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I heard Ann begin to sob and finally she regained control of herself and said,

"Brian, I love you so much, and everyday away from you has been painful. I can hardly wait for this to end, so may I ask, can we end it early? I need you to hold me."

"Ann, I was going to keep this a surprise, but I am so excited I just have to tell you. Remember the sailboat we liked? I bought it. For the last few months, I have been preparing it for our dream trip."

"Are you talking about the Panama Canal trip? God, Brian I am so excited! That has always been a dream of mine. You're not kidding me are you, this is real?"

"This is as real as it gets Ann. In fact, if you meet me at the Marina I will show you our new sailboat. I am willing to end our separation and have you move back today. I'll get the truck to move your things if you can do one thing for me?"

"What Brian, What can I do? I will do anything, just ask."

"Are you sure you are ready, this is a big step? We can start the rest of our lives today; this is our new beginning. It's what you asked for and what we worked on for these last three months. We had twenty-five good years that might have been thrown away if you hadn't convinced me you made a mistake and would never betray my trust again. You just need to do one thing for me Ann...are you ready?"

"Brian, you're making me nervous, what is it you want me to do, and, yes, I am ready. What is it?"

"Open the door. I am standing at your front door, all you need to do is open the door, and step into my arms, and today will be the beginning of our next twenty-five years."

I was not on her front porch and she was not at home. Checking her phone's location showed she was at Mark's apartment not at hers. She promised she would be faithful and never see Mark again. Despite her promises I was again confronted with her broken vow and sadly not surprised.

"Please Ann, open the door. All you need to do is open it."

She was sobbing now and saying "I am sorry, Brian. I am so sorry, Brian."

"Don't be sorry or sad just open the door, Ann"

"I can't, just go home, Brian, I will be there in ten minutes. Just go home."

"No, Ann. Tell me why you can't open the door and start our new life."

More crying, and finally she said, "I can't open the door because I am not there. I had to leave. Go home and I'll meet you there."

I could see, using the tracker in her phone, she was in her car and headed toward our house.

Hanging up the phone, I brought up last weeks recording of Ann's apartment showing Mark and her in the bedroom. It was as I feared, she was standing in her bedroom and Mark was holding her. They were fully clothed, but his arm had pulled her tight to his body and he was kissing her. I sat transfixed watching her lover begin to massage her breast but could not watch more and stopped the recording. I thought the pain of her betrayal was gone. Now it felt as new as when I first discovered it. My heart broke again. It was all over for us.

Ten minutes later Ann was at my door and as she came up the front walk I opened the door. She wanted to hug and kiss me but I just turned my head to the side to avoid her lips. I ushered her into the office sitting her in front of the computer screen. There was a concerned look on her face as she sat looking at me but I turned the laptop screen so she could see the recordings of her and Mark.

Looking at the recording she placed her hands over her eyes and tried to curl into a ball. No longer looking at the computer she was just rocked back and forth sobbing. Sounds of pleasure coming from the computer brought her back to the moment and reaching out she quickly snapped the screen down ending the evidence of her most recent betrayal.

"Brian..." she started, but never finished as I held up my hand palm first to silence the plea I knew was coming.

"Not another word Ann, there is nothing to say. Three months ago after finding about your infidelities, I was moving forward with the divorce. I loved you and your cheating crushed me and ripped my heart out. If you had a problem you could have come to me but instead you broke your vows and gave yourself to others. If you care to remember, almost three months ago you convinced me to give our marriage another chance. I was reluctant to do this but I loved you so much I agreed. We signed a postnuptial agreement with one of the provisions being we live apart for three months and now, at the end of the three months, I find you have again broken your vows, your word and our agreement. There is nothing more you can say. You chose your lover over me and our marriage, so we are finished, done...it is ended. I will tell Adam to proceed with the divorce and enforce the provisions of the prenuptial agreement. You will be served this afternoon."

I stopped to look at her and then with great sadness in my voice said,

"Three months ago I believed your cheating was a lapse in judgment and we would get ourselves back on track. I have worked hard over the past few months to get past my anger and focus on our next forty or fifty years. I hoped we could start the next chapter in our life together, the fun part, but now, once again, you have shown your disregard for me and our marriage.

"During your exile, I wanted you to reflect upon the value of what we had and focus on our future. We met weekly to talk about our issues and I felt we were making progress, getting back on track. Instead I discover you are again seeing Mark. I only have one question, Ann...why, why choose him over our life?"

Ann dropped her face into her hands again and continued sobbing as she repeated over and over, "No, no, no...oh, God no. Please Brian this is a mistake I am not choosing Mark over our life. This is all a mistake; it is not what it looks like. Nothing happened."

I stared at her in disbelief. "Well, Ann, can you tell me what kind of mistake puts Mark in you apartment mauling you?"

Looking up at me, with red swollen eyes her only explanation was, "I don't have any explanation. Months ago when this started I thought you loved me so much you would forgive me if you found out, and I was sure the few times I was with Mark you would never find out."

"Ann that makes no sense at all, you were cheating, whether I found out or not. Does fidelity and your promise mean so little to you? What would you have done had I been the one fucking someone else? Do you have any idea how this makes me feel and what it has done to me?"

"I don't know what to say Brian. I would probably be so angry I would want to kill you. I know this appears bad and I am so sorry for hurting you again. It was just Mark and I saying goodbye. Two weeks ago Mark came to my apartment to tell me he had taken a job in Great Britain and would be leaving in a couple of weeks. Nothing happened."

"Ann, something did happen. You killed something, and unfortunately it was our marriage and any chance of us having a future together."

I went to her as she rose from her chair and embraced her. I saw my tears fall upon her neck, and her body shook as she clung to me.

"I am sorry you chose this path Ann," I whispered. "We had a good twenty-five years. I wish you the best. At this moment, I am too angry and hurt to continue this discussion. It wasn't the sex so much as the fact you chose him. I still don't understand your choice and it hurts me more than anything else. Goodbye Ann, have a good life."

She followed me as if on autopilot as I walked her to her car. As I turned to leave her, she grasped my arm pulling it tight to her body and pleaded,

"Brian, for the love of all we have had, please let this pass. Divorce me if you must but don't push me out of your life."

Looking down at the woman who clung to my arm I felt disconnected from reality, and in the briefest of moments wondered what was happening to my, no our world. Why were we being tormented, was this some cosmic joke and the gods were laughing at us? Was our joy and happiness an affront to the universe and were we being punished for our hubris?

I wanted to believe her, to believe there was hope but things were a mess and I was too overwhelmed to think clearly. Had I been wrong to think she could solve this by herself when I sent her into exile and had I set her up to fail? Where was the "we" in the solution?

I was having doubts about my role in her failings. Shouldn't I have been there for her? Our life and success and the happiness it brought arose from our working together, complementing each other. She supported me when I was weak and in turn I supported her. We were a team and had my insistence on an "exile" been a mistake? I needed time to think but now I was sharing the anger and confusion now with doubt.

I saw my wife of twenty-five years reduced to a frightened miserable creature looking abandoned and without hope and knew it was time for me to step up. Turning her body toward me I pulled her into my arms and walked her back into the house, sat her at the table and said,

"Ann, I can't talk about this any more as I'm too upset. For the last three months I've been on an emotional roller coaster after finding you betrayed us with your cheating. Right now, I need time to think and clear my mind. Will you please go back to your apartment, clean up and meet me at slip 25 in the Marina in an hour? That is where our new boat is docked. We can talk there, will that work for you?"

"Okay Brian. I will be there in an hour. Thank you so much, and please remember, I love you, only you."

As soon as Ann had left, I got in the car and drove to the marina. I was surprised to find Pam there programming the chart plotter. As soon she saw my face she knew there was a problem and asked,

"What is wrong Brian?"

"Pam, it's Ann, I found her at Mark's apartment this morning. Our agreement specified she was to stay away from him or anyone else. I wanted to end this exile early and tried calling her this morning but she didn't answer her phone. When I finally did reached her, she lied about everything. Then, on a hunch, I reviewed last week's surveillance tapes and saw they were together in her apartment. I was so upset I couldn't talk to her and to give myself some time to recover I asked her to meet me here in an hour."

"Brian, let me get my things and leave so you and Ann can talk."

I looked at Pam for a second and realized how much I cared for her opinion and how little I trusted myself to make the right decision at this moment, so I replied,

"No Pam, I would like you here when I talk to her. Just sit at the table and listen."

I had no sooner finished my sentence when I heard Ann step onto the upper deck of the boat.

"Brian, are you here?"

"Yes, down below, come on down."

"Oh, Brian the boat is beautiful, even more so than in the manufacturer's video "

As Ann entered the galley where Pam and I sat she was surprised by Pam's presence and asked,

"I didn't know someone else would be here. I thought you wanted to continue our discussion."

"Ann, I was upset earlier and needed time to think, that is one reason I asked you here. I needed neutral ground where we could talk about what happened this morning. In addition, the house has too many memories that interfere with my clear thinking. The house is the past and in a sense the boat is the future. It will put our discussion in context. "

"OK Brian, I understand and you are right, there are twenty-five years worth of memories at home...but why is she here?"

"Ann, I am sure you remember Pam, we all took sailing classes together."

"Yes, of course, hello Pam, it has been a long time since we've seen each other."

"Ann, when I ordered the boat, the company offered to provide a person to work with me on any warranty problems and to help me set up the boat for our trip. Unbeknownst to me, it turned out to be Pam, We were both pleasantly surprised to see each other when the boat was delivered to the Marina. For the last couple of months we have been working together on boat issues. During our time together, I have confided in Pam about our situation. I am sorry if this embarrasses you, but it did help me get past my anger and she has been relentless in trying to get me to reconcile with you."

"Like I said before I wanted to speak to you at someplace other than the house so I thought the boat would be a good place. I didn't know Pam would be here. Since she is and after giving our situation some additional thought I would like Pam to stay while I explain how I feel."

I knew Ann wasn't thrilled with having Pam with us while we spoke about reconciliation but I could see she wasn't about to make an issue of it. Turning to Pam she said,

"I suppose Pam being here won't be an issue I'm just hoping she will be discrete and not spread our business around the community."

Before Pam could respond, I asked Ann to sit at the table. This left Ann and Pam sitting at the table and me leaning against the opposite wall. I had done a lot of serious thinking in the last hour and I needed to speak to Ann and conclude our reconciliation efforts.

"Ann in the last hour I have realized some things I seemed to have missed in my earlier anger and despair. I want to share them with you now. I will ask you to wait and not respond until I get this all out. Can you do that?"

With quick look at Pam, Ann turned back toward me and softly said, "Yes."

"Ann I realize how much it hurt both my pride and our marriage to find you were out cheating on me. You were cheating and running around when I needed you the most. I was wrapped up in the negotiation for the sale of both of our companies and I had little time to entertain you but I also expected you to understand the importance of what I was doing. Stopping to settle down I took a deep breath and continued,

"We were closing one chapter of our life and ready to open the next. We worked and planned for this, it was a mutually agreed goal. I needed your support and assistance and you were not there. Not just absent, but out actively working against me and our marriage."

I could see the impact my words were having on Ann, but was more surprised to see Pam also had tears in her eyes.

Returning to my purpose, I continued.

"In addition to ignoring our dream and not being there for me when I needed you, you were destroying our marriage by breaking your vows... you know the part, 'forsake all others'. Having sex with other men was the ultimate betrayal. I might be able to excuse you for not being there for me since I did not ask for assistance, but the reason you were not perceptive enough to know I needed assistance was because your energy and focus was directed toward engaging in your selfish act of adultery."

Taking a pause and another deep breath I moved ahead with what I needed to say,

"Your need for attention from others was more important to you than your marriage. While you were whoring around you were also treating me like crap. Everyday you would ignore me, withhold affection and treat me with disrespect. I lived with it everyday and because I was involved in the sale of the companies I had no time or energy to question your behavior."

I was beginning to loose control of my emotions and anger was slipping into my monolog. Taking a deep breath, I pressed on.

"I was destroyed finding out you were cheating and although you said you were stopping, I saw no evidence to prove you were. I agreed to shove my pain to the side, to believe you really cared, to give your solution a try despite everything. I felt I owed it to you because I respected you. My twenty-five years of love for you was not to be ignored."

"Your solution to putting our marriage back together was to create a postnuptial agreement and I added a three month separation during which you could think on the value of our marriage, not see Mark or anyone else and we would meet me regularly to talk about and work out our issues. You agreed I could monitor your compliance. Early on I stopped monitoring your actions believing you would comply or tell me if you wished to abandon our effort at reconciliation."

Stopping for a minute to get take a sip of water and compose myself I saw Ann had placed her hand over her eyes and was softly sobbing. Pam had tears in her eyes but was sitting quietly and listening. After regaining some measure of composure I continued.

"This morning I was prepared to end the exile early and have you join me in preparing for our dream trip. I can't tell you how shocked I was to find you were not home, but at Mark's apartment. You went to Mark's apartment and that was a violation of our agreement. Can you explain why you did that?"

Between sobs Ann explained she was at Mark's dropping off a going away gift. Trying to avoid him and knowing he would not be there in the early morning, she dropped it on his doorstep and left. I called just after she dropped the gift off and she panicked since she knew how it would look. She didn't want to tell me where she was or what she was doing. It was a poignant reminder for her that the wounds she thoughtlessly brought into our lives would take a long time to heal.

"Ann, I was so upset finding you at Mark's apartment this morning that I went to last week's video from your apartment and saw that Mark was with you...in your bedroom. I couldn't watch anymore of it, the video, once I saw Mark, it was just too painful."

"Brian, please you need to watch more of that tape, it will explain everything."

I pulled my laptop out of my briefcase and soon had access to the video of her and Mark. I swallowed hard, not sure that I could watch my wife being unfaithful, having sex with another man. Why did she want me to see this? There was just no getting past this latest betrayal? Will I ever be able to forget what I was about to see? As I watched Mark kiss and begin to rub her breasts, I felt my anger rise.

Her breasts were very sensitive and I knew the effect his hands were having on her. I was surprised when during the kiss she broke away from Mark and told him, "No Mark. I made a mistake once and I will not do it again. I hurt the person I love and care for the most. I broke promises to him and I won't do it again."

Looking at Ann, Mark reached for her hand. "Ann, it is just us and he will never know because I'll be gone next week. We will have a goodbye to remember."

"You were right Mark months ago when you told me it felt creepy helping me cheat on my husband. It is still creepy, so no Mark, you need to leave. I ended this mistake three months ago and you are wrong, someone would know...me. I would be breaking my promise to Brian. I would rather die than do that again. So, goodbye Mark."

With that, she walked him out of the apartment. After he was gone I watched her sit on her bed and cry. I could hear her softly talking to herself. The words I heard on the surveillance recording were, "I am so sorry for hurting you Brian. I love you so much, please God, let him forgive me and give us another chance."

It was an emotional scene playing in the video and I finally had to sit, pulling a chair to the table. I sat for a second just listening to the soft noises coming from the marina.

"Ann, I have reached a decision. I am proceeding with the divorce, and I don't really care about the postnuptial agreement."

As my words soaked through the emotional cloud surrounding us, both women gasped and Ann threw her head into her hands and collapsed upon the table. Pam reached out to comfort her. After that, time seemed to stand still. Finally Ann raised her head out of her hands and asked, "Why Brian, I have done everything we agreed upon."

With tears in my eyes I responded,

"I don't think you ever understood Ann. I have not watched the other surveillance videos, but if I did, would there be other times you met with Mark?"