Second Chances

My eighteen-year-old daughter and I watched as my wife of twenty-five years and Chasity's boss loaded the last of her suitcases into the trunk of his car. He had picked her up this Sunday afternoon because the two of them had an appointment first thing Monday morning in New York City. They had to fly out this afternoon to be prepared and on time for the first day of many meetings designed for reviewing the case with the opposition before going into meditation.

Chasity after twenty-five years of marriage was still was a very attractive woman. At five foot seven, she still had a tight package even though she had added a few pounds as we all do through the years. With black hair and emerald eyes, she still had the curves in the right spots. She had just turned forty-four a couple of months ago. She was a woman who looked like she was designed for comfort and was happy with her lot in life.

We had married right out of high school and I had worked to put her through university while I got my education online. The years had been kind to her, and childbirth had not changed her appearance much. Once she had graduated from law school, we moved back here to be close to our families. By that time our first two children had already been born. It was during her first year of practicing law that Julie came into the world.

I was standing there watching him with mixed emotions. I must admit that I did not like the smirk that the asshole wore on his face. By the look in his eyes, he thought he was getting one over me. His cocksure attitude was rubbing me the wrong way. I was two seconds away from beating the living shit out of him. I wanted so badly to say something, but I bit my tongue.

He wasn't worth it neither was the woman he was taking with him. They were going because as Chasity had explained to us numerous times, it was a final attempt to resolve a big civil case they were working on before going to court. She had been so centered in on her plans that she didn't catch on by what I said that I knew something else had been planned.

The problem for me with them, was that I knew because a little birdie told me so that wasn't the only reason why they were going. That little birdie I had never met. It came to me through a phone call where I worked. Her name was Louise who had claimed she was Michaels wife. She wanted to warn me of what their plans were and why?

They were flying out on the connector flight to St. Louis in an hour then onto New York City tonight. Their first appointment with the opposition was set for nine am tomorrow. We had offered to drive my wife to the airport to see her off. But she had made it clear that it was not necessary because her boss Michael was leaving his car at the airport while he was gone. As a result, it was more convenient for them to do it this way. It was maddening because they couldn't provide us an idea of when they would be back.

There actually wasn't much difference between the asshole and me. Height wise there might of being two inches difference, but that was it. He was about six years younger but not in any better physical shape than I was. It didn't hurt that he was actually a nice looking man. I knew it would be an even match as long as I did not get carried away by taking out the knees, by kicking them in the back.

My daughter Julie realizing I that was thinking about it put herself in front of me making sure I did not have the chance to jump down off the step to get at him. My daughter was smart if I moved, she did too, trying to keep me behind her. She did it to protect me from making myself the complete ass.

We stood on the front step and waved goodbye. No doubt Chasity was looking forward to the wild nights with her new lover Michael in the bright lights of the big city. Chasity had been invited into the firm six years ago. Since her big promotion to a junior partner in that legal firm two years ago, our lives had changed and not for the better. The power of the new position had seemed to have gone to her head.

Unknown to anyone except me Michael's wife Louise had contacted me a couple of weeks ago giving me a lot of background details about his past relationships with women who worked under him and beneath him. Louise had told me it was the last time he would ever do it to her. He was being set up in a trap. Once his car disappeared from view my daughter and I went inside.

"Do you think Mom has a clue that we know about his plans dad," My daughter Julie asked?

"That Michael has plans to add another notch to his belt with her, probably not," I responded. "She has never been able to see past the smoke and mirrors even with her legal mind. If she heard rumors about his past conduct, she would ignore them because she has never accepted idle gossip. With her legal mind, she still can't comprehend the simple fact that gossip always starts with a base of truth about the person itself."

"Your Mother still sees the world and those in with rose-colored glasses. Yet she will walk into it the relationship willingly because she will believe she won't be caught. For her, it's always been out of sight out of mind. For her, she will see it as a sexy vacation from the boring routine of our everyday life," I explained. "It's going to be a rude awaking for her when she's forced to realize that she just has become another one of the many sluts he has used. Even worse will be when she has to face the reality of what she has done."

My daughter looked at me in seriousness before saying. "Why would you say such a thing? If you feel that way, why didn't you try to stop it?"

"You know your mother just as well as I do," I said. "If I had of said to her don't have the affair. She would deny that she was planning such a thing. She would just claim that I was jealous, immature, and childish. The discussion about it would have gone downhill. We would have ended up in a big argument that was going nowhere. She would have left on the trip angry at me anyway and gone on with her plan as soon as they turned the first corner. She had made up her mind. Nothing we could say or do would change her mind."

"Does his wife know what's going to happen," Julie asked?

"Yes, and so does her father," I said. "They have the paperwork drawn up to serve them when they catch them. This is not the first time he has done such a thing. Louise has the names of the other females he has taken as his latest lover. Her children have grown to the point that she can easily look after their needs without him. That's why she decided to end the façade they call marriage. He will be served divorce papers for adultery and my wife will be served with papers for marital interference."

"Will you forgive Mom, Dad," Julie asked with the look of worry?

"Not this time," I said. "I've already done that once. For me this one is different, and she won't be forgiven. It's time I cut my losses and moved on. The moment she left the divorce was on. She had her one-second chance and she blew it."

The look on my daughter's face I will remember all my life because she had never known neither had any of our children. It must have been quite a shock for her to learn that their mother had already had an affair once before.

"Dad you better explain that remark," Julie said. "Because that just does not make sense."

"Julie you're the youngest so what I just told you stays between us," I said. "The last time was before she found out she was carrying you and it lasted until she started to show profoundly. If you had been his child, I would have left her then. Thankfully the blood test proved you where mine."

The look of shock on my eighteen-year-old daughter's face was priceless. That was a family secret known only by the three. For the sake of family, we had deliberately kept it that way.

"Who was he? Do we know him," Julie asked?

"He is the man I haven't spoken to in eighteen years," I said. "You kid's all call him Uncle Charles."

Julie sat down taking it all in. For her, it was becoming so clear. If there was a family event that Charles had attended, her dad never went. Her mother would always take them, but she deliberately made sure she stayed away from Charles. For years her grandparents had celebrated Christmas twice. Christmas Eve with her family, Christmas day with his. Now she knew why. Now it made sense why her father never talked to or associated with her uncle.

They had asked him many times while they were growing up. All dad would say was that it's personal. When you are all adults and when the time is right, I will tell you. Uncle Charles was her dad's older brother.

"Hey Julie," I said sarcastically. "Perhaps you should text your uncle and let him know that Chasity will be back on the market in a few weeks and let him know the hotel that they are staying in this week. With his past history with your mother he might see it as a chance to hook again for old times' sake."

With that said I went into the kitchen and started making some coffee. With the Southeastern Missouri newspaper in front of me, I started looking in the classified pages for a place to rent while I looked for something to buy. I knew that until Julie finished university that Chasity would be allowed to keep the house. I knew I had to be moved out before Chasity returned.

Judge Donald McDonald always put the needs of the children first in all his rulings. In a lot of cases, it ended up with a lot of pissed off parents. Not show up in his court when ordered was like signing your own death warrant. I knew the results of a lot of his ruling, so I was planning accordingly.

I heard Julie's cellphone ring. I knew she had answered it and was quietly chatting to someone. I could hear her voice but because she was speaking so softly, I couldn't hear the words. They must have talked for quite a while because I had made a few calls and was going to get ready to check a couple out of rental units out.

"Dad, Uncle Charles admitted to the affair and asked how I found out," Julie said as she walked into the kitchen. "I told him what was going on in our life at the moment. He got awful quiet for a few before he spoke then he said your dad doesn't deserve to have this happen to him, I do. He said if you're ready to hear his side of the story you know where he will be waiting."

After eighteen years I must admit as I reflected back to that time that maybe it was time to hear my older brother's side of the story. Chasity conduct was forcing me to look back at that time from a different point of view. I saw both their conduct back then as a total betrayal to me but had stayed in the marriage for the sake of my children. I was old school; I did not want my kids being raised in a divided house.

I opened the cabinet where I kept the hard stuff and got out a forty-ounce bottle of Jack before saying, "Julie I need you to drive me somewhere and bring the car back home. If either one of us is sober enough by the time this bottle is gone, I will be home if not it will be when I wake up."

He was waiting in our old favorite spot, A little fishing hole way at the back of our father's property. For the first little while, we just passed the bottle back and forth before he told me his side of the story. It was the complete opposite of what Chasity had told me, so I knew the truth had to be somewhere in the middle.

After all this time the truth didn't matter. It was nice to hear him take responsibility for his conduct after all these years. I figured with what my wife was about to do I could now put more of the blame on her. Besides Charles had been more of a follower than a leader all his life.

We were both pissed eyed drunk when our father found us. He had seen the fire we had started and had come out with the shotgun to investigate figuring he had to chase some local kids off. He dragged our asses into the back of Charles's truck and drove us back to the farmhouse. Our mother just like the old days dug out her cast iron frying pan to cook us eggs and fried potatoes to start the process of sobering us up.

It had been a long time since I heard my dad say, "If you two boys want to get drunk and make an ass of yourself you do it here on the back fifty."

Then with a smile, he added, "Thank God you did it right."

While we were eating mom called my daughter and Charles's wife. By the time they arrived, we were starting to sober up. At least we weren't slurring our words. Mary looked at us in disbelieve. Since she had married Charles after it all happened, she had never seen us together.

"Okay you made peace," Mary said. "After all these years I think we all have the right to know what caused the separation in the first place."

I was about to speak but Charlie tapped me like he did when we were kids. It had always been his signal for me to shut my mouth while he tried to talk us out of the mess we were in with our parents. He'd always been better at spinning stories that people would buy than I was. I was expecting to hear another one, but I was wrong.

"Chasity and I," Charles said. "Were having an affair while she was carrying Julie. I was at fault. I was still immature and foolish. My younger brother the mature one caught us. He told me then that I was dead in his eyes and until today I was."

My dad finally having heard the reason Charles and I had ended our relationship for the first time said, "Shit! If I had of been Clint, I would have killed you."

"What brought you to the point that the dam broke," Mom asked?

"Chasity has gone to New York with her Boss," I said." According to the hotel they're staying in they have only rented one room for the duration. Louise, Michael's wife, and her father have private investigators on them. I will be getting copies of their lawsuits, them being served, and whatever other evidence they find."

I realized as I said it that Julie was learning that her mother and Michael had been planning it all long. It was hard for Julie to digest because It now appeared to Julie that her mother was looking forward to it. Julie now understood why I was acting the way that I did.

"I should have let you go at the son of a bitch, Dad," My daughter said as she looked directly in my eyes.

No one knew what to say so I added, "Since Chasity will be allowed to keep the house as long as Julie is living there and going to university, I have to find a place to live before she gets back."

"Dad, I'm not going to live with mom," Julie said. "Where you go, I will go; we will do it together."

Julie was like me. When she said something, she meant it regardless of the cost.

"Julie, come with me for a minute," Mom said and off they went upstairs.

Mom and Dad's place was a huge two-story farmhouse. By the time they came back, those two had decided that for the time being Julie and I would move in with them. All we had to bring with us was our clothes.

My daughter told me off on the way home, she said, "You got to stop protecting my mom or any of us dad. We are now all adults. She went to New York knowing full well what she was going to do with Michael figuring she wouldn't be caught. To me, that tells me what she really thinks about the two of us."

After we got home on Monday night, we started slowly moving the things we wanted over. Each of us took our favorite Tv's. I took my recliner; she took her makeup table and vanity mirror. During the week Chasity called to keep us updated as to what was going on. Progress was being made at that end, but it was going slow.

Louise called because she decided that we should finally meet. We arranged to do it Thursday night at Logan's Roadhouse about eight. I showed up in my work clothes minus the tie. She was there wearing a dress and a skirt. I recognized her by the white scarf she was wearing and went over and introduced myself.

She was pleasant to look at. It was obvious to me that she was a few years younger and healthy as a horse. With long blonde hair, soft blue eyes with a slender figure designed to draw one's attention. Her curves to most men were an open invitation to come on in and inquire. She was stunningly beautiful in a natural way. What impressed me the most with a wow figure like that was the fact that she dressed conservatively.

Michael had just proven himself a fool to me. To have something that nice waiting at home and going after my wife who was at least five years older just did not make sense in my eyes. Why would anyone go after comfort food when they had prime meat right in front of him?

I learned that she was indeed ten years younger than me. Her two young daughters were eight and ten. I explained that I had three two boys and one girl ranging from twenty-three to eighteen but only one still at home. She was a kindergarten school teacher. Her clothing and modesty now made sense to me. I was a human resource manager for a nursing home in town. I kept thinking my teachers in grade school had never been that hot.

It was Louise who told me they would still be in New York for the weekend because they were only about seventy percent finished on working out the details. After that, they would have to put it all in legalese and have the agreement signed before they could leave.

They would be served late Sunday night early Monday morning by being awoken from a sound sleep. The hotel security team after getting management approval would be letting the private investigators into the lover's room. She asked me how I was handling it. I said a lot better than the last time.

We ended up talking all about it. I pointed out that the main difference between the two was that this time it was deliberate. That last time nothing was so black and white. She asked if I knew who the first one was. I told her it had been my older brother over eighteen years ago before my youngest was born. Until this week we hadn't spoken to each other in eighteen years.

"We made peace last Sunday after I told my daughter Julie," I said. "She got us to work it out like we did when we were young. I had the biggest hangover I had in years"

Louise laughed and I said. "It gets worse our dad caught us like he did when we were underaged teenagers and dragged our asses back home like we were still wet behind the ears."

Louise thought that was hilarious but said it must be nice being close to your parents like that.

I told her that my youngest daughter and I would be moving in with my parents until I found us a new home. I was taking my tools, sport guns, and clothing and leaving the rest behind. I would be keeping Chasity's cellphone number active until Sunday night then would block the number of my wife permanently.

Louise and I shared a few dances at a nearby bar before parting for the night. I went home in a good mood all things considering and got questioned by my daughter Julie. Miss know it all had to know everything. The next day as we prepared for the day Julie kept teasing me by saying over and over again 'Dad's found himself a new girlfriend.'

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Julie and I enjoyed a fantastic Sunday supper with my parents both of us having got fully settled in. For my mother, it was a special time because she got to prepare food for a group again. She was tickled pink that we both ate so much and that there weren't many leftovers.

At one o'clock in the morning, I got called. It woke me up from a sound sleep. Louise was calling to confirm that when the hotel detective let them in the room, they both had been asleep. Cams had caught it all as they were served in bed. She had forwarded a temporary copy of the video of it happening to me.

I got out of bed, threw some pants on and went downstairs to put the kettle on. I had just made myself a cup of hot black tea when my mother joined me.

"Is the water still hot," She asked.

I got up to make her one as I said, "Take a look at the video I just got on my cellphone."