam. Just know that I used one of my own inventions, combined with one of dad's power supply sources to find out just what she had going. Everything she said or did during the time I left for work and the time she or I came home was recorded and stored in a small memory cube, no bigger than a pack of matches. I placed it inside her purse, the one she never left home without, sewed inside the lining where she would never feel it. It had a range of one hundred feet in any direction even with the purse closed. I had invented it to go with one of the power sources we manufactured for use in satellites. It would take input from any number of devices, including a miniature microphone. Size and weight were critical parameters so this one was as small and as light as our capabilities could make it. And that was damned small!

"All I had to do when she came home was go to my laptop, power up, activate a program which sent a query signal to the small self contained device in her purse which then downloaded all of its data to my computer. Took all of ten seconds to finish. Wiped the drive and made it ready to collect again until the next download. It worked perfectly and I was in business. She had no clue that I could do this or that I would ever question her activities. Her life with me had convinced her that she was so beautiful she could get what she wanted from any man she met during her privileged life. I was no exception or so she thought. Too bad for her, my experience was just the opposite. I had to work, struggle, or beg for what I wanted. Humiliation was no stranger to me. I was a lot tougher than she was. I could accept the pain I knew was coming. I had become used to pain during my early years.

"The truth was exactly as I suspected. She was seeing a guy named Roy during the afternoons when I was at work. She met him one or two times a week, never at the house, always at his place. Since the download also gave me the GPS coordinates of everyplace she stopped for more than thirty minutes, I could combine that with the voice data to determine where he lived. My computer gave me the address and I did a reverse search with Google to determine it was an apartment building.

"I listened to the voice download and what I heard was enough to confirm my worst fears. She and this Roy were having sex, and it sounded like they did it several times. At first, it was difficult to listen to; knowing it was my wife that was making those sounds. But the thing I noticed later was that while Roxy met him one or two times a week, over the six week period I listened in, they only had sex twice. The other strange thing was that when she was talking and saying things like "yes!" or "harder, harder!", she didn't sound like she did when we were together. I have to admit, when Roxy and I made love, she was quite vocal and she always had a massive orgasm every time. I could tell when she came since she was what they call a 'squirter' and she couldn't hold back her screams. We were always reluctant to have sex when we had visitors since she was very, very loud.

"I listened to the voices again and again and finally came to the conclusion that Roxy was withholding sex as much as possible and then when she did give in, faking her orgasms with this Roy guy. Which then led to the question of why she was having sex with someone when it obviously wasn't satisfactory to her. Why was she cheating on me with someone who couldn't satisfy her? I had no answer. Genius or no genius I couldn't figure that one out. But it made no difference. She was cheating and that was that.

"Over the next two weeks, I located the apartment, found out Roy's last name was Baldwin and that he was a lawyer with First National Bank and Trust, a bank I dealt with for most of my business. And finally, I found out that he had the numbers of my company accounts. He told Roxy that he had used an accountant friend of his to open a bogus account under my company name using the access number that he controlled. You see, Sam, he could transfer funds from the other accounts to the bogus one without my knowledge since if an audit of my accounts were made, the totals would remain constant.

"Now I understood Sam! She had decided to use Roy as her weapon to take my money and leave me high and dry. The sex was her tool and she knew that Roy could deny her nothing if she offered him what all men desired. When they were ready, he would empty my accounts into the bogus one and then withdraw those funds. I understood immediately what he meant and I knew he could do exactly what he claimed. And my problem was that Roxy seemed to be not only aware of it, she was part of it. Her betrayal was complete!

"At home, I worked hard to keep my knowledge of Roxy's betrayal from her but brilliance does not bestow indifference, Sam. She continued to try to keep up appearances but I became withdrawn anyway. I was not socially adept and my broken heart was all too painful to allow me to pretend to be content and happy. My behavior was getting to her and I saw her frowning more and more. She questioned me about it but I just told her I was tired, and work was getting me down. I also mentioned that business was not going well and that things might begin to slow down. I knew she was becoming worried and I assumed her guilt was making her question my behavior. She became a tiger in the bedroom and honestly, it almost made me crazy! It was amazing Sam, how much it seemed that she really cared. She was very good."

My throat closed up then with the emotions I thought I had under control. To give me time, I stopped for a minute, held up my empty Bud and Sam took it and got another cold one. He made his inevitable swipe over the bar, sat the new one down on a clean paper coaster and took up his towel and another spotless glass to polish. He looked thoughtful for a second and finally looked up at me to ask a question. This surprised me since I thought he was just tuning me out as I droned on and on.

"Let me ask you Jimbo. Why would she have sex with a guy who didn't get her off, and still have sex with you who did? And why did she turn off the tap at home, and then turn it back on? That don't make no sense to me. Something's wrong about that whole thing. Something's fishy."

I was pleased! He picked up on it so he was really listening! I wanted to hug him in delight but remembered that socially, one didn't hug one's bartender. But in the mood I was in, his interest was like a burst of sunshine. I loved this guy. I really did! Maybe I could see that he got a nice little bonus at the end of the day.

"Good question Sam. One that I asked myself over and over. Why would she screw everything up and let this guy fuck her when she didn't even enjoy it? Better yet, why continue to fuck me who could get her off like crazy? Good question, yes sir, a damn good question. And I'll tell you the answer.

"First off, remember what I told you was Roxy's goal in life? It was to be taken care of and to have everything she wanted. She hadn't taught a single day since we were married. She was a professional shopper; every day something new. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, lingerie, perfume, you name it. She was insatiable! Never enough. And I never denied her anything. Never. But that wasn't good enough.

"Now here's the strange part. When she found out she couldn't have kids, Roxy began to wonder how I really felt. Even though I told her it was fine and that we could adopt, she didn't believe me. Can you beat that? She thought I was just stringing her along. Just until I could find someone else who would marry a freak like me and give me babies. She convinced herself that I was going to dump her.

"Now Sam, think about that. Someone as beautiful as Roxanne thought that someone as ugly as me, a born loser in the looks department, would dump someone like her. Oh, I see the raised eyebrows, the smirk on your face. You think I'm bullshitting you, don't you? But it's true. I heard her tell several of her girl friends when they were out shopping. She believed I was going to divorce her as soon as it was confirmed that my bimbo girlfriend was pregnant. My girlfriend Sam. How about that? And where did she get that idea? Why, from our friend, the lawyer! He told her that I had contacted him to ask about divorce and what it might cost me. He said I wanted to leave her with nothing! Hah! Now we know why she was fucking him. Simple, sweet, but fucking wrong!"

I had to stop for a minute as the tears welled up and then began to drop down my cheek and off my chin. I laid my head down on the bar and just cried. It was still too raw, the pain and the loss. Sam, bless his heart, didn't say anything while I lost my dignity in front of him. He just took the half empty Bud and replaced it with another. I heard someone come up to the bar and heard Sam tell them to "fuck off!" but I couldn't look up. I finally got some control and straightened back up.

"Sorry about that Sam. Please, excuse my display." I took the offered paper towel and wiped my face, trying for some self pride. It was hard, so damned hard to say it out loud. But, it was true.

"No need to apologize Jimbo. Guys lose it in here all the time. At least, you got a damn good reason. Shit, I'd cry too if I lost someone like her. So, go on. You were telling me why she was screwing shithead."

"Yeah, sorry. Well, anyway, the thought of me divorcing her was too much. She was afraid of losing all she had: the money, the cars, the clothes, you name it. She loved all that crap, apparently more than she loved me. Oh, I think I always suspected that, but now it was official. When I began to tap her conversations, I overheard one that she had with an accountant friend of hers. She told Roxy to make sure she could identify all my accounts, place all the money, be sure when I divorced her that she knew where all the bodies were buried. Roxy heard her and she certainly took it to heart.

"Now back to Roy at the bank. He was the lawyer that told her about my intention to divorce her. He had been waiting once he set the hook in her mouth. After talking to her accountant friend, she went back to the bank and Roy. He was waiting for her and when he told her that he handled all my accounts, he put it into her head that he was the one she needed to be with. She began to work on him, to seduce him. That was what she was trying to do and of course, she didn't know that he was just letting her think it was working, just using her. Of course, he reluctantly agreed with the promise of sex. That's when she cut me off in the bedroom and began to become more friendly. Up till then, she was just trying to ignore me, to make the divorce harder for me. That's what she thought. She began to meet him after work for coffee, then for a drink or two, finally she began to intimate that she was willing to meet him for more. It took her almost two months, all the time he was playing hard to get, but she finally got him to invite her to his apartment and they did it.

"I worked this out after I began to tape them. She was trying to convince him that she was attracted to him and that they could run away together if he could get a lot of my money. She worked on him, especially right after sex. He quickly agreed and set up the bogus account. She had him hooked. And he hooked her. What a couple of dummies."

"So, she didn't even like the sex with him? It was just to get him to do what she wanted? And all the time he was just screwing with her. She fucked him for the money. Shit, Jimbo! That makes her a very high priced whore in my book. Beautiful, but still a whore."

"You got it Sam. A beautiful high priced whore who wanted to take more than money from me. She took my heart and tore it to shreds and I don't know why. Even if she believed I was going to divorce her, I would have given her more than enough to make her life pleasant. More than enough. God, how could she even think of me that way?"

Sam patted me on the shoulder, told me it was getting close to closing and that I should have a cup of coffee before I left. He was right and I took it when he brought it. I thought later that it was one of the kindest things anyone had done for me in a while. Good old Sam. A good heart and a good ear. One that actually listened to me. I finished my coffee, cleaned up in the dirty restroom and came back to say goodbye. When I left, Sam was two hundred dollars richer. Cheaper than therapy.

I walked the short walk back to my hotel. I checked at the desk and found a few messages for me. One was from my attorney. It just said that the papers were drafted and we could sign them in the morning. A second was from Roxy and wanted me to call. There were three more, all from her and each one asked me to call her. I tore them up and kept the one from my attorney. I took the elevator up to my room and washed my face to rid it of the slightly sticky mess left from the tears. I sat down at the desk and looked at the phone. I reached for it three times before I finally convinced myself that there was no use in calling. I turned off the light and lay down.

The following morning, the phone woke me from a disturbed sleep. I answered it without thinking. It was Roxy. I considered not saying anything but I couldn't do that, not even to her. I listened.

"Jimmy? Jimmy, why haven't you returned my calls? What's going on Jim? I don't like it when you don't call me and let me know you're OK. I was waiting for your call last night when you got in. You didn't call. I waited all evening. I left messages but you didn't call. Jimmy, what's wrong?"

I thought about just trying to lie my way out of it and postpone everything until I got home. My attorney advised me to do that. My brain told me to do that. My conscience even told me to do that. So, what did I do? You guessed it. I listened to my broken heart and decided to lessen my pain by giving her something to worry about.

"I didn't know where to call you Roxy. I didn't know if I should call you at Roy's place or at home where you might be with him. I just didn't know, so I didn't call."

I heard the gasp of breath, then a loud scream. I listened, but heard what sounded like the phone being dropped. I listened and heard nothing more. I hung the phone up and sat, trying to get my breath. My chest was tight, my breathing was rapid and shallow and I was in a full blown anxiety attack. It felt like I was going to die. A heart attack. But I was not so lucky. I recovered.

I quickly took a shower, dressed and put in a call to Floyd, my attorney. He was already awake and taking a final look at the papers. He said he would meet me downstairs in a few minutes and we would call the man we were here to meet. He sounded quite pleased with himself so that made me happy as well. Floyd happy always meant a lot of money for me. With that thought, I went downstairs and got myself some breakfast. When Floyd joined me I was already leaning back with a cup of hot, strong coffee and feeling pretty good.

We drove over to the office of the gentleman we were talking to and within an hour, we had concluded the sale of 49% of Evans Industrial Fabrications to Harrison Powers Investments, and appointed a new President and CEO of the company. I was still the owner of 51%, controlling interest, but I had given the new President my written approval to operate as he saw fit and put the 51% into a blind account for a period of five years. In other words, I would have no control over that 51% for that period.

In addition, I had signed a contract not to sell my share for a period of no less than six or more than ten years. For the 49% I sold, I would receive a royalty each and every month, the amount to be paid into a closed account. The payments were to be deferred for five years. In other words, I no longer collected a salary as CEO; I had no income from the sale of the operations for at least five years; I couldn't liquidate my share of the company for at least that long; and I had transferred 49% ownership and all operating accounts into the new CEO's name and the transfer of those funds had been completed last night. The remaining 51% was moved into that same closed account. Roy Baldwin and First National Bank and Trust were no longer in possession of those funds.