The Seven Deadly Sins: Hubris

Please, please, please, don't do anything hasty. We both know what the result of a divorce will be. You will lose the house you've put your heart and soul into and half the money we were planning to use for an early retirement. Think of the children. Divorces always polarise families and ask around, the mother always gets custody. That Sarah and Danielle will side with me is a given. It would be tragic if the split drove a wedge between them and Larry. I know you love the children and we both know not being able to see them whenever you want, will kill you. So please, don't do anything before you give me a chance to explain.

See you soon.

Your loving wife,

Laura

John finished reading the letter.

"Wow, if it wasn't for what we know she was doing behind the scenes, this would be really compelling, emotive stuff."

"What do you mean, John?"

"Well, Dave, you must realise that in my job I see all sorts of tricks. This one is quite common. Your wife decided she wants out of the marriage. She looks around for a replacement, finds one and decides to, er, test drive him on a two-week getaway. I think the term is an 'exit affair'. Now normally, if she made the decision that he was the one, she'd come back and quietly move all the assets out of your reach, then hit you with divorce. The really smart ones poison the relationship between the innocent parent and their children first. Like Laura has started doing with Sarah. Writing a letter that portrays you as a wimp, that Sarah was 'allowed' to find, is one of the subtlest things I've ever seen. The best way of winning in divorce is to hit the partner with it full on, restrict their access to good advice, i.e. keep you penniless, then get your children to choose who to go with. In this case the choice would be between a monetarily comfortable mother in the family home, or a devastated, broke father, living in a slum somewhere."

"Surely, there must be another explanation."

"I could prove it. Contact the best three divorce lawyers in town. The one or ones that refuse to take your case are already representing her. My bet is she's given all three a retainer to head you off at the pass. By keeping you broke and getting the best lawyer around, this bluff will have the best chance of working."

"What bluff?"

"That whole letter is a bluff, Dave. Her lawyer must already have told her that the mother getting custody of children the age yours are, is no longer the slam dunk it used to be, especially as you have a good case of being seen as the primary care giver. Dave, the purpose of this letter is simple. She wants you to stop doing anything, while she completes her preparations for an ambush. Her problem is that you cottoned on to her plan before it was fully mobilised. When her plan is complete, she will want the divorce completed as soon as possible, certainly before Larry turns 14 and has a say in which house to live. You can expect her to push you into counselling. In this country, the courts will only grant a divorce if you've lived apart for 12 months or if a counsellor says the marriage is irretrievable. Expect her to choose a counsellor and bully you into attending. The threats at the end are par for the course when women instigate divorces these days."

Dave excused himself, after asking John who the best divorce lawyer around was. Dave rang, gave his name and asked for an appointment. He was told they were unable to take his case. Unbeknownst to Dave, the best divorce lawyer in town had a full case load and was telling his secretary not to accept any new ones for the moment. Dave returned to the lounge.

"Okay, John, I believe you. What do I do now?"

"Firstly, you allow me to lock up whatever finances Laura hasn't already. Then you restrict her ability to spend any more of the communal finances."

"How do I do that?"

"Well, start by cancelling any credit cards in joint names."

"Okay, but I'm still feeling a little uncomfortable about this. I mean, she sounds so convincing when she says she still loves me. That doesn't really gel with the threats in the second half of that email though."

"Dad, are you convinced Mum lied to you?"

"Yes, yes I am, Sarah."

"Do you lie to people you love, Dad?"

"No, I don't."

"What have you always told us about the three pillars of any successful partnership, Dad? Love, trust and respect, wasn't it? How many do you have left?"

"Er, one, now you mention it."

"And how many is Mother demonstrating to you right now?"

"None."

"Ta da."

Chapter 6

Laura's two credit cards were declined when she went to pay the penalty to get her flight date changed. She rushed out to an ATM which she'd used before. Declined. She went into emergency planning mode. The hotel and meals were prepaid, so she wouldn't starve or be thrown out. She had a few hundred in traveller's cheques, for just such an emergency, but that wouldn't cover the extra. With no friends at home close enough to borrow money off, that left only her parents. A request to them to wire her money, would lead to questions she wasn't willing to answer at the moment. She rattled off a quick email to her lawyer, asking what was going on with the bank accounts, then settled in for a boring, non-spending week until her scheduled flight out.

She wondered how her simple, foolproof plan to scratch an itch, could have ended up with Dave staring down the barrel of ruin so quickly. She knew he would never forgive her infidelity and had deliberately taken the risk of doing what she had, knowing the odds against being caught were astronomical. What could have prompted him to take such drastic action? He suspected she'd come on a tryst with another man, would know by now that man was gone and nothing had happened. He couldn't have found out about her financial manoeuvres, he didn't even know who their financial lawyer was. He'd always trusted her to look after things like that.

While she was gently beating her head on the desk in her room, two emails arrived that did nothing to make her feel better. The first was from Pete's wife, sarcastically thanking her for destroying her marriage and jeopardising her children's well balanced future. This might have really hurt her if the second hadn't arrived while she was processing the first. At first it appeared as if it was one of her own emails to Peter, from two weeks ago, telling how much she was looking forwards to her trip. On the address line was his email address and hers, so it had been forwarded to herself. Added to the email was the simple question, "Why did you lie to us, Mum?" It was signed, Danielle. Her husband may have been computer illiterate but her children weren't. This was the first time she realised, Dave wasn't the only victim of her deceit and not the only one involved in her punishment. She also realised there was no answer to that simple question in the email. It also put Sarah's unresponsiveness in a different light. Laura cried in loss and frustration. Then she sent an email to Danielle, basically saying she would explain the 'misunderstanding' when she got home. Her daughter must have been waiting for it, because the reply immediately came back, "It's strange you chose to spend our school holidays with another man, rather than Dad and us." Laura cried again.

It was an extremely stressful and boring week. On a strict budget, there was little to do apart from lie on the beach. She packed her towel. An hour later, she left the beach and went back to the hotel. She realised that returning home with a glorious tan was tantamount to rubbing everyone's face in her lies.

Driven by frustration, she sent a long email home, via Sarah. Without going into detail, it mentioned errors of judgement on her part, being taken for granted as a wife, mother and primary breadwinner. It even mentioned her sense of entitlement, in an 'that's my excuse' way. It mentioned twice, that during her marriage she had not once slept with anyone but Dave. It again urged them not to do anything hasty until she'd had a chance to talk. Significantly missing from the missive, was anything approaching an apology. That wasn't the style of a strong business woman who knew she was in a strongly defensible position. She hit the send button and settled in to wait.

Chapter 7

"Right kids, it's time to seriously discuss what we're going to do when your mum gets home. I'm a little surprised she decided to stay over there and unless we hear differently, we have to assume she'll be back on Friday as scheduled. How are we going to play it? Remember, all we know is she planned to go away with a guy from her work. We know nothing about if this was the first time she lied to us. You first, Sarah."

"Well, all I needed was to read her latest email, Dad. It just makes her sound like an entitled bitch, who treated us like minor inconveniences to be worked around. Whether or not this is the first time she deceived us, is irrelevant in my opinion. She had a choice. Take some annual leave and spend it with her family or use it to disappear with someone else. She spends little enough time with Danielle and Larry as it is, with her long hours and business trips. I think her behaviour before and after she was found out, is just disrespectful of us all and dishonest. Without a major attitude shift on her part, I'm done with her."

"Okay, Sarah. Harsh but fair. What about you, Danielle?"

"I just don't think she gets it, Dad."

"I agree, Darling. When we've heard from Larry, I'll explain what I'm thinking of doing. Larry?"

"I'd don't really care, Dad. So long as I get to stay with you."

"I'll do whatever I can to make that happen, Son."

"Tell us your idea, Dad."

"Well, I think for some reason, your mother went off the rails for a while, I dunno, being promoted last year just seems to have triggered a change. Kids, I hope you'll support me in this, I think if she admits what she's done and is truly remorseful, I think we should give her another go. What do you reckon?"

Sarah looked at her younger siblings and sensed agreement. Young children just want stability until they reach the reactionary age where they will throw out everything their parents believe in and try to change the world.

"Right, Dad. We'll give it a go, but you've seen her latest email, I've read it 16 times and I can't see any remorse at all. Strangely though, I believed her when she wrote that she'd never been unfaithful to you."

"I agree, Sarah. That's why I've planned a little shock for her. After experiencing it, she will know that we consider she has already committed a crime against the family. I think she doesn't know how offended we are, that's why she's concentrating on the physical thing. After we shock her into knowing how we feel, the million-dollar question will be, what will she do about it. If she breaks down and apologises to us all, we'll talk about it. If she doesn't... then we'll see. Now this is my idea."

Chapter 8

The return email caught Laura by surprise. It came from Sarah but was addressed from Dave and all three children. It described a timetable for her return. After reading it, she was filled with a sense of foreboding. Like she wasn't up to the task they'd set her. It assumed she'd be returning late on Friday afternoon. It told of the appointment she had with a polygraph business and pointed out that the questions had been decided by all four of the rebels. After the test, they'd booked her into a motel for two nights to consider her response. Any time after noon on the Saturday, she could request a meeting to discuss the family's future. Laura resented being ordered around, but she decided to play along with their little game for the moment. One thing was sure, once she'd eaten her humble pie, some major ass kicking was going to occur. People needed to know who the boss was.

Relieved, she relaxed a little. She was happy that her suggestion about the polygraph had been taken up. It was the surest way of convincing Dave she'd kept her vows. She knew that if she could win over Dave, then the rest would follow. Now what questions would he ask? He knew she'd behaved in Bali, that was a given. The big question in his mind would be, had she done anything with Pete before Bali? If he asked the direct question, 'have you ever had sex with Peter or anyone but your husband', then she was home and hosed. She fretted that he might ask more devious questions, like, 'have you, at all times, behaved like a wife should', then she was on shakier ground. She hadn't had sex with Peter, in the strict, Bill Clinton, definition of the word. Then there was Michael, before Pete. They'd not had sex either, but only because at the last minute, Mike had chickened out. Laura knew it was a mistake to anticipate the questions too much. She knew polygraphs relied on things like heart rate and perspiration. Taking the questions at anything but face value, risked increasing her stress levels and triggering a false positive reaction. She practiced answering her simple husband's anticipated questions anyway.

Generally relaxed, she went to the airport at her scheduled time. She'd deliberately never told anyone what time her flight arrived. Using the excuse that everyone would be busy at work or at school, she'd insisted on a taxi. Couldn't have the family turning up at the domestic terminal when she arrived at the international one, could she?

Walking out of customs, she couldn't help comparing how she was arriving compared to how she'd anticipated it. Instead of purring like a satisfied kitten, she'd arrived with begging bowl in hand.

After the taxi ride, she sat in reception at the polygraph premises for an hour until one of the technicians led her into the room. He then outlined the basic procedure of preliminary test questions to calibrate the equipment to specifically her physiology. The technician then pulled out a file and frowned at it.

"Oh, that's right. This is that one."

Laura blushed slightly. Knowing the nature of the questions, she knew the operator would soon guess her recent history.

Mrs. Brown, the questions I have are in a fairly unusual format. Rather than a list of questions, like normal, they are in the form of a flowchart."

"Eh?"

"Yes, I've seen it once or twice before. There's a first question, then depending on the answer to that one, a choice of what to ask next. It slows the process down slightly, but doesn't affect the validity of the tests I assure you. Are you ready to go?"

"As ready as ever."

The operator then launched into the eight calibrating questions, then paused to open the file again and read.

"Question 9. Two weeks ago, did you go to Bali with the intention of having extramarital sex with Mr. Peter Ower?"

"Yes."

The operator looked at the polygraph readout and made a note. Then he consulted the file. Laura wasn't surprised by the question. She braced herself for the next one. Would it be if she actually had sex with Pete in Bali or the one about if she'd had sex with Pete before the Bali trip. She hoped like fuck that it was in a form that she could plausibly deny. She could answer no to the simple question, 'have you ever had sex with Peter Ower' and pass. Please let it be simple. The technician closed the file and began removing the paper from the machine.

"Thank you, Mrs. Brown. I have the email address to send the report to. You're free to go."

"To say Laura was stunned would be a very large understatement.

"What the hell did that mean?"

"What, only the one question? Yes, unusual. I've only ever seen it once before and I know that guy was trying to make a point. I guess whoever wrote these questions was as well. Your husband?"

Laura automatically nodded.

"What point was he trying to make, because it's lost on me?"

"The point your husband is trying to make, I guess, is that he doesn't give a rat's ass if you actually had an affair in Bali. He just wanted to confirm that you intended to. He's saying, loud and clear, that your intention to have sex with this Peter guy is enough for him. Good luck, Mrs. Brown, there are some business cards for a couple of really good divorce attorneys on the reception desk."

Laura wandered out of the room in a daze. She'd based her whole defence, her whole cognitive process, on convincing her husband she hadn't slept with anyone else. Being of loose professional virtues, she had no idea of the offence he took at her dishonesty and mere intensions. Frustrated and angry, Laura made her last mistake. Ignoring the opportunity to go somewhere to allow time for rational decision making, she jumped in a taxi and went home. In her mind, it was a straight battle of wills now. Her competitive instinct had been triggered. Dave had fired the first shell in the battle and now it was her turn for counter battery fire.

The taxi deposited her at the entrance to her block. From the car across the street, Dave Danielle and Larry looked at each other sadly, after they watched the pissed off woman striding towards the former family home. They were thankful for the contingency planning of last night. The last thing Dave wanted, was to be cruelly abused in front of the children, that would definitely be unhealthy for them. They drove to the suite of rooms they'd booked for Laura, checking their phones were turned off.

Chapter 9

No one heard a word from Laura until Monday. Hopes were faint that she'd used the time to think rationally, but present nonetheless. That last hope was dashed, when an email arrived for Dave, via Sarah, late on Monday. It berated him for his low tactics of poisoning the children against her. It told of an emergency family court session her lawyer was arranging, to decide on temporary custody of Danielle and Larry. Playing right into John's predictions, it also told of the appointment she'd made for them with a counsellor the next day. It demanded a family sit down Wednesday night.

Laura had been thinking over the weekend and as usual came up with a plan she thought covered all bases. First was an attempt to save the marriage Dave seemed to have written off. That meant a counsellor. A female one, of course, to maximise the chance of her explaining her thought process to her husband. Second was a family sit down to explain her actions to the children. Third, of course, was the contingency of the courts to make sure she came out ahead if the worst came to the worst.

Laura was already in the counsellor's room when Dave arrived right on time, Tuesday. He took an instant dislike to the mid-forties woman that was dressed like a throwback to the sixties. The chairs were arranged facing the counsellor, but more than an arm's reach apart. After introductions, during which significantly, Laura was Laura, but, Dave was, Mr. Brown, the aging hippie invited Laura to go first.

Laura explained their marriage history, then stated the facts as she saw them. She'd been a loyal wife and mother until for some reason, she'd left the rails, lied to her family and arranged to go away with another man. No sex had occurred, as her husband's surveillance of her would prove, but yes, the intention had been there. While away, she'd been stunned to learn that her credit cards were cancelled. She regretted what she'd done and her sincerest wish was to just put the whole episode behind her and move on with her marriage to David.

The counsellor looked at Dave.

"Firstly, I'd just like to say that I'm appearing on behalf of myself and our children. My children's main grievance is that their mother lied to them, used two weeks of her annual leave, half a years' worth, to go away by herself and left her phone behind so she couldn't be contacted if an emergency occurred. To set the record straight, I did not commission any surveillance on Laura in Bali."