Take Action

I have enjoyed many of the stories on this site and after writing a story I have a greater appreciation for the hard work and effort it takes to put it together. I have written two versions of this little drama. The first is found here in this story and the next, a reconciliation, will be submitted next. I had no problem kicking the wife to the curb, but by the end of the story I started to feel sorry for her. I believe I spent more time editing the story than writing it. I wish to express my gratitude to my dear wife Mary for spending her time editing it. I would also like to express my appreciation to Topokitist and Ms Johnson for their efforts. So folks, put your trays up and buckle you seat belts we are on our way.

*****

I wasn't ready for the impact two simple words would have on my marriage and future. Those two words "Take Action" were printed in pink and black on the outside of a package I found in her fancy-ass, six-week-old BMW. This car was another expensive luxury item she just had to have and today was the car's first mechanical service appointment. Before taking the car for the service, I was trying to collect the trash she left on the expensive leather seats. In retrospect, I should have stopped at the car wash instead and maybe then life and events would have evolved differently.

Ann, my wife of twenty-five years, would not be happy driving my two-year-old Jeep while I returned her car to the dealer. To me it was simple...if you want to keep the warranty on a new car, you take it in for the required service. However, she had been somewhat moody for the last couple of months so I had no clue as to who or what she would be unhappy or angry with today.

Today's rush out the door was nothing new. For the last four months, she had been in a hurry to be somewhere else and today was no exception. She was moving fast this morning to get to wherever non-working beautiful women in yoga pants absolutely must be and she barely acknowledged me. I was invisible and then her phone rang.

Putting her phone to her ear she moved toward the garage while responding,

"I'll be there."

Then purse in hand she was heading for the garage but as her hand was reaching for the door I grabbed her arm saying,

"Honey, I need your keys to take the BMW in for service".

Impeding her exit through the door and hearing my message regarding her car she then gave me a grumpy, I have no time for you look and began to argue.

"Brian, don't be grabbing me."

I responded to her mini-outrage at being detoured from her mission by saying,

"I am sorry for grabbing you but what else was I to do? You flew into the kitchen, blew past me without even saying good morning, Hi, or Hello Dear Husband. You have been doing a lot of that lately and I am concerned and annoyed.

Perhaps we can sit and you will explain to me what is consuming so much of your time and why you are unable or unwilling to acknowledge your husband of twenty-five years?"

After my little speech, she stared at me with a blank look and her mouth was open but she wasn't responding and it appeared I caught her completely off guard. Caught off guard and off track her anger dissipated while she said,

"I, I don't know what you are talking about, I am just in a big hurry this morning."

Recovering somewhat from my inquiry, she launched into an attempt at acting normal but in an annoyed tone said,

"I have no problem speaking with you about what ever you are concerned about, but not now. "This morning I am extremely busy."

Her tone and attitude pissed me off and because she was in a hurry I demanded,

"OK, tell me where you are going? Why are you in such a hurry?"

I knew having to stop and answer my questions would piss her off but I was beginning to react to her mood with my own anger. Then she went from defensive to pissed off when I cut off her reply with,

"Forget it, don't answer the question, just give me the damn BMW keys and take my jeep."

I exchanged keys with her and beckoned her out the door. Turning to look at me, she hesitated a second, as if ready to offer a nasty response then reconsidered what she was going to say and left. There was no goodbye, no kiss and no, "I love you." This behavior was getting old, but I knew it was not the time to discuss my concerns.

Ann and I, I am Brian, met in our last year at the university. We are now both forty-five years old and have been married for twenty-five years. The first time we met we knew we were with the person we wanted to spend the rest of our lives. Wasting no time, we were married within six months and just after graduation. A year later our son Erik was born, followed eighteen months later by our daughter Erin. Both Erik and Erin are finishing their last year of graduate school on the west coast.

Ann was a stay at home mother until the youngest began middle school. She felt the need to go to work but wanted to stay available for the children. With Ann's degree in nursing, we decided a home health care service would be the best business to start. Within months Ann launched her service supplying personnel for nursing and care facilities.

Although the business started small, in less than fifteen years, it became a large service organization by employing university and nursing students to small and medium size health care facilities. Being in a growth industry and because of our outstanding performance, we began receiving offers from large investment groups looking to purchase growing successful local businesses.

After fifteen years and with an eye toward retirement we agreed she would sell her business and we would start the retirement phase of our life. During those same fifteen years, I built a small but successful engineering design firm. While we were selling Ann's business I was also entertaining offers for the sale of my company.

Ann expressed no interest in the details of the sale and pushed responsibility as well as all the financial issues upon me. In consultation with my financial planner I completed the sale of her health care business and put the bulk of the offered $4.5 million into new corporations formed in Ireland and Switzerland. I left $500,000 in our local bank to keep the bills paid through the end of the sale. It was a good step toward our retirement and the rest of our life.

I should have been excited about all the things Ann and I planned for, but instead I sat at my desk and ruminated over Ann's sudden disinterest in our current life. I thought about the small details that made me uncomfortable with her erratic behavior. There was no single item by itself, just all the little things together that left me with a general unease. Things, like time she spent away from the house, the lack of interest in us, our loss of intimacy as well as our decreased sexual activity. Putting it all together it made me uncomfortable.

Ann was my partner, best friend and dear wife. Now she seemed to have checked out of our life and moved away from me. I know I should have paid more attention but I just did not have the time. In fact, if the truth be known, I had expected her help in the sale of her business and was mildly annoyed when she ignored my low-key requests for her assistance. I needed her support during the negations and never got it.

Ann's disinterest as well as her withdrawing from the activities we normally were involved in left me with the feeling something wasn't right. I was incredibly busy with the sale of her business and the details of selling my firm so, I shoved my unease to the back of my mind. Perhaps it was another big mistake and the reality was I could only do so much and lately my focus was related to ending one phase of our life and beginning of the next. Perhaps I should have been more alert?

With the sale of her business, Ann had time on her hands and started doing more volunteer work, visiting friends and keeping fit. In the past she spent her time managing the business, planning activities for us, keeping house while interacting with me. Now her time was spent doing other things and had nothing to do with me, our marriage, or our home. It became so bad at home I was forced to hire a maid and cook. Even as busy as I was during this time, I always made some time for us. Unfortunately, Ann did not share my need for "us time" and I saw very little of her. Many an evening I sat at home having dinner alone while she was out at some must-do event.

I missed her, the daily affection, the small kisses, lingering touches as well as our nights and evenings of passion. We had what I felt was a normal sex life, I always tried to keep both the sex and romance fresh with date nights, small romantic gifts and getaways. She was the focus of my life and for twenty-five years my partner and love. When she was not there I was lonesome. Her days were now filled with new activities and a whole collection of people she would talk about but I never met. She had meetings, parties and events where I was never included. Suddenly, she had a separate life. She never acknowledged the change but when I asked to speak to her about this she was always too busy. I was lonely a lot now.

This Wednesday morning I had planned to spend with Ann since I missed her and wanted to reconnect. She, on the other hand, had a bad attitude and an appointment to be somewhere else. Now, with time on my hands, I decided to take her car to the dealer. When I opened the car door I was astounded, the woman was a slob; there were fast food cartons, water bottles, junk mail and wet towels all over the interior. I collected this trash and took it over to the large waste bin and dropped it in. Smiling to myself I wondered how someone could make such mess in so short a time.

Watching the collected junk fall in to the large bin, I saw the small pink and white package. It was not remarkable with respect to size, color or material but it caught my eye. Printed on the outside in large pink and black letters were the words, "TAKE ACTION." The marketing folks did a good job.

Twice I had seen the package and twice it had caught my eye. This time I fished it out of the trash and gave it a closer look. I wish I hadn't. Then I wished I could start my day over, no start the last ten years over, oh crap I thought this better not be what I think it is.

Take Action was emergency contraception, they call it the morning after pill. What the hell was this doing in Ann's car, we don't need contraception. I felt myself grow cold and slightly dizzy. I dropped it back into the can, stepped back, and slid to the floor with my back against the wall. I kept muttering to myself, "Oh shit, sit. Shit!"

We didn't need contraception because after Erin was born I had had a vasectomy. Ann can't use birth control pills and is allergic to condoms. Finding this package was heart breaking. Now, I am not a dumb ass and if she was using the morning after pill then she was having sex with someone other than me. I know I was presuming the worst, but I was also sure this wasn't someone else's pill package. It all came together at that moment; Ann's lack of attentiveness, no time for me, late nights and her over all distraction. She was never a person to go at anything by halves and for the last few months, she was devoting her energies to an affair. Shit. I should have seen it.

I sat on the floor of the garage for almost an hour. I was in shock and I could not believe what I had found nor the obvious implications. Standing, I turned back toward the car and I was energized by my growing anger and a dark resolve. I was now on a mission to find out what was going on while at the same time deal with Ann's questionable behavior.

Opening the trunk of her car I found two identical gym bags. Within the first was a collection of items needed at the gym such as towels toiletries and such. For a woman that professed to spend time at the gym there was not much to see in this bag and what there was looked as if it had never been used. I had seen Ann with this bag many times as she went in and out of the house and I had no reason to suspect there were two bags. Looking at the other bag, I wondered what was she using it for? Was she hiding something from me?

Closing the first bag, I threw it in the trunk and pulled out the second. Opening it, I found the contents way more interesting. It was full of slutware; stiletto heels, a short skirt, sheer blouses, stockings and a garter belt as well as other club wear. On top of the clothes was a pair of sheer black panties with white crusty residue. Again, it didn't take a genius to figure out what was on the panties or what she was doing. I could feel my face flush and my hands begin to tremble as the anger again rose within me. Damn, damn, damn her!

Dropping the bag back in the trunk I moved to the inside of the car and opened the glove compartment, There, I found two additional unopened Take Action packages and a bunch of medical clinic receipts from two months ago. That was when she complained of being sick with the flu and was in bed for a few days. Before that time and for several weeks prior, we had not had sex. The description of the medical procedure was for the termination of a pregnancy, an abortion. She had been six weeks pregnant. What the hell!

As I put it all together; the emergency contraception packages, having an abortion, slut wear in the car trunk, then throw in loss of interest in sex with me, and being out with friends till all hours, there was only a single conclusion. My marriage has hit a snag, the proverbial marital headon collision with infidelity. I was angry, even angrier than earlier but now I had the beginnings of a plan and my anger was focused like the tip of a spear. She was cheating on me and had broken her wedding vows. There was no way I would put up with that even if she might have some bullshit excuse. At this moment I did not care, I was done. So after twenty-five years she chose to repay my love and devotion with lies and cheating.

Later I dropped her car at the dealership, picked up a loaner then drove directly to my attorney's office. During the drive, I formulated a plan to protect myself and deal with her infidelity. As I drove I was making a mental list of the things I needed to accomplish. The planning process helped me to push aside my pain, anger, disappointment as well as the gut wrenching feelings of betrayal. Through planning, I focused my anger while protecting myself and moving forward with my life. The bottom line it made me feel better about my life as it gave me some semblance of confidence and control.

As I drove toward the attorney's office I was also carrying on a mental dialog about how out of character Ann's behavior was. Why was she doing this? What had I done wrong? Then again, perhaps, I did not really know her as well as I thought and maybe she had been doing this all along. How could she tell me she loved me then betray that love with her adulterous behavior? What had I been missing? Were there earlier signs earlier in our marriage but I had ignored them?

I was not sure I would ever find the answer to my many questions but I realized how important it was for me to determine why she chose to drive the knife of infidelity through my heart. Ann's cheating transformed my life into something ugly, full of anger and hate. I also knew an essential part of my soul died today. In place of trusting in Ann and our marriage there was now suspicion and unease.

There was an illogic to her adultery and I was unable to understand what her motivation might be. She had to be aware I would discover what was going on and she knew it would kill me as well as destroy our marriage. The risks were so great and the loss so enormous I wondered again why she would take such a chance? Perhaps Ann never was in love with me, maybe she fell out of love with me, or was she was angry about something? There were too many unanswered questions and I didn't even have the most basic answers, such as, how long and with whom she was cheating.

During the last twenty-five years I had devoted myself to providing for my family. I began my engineering business right out of school. My graduate work provided a foundation for unique engineering processes, and my initial patents caused the business to grow rapidly. I grew from a one-man consulting firm operating out of my home into a multimillion dollar company. Ann and I lived well and wanted for nothing.

We lived in a state where no-fault divorce was the law and all assets were split equally irrespective of the cause for separation. Her cheating motivated me to protect myself by limiting the extent of financial damage. By noon I had directed my accountant to create two separate accounts, split our existing funds, arranged for new credit cards and had made an appointment to see my divorce attorney at 1:30 in the afternoon. Discovering Ann's infidelity could not have come at a more opportune time, if you can ever believe there is an opportune time for infidelity.

The benefit of discovering Ann's cheating now was I had received an offer from a German corporation to purchase my patents and company. I was planning to tell Ann tonight about the possible sale, but now that discussion was on hold. I was angry with her and I would be damned if she and her lover would benefit from my lifetime of hard work. It was time to protect my assets. Through the attorney handling the sale I made changes to the sales contract and put $25 million into offshore accounts under a number of newly formed corporations. I formed trusts for the kids, arranging for them to receive moderate annual cash payments.

Depositing five million with our local bank, I paid all capital gains on the sale, personal taxes and split the proceeds with Ann. She got a little over $750,000 in her personal account. I also transferred into her account $400,000 from our joint savings. Paying off all her credit cards and car loan, I kept $200,000 and our residence as it was in my name and had no mortgage. Ann now had over a million dollars in her bank account.

These changes took a couple of hours and by late afternoon, I got a call that the divorce and settlement papers were prepared. I swung by the divorce attorney's office around 5 PM to pick them up. Adam greeted me.

"Brian, I don't know what to say. This took me by complete surprise. I never expected this. Ann's betrayal is just so out of character."

"Tell me about it, Adam. Up until this morning, I had no idea."

I placed myself in a chair in front of his desk and looked at him. Adam was a no-nonsense type of guy, and he didn't pull any punches with his questions.

"You just found out this morning?"

"Yes," I responded, and proceeded to tell him the story of how I discovered her philandering.

"Was this triggered by an infidelity on your part, or anything Ann might believe as your cheating?"

"Adam, I swear by all that is holy, I have never cheated or done anything inappropriate. I have never given Ann cause to think I was other than faithful to her."

"Okay Brian, but understand this is something, I as your attorney, needed to ask. Now the next question. Have you ever had cause to suspect her of cheating in the past? Is this a first time or has this happened before?"

"Adam, I have never thought this would happen or she had reason to cheat. This is a complete surprise. I don't know if it is a long-term romance, a spontaneous fling or temporary madness. I have so many questions. At first, I started to place the blame on myself, then I realized I did not care if I was to blame. She was the one cheating."

Looking down at the floor so Adam would not see the tears in my eyes, I continued,

"If she had issues then it was her obligation to bring them to me so I would have an opportunity to resolve them. The foundation of our relationship is our obligation to communicate. Since she has not said anything, I can only assume this is her choice and her problem."