The Prodigal Son

"Now just a minute..." Justin said as he was starting to rise off the chair.

Brad put a hand on his shoulder and gently moved him back down. "Justin, if you attack me I will vigorously defend myself and we will have a fight far worse than the one we had that caused you to miss basketball season your senior year in High School." Justin sat down. Brad continued "Now, loyal wife and brother how long have you been having sex -- and don't lie to me."

After a pregnant pause Virginia spoke softly "I can't help it Brad; I've fallen in love with Justin and he with me -- I didn't want to."

"Yeah, I know he's such a loyal guy, cheating on Alicia, charging his sex nest hotel room to the company, yeah I know I can see how you could fall for this standup guy. Well screw both of you -- I'll file before the end of the week..." Brad said before being interrupted by John who had arisen and was walking toward Brad.

"Brad, don't be like that, these things happen," John said.

"And you and my loyal mother encouraged it I'm sure. You'd rather have your favorite son raise your grandson than the one responsible for your business success. Well you and mother-dear are dead to me too. Also, this is my two week notice that I'm resigning from Branson Mfg., in addition to my sham of a marriage."

As Brad stormed away he thought that he heard several different voices saying "Wait, please," "now just a minute," and others, but he wasn't listening.

The Branson Mfg. jet took off from Jacksonville airport two hours after Brad got off.

On the plane Brad was in cold logic mode. His first call was to Alicia, asking her if she could set up a meeting with her father for Thursday. His second call was to his lawyer, telling him that he wanted divorce papers prepared by Thursday, for now citing irreconcilable differences, and with a request for joint custody, and an alienation of affection suit against Justin. His next call was to Jeanette dictating his resignation letter and having her put it on John and Justin's desks and also sending it by email to them and the head of HR. He promised Jeanette that he'd take care of her financially. His next call was to his broker telling him to liquidate his assets and put half in a separate account in his name only. His final call was to an apartment broker asking her to arrange for him to get an apartment near the office on a month-to-month basis as soon as possible.

By the time that Brad landed he had heard back from everyone telling him that things were taken care of, the most important of which was his meeting with Boynton Masterson at 2:00 p. m. Thursday, with Alicia also to attend at his request.

Meanwhile at Amelia Island, despite the emails to Justin and John's phone, everyone was in agreement that once Brad cooled down they would be able to talk him out of resigning and accepting the situation without trouble, and that there was no need to immediately return to Charlotte.

How wrong they were.

********************

Bradley was loaded for bear when he and Alicia walked into Boynton's office at 2:04 on Thursday. After initial pleasantries Bradley got right to the point.

"Mr. Masterson, I've resigned from Branson Mfg. and intend to go into competition and put them out of business. I and my production team have been solely responsible for their profitability at least the last two years, and I have a business plan that I can implement that will within five years quadruple the money I'll be asking you to invest, and will allow you, me, and Alicia to get revenge on my asshole brother Justin by removing the things he cherishes most, prestige and money."

Alicia and Boynton both smiled. "I'm interested, Brad; go on," Boynton said.

Brad then explained his lack of a non-compete agreement, his design for and the enormous advantages of the ZX-4, the necessity for purchasing an expensive new CNC machine, and all the other details of his plan.

"Very impressive," Boynton smiled as he looked over Brad's detailed business plan after Brad's presentation. "How much money do you need, and what else do you need from me?"

"I need $5,000,000 over the next twelve months, I need a good deal on a manufacturing facility, I need an LLC set up where I initially own only 1% of the stock and you and Alicia the other 99%, and I need a contract that transfers portions of the stock over to me when certain profit benchmarks are reached, including the last shares if you do quadruple your money within five years. Also, I need a very poor salary until my divorce is final, and although not absolutely necessary I would really love it if Alicia would use her marketing degree for the first time to help us out for the first two years at least." Turning to Alicia he said "I know that you don't have to work for money if you don't want to, but I do really need your help and I can't think of a more worthwhile thing for you to do than to help get revenge on your cheating asshole ex-husband."

The smile on Alicia's face was as wide as the Mississippi.

Bradley left at 3:30 with a preliminary handshake agreement with Boynton, and a hug from Alicia, while Alicia stayed to talk with her father.

Since Bradley had accumulated significant vacation time at Branson Mfg. he cleared out his desk before his traitorous family returned Friday afternoon. He did have a meeting with everyone in Production on Friday at noon, and brought in pizza, soft drinks, and salads, to tell them what was happening and to assure them that if it was possible in the future he would hire everyone there in his new endeavor. Hugs were given all around, and tears were liberally shed.

Bradley had Virginia served with divorce papers as soon as she stepped off the plane from Amelia Island, and since North Carolina is one of the few states in the nation that allows alienation of affection suits, had Justin served with papers for that as he alighted.

Bradley was completely moved out of the house he had shared with Virginia by the time that the plane landed, and was comfortable in his new apartment.

Since Boynton Masterson didn't get to be a billionaire by being indecisive, and since he was impressed with everything about Brad's plan -- including both the potential monetary return and revenge since he hated Justin with a passion for cheating on his little girl -- things moved swiftly. Within two weeks Alternative Nozzle LLC had a manufacturing facility, a purchase order out on the new CNC machine necessary to produce the ZX-4 nozzle, tooling underway for the ZX-4, a CEO with a modest salary in Bradley, a VP of marketing and sales in Alicia, a secretary and all around assistant in Jeanette, and two production employees hired away from Branson Mfg.

The employment contract for Jeanette was a little unusual. Without telling Jeanette anything about it he met with her and one of Boynton's attorneys, Sally Riesling. Brad started out the meeting with "Sally, I want you to prepare the most ironclad five year employment contract in history for Jeanette. She will start at the salary she was making when she left Branson Mfg. with a guarantee of at least 5% raises every year. She cannot be fired for anything except conviction of a crime. If Alternative Nozzle goes under during that time for any reason I will personally guarantee the contract."

Both Jeanette and Sally's eyes were wide. They got wider when Brad continued.

"It should also provide that since Jeanette is now divorced if I propose a romantic relationship with her once my divorce becomes final she has the absolute right to decline it and the subject will never be broached again. If it is broached she is entitled to $10,000 each time that it is broached and timely reported to VP Alicia Masterson."

After a discussion of a few more points while Jeanette remained slack-jawed, Brad and Jeanette left with Sally's promise to have the agreement ready in two days.

In the hallway outside Sally's office Jeanette put her hands on Brad's chest. "Do you really mean it Brad? You want a romantic relationship with me?"

"The day after my divorce is final I'll inquire, you can be sure of that," Brad smiled.

Jeanette threw her arms around his neck and then kissed him with the passion of a thousand suns, then with tears in her eyes ran to the stairwell and down the stairs.

"Maybe when the time comes she'll be agreeable," Brad chuckled to himself.

Within four months Alternative Nozzle had produced fifty production ZX-4 nozzles. Then Alicia and Brad got to work selling them.

The 3rd largest customer of ZX-3 nozzles from Branson Mfg. was Sloan Co. located in Georgia. Jethro Sloan is the majority stockholder and he hates John and Justin. The only reason that he deals with Branson Mfg. is because he gets a good deal on the ZX-3 nozzles and he needs them. The other manufacturers hadn't done a good job with them as of that time.

Alicia and Brad flew to Sloan on one of her dad's corporate jets. She went into the offices and talked to Jethro (he knows her dad and respected him) while Brad went onto the production floor and helped the technicians and engineers put seven production ZX-4 nozzles into their seven most important products for testing. So as not to influence the testing after the nozzles were installed and quality control was ready to go, Brad went and joined Alicia in the offices.

Jethro was impressed by the presentation by Alicia, and that Alternative Nozzle was giving the seven nozzles to them for free, and seemed to like Brad once he determined that Brad was nothing like his father and brother. Jethro even took them to lunch at his club.

When they got back from the club, his quality control engineers were finished with their functionality testing (longevity would take several weeks). They said that four of the seven nozzles performed as Alicia had represented they would giving them within one percent a 25% increase in efficiency over the ZX-3; two performed better than represented (one 30% the other 32%); and one was worse than the ZX-3. Brad knew the last test wasn't right so he went back to the production floor while Alicia talked with Jethro's sales manager, and showed them how the nozzle had been incorrectly removed and re-installed in Sloan's equipment.

By the time that Brad and Alicia flew back to Charlotte they had a provisional order for fifteen hundred units to be confirmed within three weeks once the longevity testing was complete. That would be 1500 units of ZX-3 that Branson Mfg. would not be selling. "We're on our way," Alicia laughed as she high-fived Brad.

**************

While the setup of Alternative Nozzle and production of ZX-4 nozzles was going great, other things were happening. First John and Margaret tried for a week to get ahold of Brad. He would not return their communications. They finally had their attorney send him an email reminding him of his (nonexistent) non-compete agreement and telling him that unless he talked to them in person about the possibility of coming back to Branson Mfg. then wouldn't deposit his last paycheck and severance pay into his account.

This was right up Sally Riesling's alley, and she was still providing legal support for Brad while Alternative Nozzle was being set up -- on Boynton Masterson's dime. In no uncertain legalese she advised Branson Mfg. that there was no non-compete agreement, Brad would not be meeting with anyone from Branson Mfg. for any purpose, and unless they deposited what he was owed within seven days they would be sued for fraud.

Stupidly, Branson Mfg. let the seven days pass thinking that the threat wasn't real while they turned their paper and digital files upside down trying to find the nonexistent non-compete agreement. Sally sued and served on the eighth day. It ended up costing Branson an extra $10,000 to settle the case.

On the divorce front Virginia and Justin made a really big mistake. They countersued for divorce and got a restraining order alleging under oath that at Amelia Island Brad threatened to kill them.

Harold, one of Sally's partners, immediately noticed their depositions and pinned them down on exactly when and where the threat was made and that there were no other threats since Brad had cut off communication with them. Once they were pinned down Harold filed a motion for sanctions, to dismiss the protective order, and for censure, providing a copy of the video that Brad took of the confrontation. Since NC is a one party recording state and that is where the suit was Harold's motion was granted, the protective order dismissed, and each of Virginia and Justin held in contempt and fined $2500. Even more importantly, since the same judge would be handling the divorce case, they now had greatly reduced credibility before him.

Through the attorneys Brad was given overnight visitation Friday and Saturday nights and until 6 p. m. on Sunday while the case was moving through court.

***************

The Virginia-Bradley divorce was concluded within eight months of filing. Virginia made a half-hearted attempt to request counselling but when Bradley's attorney was able to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Justin was now living with Virginia in Brad's old house, and that Virginia was pregnant with Justin's baby, the court declined to order counselling. Also, given Bradley's small income at the time that the divorce was finalized he was not required to pay alimony, only child support for 5/7th of the time and was awarded weekend custody except on three holiday weekends a year.

The day after the divorce decree, a Friday, Jeanette came to work dressed to the nines. Brad pretended not to notice, which started to drive her nuts. About 4:00 p. m. Brad called her into his office and said "Jeanette; I have two proposals for tonight. First, we catch up on all of the correspondence with suppliers that we are a day or two behind on. Second, we go out to dinner and dancing. Which one do you prefer?"

"Does the second option include fucking each other's brains out in your apartment afterward?" Jeanette pretend snarled.

Brad's eyebrows rose but he didn't miss a beat. "Only if you insist."

They made it through dinner but never went dancing. Jeanette had loved Brad ever since he helped her emotionally and financially when her husband cheated on her, if not before. "I am going to make you forget any other women you've ever been with," she growled as she started ripping Brad's clothes off as soon as they entered his apartment, buttons flying everywhere, clothing tearing.

For his part Brad wasted no time in ensuring that Jeanette got naked.

Not even taking time to go to the bedroom Brad went after Jeanette's pussy on his living room couch using every digit, his tongue, lips, and even nose. By the time of her third orgasm she was begging him to fuck her. Not desiring to leave a lady wanting, Brad sat on the couch, lifted Jeanette up on his lap facing him, and buried his impossibly hard cock in her cooch in one thrust.

After that they were both off to the races. Jeanette had been doing Kegel exercises ever since the meeting about the employment agreement in Sally's office and she pulsated her pc muscles like a pro as she bounced up and down in desynchrisity with Brad's bucking, while Brad sucked on her nipples and squeezed her ass, their lips occasionally coming into contact. Their synced orgasms were extreme. As they lay one atop the other on the couch, still linked, they were hit by reverberations almost as debilitating as the climaxes themselves.

If they didn't have to pick up Kyle Saturday morning they probably wouldn't have left bed the entire weekend. They were able to get a nooner while Kyle napped, and fucked each other senseless Saturday and Sunday nights.

When Monday morning rolled around after they delivered Kyle to preschool together when they arrived at the parking lot of Alternative Nozzle Brad turned her face toward him. "Jeanette, is it too early to ask you to marry me?"

"Hell no," she smiled. "I've been in love with you for at least two years, we know each other really well so there are no personality surprises, and unless I'm seriously mistaken we demonstrated this weekend that we are as compatible in bed as out. So why don't you ask me?"

Brad smiled back. "No, you're not seriously mistaken; in fact this weekend was the best sex I've ever had. As soon as I can get an appropriate ring I'll ask you in a romantic setting."

"Fuck an appropriate ring and romantic setting," Jeanette snarled, "ask me now!"

Brad smiled more widely; "Jeanette will you marry..." was all he got out before she yelled "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," and then laid a lip lock for the ages on him.

Tuesday night they shopped for engagement rings and got an understated but elegant ring that Alicia heartily approved of when Jeanette flashed it around the office on Wednesday morning. Thursday Jeanette took the day off work and moved her clothes and most important possessions into Bradley's apartment. After that, except when one was ill or out of town, they virtually never missed an opportunity to have loving sex.

**************

Brad had settled his alienation of affection suit against Justin for an admission of wrongdoing by Justin and $50,000. Virginia bought out Brad's 50% ownership of the house that they shared, and they split all assets 50-50, with no alimony and weekend visitation confirmed.

Things went even better than predicted for Alternative Nozzle LLC. ZX-4 replaced ZX-3 for 90% of applications, and despite the fact that there was no patent on the ZX-4 nozzle no competitor was able to make it to the same quality standards and as cost-effectively as Alternative Nozzle. The company also branched out into lower cost nozzles and produced them more cost-effectively than any competitor due to Brad's magical logistics capabilities and high morale among all of the well-compensated and respected employees.

After four years of operation, Alternative Nozzle had returned to Boynton Masterson quadruple his money, and all stock had been transferred to Brad. However, Brad gave 10% of the stock to Alicia who had found that despite no need to do so monetarily she really enjoyed working thirty hours a week, and the adverse effect Alternative Nozzle's success had on Branson Mfg.

Four years and twenty six days after Brad left Branson Mfg. it filed for bankruptcy. By then all valuable employees had left (most to join Alternative Nozzle LLC), John had to fire Justin a year earlier in a futile attempt to save the business, and all of the assets, both business and personal, that Justin, John, and Margaret had pledged to get loans in an attempt to forestall bankruptcy, were repossessed. Alternative Nozzle had a celebration at Boynton's estate the weekend after they heard of Justin's firing, and another celebration there after they were informed that Branson Mfg. filed for bankruptcy, all employees and their families invited.

The Virginia-Justin relationship fared even worse. Two months after Virginia gave birth to a little girl she named Gloria Justin left her, never having married her. He paid child support on-and-off until he realized that he would never get another job in North Carolina after he was fired, and four months later he left for parts unknown, welching completely on child support.

Virginia had a number of severe emotional problems. Showing compassion that no member of his family had ever shown him, Brad -- with Jeanette and Alicia's help -- got her treatment that they paid for and got her situated in a small house near to Brad and Jeanette's now very large house, and got her part time work at home since her real estate license had been revoked. Unfortunately Virginia succumbed to her mental problems and committed suicide, luckily when Brad and Jeanette had both Kyle and Gloria at their house. After that Brad and Jeanette adopted Gloria and raised her as their own.