49 comments/ 68434 views/ 22 favorites Wife Gone By: Winterfrog Many thanks to Jedbeaker for editing this story. In this story you'll find much more romance than in other Winterfrog stories. * It was the last Friday in June and I, Eric Robertson, had left my job for my four-week summer vacation. On the way home I picked-up my seven year old daughter, Amanda, at my wife's parents. They took care of her during her school summer break until Anita, my wife the past nine years and I began our summer vacations. This year we had not planned or booked any long holiday trips because Anita had suggested and I had agreed, to do some maintenance work on our house. So we planned to take only short one-day trips, now and then depending on the weather. Anita left her job at noon so both Amanda and I had great expectations about a nice celebration and family fun when we came home. Anita's blue Renault Clio was parked in our driveway just as expected, but we were surprised when we did not get any reply when Amanda was running around in the house shouting, "Mom, dad and me are home now!" At first, I thought Anita had gone talking with some of the neighbors at their house. I tried to calm down the worried Amanda by saying, "Mom is only away for a few minutes and will be back soon." But when she realized that Anita hadn't done any shopping or preparation for the summer vacation celebration, even I understood that she was into something that she obviously hadn't known about in the morning. My second thought was that she was out with her co-workers for some kind of celebration that had been decided that day. What surprised me was that she had not called me or sent me a text message about her new plans. We always used to do that when one of us was expected to come home late for some reason. Two hours later without any message from Anita, I began to be really worried about the situation and began calling several of her friends and co-workers. But none of them had any further information about Anita to share with me. At Anita's job they had celebrated the coming summer holidays already during the eleven o'clock coffee break because everybody with a family wanted to hurry straight home after the job. None of her friends knew if Anita had any special plans for the day. I didn't call her parents because if they had known anything, I was sure they would have told me when I was there getting Amanda. One thing was for sure. Anita had been in our house since she parked her car in the driveway because her car key was hanging from the hook where it lived when not in use. One further confusing thing was that she hadn't left any message on a "Post-It" on the fridge. We always did that if we hadn't talked or left any other kind of message. Anita and I had a fair marriage, not perfect but at least not worse than average. We met eleven years ago at a party and had been married for nine. I had been faithful during our marriage and there had never been any reason for me to suspect Anita of cheating. No quarrels about financial problems, no health problems and, at least in my opinion, still a good sex life. When talking about sex, Anita had always told me that she was satisfied with her life and promised to tell me if she had suggestions or new expectations of any kind. In most matters we were just like many other Scandinavian middleclass families. Of course, the hope was for her to come home during the evening and give me a fair explanation about what had happened. But as the time went by my hope began fading away and at three o'clock in the morning I went to bed with the hope that Anita would be in her bed when I woke up in the morning. But she wasn't. It was a hard awakening for me to realize that there was a problem, a huge problem indeed. After a few phone calls to Anita's parents and her best friends I had to admit that nobody knew any more than when Amanda and I came home yesterday. However, Anita's parent's and sister became really worried and rang me at least once a hour during the day even though I had promised to call them if there was something new. After lunch I even went to the police who asked me to calm down because almost all people missing during the summertime usually return within a few days. Back home while investigating everything about Anita's absence, strange details began to pop up. Some of Anita's clothes and a suitcase were missing, as well as her laptop computer, her pills and passport. That really confused me a lot. There were still no messages from her, so I decided to search for further clues. Our file at the Telecom company's website that showed incoming and outgoing calls to our landline gave no clue to what Anita had done. There was nothing of interest at all. The next thing to check was our joint bank account and it didn't give anything. Of course, all information about the bank account in Anita's name only was closed to me just as all the information about her cell phone usage. Though her passport was gone, I really doubted that she had left the country. Too many small things she used to take with her abroad still remained at home which gave me an idea. If she was somewhere within a close distance, she could just come back to the house and take what she needed when Amanda and I were away somewhere. I couldn't stop Anita from doing that, but it might be possible to get evidence of her visit. Therefore I went to a big electronics store and bought two video cameras. One was very small for hiding indoors and one was better for outdoor use. The indoor camera was activated by movement and could even record sound. It was placed so that it was impossible to avoid being seen by it, even if somebody went in via the front or back doors. The outdoor camera took pictures of my driveway at a rate of ten pictures per minute so it could be checked daily in a short time. It was a terrible time for me and for Amanda although I did my best to comfort her by saying that mom would be back soon and would call us as soon as she had time. Though I did my best, it didn't sound very convincing, not even to a seven year old child. My almost sleepless nights were a real hell while thinking about where Anita could be and why she had done this to Amanda and me. A woman might abandon her husband for several reasons but it is very uncommon that a mother leaves her seven year old child without any message or explanation. That is especially true when the woman doesn't have any known problems with health, finances, work or marriage. It didn't matter how much I thought about it, Anita's absence still remained a mystery. Nothing happened until the next Wednesday when a policewoman named Carolina Person rang me and wanted to see me. I told her, "You name the place and time and I'll be there." She replied, "In ten minutes at your house." I accepted. Carolina was a surprisingly pretty woman who looked a few years younger than me with her blond hair in a ponytail, blue jeans and a red top. She greeted Amanda with very friendly small talk and met me with a bright smile on her face, obviously playing "the good cop". She asked me, "Is it okay for you if we use our first names Carolina and Eric?" I told her, "No objections". But I had serious doubts about if this lovely lady could get anything done about my missing wife. But I decided to be polite and asked her, "Would you like to look around in the house or talk first?" She preferred talking and I started Amanda's favorite DVD film in the living room while Carolina and I sat down at the kitchen table waiting for the coffee to be ready. She began with information about her plans for the case and then continued with, "In a case like this I'm on your side but only as long as you are telling me the truth. Lie to me and you will be in big trouble; very big trouble, indeed. Can we agree about working with the truth?" She obviously preferred playing the 'good cop' even though she knew that the husbands in most similar cases are not as innocent as they pretend to be. But as I had nothing to hide, the reply could only be, "Yes, we can agree. I promise to do everything I can do to help you solve this mystery" After giving honest answers to all her questions she promised to do her best to check if Anita's phone had been in use and if there had been any bank account activity. But due to the summer holidays, she couldn't promise any fast action about these matters for the time being. Carolina had no objections about my video cameras. After talking with me, Carolina had a short friendly chat with Amanda and at the front door, she looked me right in the eyes and said, "I have my own daughter, the same age and can't understand how anybody can voluntarily abandon a child." Now I was sure that the police would regard missing Anita to be a higher priority. It was well known that the spouse was the main suspect in similar cases. And it had happened several times that an innocent spouse had been jailed for several months. Innocent or not innocent didn't matter for being suspected. But my co-operation with Carolina ought to keep me free as long as they didn't find anything against me. Thursday morning Carolina came for Anita's car and on Friday she came to my house for some additional talk. She told me that nothing had happened with her bank account during her absence. I said that nothing had been seen by my cameras. Then Carolina surprised me by saying, "There are only two possible explanations why Anita is gone. Some of my colleagues are beginning to think that you are somehow involved or that she has a very strong reason to stay away from you and her child. That seems very strange for me since, as you know, I'm a mother to a seven year old daughter. However, as I promised you before, I'm on your side as long as you're telling me the truth." I had nightmares about what could happen to me if Anita had planted some faked evidence against me. When telling that to Carolina, she comforted me by saying that whatever Anita was into she wanted me to take good care of Amanda, and had not done anything like that. And another reason could simply be that Anita didn't hate me, but had some other reason for abandoning her family. Carolina suggested "a hot romance" and if that was the case, Anita would probably call Amanda, me or her mom within a few days. What could I say to that? Then Carolina said a few words about information releases to the media. But since Anita took her suitcase and passport during the main holiday season, being gone for only one week was too short a time for the media to make any hot news of the case. If the media took up the case, we would probably get a large number of unwanted invalid observations from the whole country. Saturday evening Anita was eight days gone without any new clues. Carolina and I had lunch together on Monday, the tenth day Anita was gone. She reported that Anita's smart phone had been switched off the whole time. Carolina was glad to say that she now had some assistance and they had found a few small clues in Anita's car. They worked on those, but there was nothing that would lead us to where she was for the time being. Nothing was heard from Anita on Wednesday her twelfth day missing. That day was her mother's birthday, so Amanda and I went there for a barbeque that evening. Alf Nygren, the husband of Anita's sister, obviously had some hidden booze because he made several trips to his car and got more and more boozed during the evening. I didn't like him even when he was sober and now he turned into a real pain in my ass when he began accusing me about Anita's absence. Though his wife and her parents did their best to get him to shut up, they failed, so I had enough and told him, "One further word from your big gap and you'll hit the ground." He shouted, "You Damn bastard, I'll show you what a real man can do", and aimed a swing at my head. The swing missed, but Alf hit the ground and remained down there. I took Amanda with me and left the party. We went home, stopping to shop for a few things at a supermarket that was still open. We met a good friend of mine and I had a long chat with him. After Amanda was sleeping back home, I checked the camera recordings and got such a surprise that it almost knocked me down. In the pictures from the camera I could see clear pictures of Anita, and she looked to be in a good shape. Pictures from the camera outdoors were of less quality due to the rain but one could see Anita arriving alone in a black BMW SUV. Unfortunately it was impossible to see the first two characters of the license plate. Carolina had written her private cell phone number on a card and said I could use it if something really special happened. She agreed that my pictures, without any doubt, were such a case. But she regretted to say that she couldn't find a baby sitter and could not come over to see what I had. Since I had the same problem, we agreed that my pictures could wait to the next day. Now I began to wonder if she was a single mom because she had never mentioned a spouse, but that wasn't any of my problems because all our connections had been strictly business. One thing was for sure, she had sounded glad after getting the big news. It could have been because the mystery would probably be solved within a few days or was it because now she knew that she been right about my innocence? It was probably for both reasons. The next morning she got to my house early, and was very satisfied with my recordings which were better than she had expected. Then she gave me a bright smile and said, "I'm happy I had the correct opinion about you even though some of my colleges suspected you were involved in her disappearance." I smiled back and said, "I've really appreciated your kind co-operation in this sad matter and faith about finding the answers." "We are not there yet, but hopefully soon. What are your plans for Anita if she comes back? Whatever they will be, please don't do anything stupid neither to her nor to any male friend if there is some man involved. Please don't make any new problems you have to regret later. Promise me here and now that you are not going to make me disappointed." Carolina said. "No, nothing will happen to Anita or her lover. The only thing I will give her is a divorce so she will be completely free from me to do whatever she wants to do. Why in the hell didn't she just ask for a divorce instead of sneaking away and creating this damn mess for Amanda and me?" "Sounds fair to me and I'll keep you updated as soon we find any further information about this BMW and the owner of it. The only thing we can do now is to ask your wife if she went away of her own free will and why she did it. If she did that, she didn't do anything illegal, though she acted like an asshole toward her child and her husband." Carolina told me, and I understood that Anita's case would be a lower priority from now on. After checking out the BMW license plate with the missing characters the police found eight possible BMW cars. Six of them were black that seemed to be a popular color on that make. Four of them were owned by people a long away from our town. So they were not of interest for the time being. One of the remaining ones was owned by a 70 year old retired vet who told that it was his 22 year old grand-son who used the car most of the time. Nowadays he preferred the small Nissan that was registered to his wife. The boy was somewhere at the coast with his new girlfriend. Carolina said that the man had been very pleased to hear that the boy wasn't involved in any serious problems and assisted her with getting in contact with his grandson. Only one possible BMW in our area remained. It was owned by a self employed 39 year old dentist living in a newly built very luxurious house. He was even known as a "slum-lord", making big money from worn out rental houses he bought for a bargain price when the previous owner had went bankrupt. He was involved in some local political matters where he was best known as a trouble maker. Two children with his first wife who had full custody of them and now he was married to a member of the Parliament who was away on a two month long tax-money-paid trip to Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand for studying some kind of "communication problems in suburban areas". For saving taxpayers money, as they said, her party boss and she were the only participants on that expensive trip. Of course, the tabloid papers and gossip magazines had articles about their trip. Though nobody accused them to be lovers, it was easy to get that information when reading "between the lines". That many people did, and rather soon the abandoned dentist was a laughingstock in our town. Carolina called me and said that they had a problem. They knew for sure that the dentist wasn't living in his new house in town. But it was found out that he owned a big summerhouse at a lake. The problem was that the police had no right to go in the there if the dentist said "No, I don't know any Anita Robertson" because they had no evidence that the missing Anita really was there against her will. But Carolina had a plan, which needed me to help them get the necessary evidence. I accepted. Due to staff on summer holidays they were very short of policemen on duty and finding a woman who, obviously left her husband for a lover, was of low priority. But if the police had evidence that she was in the house, they could get a warrant to go in and talk with her, even if the dentist tried to stop them. It was a simple plan. One of Carolina's fellow policemen was a bird watcher. The next day I would use his equipment and watch the summer house from early morning to late afternoon. The bird watcher and I were of the same size so his camouflage colored clothes fit me perfectly. Then he gave two green colored plastic 2 liter jars, one for water to drink and the other for the pee. He even gave me a camouflage net, a simple green lightweight ladder that could be folded into a small package, and a camera with a zoom lens. Then he told me about a good choice of food for a long day up in a tree. The remaining time of that day I wrote my divorce papers, I took Amanda to her grandparents, fixed my food, loaded my phone and the mini laptop Carolina had given me. She gave me orders to save the limited battery capacity in the laptop as much as possible. The phone in stand-by mode would not be any problem but there should be no surfing on the web. Five o'clock the next morning, the fourteenth day of Anita's absence, the bird watching policeman and I were in the woods overlooking the dentist's summerhouse, where he suggested to me a suitable maple tree perch with perfect branches and many leaves. I got the last instructions, folded out the ladder, climbed up, took up the ladder, folded it and began to fix my hide-out while the policeman went fixing an automatic camera taking pictures towards the sea side of the house; it was not seen from my perch. When back, the birdwatcher inspected my hide-out and gave an okay sign and left. My seat, just like some kind of a swing seat was rather comfortable and I began my job with a short text message to Carolina, "All is well, 3G signal OK" She replied two hours later with a text, "Good luck." Nothing happened until 7:30 when a car stopped at the mailbox delivering a newspaper. About twenty minutes later a man, dressed only in red boxer shorts came out for the paper. Although I didn't know the dentist very well, I was almost sure it was him. I took some pictures, downloaded the best to the laptop and sent them to Carolina. She replied, "It's him, well done." There was a boring time again until two hours later when a small white Renault Kangoo decorated with the bright blue and red text "Mobile Maid" parked outside and two females in red overalls went in to the house. It was the best and most expensive home service company in our town. I thought that asshole has really spoiled Anita. I sent pictures of the car to Carolina so she could talk with the two women when they were back in town. Wife Gone One half hour later the garage door opened and the black BMW rolled out with two people in the front seats. I couldn't recognize Anita hundred percent and due to the tinted glass in the car my pictures didn't show them any better. I sent them anyway. Then the maids left, I sent a text to Carolina, who replied, "How's the matter with my monkey in the tree?" My short reply was, "No bananas in a maple." The time went slowly to one thirty when the BMW was back and drove directly into the garage so I didn't get any better look at the people in it. Then they got the mail and to my great surprise it was Anita in white shorts and a white top that walked out to the mailbox. I got nice pictures and sent them to Carolina, who immediately replied, "Please stay calm and don't do anything stupid. I beg you, please stay where you are, we'll come as soon as we can. Now, after talking with the maids, the DA gave us the warrant to go in even if owner of the house says no to that. But as I said, please stay where you are." Obviously she cared about me and was afraid that I would rush in to the house to get even with the damn dentist and probably hurt him enough to cause serious problems for myself. I decided to obey her well meant advice though the temptation of giving the damn dentist a well earned lesson probably would have ended in an ambulance trip to the hospital. About fifty minutes later I could see two patrol cars coming to the house. One car blocked the driveway near the garage. Carolina went to the front door and a policeman in uniform watched the door besides the garage door. My birdwatcher friend together with a man in uniform went to the lakeside of the house where the dentist obviously had a motorboat. Carolina rang the doorbell at the main door after she had received an okay in her radio from her colleagues. She rang the doorbell several times and waited a few minutes but nothing happened. Then she took up her cell phone and made a call but nothing happened at the door. So the policeman in uniform got into his car, used the loudspeaker on high volume and said, "Police, we know you are in the house. We'll give you five minutes to open the front door or we will smash it in." Nothing happened during the first four minutes until the door opened and an obviously very angry dentist came out waving his arms. I couldn't hear what he said, but I'm sure it wasn't anything polite, saying, "Please come in my dear friends!" Then Carolina left toward the lakeside and came back together with my birdwatcher friend with Anita between them. They sat her in the backseat of Carolina's car with Carolina beside her and the birdman in the front seat. It was obvious that Anita had tried to sneak away via the back door to the boat when the dentist opened the front door and caused the hullabaloo on that side of the house. Ten minutes later Anita opened the car door, got out of the car and went into the house again. Carolina rang me and said that the case was closed. Although Anita's stupid action had caused a lot of problems for her daughter, parents, me and for the police, it is not a crime for an adult to abandon her family and move in together with a lover. It is an incredible silly way to do it the way she did it. But she had convinced the police that she was neither abducted nor blackmailed into doing that. I climbed down from the tree and my bird watching police friend gave me a hand with the equipment and a lift home in his police car. On road back to the town I called Amanda to tell her that I had found her mom and that she was okay. Even Anita's parents got the information that their daughter was found but regarded it as bad news when I told them what she had done. And that a divorce was the only possible solution. Before I got out from the car my birdwatcher friend said to me, "Carolina has worked very hard on your case. I and several others are glad she was right about you. Although I really understand your strong temptation to beat the crap out that lover boy creep, please don't go back and do that. Because it is obvious that Carolina likes you rather much and any violence from you in this matter would be fatal for that friendship." I replied, "I will never disappoint Carolina." To my great surprise Anita came home right after me. She came alone in the big black BMW and after exchanging only a few words, she read the divorce papers and said that she had no objections about a divorce on my terms. My greatest surprise was that Anita gave me the main custody of Amanda and did that without any arguing at all. That prompted me to ask if she had any serious health or drug problems, which she denied. Instead, she told me a lot of mumbo-jumbo about her reasons for doing what she did. To be honest, I pretended to act cool and not care much about what Anita said. The main reason for her runaway was that her lover, who was married to a whoring wife, intended to file for divorce. And for that reason he wanted avoid all connections to the probably furious wife so he had accepted a six month long well paying dentist job in Namibia, Africa. It was for our national foreign aid organization, SIDA, while his probably very dirty divorce went through the legal mills. Anita would go with him to Africa and be hired as his assisting nurse there; she would even be well paid. Why she had abandoned her family was according to her explanation simply because she needed to get intensive training during long hours for her new job-given by her new male friend. She feared that if I had known her plans or found her hiding place; her friend would have been severely beaten and probably unable to take the job in Africa. It had even been a kind of test to see if she could be away from Amanda. Now she dared to come home to see me because the police had promised her that she was safe with me. I had a simple statement, "I can't understand the mind of that asshole-dentist who is divorcing a shameless whore wife and then are moving in together with another obviously even more shameless whore wife." "What the hell do you mean by that?" she shouted. "The dentist's whoring wife neither abandoned a kid nor is hiding with her lover. Don't you understand what could have happened to Amanda and me if the police and tabloid papers had accused me of being responsible for your absence? I could have been jailed for weeks until they found out the shameless truth." I shouted back. When we had calmed down she confessed that she and the dentist had only known each other for two months and had sex only during the month before she abandoned me. But their love was strong enough to take the quantum leap to Africa after so short a time. She was surprised that the police had found her and asked me if I knew how they did it. I said I knew nothing. Before Anita went to see Amanda and her parents, she promised to keep her cell phone switched on for Amanda and me so we could get in touch with her. She even promised do her best to co-operate in our divorce. Alone again, I sat down on a living room sofa and began thinking, what could I have done differently and what to do for the time being. It didn't matter how cool I had pretended to be while talking with Anita, the simple truth was that I was a total mess after she had left me in that big BMW. Just as if a gift from the Gods, Carolina came by to see me. She understood the situation, comforted me for a while and now that Anita was found I regarded it could be a high time to ask her about some personal matters since she already knew everything about me. She had no objections and said she was one year younger than my 35, was separated from her ex for 18 months and divorced for a year. She had been working in our town since her divorce. No boyfriend for the time being. Then she asked if I had talked with Anita yet. I did my best to calm down before telling Carolina that Anita been at home for a short visit and signed our divorce form which gave me custody of Amanda because she was going to Africa with her lover. Carolina looked me straight in my eyes and said, "Please don't make me disappointed by going back to the love nest for some mad revenge on the lover because it is not worth it. Can you be honest to me and promise skipping all such stupid intentions?" "I promise, but only because I really appreciate what you have done for me and it would be great if we can remain friends after this mess is history." She replied, "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on you and Amanda as a friend and you can call me anytime." During the night after my discussion with Anita, it took me many sleepless hours before getting to sleep and when I did at last, it was into a terrible nightmare. The dream was me driving an insane speed to a shabby square known as "the black market" in an infamous town to buy a pistol. But I found only a very limited choice there, only a small 7.65 mm pistol and the seller had only four rounds available for it. Not much of a vendetta though it had to be okay when taking the dentist by surprise. But that creep was waiting for me with a double barreled shotgun and began firing as soon as I stopped my car. The strange thing was that his shotgun was some kind of movie studio equipment because he was able to shoot an unlimited number of shots without reloading. When he began to walk against me during the intensive shooting, I fired my four rounds, two missed, one hit an arm and one a leg without seeing him care a shit about his wounds. So I escaped to the woods with him running and shooting at me until I fell down a steep ravine. At that moment I woke up lying on the floor. Even after that nightmare my male ego still kept telling me that I ought to be man enough to whip the crap out of that asshole dentist and break some bones in his body because he had seduced and fucked my wife. But after more serious thinking my main reason for skipping that plan was because I had promised Carolina not to do so. The second reason was that it would terminate his African job and I much preferred to have both him and my whoring ex-wife out of my sight in Africa. The third reason was that I cared so little about my ex and her lover that a cruel revenge wasn't worth the expected high price tag for doing it. Better to let them rot in Africa. Carolina was back the next day and praised me for keeping my promise of not making any violence against the dentist in this matter. I replied, "I don't care a shit any longer if that soiled dove and her gigolo dentist fly to Africa. For the time being all my efforts will be for taking good care of my daughter." "Sounds great, don't hesitate to ask me if you need help in some matter. It's not always easy to be single parent with a young daughter." "Thank you. That will be very much appreciated by Amanda and me, very much indeed." Somebody at the police gave me a fair bit of support by leaking out the story to a tabloid newspaper about a Parliament member's husband cheating with a married woman and his intentions of taking her to Africa. That story was illustrated with a picture of Anita and the dentist topless behind their house and published on the same side as some paparazzi pictures of the dentist's wife necking topless with her party's boss. I understood that the topless picture of Anita was taken by my friend, the birdwatcher's camera at the back of the house and I decided to reward him with a bottle of some very good malt whisky. Of course, it was impossible to wash away nine years of rather good marriage without feeling sorrow and emptiness, especially during the lonely nights. Pretending to be feeling okay wasn't an easy game but thanks to Carolina, my friends and relatives it went better and better day by day. I hadn't spoken with Anita since we signed the divorce papers. We had only sent a few text messages to each other and it was her parents who kept me informed about what she did, though I never asked about Anita. She even sent some postcards to Amanda. Carolina was a big help for me and we began to talk several times a week and even do things together with our girls now and then. To our great pleasure the girls went well together. As both our daughters needed some new clothes, the four of us decided to go shopping at the biggest mall in our county. It was quite a reasonable distance from our town. We expected it to take the whole Saturday. It began very well when I picked up Carolina and Nelly at their home. Carolina used to wear jeans but now she had a short skirt that showed her very nice legs. After driving a short distance she noted that I looked more at her legs than at the road and shouted, "Don't stare at me, and keep your eyes on the road!" That caused a lot of giggling from the back seat, followed by a comment, "Be happy, he loves you." followed by more giggling. To my great relief Carolina was smiling a bright smile, which gave me a hope for a great day. She asked, "Do you?" I smiled back and said, "Oh yes, very, very much." A new comment from the back seat, "Do you need two bride-maids?" That was followed by a lot of giggling. During the day it became obvious that the four of us acted like a happy family and nobody objected when I suggested that we have "some fun" at our home when we got back. For some unknown reason Tex-Mex food, especially Tacos are very popular choices among Scandinavian kids. We bought what we needed and Nelly and Amanda did the main part of fixing the food. We really had a good time during the evening with a lot of laughing and giggling while playing several games. Amanda and I persuaded our guests to stay overnight and when the kids were in bed, Carolina and I had a small talk in the living room with a bottle of my best Rioja wine with cheese and crackers. She asked me how much I missed Anita and my honest reply was, "Much less than expected after what she did to me and today was a great day for me without having as much as a single thought about her." "It was a great day for Nelly and me too." "What about your ex? Do you miss him?" I asked. "Sometimes, but less and less and today there was not one single thought about him." She said, and surprised me by hugging and kissing me. After some further talk we agreed about calling it a night and as Carolina's choice was sharing the master bedroom with me instead of sleeping in the spare bedroom, we went there. She used one of my T-shirts as a nightgown and asked, "Did you give me the very shortest one?" "No need to hide such nice legs." I said with a smile. She noted my smile and said, "Sorry my friend, but please don't look forward to any pleasures under the sheets because I happen to be in my most fertile time and don't take pills." I gave her a kiss and a hug while saying, "I can't see any problem with your fertile period, and rather it's a great advantage. A baby would make the four of us a real family with everybody related to each other via the baby" Carolina laughed and replied, "Nice try my dear, really nice try, indeed." "Think about it and I'm sure you'll even find it to be a great idea." Then we began some necking. But before it went too far in her opinion Carolina said with a bright smile, "Too tired for that now, we'll get time for that later. Good night, my darling." "Good night darling." I replied and really looked forward to those promised pleasures. About two o'clock in the morning she shook me awake and asked, "Are you sleeping?" "Sleeping? Don't you remember waking me up a few seconds ago? Why did you do that?" I asked with surprise. "Because I've been thinking about what you said about family and now I agree with you in that baby matter so it's high time for us to begin making our baby. You have got an important duty and start working!" She said and began stroking my still soft cock. "I love you Carolina." I said and entered the wet pussy between her spread legs as soon as she got me hard. It was a good sex. A very good fucking, indeed. Though she was wet, since she was much tighter than I expected it was hard for me to wait until she reached her top so I could let my entire load go inside her. Of course there were some thoughts about "What have I done?" and how could one, not too serious suggestion of a baby lead to this situation? But from now on I had to take the responsibility for what we had done and said therefore, "I love you Carolina and may I ask if you want to be a married woman when we get our baby?" "Are you serious and really mean that?" "Yes Carolina, I'm serious. Do you want to marry me?" I asked again. "Of course I will marry you because I love you so much." We slept well after some more small talk and even had time for a quickie in the morning before the breakfast with the whole soon-to-be new family. Carolina and I had a lot to talk about but most matters went much better than expected. A new start in a new house had to be our first main goal. Our daughters were very happy when they heard the news about our wedding plans during breakfast. They screamed, "We are going to be bride-maids!!!!" Anita and I agreed to put our house up for sale. The bidding surprised both of us so we sold it for a good price and as agreed, I paid Anita's share to her bank account. Carolina didn't want anything from the house so an auction company took care of most the furniture and other things in the house. Even those went for a better price than expected. My only connection with Anita went on via e-mails and was limited to closing our economic matters. Neither of us mentioned personal matters of any kind except her few questions about Amanda. If she had any interest in what happened in our town, the local newspaper was available on-line and I'm sure most of her old friends and her relatives were active on Facebook. Anita used to send pictures and short messages to Amanda's iPad. Those pictures mostly showed exotic animals and flowers. I don't know if or what Amanda replied to those messages. For some strange reason there were several rumors in our town about Anita and the dentist in Africa. One said Anita was pregnant from a rich black boyfriend and her dentist, who had dumped her, was now living together with a young black woman. But I didn't care much about any of the rumors about her because how could the storytellers know anything, for sure, as none of them had ever been in Africa. Carolina and I had a very pleasant and intensive sex life for getting her pregnant and when it happened, all four of us looked forward to having a new member to our family. The dream house was found and bought and all of us spent much time in planning about how to fix the house to fit our needs. We even ended up planning Carolina's and my wedding. It was originally intended to be only a small event for our closest relatives and friends but it grew bigger and bigger every day. The main reason for that was Carolina's mother whom I met for the first time when she came to see us, a real whirlwind for a woman, and corporate lawyer in a southern town 320 kilometers away. She was very easygoing with great talents at convincing the girls, me and Carolina that a bigger wedding would be a main road to happiness. Especially when she offered to pay for the whole show without demanding any favors in return. Of course Carolina and I began to get a serious fear about the big show the wedding would end up being because we had to wait until my divorce was final. And that gave her mother plenty of time for new ideas. Our life in the new family with two girls went better than expected. The girls acted like real sisters who shared some interests but had their own different interests. As both Carolina and I had been abandoned in our previous marriages, we rather soon found out that those dumpings were the greatest gifts our ex's could have given us. Because we had now been able to find the right and best spouses for real true love. Of course, Carolina and I had different opinions on several matters, but after some giving and getting we always found an acceptable solution. Now I knew, for sure, what a loving wife I would get as soon as we were married.