The Seven Deadly Sins: Hubris

That stunned Laura. As it was the first thing she would have done, she couldn't believe it was true.

"In fact, I didn't even want to believe she was playing away until our youngest daughter hacked into Laura's email account and discovered the trail of arrangements she and her lover had left. Also, for the record, I was advised to cancel the credit cards after my eldest daughter discovered that my wife was in the middle of locking up all the family finances in a way that would leave me helpless."

Again, Laura was stunned. She'd no idea her precautions had been discovered and hadn't ever considered how such actions would be interpreted. The fact that both her daughters were actively working against her didn't improve her mood either.

"As for what my wife wants out of this process, excuse me for no longer trusting a bloody word out of her mouth."

The vehemence of his words finally got through to Laura just how offended her husband was by her actions. Before she could react, the counsellor addressed Dave.

"So, what do you hope to achieve by these sessions?"

"I hope to understand why my wife thought it was acceptable to lie to her family and arrange to go away to screw another man."

The marriage of David and Laura was still recoverable at this precise moment in time. That changed in an instant. The change wasn't brought about by husband or wife, but by the counsellor, when she muttered, almost under her breath,

"Oh, we have a dinosaur."

Dave, who thought Laura had set this all up to expedite a divorce and had deliberately chosen the counsellor to minimise the chances of reconciliation, snapped. He'd heard of counsellors like this and thought it just wasn't right. He stormed out of the room. Laura, who might have stood a faint chance of averting disaster by running after Dave and begging his forgiveness, took out her frustration on the counsellor. By the time her tongue lashing was finished, Dave was long gone. The counsellor apologised and talked Laura into a one on one session with her the following week. Then she would apologise to David for her inappropriate behaviour and do a one on one with him as well. That being the third mandated session, would lead to a decision whether to continue or give up.

Chapter 10

The family meeting the next day, went no better for Laura. She just didn't get it. Once you lie to someone, trust becomes a footnote in the history books; just above Tusked Woolly Mammoth.

She invited them all to dinner before the meeting, but Sarah reminded her that she couldn't cook worth a damn and told her they'd all be there at 7.30PM. Laura tried to hug them all as they came in, but they all treated her very coldly. Laura made the mistake of sitting last. By the time she was ready, she found herself alone facing four staring pairs of eyes from the couch. She tried to get her best friend, Sarah, to move to her side but to no avail.

Frustrated once again, she launched into her prepared speech. It was light on for apologies and heavy on the 'I didn't actually do anything' and excuses. She felt unappreciated as both a woman and the main bread winner of the family. The attention of her husband had become a given and she'd started to miss the attention single women took for granted. She was starting to feel her age and unattractive. When a younger man started to pay her attention, she fell for his charms. Laura tended to focus on Danielle and Larry while speaking. She had trouble meeting Dave's eyes and Sarah was rather annoyingly making marks on a notepad behind raised knees. Finally, the silence from what she'd come to think of as 'the opposition bench', reduced her to silence as well. Sarah spoke.

"Damn, Mum, you disappointed me again."

"What? Why?"

"On the cliché test, I can only give you 85%. If you'd mentioned that no one would be hurt if they didn't find out, I could have given you 100%."

No one knew if Laura went bright red because of anger or whether it was because she realised she'd meant to say that as well but it had slipped her mind. Whatever the reason, she realised she was going to get little sympathy from her children while Dave controlled their hearts and minds.

"David, in the kitchen, now please."

Laura rounded on him as soon as they were alone behind a closed door. She hissed at him through clenched teeth.

"Does it really have to be like this, David? Me breaking you until you have to come crawling back, begging for my forgiveness."

Dave stared right back at her with a look of sadness, because he realised she remained a slave to her own nature.

"No, it doesn't have to be like this at all. If you just did what you should know is the decent thing to do, the result doesn't have to be inevitable. If you ditch that stupid bitch you chose as an impartial counsellor and we went to see... "

"I'll see you in court, David."

Chapter 11

On Thursday, Dave moved into a three-bedroom rented house. This obviously wasn't going to be over any time soon. He was also notified that a preliminary hearing on custody of Danielle and Larry was scheduled for the next Tuesday. With the name of the family court judge he'd been assigned, he rang John. John told him that he'd lucked out and pulled the one judge that had never given custody to the father. Dave refused John's offer of representation but did ask for a meeting over the weekend to learn about procedures and what he could and could not say. He was going to have one go at using the system properly, then revert to his own tactics. Doing what he had to do to ensure the emotional wellbeing of his children.

.

A fun weekend was spent personalising the rented house. Dave sat the kids down and was fairly honest with how the short term was going to look and what his longer term plans were. They perked up at that and joined in with the planning. Together they researched what they needed on the internet.

Tuesday, Laura's lawyer was a little shocked when he discovered Dave intended to represent himself. He knew what an awkward position that put Laura in, being grilled by her own husband. The court was running late that day, so only administrative items were discussed before the end of the session; then they were all ordered to attend the next day. Word got out overnight to a couple of local reporters on this slow news week.

The next day started with Laura's lawyer going through the details of ownership of property, relative earning capacity and other details. Then Dave got to ask questions. Laura was visibly nervous, a fact that wasn't lost on the reporters. He started off gently.

"Did I build the family home with my own two hands." "Yes you did, I was busy working and making most of the money,"

"Did you go back to work within two months of the birth of all your children? Yes."

"Who usually made our children's breakfast, school lunches and dinners?" "You did, I was working long hours."

"Would you say I was the primary caregiver?" "Possibly."

"Did you recently lie to me and your children and go to Bali for two weeks with the express purpose of having sex with another man?"

"Objection, your honour. Someone should tell Mr. Brown that adultery is no longer a factor in child custody disputes in this country."

"Excuse me, your honour, I don't care about the adultery, I just want to highlight the character of my wife, who thinks she is a fit mother."

"Objection overruled."

"Well?"

"I went to Bali because I needed a break and I happened to go with a male friend from work, yes."

"When you left for Bali, after lying to your family, did you leave the following letter for your husband to find?"

Dave then read the letter in full. Out of the corner of his eye he could see both the reporters scribbling furiously. Laura didn't have to answer the question; her look of rage did that for her. This was embarrassing.

"Is it true that after returning from your sneaky trip, you never once attempted to apologise to your husband and family for the deceit and the clearly immoral intentions?" Again, silence was the stern reply.

"Your honour, your decision would appear to be an easy one. I am the primary caregiver of my minor children and always have been. They should be awarded to me along with the house I build and they have lived in most of their lives. I never cheated on my wife and never told blatant, damaging lies to her and my children and I challenge her to contradict that. She has shown by her actions that she is not fit to further influence my children."

Dave took his seat with his back to Laura. Her angry eyes attempted to burn holes in the back of his head. The judge fully woke up and gave her judgement immediately. The gist of which was that countless studies had shown that children were always better off with the mother in divorce cases. Her judgement was that temporary custody and residence of the family home was given to Laura. Laura smiled smugly. Dave remained neutral. It was exactly what he'd been expecting after talking to John. He stood.

"Your honour, may I address the bench. I would just like to point out your own rulings in Harper vs Harper, Smith vs Smith, Fulton vs Fulton and others too numerous to mention, where you awarded custody to the primary care giver." With no response from the judge, Dave went on to cite three academic papers contradicting that children were always better off with the mother.

"What is your point, Mr. Brown?"

"I was just wondering, your honour, is it possible for someone with a penis to win in your court?"

The judge glared at Dave. He stared back stonily. She then declared case closed and called the next one. The journalists scribbled frantically. Dave walked over and gave them copies of Laura's letter. He then walked out without a backward glance. Laura's lawyer came over and congratulated her. She didn't feel like celebrating. Dave's speech about her never expressing one iota of remorse for her actions, had struck a chord. Unfortunately, her reflex to win any fight she was in, made it impossible for her to back down once the game was afoot.

His marriage finally written off by Laura's smug smile, Dave totalled up all those that had offended his sense of justice and required re-education. It stood at three and plans were already in place. He'd already bounced them off Sarah to get a second opinion and made the changes she suggested. In fact, one of her suggestions was much better than what he had in mind. He went home and through a friend of a friend in the Federal government, passed an email to the federal Chief Justice, laying out his accusations of bias against a certain judge. He then waited for Danielle and Larry to come home from school. They readily agreed with his request they spend at least the next two nights with their mother. He then gave them the equipment for stage two of his plan.

The two newspaper articles the next day, were unflattering of both Laura and the judge. Dave cut them out and emailed them to a friend of a friend.

Chapter 12

Laura went home on time for a change, on the Wednesday afternoon. Danielle and Larry were there but made it plain it was under protest. When they deigned to answer her questions, it was with the bare minimum of words. She had to be prompted to make their school lunches the next day. It had been so long since she'd done it that it slipped her mind. With nothing suitable in the cupboards, she ended up giving them money for the canteen. She returned home at 4PM to get changed for the 5PM solo counselling session.

At the session, she laid out her conditions for accepting Dave back. That took half the session. The rest was taken up by the counsellor probing into their marriage history. Laura admitted to two inappropriate liaisons before Peter. One with a work colleague and one with a neighbour. She stressed that with all three 'friends', no actual intercourse had occurred, without mentioning that in the first two cases, it wasn't by her choice. She expressed genuine confusion why Dave was taking such offence against her actions, seeing as how nothing had happened. The counsellor committed to sounding her husband out on her conditions, but cautioned her that reconciliation was unlikely, given that Dave's objections seemed to be based around the dishonesty and intent, rather than the actions.

Dave's session the next day was short, sharp and just a little frightening. To the question of what he wanted from the session, Dave simply gave her two choices. He either wanted a referral to another counsellor, one that didn't blatantly condone cheating woman, or sign off that the marriage was irretrievable. A little alarmed that her statement from the first session could damage her career, the counsellor quickly made the report to the relevant authorities that the marriage was over. One more report on her to her professional body, she knew, could well be the last.

When Dave got home, Danielle and Larry were there and looked quite settled. A policeman knocked at the door and said he was in contempt of a family court order. He pointed out that he wasn't, his children were. The only way he could evict them was by force and that would constitute assault. The policeman asked the kids to come with him; they refused. He left to get instructions. Before he returned, Laura stormed in.

"David, I told you already, it doesn't have to be this way. Just tell Danielle and Larry to come with me, give me the house and I will be generous with visitation and the division of assets."

"Laura, please leave my property. I will not force the children into a situation that they don't want and will damage their sense of right and wrong."

"David, we've known each other for how long? You know me, I'm not a bad person."

"That's the problem, Laura. I don't know you. The woman I married wouldn't have done what you did. She certainly wouldn't have done what you did, then not only show no remorse but tell our counsellor to give me an ultimatum to accept your behaviour or lose everything I hold dear. Certainly not since I found out from your counselling session yesterday that you'd tried to start something with two other men before Peter. Tell me, Laura, exactly what did I do to deserve what you've done to me and what you plan on doing now?"

The realisation that she'd been sold down the river by the counsellor, made Laura see red. Her fundamental guilt wouldn't allow her to take out her anger on Dave. The bitch counsellor was a whole other matter. She was now the focus of all Laura's anger.

"She's not allowed to tell you that."

Dave made no overt or subliminal comment on that statement. Laura stormed off in a rage. Dave went and wiped the recorder that Danielle had put in Laura's purse before the counselling session and retrieved afterwards. He was confident that righteous justice was about to visit the counsellor. He was right. Three days later, the counsellor received word that her services were no longer required. One down, two to go.

Child services turned up Saturday morning, but left frustrated when it became obvious that the only way the kids were leaving was if they were dragged out kicking and screaming by force. They made the mistake of trying logic in an extremely emotive situation. Said the senior officer to Larry,

"The courts have decided that you are better off with your mother."

"Then the courts got it wrong. Neither Danielle or I wish to live with a liar that hurt our Dad."

That was the end of that. Laura spent the next week trying to get all three of her children back on her side. In the end, they refused to take her calls and immediately deleted her emails and phone messages. She tried talking to Dave, but once he established the conversation wasn't going to include an apology, he terminated it. Finally giving up, he engaged John as his divorce lawyer. He also went to see Sarah's boss to confirm the advice she'd given him.

At the end of the following week, he heard, through Sarah, that Laura was going on another business trip all the following week. He took the week off and he put in a phenomenal week's work, assisted by the children after school and work hours.

Exactly what the effort was all about, was revealed to Laura when she arrived home the following Friday. She drove in the driveway and did a double take. There was her beautiful landscaped block, complete with hanging swimming pool. There was the brick garage. What was missing was her beautiful, award winning home. Her demountable palace had been demounted. In its place was a solitary, very damaged replacement building. Obviously bought at one of those insurance write-off auctions after being damaged in transit. In a daze, she opened the door, realising that Dave had gone to the effort of replacing the locks. There were all her clothes, some of the furniture and all her personal items. She was torn between rage and deep sadness. Sadness won for a while. Lying on the floor, just inside the door, was a copy of the title deeds to the property. She read, 'land and dwellings at' and the address. She realised she'd been cleverly gazumped. The land was hers and it DID have a dwelling on it.

She rang her lawyer to confirm there was nothing she could do about the house, then as an afterthought, she rang her financial adviser to change the only financial arrangements she'd made that were reversible at the moment. The trust the spare block of land had been put in. Only to be told Sarah had already exercised her right and moved those deeds to her name only. Laura's last act, before losing it completely, was to curse her own arrogance at assuming all three children would take her side. She realised then, the evidence of the strength of feeling the rest of her family must have against her. Dave for stealing her house. The children for not standing by her. She came very close to accepting the enormity of her crimes, but unfortunately, her self-pity morphed into anger again before the connection was fully made.

She sent an email to all three children, "Do you really hate me that much?" There came back a solitary reply. "We don't hate you. You've always known I'd do whatever was necessary to protect our family. It's just unfortunate that you've put me in a position where I have to protect them from you." It was signed, Dave. Laura collected some personal items, then went and checked into a motel. She drove there via Sarah's block, just to confirm the modules of her old house were neatly lined up there, awaiting placement and connection.

She received Dave's petition for divorce on Monday at work. He apologised for having her served there but explained he didn't know where else she would be. She spent the next hour trying to read between the lines of the settlement, which at face value appeared to be generous. It gave her 100% ownership of the property they'd shared, which, with the bulk of the other assets being locked up, was the vast majority. Several itemised amounts were requested to be subtracted form the value of the property. They included the cost of airfares and a hotel room in Bali. A note explained that these were the amounts that Dave considered Laura had stolen from the marriage. Also included were subtractions for the cost of the divorce and the costs of unravelling her financial shenanigans, including half of the expected interest in the money locked up in trust for the next two and five years respectively. It requested the children be given into the custody of whichever parent they chose. For the sake of unity, if either Danielle or Larry chose a different parent, then Larry, as the youngest, would get to decide. Family unity was paramount. Laura rang her financial advisor and asked what the chances of her reversing the two trusts in the children's names were and was told nil. He'd done his job well.

Through her divorce lawyer, she tried to get another counsellor appointed. But as the first had already signed off on the marriage, that was impossible without Dave's agreement. When she requested such an agreement, through her lawyer, Dave reminded her that he'd offered an alternative counsellor weeks ago and been rejected. Now that Laura was seemingly motivated only by the prospect or her impending destruction, it was too late. Laura signed the deal realising it was the best she would ever get. With the family court sure to award her custody of Danielle and Larry, that gave her the assets locked in the two minor children's trusts, as their legal guardian. That meant she would only lose the value of the second block of land.