The Highest Ethical Standards Ch. 01

Suddenly her mobile rang.

"Shit what time is it?"

"Oh hell, I have to pick up the kids from school!"

Juggling the phone, "Hi Eleanor here."

"Hi Hon, you don't need to pick up the kids, I have arranged for your Mum to pick them up, she'll have them for the evening. Where are you? My workshop this afternoon was cancelled, I called in to your work but they said you had gone home."

"I'm here now I was just going to pick up the kids."

"How did the proposal go?"

"Great, Jeremy believes it's an absolute winner."

"Well you were really late last night, I suppose you've just had a nap?"

"Er... yes"

"Great so you'll be up for a bit of baby making."

"Well..."

"No worries, Look I am just about to pass the supermarket, is there anything you need?"

"Er no..."

"Cool, I'll be right there."

Hangs up.

"Jeremy, for god sake; get out of here, Brendon's just about home."

Jeremy leapt out of bed scooped up his clothes and hopped out the door trying to get dressed as he made for the stairs. Pants on stairs, tee shirt, bottom of stairs.

Struggling to keep the rest together, he makes it to his car, jumps in, backs up, squeals, then down the road just as Brendon turns in. Brendon hardly registers the blue Beamer racing past him as he leisurely drives up the street.

Meanwhile Eleanor grabs her dressing gown, then the wine and glasses, races in to the kitchen; hides the glasses.

Back up the stairs she races around opening windows and has just had enough time to pull the bedcovers up when Brendon strides through the door.

"Whoa honey, ready for action? Just noting you naked under that thing."

"I am just going to take a sho..."

"No need for that yet," and with that he playfully tackles her onto the bed.

"Eleanor desperately tries to keep her legs together but in falling back they involuntarily spread."

"Brendon began deep kissing passionately forcing his tongue to meet hers."

"As he does so he slides his hand between her legs and into her bush."

"You are one wet lady!"

Pushes is fingers through her soft wet lips and into her vagina.

"What's this...?"

His fingers plunge into blob of goop.

He scoops it with his fingers and draws it out noticing as he does so cum smeared all over her matted bush.

He grimaces; a look of disgust crosses his face.

"You fucking disgusting bitch," he mutters.

There is silence...he looks around. Why are the windows open? Their wedding photo is face down.

Brendon roars.

His face turns scarlet, he becomes absolutely incandescent.

What the fuck is this!!

He pulls back the bedcovers. There in the middle is the telltale wet spot and a few red pubic hairs pointing to the origin of the issue.

You fucking slut!! What have you done!!??

Eleanor had never seen Brendon remotely like this. This was totally unlike the Brendon she knew. She had never heard him utter such coarse language, never heard him unreasonable.

Eleanor cringes as the memory of her own father beating her mother flashes in her mind. She knows instinctively what her father would have done in this situation. Eleanor thought she was about to die.

"What's this fuck Jeremy's second name?"

Eleanor murmur's, "Brunswick."

"Speak the fuck up."

Eleanor repeats.

"Where does he live?"

Eleanor, frightened, just spills the address.

"Well you know that pretty well, have you been fucking him there as well?"

At this stage Brendon stood fists clenched posturing over Eleanor. Eleanor in turn responding, shoulders hunched, mouth gaping, eyes wide with fear, blinking, anticipating the rain of Brendon's fists upon her as she was sure would happen. She is caught wrong footed. Unable to think clearly she robotically answers his questions.

"Is this fuck married?"

"Yes."

"What's his wife's name?"

"Jess."

"Does she know about this fuck and you?"

"No."

"Have you met her?"

"Yes."

"You bitch!"

"Do they have kids?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Three."

"What's the landline number at the house?"

Eleanor, still terrified, gives it.

Brendon starts taking out his mobile.

Eleanor suddenly screams

"Are you going to ring her?"

"Sure am!"

"You would destroy their family."

"Well you just have ours, what's so precious about theirs? How long have you been screwing this fuck?"

"Today's the first," murmurs Eleanor head down.

"Yeah right," was Brendon's sarcastic response.

Brendon dials the Brunswick number on his mobile.

A woman's voice answers.

"Is that Jess Brunswick?"

"Yes."

"It's Brendon Mckay here, Eleanor Mckay's husband."

"Is your husband at home?"

"What's he done now?"

Brendon was a little taken a back at her tone in reply.

"I think you might like to sit down."

Brendon explained the situation

Jess responded, "The shits at it again, I suspected something may be going on again."

"Again,? For how long?"

"Oh about three months or so, this time I've had it. I have no choice, I'm going for divorce."

"Then Brendon dropped the bomb shell. Well, I am commencing divorce proceedings, as from this afternoon. You may hear from my lawyer."

"The reaction from Eleanor was instantaneous."

"Why?!" she wailed.

She wanted to explain; she wanted to apologize; she wanted to say how sorry she was.

Brendon shut her down.

He finished the call.

Turning to Eleanor.

"Well it sounds like you have been fucking this woman's husband at least 3 months. I now discover I do not know the woman I most trusted. I now don't know if our two boys are even mine. I don't know if I have HIV!! I don't know what kind of slut you really are."

Eleanor started at the word slut. That is the last word she would have ever thought would have been applied to her.

"For chrissakes! You were fucking without protection, were you two trying for a baby yourselves by some chance!"

Brendon choked slightly with that. He is now dialing his lawyer, Eleanor is sobbing loudly.

"George, this is Brendon Mckay here, this is not good news I'm afraid."

He explains the situation, George is to prepare for a divorce and Brendon makes an appointment for the following morning

Eleanor implores her husband.

"Why are you doing this so quickly, why can't we work something out?"

Brendon shuts her down again. "You have utterly betrayed our family. It is an open and shut case. I have heard it said, 'once a cheater always a cheater.' I can no longer trust you. In New Zealand the law is on the basis of no fault but the process takes a while. In my mind we should get started and get it over with. In my mind there is no going back."

Brendon is now dialing Eleanor's employer.

"Graham, its Brendon, Eleanor's husband here. You might want to be sitting down. I've just discovered Eleanor's been having relations with one of your employees in our bed at our home, during work time to boot."

Graham immediately replied, "Not Jeremy Brunswick.by some chance?"

"Why is he famous for this?"

"Well I recently warned him about sexual harassment and our company code of contact."

"He is a bit of a player then?"

"You could say that."

"He was working late last night, I believe with Eleanor on a proposal."

"Mm yes, we are reviewing it now. There is a problem with it and we were deciding whether to tweak it or pull it. It wasn't really to our standard. In the light of this I will cut our losses and pull it. So, what are you going to do, Brendon?"

"Divorce!"

"I understand. From our point of view, this situation is grave. I will talk to both of them in the morning. And Brendon, if there is any way I can help. We have security camera footage and there may be evidence from last night."

Brendon rang off

"Right Eleanor, despite your fuck talking it up it sounds like the proposal was pretty mediocre."

Eleanor was listening to the call silently but with growing anger.

"You bastard, you just lost us our jobs!"

"No, it was inevitable; you lost your own jobs. I just avoided prolonging the agony."

"Who are you fucking ringing now; what else can you do to me?"

"Your Mother."

"NNNNNOOOO!"

"Oh Hi Felicity, you had better steel yourself for this."

"What's happened, what's happened?"

"I caught Eleanor cheating on me with one of her work colleagues, practically in flagrante delicto!!"

"Oh No, what happened; how could she?"

At this point Eleanor was screaming and trying to grab the phone.

Felicity, grew angry, "Have you hit her!!"

"No absolutely not, no matter what Eleanor ever did, I would never ever hurt her in that way."

Eleanor shrank back on hearing this. Her Mother simply said, "I'm sorry, I should have known this, I always said you were a gentleman. What are you going to do?"

Brendon went on to explain the details and that he had no option but divorce. He could hear Felicity's Mother crying at this.

Listen Brendon finally said, "Eleanor's going to need a place to stay she can't stay here tonight. Is it Ok to stay with you?"

The reply was not what Brendon was expecting. It was spat with venom! "Absolutely not; I had great hopes for Eleanor. We owe so much to you and your family, now she has shamed you and brought disgrace on ours. It seems she takes after her father. I refuse to see or speak to her ever again! The phone was sharply cut off."

Up until this point Brendon was on a roll, running on adrenalin, Felicity's venom stopped him in his tracks. The enormity of what Eleanor had done suddenly took on a new dimension. Her family had fallen from grace and Felicity had seen their hopes and aspirations recover with Eleanor. In Felicity's mind they were heading back into the abyss.

Eleanor was softly sobbing. There was a huge lump growing in Brendon's throat as he tried to explain that Eleanor's Mother did not want her.

Looking at Eleanor, now so pale and frail, he began to tear up himself.

However the situation had to be resolved.

Recovering himself he suggested she stay with his Mother... "No no!" Eleanor couldn't possibly do that.

Finally they decided on their closest friends Julia and Tim. Brendon rang them and they kindly offered for Eleanor stay with them until things were sorted out.

Waiting for Julia to arrive, Eleanor again wanted to explain her point of view. Brendon shut her down, again giving her a lecture.

"My God, Eleanor you have just let your clitoris control your brain in the most spectacular fashion! Listen, I know how ambitious you are and where you want to go but if you ever want to be a good leader there are three cornerstones, your people, your integrity and your courage. Your actions just failed on all three counts. First, know who your friends and allies are, who is in your in group and who the out group is. "

"You just shot down the greatest ally you would ever have, namely me. I am not your competition so you shouldn't have treated me like I was. Your fuck was never going to be you ally. He was out to use you in any way possible.

Second is integrity. Trying to get to a commanding position by fucking people is a high risk activity and it brands you straight away as someone who does not have integrity. I do not think the cause of feminism is helped by women fucking their way to the top.

Finally here is courage. I assume you did not have the courage to stand against shallow flirtation and uphold your own moral standards.

A good leader needs good emotional intelligence and knows when to be empathic and when to show compassion. You would get respect exercising uncompromising fairness and strong values. A good leader needs to have the courage to be honest when it counts."

At the heart of leadership is trust and along with trust comes loyalty. By upholding these values you will not need to demand loyalty, you will naturally get it. Otherwise to get to a leadership position will require constant friction and warfare with your peers. The risk is your isolation. That will wear you down eventually and also undermine your personal relationships."

Despite the years of their married life, she had never seen Brendon's career modus operandi in action. The upholding of strong ethical and moral values as he saw them; rapid problem solving fueled by strong intuitive judgement and no time wasted by unnecessary waffling with confusing options. If Brendon felt he was on firm ground, direction came swift and hard. No prisoners taken. If the outcome was to be harsh then so be it. Once he had given his word there was no going back.

Once Julia had arrived and Eleanor had packed her bags, Brendon's parting shot was he would support her as Mother to their two sons but he did not want to see her or speak to her ever again.

Despite her strength, the nature and swiftness of Brendon's action traumatized Eleanor and she did not fare well personally for some time. The reality was that the escapade with Jeremy was the first time she had ever cheated in this way and she felt aggrieved. But she had been warned previously of Brendon's moral position on such matters but despite their life together she had still not understood this side of Brendon's character

Brendon was true to his word and activated the divorce proceedings the following day. He was also true to his word in supporting her, commencing with finding accommodation and financing her study for an MBA. Their boys were shared on particular days of the week and the handover overseen by Brendon's Mother. One or other parents would turn up for the boys sport, events and other parental duties but never together. The divorce process ground through but after the two year process Brendon managed to avoid counselling or other appearance with Eleanor. Despite this he was prepared to pay for counselling for Eleanor. Eleanor did acquiesce to the counselling for a time but being resilient she regained her mental toughness and moved on in her own way.

It seems incongruous that Brendon could take pride in compassion and empathy but behave this way with his wife, but paradoxically it was these values he believed he was exercising. He felt that the unthinkable betrayal could not be disputed and the best way for all to redeem their lives was to act rapidly and not get opportunity to dwell on and wallow in unresolvable matters.

On the day he largely ran on adrenalin largely forgoing the grief and anger that would eventually envelope him. As Julia's car drew away, it was then that he privately collapsed in grief and despair. Eventually he composed himself drove to his mothers and spent his first night as a single man talking his marriage through with her into the early hours.

After that there was never much discussion by Brendon on the subject of Eleanor except where something needed to be organized. He never quizzed the boys about her and only discussed what they had done. In general he operated in almost complete denial of her and whatever his private thoughts, never expressed any particular interest. A couple of times he attempted commencing a relationship with other women but could not sustain the will, sexually or emotionally, to allow this to flourish.

He devoted his time to his work, his boys and his companionship came with a few long standing friends, his work colleagues and his professional peers.

Both Jeremy and Eleanor did lose their Jobs. The following morning Jeremy called Eleanor aside. He admitted his wife was divorcing him and he had checked into a motel. He knew Eleanor was in the same boat. He suggested they could have a future together and meet after work that day at his Motel 'to formulate their battle plan.'

Eleanor's reaction was to slap his face hard.

This was observed by several staff members and resulted in a round of applause. Jeremy spluttered and threatened to have her charged with assault, but that never happened. Later that morning their boss called them in. Both were given a months' notice but stood down immediately. They were deemed to have acted in direct contravention of the company code of conduct and in the terms of their employment contracts. News to Eleanor was that Jeremy had already been formally warned against this behavior.

The last time Eleanor ever saw Jeremy was as he left the building with his briefcase and small box of effects. However Jeremy was to eventually affect her life in a very different and possibly darker way. But there was nothing at this time to foretell this.

Eleanor checked in with the Medical Centre. The results of tests eventually showed there were no signs of an STD. The morning after pill ensured there was no lasting ginger headed reminder of her betrayal. The divorce proceeded with little to no approbation despite what each felt personally and their naturally competitive natures.

Brendon was true to his word and was financially generous and supportive. In his mind he was supporting his sons and their need for a Mother. Eleanor was grateful for that. Initially the boys totally rejected their Mother but were gradually won over with the efforts of Brendon, Eleanor and Brendon's Mother. Whenever Brendon was down and thinking badly of Eleanor he would have to bite is tongue with the boys until the wave of bitterness passed.

Reconciliation between Eleanor and her own family would be a long time coming, if ever, but Felicity through Grace's involvement kept in touch with the boys and even attended events the boys featured in when Brendon was attending.

And thus the marriage was ended and the new normal begun.