39 comments/ 26308 views/ 18 favorites An Eighteen Year Estrangement By: Mainefiddleheads There were no real people harmed in the writing of this story and it is not a collection of my experiences in any way except in understanding the emotions involved. I am going to leave anonymous commenting open for now but will probably delete those comments that are not constructive and adding to any fruitful discussion. ***** Sometimes you just have to wonder what in the world was God thinking when he shuffled that deck of cards and dealt the hand you've lived with for the last 18 years. I think back on it and sometimes wish I had chosen a different response but then I wouldn't be watching two wonderful kids setting out for a Grand Tetons adventure with half a dozen of their friends they have known since childhood. Dave was born 20 years ago and Kiley followed 2 years later. For the last two decades they have been my chief concern in life. They have had everything they needed and a good number of their wants as well but neither of them ended up spoiled in any sense. They both held part time jobs while in high school and I couldn't ask for a better adjusted pair of kids. Their mother on the other hand, well, she is a different story altogether. Her name is Tammy and except for the fact that she is my 40 year old wife and my name is Ted Walton, I'm not going to go into the details of the courtship and how I nailed her in the back seat of her Daddy's Buick and how her Daddy ran me off with a pitchfork, all true as a matter of fact. I think the 43 year old Ted Walton of today had his start 18 years ago. When I was a young boy, my mom had a theory that if all the neighbor moms would circulate all their children together when one of them got the mumps, we could all get it over at the same time. Well, she tried. She would pack all of us off to the neighbor's house every time some kid in the neighborhood caught them. They would do the same. My brother Jimmy caught them when I was 7 and my mom just about had him coughing all over me day and night. Funny thing was I never got them, at least not until I was 20 years old. It was the most horrendous experience I have gone though. They have inoculations for it now but then, if they did, I didn't know anything about it. I caught the mumps from the kids of one of my co-workers during a summer job between semesters. It ruined my whole summer and put a damper on certain recreational activities that Tammy and I had grown quite fond of. My arm pits swelled up, my throat was worse than softballs but the worst of all was the gonads. I literally could not walk. My balls were swollen and hurt like hell. The doctor gave me some pills and told me to stay off my feet as if that was going to be a problem and eventually the swelling went down. However, my nuts were sore as hell all summer and I know I wasn't the only one not happy about it. Tammy was agitated for a while but oddly about a month before I had to go back to school, she seemed to get over it. By the time I had to leave, things were back to normal and I tried to squeeze in as much fucking in one week as I lost in the summer. A year later and we married, both of us with fresh degrees and ready to conquer the world. We settled in a little town next door to where we grew up just outside of Memphis and decided to start a family. Well, that took over a year of trying every position known to man and woman, some we invented. Somehow, Tammy got pregnant and David Walton came into the world. He had his mother's red hair and blue eyes instead of my brown and brown but I could not have been more proud. I rocked him, burped him and changed his crappy diapers. I did it all. I even weaned him when Tammy worked the night shift at the Hospital. If ever there was a bond between father and son, it was with us. A couple years later, a little girl named Kiley joined the family and Tammy now felt we were a complete family unit. She went and had her tubes tied right after the birth, not even consulting me on the matter. It was done. Whatever the case, I bonded with Kiley just as I did with Dave. A couple months after Kiley was born, I started having a nagging ache in one of my testicles and a guy at work told me I needed to get that checked out real quick. One of his brothers had testicular cancer a few years ago and he thought the symptoms were similar. "Ted, take this cup in there and bring back a sperm sample" She said with only half a grin on her face. She handed me an old copy of Hustler, laughing the whole time, as I walked to the bathroom. When I returned, I just smiled right back at her. A few days later, I met with my doctor. "Ted, it's mostly good news. You have a rather benign cyst on your right testicle. I'm going to remove it and you'll be sore for a while." That is what he did and as I was sitting there waiting for Nurse Jism to bring me the pain scripts, he made another comment. "The other interesting thing is that your sperm count came back zero. Did you get tested after you had the mumps while in college?" I shook my head. "Well, with all the scarring that is evident, that was most likely the cause. If you want to have kids, you and the missus will have to adopt." The room didn't go dark and I didn't throw a conniption fit. I thanked the doctor and Nurse Jism. I made my way out to my car and sat in it for quite a while. "What the motherfucking son of a bitch cocksucking whore dog cunt slut ..." I ran out of words in short order. If I had been armed, I might have gone home and laid her out. If I've been sterile, there is no way I'm the father of my two kids. No way. Now, I'm generally a thinking man most of the time and I needed to think. Did she believe I would never find out? Who is the motherfucker who nailed my wife? Do the kids have the same baby daddy? That last question struck me as important. If they have the same baby daddy, that means she has been fucking the same guy for at least the past three years. We've only been married less than five. I needed to think this out. They didn't have reliable and quick DNA stuff back then or if they did it was way too expensive. What I did have was a good deputy friend who did some sleuthing on the side. "Billy Bubba Jim Bob, you redneck hillbilly, how are you?" He looked at me and just said "smartass" as he handed me an open long neck. He was my best friend in high school and he went to a community college earning a degree in Criminal Justice which is really a training school for cops. I thought he would have been an engineer or something but he was happy doing that, real happy. "So, you know for a fact she's taking some strange up the quim, Jr.? "I know somebody else put those babies in her. You remember when I had those motherfucking mumps?" He nodded his head. "Well, it killed the swimmers is what it did. I've been firing blanks for the last five years. Hell, if I had known that, those rubbers would have hit the trash when we were still dating." He nodded some more, tipped up the long neck and brought back two more. "OK, so here is how it works. First, you need to get a blood test for each of the kids. That's easy. Tell her that there is a free registry with the Sheriffs Dept to protect against missing kids when some bastard snatches them, finger prints and blood samples. That way you'll know if there is a blood type problem that says for sure you aren't the father. Next, you just keep on keeping on. I'll cover her ass like molasses on a stick. If so much as a fly lands on that ass, I'll know it. You just gotta cover costs. This is between friends." When he said that's what he would do, I knew he meant it. We polished off a couple more beers and before I left he told me. "Jr., when we nail the prick that's tapping your woman and we know for sure, you and I are gonna go out and hook up with a couple very fine young ladies that have been giving me the playground eyes for quite some time. You are gonna get some payback pussy and good." That's how we parted and that is how we met again a couple weeks later. "OK, Jr., Sit down." I did and he laid it out for me. Tammy was photographed going into the Ramada Inn, second floor, Room 221 with a jackass named Michael Cookson. He's a jackass because both Billy and I knew him from our school days. "OK, here's the hard part." He slid over a VHS tape. "They have been using the same room for the past month according to the clerk so we got him to give us access to the room and placed the camera in the ceiling vent. It's not the best picture quality but you got sound and action and all the evidence you need that they are actually fucking each other." Fuck, that smarts but it was real life. I didn't want to watch the video but I took it and put it in my case. That's when I told him my plan. "Billy, here's the deal. Those kids might not be mine but I love them like they are my own flesh and blood. Somebody once told me an old cliché but I think it's true. Revenge is best served cold. I'm going to raise my kids but I'm going to burn those fuckers asses but good when the time comes. I'd like the clerk to let us know if they stop showing up at the Ramada and if they do, we'll figure out their new cooch hole. I've got 18 years in front of me to get these kids raised up right. In the meantime, let's have a couple cold ones and see if we can't find some of that young pussy you've been talking about." That's what we did and Billy wasn't kidding. They were actually a couple nurses from the same hospital Tammy worked at. That made me a bit nervous at first but when Michelle shimmied out of her clothes and laid back on the motel bed, crooked her finger my way and opened that sweet little pussy wide, I didn't waste any more time. I think I nailed her honey pot four times that afternoon and when we were done, we made a date for a repeat. For the next couple of months, we went at it like a couple of horny high school kids. One time, she told me she saw my wife at work that afternoon. "She works on our floor now, starting this week on days like us. All she talks about is you but then she runs off with that prick she is seeing during lunch." "Yeah, I know about that, the Michael Cookson asshole. She has been fucking him for years." "So why don't you leave her?" I told her about the kids and why I wanted to raise them. Surprisingly, she was supportive. "So you are going to just stay married until they grow up and keep a woman on the side the whole time?" I looked at her closely. She was looking at me seriously, perhaps appraising me. "I think that's probably the best approach." "OK, well, I'd like to stick around for the ride as long as it works. I like you, I like you a lot." So we stuck it out. Michelle and I were a good fit. She knew my wife was a cheating cunt. She knew I just wanted to raise two children that were fathered by somebody else. And, she was a fantastic fuck. After about a year, I started working my finances. I slowly started siphoning off about 10% of my income and stashing it in an out of state bank. When the bonuses and raises started coming in, off they went to the siphon fund. The balance kept growing and Michelle and I kept up our relationship. If anything I think we were falling in love. In fact I know it but I was still married to Tammy. One thing was bothering me a bit and I couldn't figure it out. Michelle kept telling me that all Tammy ever talked about at work was how great her husband was, how good a daddy he was, even hints about being a stud in the sack. All of it was true of course but if she was giving up the quim every week to that fucktard Cookson, why in hell would she talk about me all the time? I couldn't wrap my mind around that. I fucked her every Saturday night like clockwork. I couldn't have done much more because Michelle was getting the best of me on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons. Tammy never complained or ever sought out more. I knew Cookson was nailing her once a week so I guess twice was good enough. Did I feel like a shit fucking another woman? All I had to do was think about how she had been cucking me for years. That took care of any guilt. I think the worse part of it was I knew I was fucking Michael Cookson's long time woman even though I was married to her. I think I wanted to kill him for the longest time. The next couple of years were pretty smooth. I was doing well in the company and received a promotion along with a pretty nice increase in compensation. Michelle moved up at the hospital and was now a charge nurse on the same floor as Tammy. That meant she was Tammy's boss. That generated a few interesting bedtime discussions but Michelle, if she was anything, she was fair. Tammy did pretty well working for her. My siphon fund was growing nicely and with three years of bonuses and increases added to it, I had almost a full year's salary tucked away already. Michelle and I sat down one evening and had a long talk. "Michelle, what do you really think about me? It was one of those questions that she had to really think hard about because I wanted a serious answer. "Ted, I'm going to be straight up and honest here, you know that. We've been together four years now and if you were not already married, I'd be chasing you night and day to get that ring on my finger. But, I know that can't happen, at least for now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by that. But I'd also be lying to myself if I said I didn't love you like nobody else. I get you a third of the time and I've had to make do with that. I guess my big concern right now is that I don't want to be a kept woman. I want something to come out of this. How do we do that?" I didn't have any really good answers for that. Human nature supplied them later. Michelle came in from work one day and while she didn't say those damn words, I saw it in her face. She sat in my lap, kissed me and led me into the bedroom. We had really great sex and when we finished and showered, she sat me down and told me what I already knew. I stopped her with a finger to her lips. "You don't have to say anything. I'll miss you greatly and if our paths cross again down the road, I'll walk another mile or many with you anytime." She wanted a family and I couldn't provide it. I had a family of my own to attend to so I did. We ran into each other on occasion and I knew she had found a guy and married him and we remained good friends. So four plus years after my discovery, I was back home, no Michelle and a wife who was still fucking her asshole boyfriend. We still did our Saturday night so I wasn't going without but for me, I was just getting a piece of ass off a whore. What I did still have though, were my kids and I showered my attention on them. I made sure to take them everywhere and I excluded Tammy every chance I could. I took them camping, hiking, to ballgames, everything. I hope I instilled everything decent needed for being well rounded adults later. When they came home from school, it was me they came to. When they needed anything, I was the source. A few more years went by. My siphon fund was growing to a very respectable balance and periodically, I would move funds to an off shore account and then move them again. You would have to be a serious forensic accountant to find them and link them to me. I was making three times what I was making 10 years earlier yet Tammy was none the wiser. She had her own pretty decent income and between us, the house was nearly paid off. Now, the funny thing, well in hindsight, was that the house was titled in my name only, same thing with the mortgage. So, technically, all the equity was accruing for my use. By year 12 of the big discovery as I started calling it, the house was paid off and through appreciation over the years, it was worth double what we paid for it. Technically, I could pull out 80% of the equity in another mortgage when the time came without having to include Tammy in the transactions. Billy and I still hooked up regularly although he had married a sweet girl who thought his redneck ass was made of gold. She had given him a couple kids by then so he was staked down to suburbia pretty tightly. He also didn't cheat on her so no more nurses for him. As for me, I didn't fuck around really. I made it a few times with a woman I used to work with but for the most part I just contented myself with the Saturday night whore fuck. I made it good though. I took her ass when I wanted and she was fucked sore by morning. In year 15, the fucking gods struck a thunderbolt right up her ass. I got a call in the middle of the night. Tammy had gone on a weekend trip with her nurse friends to the NASCAR race up in Bristol. Of course, it was all bullshit. She was on a weekend bender with Asshole Cookson. Billy had one of his PIs watching her for this one. His business was full time now and everything was still at cost to me. Like I said, we go way back. The call was to inform me that my wife was in a hospital in Knoxville with serious injuries. They were not life threatening but she had been broken up a good bit with a broken leg, a couple busted ribs and a really fucked up face. The kids were teens then and could handle things here by themselves so I headed to Knoxville driving all night. Interestingly, the kids didn't have any interest in how she was doing as long as she was alive. I think I smiled about that the whole way there. She not only wasn't a good wife, she was a lousy mother as well. I got to the hospital by morning and when I walked into her room, she looked like total shit. Her head was bandaged up completely on one side. Both eyes were completely fucked up, her nose was broken and according to the doctor she had a horrific gashed and jagged cut running from her ear to her mouth. She was going to need a few surgeries to get it looking reasonable. In a word, she was a mess. No, make that two words, a fucking mess. She couldn't really talk and I really didn't want to hear anything she said but I sat there and held her hand, going through the motions of a caring spouse. I got the straw to her mouth when she needed it. She wasn't eating anything yet and when she got to that point, it would be liquid diet and soft foods until we got some teeth put back in her head. She had lost several front teeth as well. I asked the doctor later if there were any other injured people in the wreck and told me that one other man had died on the scene and there were no other passengers in the car. He looked at me sympathetically but didn't offer any other information. The police officer who came by later was much more forth giving. "Mr. Walton, I'll be plain speaking here. Your wife was a passenger in the car. One Michael J. Cookson was the driver and he was killed on impact. There were no other passengers in the vehicle. Now, just as plain, Mr. Walton, Mrs. Walton is one lucky woman. She should have died in that crash just like the driver. For whatever reason, she was laying down in the back seat or so we think and the seat backs saved her life somehow. I don't know how but they did. The driver on the other hand was ejected from the vehicle and killed upon impact with the concrete abutment. If you have any further questions, Mr. Walton, here is my card." With that, the officer left and I stood in the hallway just outside my wife's room. I can't say I was happy. Instead, I had an empty hollow pit feeling. In spite of all the cheating and cucking me with somebody else's baby daddy offspring, I still loved the woman I married. I just couldn't stand her. I stayed through Monday morning and by then, Tammy had most of her wits about her. She wouldn't be walking anywhere soon and would most likely be in the hospital for the rest of the week. I called my work and took some leave. I then called the kids and everything was OK there. They were more concerned now and wanted to drive over. I let them make that decision. They showed up at the hotel later that evening. An Eighteen Year Estrangement So, over the course of the week, Tammy gained a bit of strength and was ready to be discharged. We got her into my car with her broken leg, bandaged ribs and really fucked up face. Kiley rode back with me and Dave drove his own car back. It was mostly a quiet ride and with Kiley in the car I wasn't going to bring up anything about who she was riding with. The motherfucker certainly wasn't a nurse. Tammy couldn't talk much anyway so it was mostly Kiley and I chatting. I looked over at her a couple of times and noticed the tears. The problem was I didn't know if the tears were because of the physical pain, her "sorrow" for what she had done or her fucking grief for the death of her long- time lover and baby daddy. At the same time, my heart hurt from the culmination of all this shit. I started doing some math in my head, again for the umpteenth time. She had to have been fucking that asshole for at least 19 years. We had been married 18. I had run it around in my head a few times before. I remember the summer I had those mumps a year before we got married and how all of a sudden she was quite content not getting fucked, right out of the blue. I also knew that asshole was around that summer because Billy and I both ran into the smug bastard one evening at the DairyAll. If my hunch was right, she had been giving him her sweet quim for 19 years. Hell, why didn't the motherfucker just get his own wife. I needed answers to that question someday, from Tammy! I knew I was getting mad so I just took a breath and finished the ride. We got the bitch settled in at home and I went for a ride. I needed to clear my head. I was time to take the next steps and with Cookson out of the way, I pretty much knew what I had to do. The reason I put myself through all this hell was because that fucking baby daddy could have taken my kids away. Now, his putrid grey matter was plastered all over a concrete abutment on the side of a road on the other side of the state. I didn't need to worry about that any more. I pulled my financial trigger. The house was worth almost four times what we paid for it almost 18 years ago. All the equity was in my name even though in a divorce she would get half. My solution was simple. I took out an 80% equity loan against the house and walked out of the bank with $520K. I didn't need her signature or knowledge of it at all. The title was in my name. I made two trips to Vegas over the next two months. I played some slots, gambled a bit, left some receipts here and there and then parked most of that money in an offshore account. After 15 plus years of doing this, I had almost $1.5 Million squirreled away in offshore accounts that Tammy would have no way of knowing about. She would learn about the income and savings we held jointly and I'd have to split that but that was OK. I started buying a lot of lottery tickets and putting up a front of somebody who liked to gamble. If I got called on it, I'd just tell them I found out my wife had been fucking cucking me for 18 years. Who in hell wouldn't have sympathy for me then? Tammy was slowly healing. The broken bones healed quickly. The facial injuries were more extensive. She had a lateral cut that had opened up her mouth all the way to her ear and the scar tissue was awful since pieces of flesh had been ripped and were missing. Her nose had been flattened and straightened out but it was clear it has been busted before. Tammy was always pretty and she still was but she wouldn't be making the covers of any magazines unless it was Mechanics Illustrated. She would also walk with a slight limp because of the extent of her leg injuries. After about a year, she was walking with that limp and her face had pretty much healed although with a unique Scarface appeal to it. She looked "tough" like she had been in a few biker chick brawls. We had never talked about her weekend. Now was the time. "So, Tammy, how did you happen to be in a car speeding down I-40 doing 80 mph with a guy named Michael J. Cookson at 1am in the morning and live to tell about it?? Huh?" She kind of looked at me a bit sheepishly and then went for subtle defiance. "It wasn't at all what you might think, Ted." "That's interesting. I would have thought on a Saturday night you would have been upstairs getting that little quim of yours screwed to the mattress. Wait, you were on a road trip with nurses to go to the races. Now I remember. Tell me the truth, Tammy." I didn't think she would say it but she went for a bit of it. "OK, I fucked up, alright, and look at me. Don't you think I'm paying for it? I spent the night with him-" "Hold it, not the whole night. He spent the rest of the night smeared against a fucking concrete bridge or what was left of him." She started crying at this point. "Who was he to you? A pickup, somebody you work with, long time fuck?" I think I startled her at that point into thinking I didn't remember who Cookson was. "Ted, he was a one time thing. I swear. The girls and I were drinking too much and I got carried away. Next I knew we were heading down the highway and then, God , it was horrible." She started crying again. I wanted to laugh. "So you didn't fuck him?" She shook her head no. Her fucking face was a mess with the tears and that garish scar creeping down to the corner of her lip. She looked like half a Joker without the face paint. I seriously wanted to laugh. She had been fucking the asshole for 2 decades and she says it was a one timer without a fuck. "Tammy, I believe you as far as I can throw you which is about 5 feet. Is there anything else you want to tell me before we end this conversation?" "I'm telling you the truth, Ted." I just walked away shaking my head. I hadn't fucked her since the week before her accident and I pretty much knew then I wouldn't be touching her again. I started making plans. Then I really did gamble. Dave was 18 years old now and had just graduated. Kiley was almost 16 and would start her Junior year in high school. I decided it was time to tell them and see what they would do. I had enough money stashed now and they were old enough that there wasn't much more influencing left for me to do with them. So I started to lay it all out. "Guys, we need to talk." I had just bought us all a cold pop, ginger ale. "I need to tell you guys something about your mom and me and you guys too, I guess." Kiley interrupted me. "Dad, there isn't any need. This is about Mom and her shit brain dead boyfriend, isn't it?" I looked at her a bit incredulously. "We know, both Dave and I. I think we figured it out when I was around 13 or so. It also helped to find your secret stash above the garage. You need a better hiding spot. We both saw the old pictures and found the old VHS tape. We saw the blood test results and know what they mean. Plus, we went one step further than you, Dad. We got a DNA test done. It's easy to do now and we know. You are our real Dad regardless of who was popping Mom's rocks on the nights we were made. You raised us, fed us, nurtured us and taught us everything we know about how to be good people and you are stuck with us whether you like it or not." I didn't know what to say. I was looking at a 35 year old 16 year old. They both hugged me and I wept. After I pulled myself together (because men shouldn't get like that) I looked at them and told them I was ready to leave their mother but they were old enough to make decisions for themselves. Kiley came right out with it again. "Dad, I'm not going to stay with my Mom. She might have given birth to me and maybe way down the road someday, I'll think different. But, for now, I'm going to walk away from her. I have been waiting knowing you were going to leave but also knowing you were staying just because of us. So, if I have a choice, I'll stay with you. Dave chimed in at that point. "Dad, we already checked with a lawyer. Kiley can make that choice once she's 16 and that's next month." So it was a plan. My kids were already in the know. Tammy was in denial and I was ready to make the break. Then I started having second thoughts. The motherfucker was dead. My wife was a busted up mess of a woman and I had nobody to go to. I was only 41 and certainly young enough to make a good go at another woman. Hell, that was the plan all along. Raise em up, head on out. Tammy got her old job back after a few long talks with HR and the Nursing supers. She even started back up with her benefits and salary increases in line with where she left off. Financially, she would be OK, well, except she didn't know about the big mortgage on the house. There was only about 20% equity left to speak of. I laid the papers out in front of her one evening with the simple splits, 50/50 down the middle. I told her about my gambling problems and how I didn't have anything left and then I told her why. "Tammy, I know all about Michael Cookson. You remember when I had those mumps years ago? And I couldn't fuck you the way you wanted, hell, the way I wanted too. I know that Michael Cookson was tapping your little quim way back then." She tried to protest but I held up my hand. "You remember how we tried and tried to fuck a baby into you back when we first got married? Somehow a fucking miracle occurred. Then the same thing with Kiley but I recall you didn't try so hard with me that time but still, you got knocked up. But there is something you don't know." I pulled out my test results that showed zero swimmers from the doctor's office those many years ago. The paper was a bit yellowed but she could read it. Her jaw dropped when she realized what it said. Then I pushed a photo in front of her. It was her going into the Ramada Inn, Room 221 two months after Kiley was born. She looked up at me. "You've known all these years and said nothing?" I nodded and continued. "I needed to raise my babies, Tammy. They might not have my genes but they have my name and I've loved them more than anything since I first laid eyes on them. You want to know more? They know too. I didn't tell them. They figured it all on their own. Was Cookson their baby daddy?" She nodded yes and stared at the floor. "Tammy, look up at me. I bedded you as my wife once a week for most of the last 17 years since I've known. I didn't shirk my duty as your husband. Now, I wasn't always faithful but then, my marriage died when I found out 17 years ago. You have never been faithful. I guess my question is a simple one. Why?" She stared at the floor for a long time before replying. "Ted, I wish I knew why I didn't stop it a long time ago. Fear, I guess, afraid you would find out and leave. By the time I found courage it was too late. Michael Cookson, and yes, he was an asshole, started by blackmailing me. You are right that I had fucked him when we were young before getting married. It was a mistake and it only happened a couple of times. Then a bit after we got married I was out with some of my work friends and we were drinking at some bar. Well, I ended up drinking too much and of all people, Michael showed up. I honestly don't remember all that much after than other than I know he was fucking me on a couple occasions that night. I think one of the nurses gave me cover and called you telling you she was taking me home with her as I was puke drunk. Well, Michael used me all night. He took pictures, everything. A week later, he met me at work and laid it out. I'd have to fuck him or you would know. Then the worse happened. I was pregnant and I knew right off the bat it had to be Michaels. I watched the calendar religiously and I ended up being a stupid drunk fuck right at the height of my fertility. I could have died. I was in for a pound at that point. Michael had me every week until I got too big. After Dave came, he was after me again telling me he would tell you the baby was his. I was mortified so I relented. I ended up getting knocked up again a year later and when Kiley was born, I had my tubes tied so it couldn't happen again. To keep Michael quiet I agreed to let him do it once a week. I thought he would grow tired of me and move on. I prayed he would but he never did. I put up with him and my shame for all these years. I think I realized several years ago that it would never end well but my denial kept me going. I never once had an orgasm with the man. I was just a piece of meat to him and after 15 minutes, he was up and gone , every time. So now you know why, Ted. Push me those papers and I'll sign whatever you want me to and I'll get out of your way." She sat there looking at her hands and I pushed the papers in front of her. She didn't even read them. She just signed them. "Ted, if you want. I'll take them to the lawyer's office and sign them again in front of them if they need me to." At that she got up and went into the other room and sat down in her easy chair and cried. She was a completely broken woman. If what she said was true, she submitted to blackmail all these years just to keep me from finding out what I already knew. I looked at the papers on the table and picked them up and put them in my case along with the evidence of her infidelity. I had told her I wasn't always faithful over these years but I didn't tell her about Michelle. That was just a sweet memory that was a could have been in another life. The life I had lived was as a cuckolded man raising another man's two children and loving every moment with them. I just didn't know what to believe from her anymore. When I looked back on it, it was worth it. I had kept my promise to myself to raise them as mine and have two children that loved me when they became adults. I would be able to watch them get married and have grandchildren to play with. It is what I wanted with my wife when I married her. So, we drifted like that for the next year and a half or so. I had the papers still in my case. Tammy was making the payments on a house she couldn't afford. I had taken a small apartment nearby and Kiley had moved in with me until I told her that she really needed to stay with her mom or it could be that she might not have a mom left. Tammy was slowly falling to pieces and I think she needed the support. After Kiley moved back home, things started to even out a bit. The two of them seemed to bond somewhat and Kiley began doing things with her mom. I encouraged her and at one point I even sat down and explained what Tammy had told me about Michael Cookson. I considered it therapy for the both of them. Dave had gone off to school in Knoxville and I was living the boring middle aged single life. I hadn't chased any women although I certainly had the opportunity. When the office heard that I was living on my own, I was surprised how many single, divorced, women were working in my building. I got invited to everything. The women who had never been married were few but the divorcees were like sharks in the water looking for fresh blood. I was sitting in a park one morning just watching the kids play and enjoying the fresh air. A little girl and her mom caught my eye and there was just something familiar about the mom that I could not for the life of me put my finger on. I watched them play and run with each other and there was a wonderful joy between them. It reminded me of when my kids were young. At some point, the mom stood up and pulled her cap off her head and a long cascading flow of blond curls fell loose down her back and when she turned toward my direction, I realized who she was. It was Michelle. I sat back and watched them play. I didn't know she was still living in the area. In fact I was certain she had married and moved away. They were tossing a ball around and at some point it rolled over toward where I was seated. I reached down and picked it up, tossing it toward the young girl running my way. When she was closer I recognized her as her mother's daughter. She was the spitting image. The little girl ran back down toward her mom and they resumed. Michelle didn't notice me that I could tell and I rose up and left the park. I was having coffee one morning down on the corner from my place and she slid in across from me. "Ted, you are looking good these days." "Michelle, I could say the same." We appraised each other for a bit. "You didn't come over and say hi the other day." "Neither did you? I didn't want to rile a husband if he were lurking. It wouldn't be fair to him." She laughed lightly at that. "He's been gone for a couple, three years now." "Oh I'm sorry." "Don't be. I caught him fucking our next door neighbor and nearly castrated him right there." "Well, you know I can appreciate the sentiments." We sipped our coffees and chatted about everything for quite a while. Her little girl was six and her name was Cassie. She had been born in Atlanta and when the marriage went south, Michelle brought the two of them back to the area and was living in Memphis until recently. "So did you ever divorce her?" she asked. "I have the signed papers at home but I haven't had them processed." I think she pondered that for a good while before a small smile crossed her lips "You've got a soft heart, Ted. I've always loved that about you. Are you going to give her a chance to redeem herself?" I needed to answer that question. We were not a couple yet I hadn't really pulled the trigger and didn't know why. I remembered loving her those years ago. I remembered Michelle tell me how much Tammy talked about me at work. Then, just as quick I would recall that motherfucker sticking his dick in my wife's quim year after year. "I think I'm just trying to find the time." I lied. She just chuckled. When she finished her coffee, she pulled out a business card from her bag and handed it to me. "Ted, please call me sometime and let's have lunch. I'm back at the hospital here and, well, sometimes I just like to have a friend to talk to and I'm a good listener." We hugged each other and I watched her leave and cross the street to her car. Later that evening, I was looking over the divorce papers and I came to a conclusion that I was going to give Tammy a chance to redeem herself. She looked tough as an old bird but she did her best. She was actually quite attractive in her own jailbird kind of way. I headed over to the house and sat in the driveway for the longest time. I opened my case and pulled out all the papers, including copies of the infidelity evidence. My eyes fell to her eyes at the Ramada Inn. I shook my head and backed out of the drive as she stood there watching me. I got a wheel and actually laughed all the way down the street. The next morning, I dropped the papers off at the lawyer's office, told him to file and I went out and bought the biggest cheeseburger I could find and washed it down with two Sam Adams. Staring at the old photograph and the close-up of the couple, I peered into the eyes of lovers and not those of a victim and her perpetrator. The other thing I never noticed before or paid any attention until the photo was blown up was the oversize high school varsity jacket she was wearing. I never had one but that cocksucker Michael Cookson did. +++++++++++++++ I sat on that bench watching my two kids board the plane for an adventure with several of their friends. Cassie ran up to me just as they were going through the gate. Her mom was right behind her. I gave both of them a big hug and we waved at the departing entourage. The day I ate that cheeseburger was the day I knew I was going to marry Michelle and we set the date during dinner last night with my two kids, Cassie, Michelle and I. Dave will be my best man. Kiley will be a bridesmaid and Cassie will be the flower girl. Tammy didn't take it too well for a while but she learned to adjust. I think she also understands I could care less. As for my stash, she knows nothing about it and I just paid off my kids college educations up front and tomorrow I'm paying cash for a new home for the three of us to grow old and happy in. It's been an eighteen year engagement.