Tom

"I see." I looked at the floor for a few seconds whilst I composed what I wanted to say. I drew a deep breath and then looked Dr. Snow in the eyes, "Doctor, what you've missed in this is that I'm not happy. I got married to Kathleen with the understanding that we would only have sex with each other. We had two children as a result and they rely on the stability of a home that doesn't see a parade of people in and out of their mother's bed, or mine. The face of the man that they see at the breakfast table or supper table is mine, not someone that spent the night with their mother. I know that you think me old fashioned, but that's me. And I have to tell you that the fine State of New York still supports the kind of marriage that I signed on for. As well, I don't plan to share my bed with Kathleen and other men; some form of poly marriage is NOT what I want. You need to know that. You need to tell that to the judge and Kathleen and we can all save time, effort and money and get on with the divorce." I'd had enough. I was done with this nonsense.

**********

My lawyer got us a court date and called Dr. Snow as a witness. When she was questioned about the counselling sessions she told the judge that I was hesitant to participate. She even tried to suggest that I was 'uncooperative' in a measure. My lawyer started to question her and then she backtracked somewhat and told the judge that I had not agreed to my wife having sex with two other men and that indeed this sort of arrangement was rarely successful in a marriage. The judge nodded. Kath grimaced.

I'd made my point and we could get on with the actual business of determining the ending.

**********

I figured that after the court session that I mentioned earlier, that it would be down to the nitty-gritty of sorting out custody of the kids, the house, our finances and all that 'business' stuff that has to be sorted out before the paperwork is signed and the court gets to stamp it as officially done. Hmmm...not so fast thinks you.

When I got home that night, after our court session, Kath was in the kitchen with a glass of wine. She looked at me, "We need to talk."

I couldn't believe the words I was hearing, "Talk, now? You want to talk now? Bit late for that isn't it?"

"Sweetie, I need to explain a few things. Things that I should have told you a long time ago, I suppose."

"Like I said, a bit late now, isn't it?"

"You don't know what it's like. Trying to get ahead in a high pressure law firm."

I looked at her and gestured with my hand doing that circular motion, to continue.

"It was made very clear to me that to get ahead I was going to have to play the game. Not only be a good, no, a great lawyer, but to...do my part...with the senior lawyers who would be the ones to help my career."

"And? Just Exactly what does that mean?" I wanted her to say the words that I knew she didn't want to say.

"Robert made it very clear to me that unless I could agree to be more than just a junior associate lawyer, that my potential with the firm was limited. That if I were to see my way to being his 'close' associate, he would 'mentor' me. I finally realized that he wanted to have sex with me."

She took a big drink of her wine and continued, "I know I'm a good looking woman and I knew that he found me very attractive. Robert is a good looking man, so I thought that at least if I were to do what he wanted it wouldn't be so bad. If he was fat and gross that might have been another thing; but he wasn't and I figured that I could do it and it would give me an advantage for promotion and eventual partnership." Another big drink of her wine, "I figured that it would be easy to keep it from you; you're...very trusting."

"Clearly I'm way too trusting," I said sadly. "How long have you been having sex with Robert?"

Kath stared at the floor and very quietly said words that left me shocked and thoroughly broken. "I started having sex with Robert about a year after Beth was born."

Beth is our first child. Janey is our second. I did the math. Kath has been having sex with Robert for about eight years. Fuck!

I had to sit down before I passed out.

**********

I left my home and didn't have a clue what to do. There were a million thoughts running through my brain at the same time. If Kath had taken a gun and put a bullet in my brain it might have hurt less than realizing that I'd been sharing my wife with another man for all this time.

And then it hit me!

Was Janey even mine? I had to know. I went back home. I almost barged in the front door and shouted for Kath. "Kathleen, where are you?"

I heard, "In here." come from the bedroom. I almost ran to the bedroom door. I almost shouted at her, "Is Janey mine?"

"What?"

"Janey. Am I her father?"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course you're her father."

"Are you certain? You were having sex with Robert when you got pregnant with Janey. Fuck!" There was dead silence. For a smart woman she could be incredibly stupid by times. I turned and left the room. I went to the kitchen and got a drink of water. I could hear Kath walking down the stairs. She came to the kitchen and looked at me. She said nothing.

**********

The next day I went online and looked for a lab that did DNA testing; there are several in the region.

Quick tutorial on DNA testing in NY State:

New York State has specific requirements for DNA testing including: Collection by a physician under chain of custody; The specimen must be accompanied by a test order from your physician or lawyer; The laboratory must hold a New York State Department of Health certificate.

I contacted the lab and after some back-and-forth I had them courier me the test kits. I waited until Kath was out of the house at her work and I took the kids to the doctors office They were mildly curious what I was doing but nevertheless they were cheek-swabbed and the doc took a small hair sample. Everything was packaged and ready for the courier to pick up the next day. Now, all I had to do was wait for the results.

**********

Waiting for DNA results is hard work. The suspense damned near killed me. It took almost two weeks for the results to be sent back and I spent the entire time trying to figure out what I would do with the results. If the tests revealed that I was the father of the girls I would feed it all through the shredder and carry on. If the results revealed that I was not the biological father of one of the girls, then what do I do? That was the question.

I thought long and hard and came to the conclusion that no matter what the results were I would carry on and nothing changed with my children. I even considered not looking at the test results. That actually was the winning solution, and so I decided to put the tests in my office safe and only bring them out if I had no other option; but just then didn't know what that would be. God-damn it; why did Kath have to fuck around? No job or career was worth the destruction of your family; at least not to me.

**********

The next time I talked with my wife was to ask her if she had made any plans for the time after our divorce would be final. The fight continued. The heel-dragging continued.

"Sweetie, I don't want a divorce. You and I and the girls are a family. We need to be with each other. I love you Tom! What I did with Robert took nothing away from you. Hell, even when I was with James, he only got the leftover crumbs from your table."

I couldn't believe what nonsense she was talking. "My table! My fucking table! What about my bed? Did you ever stop to think about that? Did you ever, once, think about me or your daughters when you were fucking both of those men? Did you!"

So, lawyers (at least the good ones) have the ability to compartmentalize. I figured that is what my wife did when she was having sex with Robert. For her, it was a different planet that she was on and her two worlds: her law career and her family, would never meet. We (the girls and I) could be kept seperate from her other life and so one would not have an impact on the other. At least that was her plan. And for a long time it worked. It worked until it didn't. It wasn't working now.

Kath looked at her manicure and the floor. I was disgusted and walked away. But I came back. "You need to get the fuck out of this house! Now!" Then I left.

**********

Kath's lawyer was able to stall for a fairly long time but eventually time was running out. My lawyer was trying to appeal to Kath's sense of fair play and was working towards an uncontested divorce. Kath was having none of that. As well, depending on how backed up the family law courts are it could take a year or two to finalize the divorce. I needed to find a way to move things along. I only had one possible ace in the hole but it meant that I would have to do something that I did not want to do. I would have to look at the DNA test results.

I pulled the envelope out of my office safe and sat it on my desk. I got a cup of coffee and stared at it for so long that that the coffee was finished, the last of it being cold. I was mentally weighing the impact of what I was going to read. If my worst fears were realized, what would it do to me and my children. In the bottom of my heart I knew that no matter what secret lay in the DNA envelope, it would not change the way I think of my children.

I took a letter opener and carefully slit the top of the. There were four sheets of paper. I unfolded them, bent the creases out of them and lay them in the center of my desk and began to read.

My world shattered a little bit more. Right then, I hated Kath more than I had ever loved her. She gave away what I though was mine.

Beth is my biological daughter. Janey is not my biological daughter.

I carried the four sheets of paper to my photocopier and made three copies of the documents then returned the originals to the envelope and put it back in my safe.

I knew what I had to do.

**********

I called the office of Robert and talked to his secretary and made an appointment to see him. She had no idea who I was and booked me in for a time in a week.

I put a set of the DNA results in an envelope and couriered them over to my lawyer. She would add them to the file and could employ them with the court at the appropriate time.

**********

For the next week I avoided Kath like she had the plague. I did all the things with the kids that I normally do, but if Kath tried to come with us, I made an excuse why I couldn't go and let her to manage the girls by herself.

The day of my appointment to see Robert arrived and I went to his office, hoping that I wouldn't accidentally see my wife there. I cooled my jets in the waiting area, eager to get on with my plan. His secretary eventually looked at me and said that he was ready for me. When I went in and he saw me, he turned a bit pale, but tried to cover with a greeting and he wanted to shake my hand. I didn't take his hand but I did make sure the door was shut.

"Well, Tom, what brings you here to see me? Let me get my secretary to call Kathleen and see if she can come join us."

I put my hand up to signal him not to bother. "I came to see you Robert, and this isn't a social visit. I don't think we need to involve my wife today."

"Ah...well Tom, what is it you need to talk about?"

I took the envelope out of my jacket pocket and put it on his desk. He looked at it as if it might explode at any second. "Ah...what is this."

"This is something that I want to share with you. You see, I have a problem and that problem is a wife that you've been fucking for the last eight years. That problem is a daughter that is not biologically mine. That problem is a divorce that needs to take place. That problem is a discussion that I will have with your wife if you fail to convince Kathleen that it is in her best interest to agree with the divorce. That problem is the public disclosure that you have been having sex with a subordinate for an extended period of time. That problem is what your corporate clients will think of this firm when that are made aware of the ethics, or lack of them, of this firm. That is my problem and now it's your problem."

Robert turned bright red and wanted leap over his mahogany desk and choke me to death with his bare hands. I turned and walked to the door. "You have twenty-four hours to get her to sign the divorce agreement or my next visit will be at your house and have a chat with your wife. You fucking figure it out!" I left and got out of there as quickly as I could just in case he had a gun in his desk.

**********

That night when Kath got home she stormed in and was furious. "Why the fuck did you go to Robert's office?"

I waited a few seconds before I answered. "Why do you think I went to see him? Did he show you what I left him?"

"None of that matters. It doesn't matter who Janey's biological father is, you're her father, you always have been and you always will be. What does it matter whose sperm made her."

"How fucking delusional are you? Really? You don't think that it matters to me that you have been deceiving me for most of our married life? You're a piece of work, you know that!" I was working up a good head of steam and had to remind myself of the sage advice of my attorney 'don't do something stupid, or you'll regret it' and actively counted to ten in my head to regain control.

"Tom, you know that I love you and you know that that DNA stuff doesn't matter."

'Kath, you're right. The DNA doesn't matter when it comes to Janey. She is my daughter and will always be my daughter. I will fight for her the same as I will for Beth. You can be assured of that." I tried to walk away to the kitchen to get a beer and relax. I did mange to pour my favourite IPA and went to the family room. Kath was hot on my heels.

"Why did you try to threaten Robert with telling his wife about those DNA tests? Nothing will come of it. Robert is working now to get a court order prohibiting you from going near his house or family and to order the DNA sealed."

"Really?"

"Sweetie, we need to forget all this nonsense about a divorce and get on with being a family. I'm going to start some supper, why don't you help me.". With that she turned and went to the kitchen. I could hear some pots and pans rattling, banging and general kitchen noises. As if fixing some food was going to make all her problems go away and me forget just how deceitful she had been for most of our marriage.

I sent off a quick text to my lawyer (they charge for answering even those now) to advise her that Robert was trying to get a leg-up on me to stop me from communicating with his wife and letting her know just what kind of prick he has been. What they both (Kath and Robert) forgot was that I know how to actually use a telephone and it's not hard to get a phone number. His wife does work with a couple of charitable committees so it would be relatively easy to see her and talk to her.

And that's what I did.

**********

So, the wealthy live by a set of rules that are different than the rules and norms that the rest of us live by. I'd always know that but my discussion with Mrs. Robert (her name is Judy) drove that point home to me again. Money does buy privilege, lots of money buys entitlement.

When I introduced myself to her she quickly admitted that she knew who I was and guessed pretty closely what I wanted to talk about. I was so shocked by that that I had to concentrate on what I wanted to say to her. Seems that she knew all about her husband's sexual affairs and was well aware that he and my wife, Kathleen, had been quiet lovers for some time. When I pulled out the DNA test results showing that I was not the father of one of my daughters she quickly looked over the paperwork and passed it back to me with the question, 'what is it that you want Thomas?'

It was actually very simple; I looked her square in the eyes and said, "Do you have the leverage with your husband to get him to persuade Kathleen to agree to the divorce that I have asked her for?"

"Why do you want to divorce her? Is she a sufficiently poor wife that you want to get rid of her?"

"I'm very surprised that you would ask that question. Is a long term affair and getting pregnant by a man other than your husband and concealing it, not sufficient to merit a divorce?"

"Divorce is so overused. How long have you know about her relationship with Robert?"

"A few months, now."

"Has she otherwise been a good wife and a good mother?"

I was starting to see where this discussion was headed and I wasn't pleased. "In my opinion she's been a shitty wife and her deceit was intentional. That says a lot. How could I trust her to have the best interests of our children and our marriage in her mind when she's been fucking other men, got pregnant by your husband and figured that what I didn't know wouldn't bother me. Well, I do know and it does bother me."

Then she dropped her own little bomb. "I've known about Robert's philandering for a very long time. His relationship with Kathleen is not the first woman that he has had an affair with and it won't be the last. When his affairs were revealed to me, I decided that I liked my life and I decided that I was not going to do anything about it. You see, when I learned that Robert was having an affair I decided that I would have my own extra-martial activities; and I enjoy them. I don't plan to end them anytime soon."

Oh my fuck! This one was as deluded as my wonderful deceitful wife. "Listen, it's none of my business what you do but when your husband interferes in my life, I take great insult to that. Please tell him that it's in his best interests, and your's now, that he convinces Kathleen to stop opposing the divorce, sign the paperwork and they can all get back to fornicating whenever and wherever they want. Just do it!"

"What do you mean by my best interests?"

"In case you haven't noticed, you enjoy a high degree of social prominence in the community. A sex scandal involving your husband would not bode well for your social calendar. You fucking figure it out." I turned and walked away feeling soiled for the encounter.

**********

A few day later, I was at home with the kids and we were playing in the driveway. Kath drove up and got out of her car. She looked like she was ready to explode. After supper when the girls were doing the last of their homework, Kath actually wanted to talk.

It seems that Robert and his wife had a frank discussion about the impact on their lives of his affair with Kathleen being revealed, not just to their social circle, but also what it would mean for the firm and their many very conservative corporate clients. A good old fashioned sex scandal is very bad for business.

So, Robert realized that it was not good for his comfortable existence to have it revealed what shenanigans he was up to in his busy day, and it would not bode well for his wife, either. Consequently, he and Kath had a heart to heart chat and he urged Kath to find some quiet resolution of our divorce disagreement. Failure to do that would not help Kath's rise up to full partner in the firm. It was all so patently simple. Get the divorce done if you want to stay employed. Go figure.

I told her that I would talk after the girls were in bed. Meanwhile, I went to my briefcase, go out the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage and went over it again to make sure that it contained all the important things that I wanted. I dropped it in front of Kath and left her alone.

When I came down from tucking the girls in, Kath was sitting in the family room with a glass of her favourite wine. The document was sitting on the table and there was a pen on top.

"I'm going to miss this house."

**********

Sic months later, the house was sold and the last of the financial agreements were sorted out. The girls and I moved to a slightly smaller house, but it had a detached garage with a loft and a small in-ground pool in the backyard. It wasn't as flashy as the other house but it was all we needed. The girls got to stay in the same school. The dog likes it too.