Win Lose Or What

"She's not there, she hasn't lived there for months, she lives in a penthouse apartment downtown," Mom almost snapped at me. "Pastor Richardson is on his way over to speak with us in a few minutes. I called him while you were in the shower. I expect you to control your quick temper and properly conduct yourself when you are in front of me. Do you understand?"

I looked at mom and dad like they had lost their minds. I have never disrespected or raised my voice with them over the years. She was talking to me like I had done something wrong. Her attitude towards me was doing nothing but pissing me off.

"Look," she said. "This is an unpleasant situation, but I am sure that you will be able to get past it and continue your marriage. Pastor Richardson will..."

'STOP!!!" I yelled. Something new to all of us. I've never yelled in anger at them. It just wasn't done at home. Until now!

"I don't even know what the hell is going on yet, and you are already giving me some kind of, 'you better listen to me' ultimatum," I said. "As if I was a six-year-old kid who needed to be told what to think. I'm not your little boy anymore I am a grown man."

Just as I was about to get up and leave, a knock at the door followed by can I come in. Pastor Richardson was here. Mom almost ran to meet him.

Dad looked at me and said, "Sorry son. I told her this was a bad idea. Your mother and Katie's mom thought the Pastor could help resolve things by trying to convince you to accept this new situation."

"Well dad," I said. "She is already off to a terrible start. I don't like being ambushed, and I already don't like what I'm hearing. My mother needs to remember I'm an adult and will decide things for myself."

He just shook his head and said, "sorry" again.

Mom and Pastor Richardson were speaking in hushed tones as there was another knock at the door.

"Dad?" am I being ambushed

"Son, I'm sorry it's beyond my control," He said. He wasn't looking so happy about it either. "Your mother feels it's her responsibility to get things worked out in a way that's best for us all."

I heard the Pastor greet them. Morning Bob, Susan. Let's get started, shall we? Everyone came into the kitchen and I set the tone for our meeting right from the get-go when the Pastor smiled at me.

I looked him in the eye and asked him, "What you are smiling about. This is a serious situation, not something that is humous in the least."

"Thomas," my mother started.

I cut her off. "You had better walk easily with me right now. First, you have some bull shit attitude with me before I even finish my coffee. Now an ambush. Are you fucking kidding me? Who do you think I am. You and I have now got a serious problem because of your inability to treat me as an adult!"

"There's no need for any hostilities between you two," The Pastor started.

"Look," I said. "No disrespect intended. In case you're not up on current events pastor. I have already put up with my mom's abusive attitude towards me this morning concerning something I don't even understand or have details of yet. Same as the crazy unwelcome home I received from everybody yesterday. As a result, I'm not feeling very friendly or cordial to anyone this morning."

"Thomas," Pastor Richardson said, "I think we should start with a prayer. Let's bow our heads."

I just stood there. Mom looked at me and snapped, "THOMAS."

My look shook her. Even dad looked worried. So, they prayed as I looked on. He prayed about mistakes and forgiveness. He prayed for love, tolerance, and acceptance.

Now I knew. If they thought for one second that I would forgive and accept a wife having another man's baby, they are out of their minds. If it's who I think it is, then I don't even know who these people are.

They finished their prayer, and all looked my way. Mom started to speak and once again I cut her off.

"I don't know who decided that you would be a good one to start this little ambush meeting," I said with authority, "but I can tell you it was a bad move. You with your less than empathetic and condescending attitude with me has cost you. I don't hear any of you at all. It appears you all feel that I am the one at fault here."

My mom's face was turning red and I could see her anger rise. I think that for the first time since I had arrived home, she was realizing that she was not in control.

I told her; "You can turn that shit off right now. I'm not a little kid that you can control or manipulate anymore. Something isn't right here, and I need answers."

She still had a look that showed me that she was not pleased with my conduct towards her. Where has my mom gone, I wondered. I don't know this woman who is confronting me.

"Unless you start spilling the truth to me," I said. "Things are going to come to an end very quickly."

I walked over to the refrigerator and got myself a cold beer. Everyone seemed concerned about that from their expressions. I frankly didn't give a shit. I looked at each of them one at a time and then knocked back half the bottle.

I stepped to the plate so to speak and went for the grand slam. "How far along is Katie?"

No one had the guts or the honesty to say anything. It was almost as if they could not believe that I had said what I did. So, I asked the question again.

"Five months," Susan said.

"Is it Alexander Maxwell's?" I asked, "and isn't he, her new boss?"

Again, Susan answered. "Yes, to both questions."

Pastor Richardson started to babble something about getting professional counseling and not doing anything until everyone has had time to cool down and sort things out.

"Give yourself time to accept things," He said. I knew he was saying it for my benefit.

"I know that you and Katie can get past this," He said. "Providing you will both sit down with me and allow me to counsel you."

I just looked at him like he had two heads.

I looked at dad and asked him. "Are you of the same mind as the rest of them?"

He said, "No" in the strongest voice I had ever heard him use.

"Thank you for that Dad," I said.

I looked at the group as I started to walk away and made myself clear. Looking at my mother in the eyes I said, "I will not be a willing cuckold. I will for sure not be raising another man's baby! I have too much self-respect for me to ever consider doing that."

I was surprised that after I had said that both Bob and my father got a look on their face that showed their shame and embarrassment. I was asking myself why they would be thinking like that because they had done nothing wrong.

I went back to my old room, repacked my sea-bag and headed for the front door. The Pastor was pleading for us all to sit and talk. Mom had the audacity to yell at me not to walk out the door. Who the fuck is that woman? I had to ask myself.

Dad walked out behind me with Bob. Dad asked me where I was going, and I told him, the Naval Air Station. I told him that I had order's there for the rest of my enlistment.

He asked what I planned to do.

"Divorce! That's the only option I have," I said. "Beside suing my wife's lover for everything he's got."

He shook his head and said, "I know son."

Bob looked at me and said, "I'm sorry."

I said to Dad, "I don't know what the hell has happened to mom, whoever she is now is not someone I know so I am thinking that we may be done."

Dad said, "I understand son. In more ways than you can imagine because it looks like I have reached that point too."

"Okay dad, I'm sorry for that, but for now I'm the wind," I said. "Everything I need is in the truck for the ride to the base."

*******

Once I had checked in with personnel, I went to billeting and got my room assignment. It was a nice private bedroom connected with three others by a common area. The common area had a few desks, kitchenette, and a common tv area. I settled into my room and headed for the club to have a few beers.

I stopped by my truck and got my cell phone and turned it on. I hadn't had it on since going to my soon to be ex's parents' house. There was a shit load of missed calls and voice messages and five or so text messages. Three missed calls from Katie with voice mails. The rest were from my soon to be ex mom. Dad had sent a few text messages. The other text messages were from Katie.

I read the text messages from Katie. She said I'm sorry, on the first one and nothing else. The next one she asked me to please answer her call. The third text asked me to come to her parents' house so we could talk. I answered that one. I texted back saying we could talk when we meet up to sign our divorce papers. Anything she would have to say because of her conduct would be bullshit.

I deleted all the voice mail and missed calls. Then I read dad's first text. He said he had to leave as well. She's out of control because he had agreed with me. The next text I could have guessed. He went to Uncle Jack's on the river to stay for a few days.

Uncle Jack at this moment appeared to be smarter than the rest of us, I guess. He had never married, and never was going to marry. He had friends with benefits and that was good enough for him. Not to mention that he lives debt-free. Money was not one of Jack's worries. He had won the Power-Ball when I was around five or six. That was back in the early nineteen nineties. Go figure.

Since he was overseas on a ship at that time, Uncle Jack had no state tax applied to the winnings. The whole four hundred and fifty million was only taxed federally. He had invested most of his winnings in high tech investments. Made a couple of risky investments against his advisor's advice which had turned into gold. Since then no one knew how much he was worth just that he was loaded. Thanks to his approach it was felt he had the Midas touch.

I scrapped the club idea, went back to my room and got a small bag together. I wanted to talk with Miranda privately to find out what she knew because no one else would tell me. Then I would call the guys.

It didn't seem that long of a drive to get to Scallywags. Ed and Jeff were already there when I arrived. They were talking with Miranda and having some drafts. Miranda and the guy's looked surprised to see me. Hell, I was surprised to see them. I asked Miranda for a two and one, please. She got me a large double shot of Beam and a draft.

No one else was at the bar yet. It was half noon.

I said, "Okay, let's bring this meeting to order. Who else came home to a pregnant wife?"

"Not pregnant," Jeff said, "Just cheating."

"Bosses," I asked?

"Yea," Ed said. "Bitches! It pisses me off when I think of all the pussy we turned down because we wanted to remain faithful to our wives"

I wanted to yell but I was holding it back. Alcohol does help with that with some. Miranda didn't care. She held no allegiance to anyone and told us all she knew.

We learned from Miranda that the girls had been recruited to work at the dinner club. Why? Because they were young, sexy, and hot. No other reason. The dinner club was nothing more than a place for Hot Shot Executives to hire Personal Assistants after they had been trained to be willing sluts.

More simply put the executive dinner club was a restaurant and bar that was a place for them to find mistresses that could travel with them. They would test drive the girls from the club until they found the one that suited their personal needs the most. Most of them didn't give a dam what they fucked as long it was clean, fresh, and trainable.

"Sorry Ewell," Miranda said. "Katie got hooked on Alexander's big black cock, and he's one of the few members that I know who is not married."

She was watching my expression.

"Sorry, that was just wrong," Miranda said. "It's is more than that. I think they do love each other. I've heard talk that they want to marry. Your mother and mother in law want her to remain as his mistress because of the financial advantage it gives her. They figured they could convince you to raise their child as their husbands have."

That tidbit of information caused me to choke on the swallow I had just taken. It ended up coming back up through my nose.

"Cindy and Beth just got caught up in the excitement of a great paying job with all the travel and sex on the side." Miranda continued. "Beth, I heard is in a long term lesbian relationship with the mayor's wife but still does men on the side. Katie has been exclusive to Alexander, while the others in the club swap around with the Executives that frequent the club. Sorry guys, but that's the truth."

"How do you know so much about all this," I asked her.

"I was one of those girls years ago," she said. "I too got caught up in the excitement of it all. I got smart when I used the money, I had earned to buy this bar because it brought me back to reality."

"I'm sorry Miranda," We all said. "Thanks for telling us. We won't say who told us."

She just laughed and said she didn't care if we did. She said she hates all those rotten bastards. They see us females as nothing more than commodities in the stock market that can be used and traded as needed.

Ed looked at me and Jeff and asked, "I wonder if we can get a group rate on our divorces?"

We all cracked up. I told them about mom and asked how it went for them. It was close to the same story with their mom's. I went to the lobby and made a call.

I came back and said, "Okay guys we're going to Jack's place for a talk."

I don't know how I missed them, but I learned that they had gone to check-in and got rooms at the base already too. Off we went, over to my Uncle Jack's.

We expected my dad to be there, but not all six dads. We found them at the boathouse. They were talking and having some beer on the boat ramp outback. We joined them in their conversation.

We were all talking with our dads and Uncle Jack about what we had learned from Miranda. We bought up how all our mothers were acting when Jack started to laugh.

Jack looked at dad and said, "Go on Tommy, tell them. I think they deserve to know the truth."

A bottle of bourbon, a case of beer and god only knows how many cigarettes later, Jeff, Ed and I stood there in wide-eyed shock at what we were told.

It turns out that all our mothers, the girl's mothers as well, were former club hostesses before the club moved into the new casino. Learning what we did, made all things make sense now. The friends that set our wives up with the jobs were more than likely their mom's. Even Pastor Richardson's wife had been a former hostess.

My mother was a few months pregnant with me when my grandma pushed dad into marrying mom. It was the same with Jeff and Ed's parents. Guess I know why I don't look much like my dad now. Mom had always said I took after my Uncle Jack.

Our fathers had given in and gone along with them and stayed married. The moms thought if they if they played the mother and church card strongly enough, we would follow the line of behavior too just as our fathers had and continue our lives as willing cucks.

It made it clear that each of these women considered it normal to have husbands that were nothing but cucks. Each one of us was wondering how many of our brothers and sisters had been fathered by other men.

Not only no but fuck no! There was no fucking way in today's society were we going to accept the old ways that were accepted as normal here in the deep south. We all agreed however, we would try not to bad mouth the old whores too badly.

Make no mistake there. That's how Jeff, Ed, and I now viewed all our moms. Our dads took a hard fall at that point as well. We had good reason to believe they were not our real fathers and could no longer say they were real men.

There is no way.... I couldn't... I just... What the.... I'm just... Damn! I looked at my former dad and walked off. My Uncle Jack came over to me as I stood away from the crowd trying to deal with all the emotional crap caused by these new truths I had just learned.

"I'm proud of you Ewell, so would my grandfather be," said Uncle Jack. "You did the family name proud by showing yourself a more principled man than most of them."

*******

The first order of business meant we all got new cell phone numbers. We then went as a group to see an attorney that Jack suggested. We all had a copy of our bank statements and a copy of our LES. There was nothing to split in the divorces. None of us had bought homes or started a family yet. It would make our divorces cheap and simple.

I was the only one with a fly in the ointment. Paternity would not be hard to prove. Katie could try and slow the process, but I was willing to bet she wouldn't. Her lover was going to be humiliated quite publicly when my suit against him came out.

The three of us filed jointly against the dinner club for aiding and abetting in the destruction of our marriages. We were suing for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

We did not figure we would win but it would destroy the reputation of the club and those who were associated with it. The dirty dark kept secrets kept behind closed doors in Mississippi were about to come out in all their glory.

The papers were drawn up and signed by me and the guy's the next day by eleven in the morning. They were served to the girls at their work by two in the afternoon. I later heard my wife's lover was furious because he also was a part-owner in the dinner club.

We had asked about getting annulments, but that takes up to sixteen months. There are strict rules and requirements for that which our current situation did not meet. Divorce was the best option. Sixty days after they signed, and the papers are filed with the court it would be done.

*******

We decided to go and check out our new assignments at the base. We still had three more weeks of leave left so we thought it would be a good idea to familiarize ourselves with the base and see where we would be working. I had a skate job working for MWR. Ed was assigned as a mess deck MAA. Jeff got the base Public Affairs office. We all met back up at my barracks, loaded up and off to Jack's.

We got a big surprise when we got there. All the dads were there hanging out again. It seems they had all decided to file for divorce as well. I guess because of our stance the men who raised us had developed some backbone. Our attorney was one happy man thanks to family his business was booming.

Very sad, however. All the mothers had been hostesses at one time or another. Some as it turned out was still cheating, and all the dad's had, for whatever reason accepted it.

The problem was the three 'amigos' had come home early and fucked it up for everyone.

"Sorry dad," I said, "But I don't know how you all were able to deal with it."

Around five that evening, while everyone was still hanging around, our attorney showed up with his paralegal in tow.

All of the dads were given a package of papers to fill out and return. His paralegal went over what was needed and answered questions about the splitting of assets and what to expect.

While the dads were all listening to the paralegal, Mr. Green our Attorney was talking to the three of us and Jack. Mr. Green had acted on our behalf with our soon to be ex's, and all three had signed and returned the divorce agreements that morning.

It seems that the girls had amassed a fair amount of money in their accounts that they didn't want to share in a divorce settlement. If we agreed to not ask for anything from them, they wouldn't ask anything from us. Deal! My friends said so their papers were signed and filed. Sixty days and it's a done deal!

I told my lawyer that I was entitled to half and I wanted it. It took him half an hour using his cellphone to get Katie to agree to it. I told him I would sign when he had the cash in his possession.

We were all talking with Jack now and Mr. Green was having a beer with us. All three of us were upset at the girls, but not like crazy mad or anything like that.