by Lily May

My version of the conclusion to How High a Price 12^th August 2003

On Monday morning Early went to work at the usual time and upon arrival checked his mail finding his company Visa statement and when seeing the hotel account for his last trip listed he suddenly thought what surprises Susan's Visa statement might contain. He told Carole to cancel his days appointments and went home and went into the den/home office where he looked for and found her statements.

He checked out the last 12 months statements and found that about every 2 to 3 weeks there were entries for a days accommodation at a middle of the road motel, the Welcome Inn situated about 15 minutes from Susan's office. He then rang a private investigator he knew through work and asked to meet him at lunch time at a nearby coffee shop. He found a recent photo of Susan and went back to work until lunch time when he met with Laurie the PI and told him of his suspicions and asked that he go to the motel and see if he could get a description or name of anyone Susan may have been there with.

Laurie rang him late afternoon and said he was lucky that a $50.00 bribe had opened the clerk's memory and he got a reasonable description of the woman who had been meeting Susan there fairly regularly. After racking his mind as to who the woman could be, Early thought of Jennifer and suddenly it clicked remembering the little private chats and extended visits to the restroom that the 2 women seemed to constantly have when they were either at work functions or when the 2 couples dined together.

He felt that this was the ultimate betrayal, her choosing another woman for sex instead of him. Hetero adultery he allowed was bad but not earth shatteringly bad, whereas same sex adultery was the lowest card in the pack.

At home that night they spoke to each other only when absolutely necessary and that night slept again in their separate beds.

Next morning, he Tuesday contacted the law firm which handled his companies business and was put through to an acquaintance Tim, who handled the family law side of the practice and set up a meeting with him for 11.00am that morning. He told him of the 2 instances he definitely knew of and she had admitted to where she had stayed in both cases 2 days and nights with John Strickner and John Stockton and also of the trysts with Jennifer at the motel where he was confident that sexual liaisons had taken place. Why else would they meet in such a situation?

He asked Tim to act on his behalf and arrange for their bank accounts to be frozen mid morning the following day Wednesday and to freeze all cards except her Visa card which was in her name only, the other cards being in both names. He gave Tim written authority to do this. He also arranged for $10, 000 to be transferred to a new account in his name only. He then arranged with a local locksmith to change the house locks mid morning Wednesday also and then he arranged with Carole to move his appointments so that he could be missing until lunch time so that he could let the locksmith in.

He decided then and there that he was going to give her as much grief and humiliation as possible due to her behaviour so he set that ball rolling that night Tuesday when they were in their separate beds he made sure that she could hear him masturbating and when she commented on his doing that when she was there for him he just said that he was scared on STD's and goodness knows what she had picked up through her dalliances. Her sobbing went on until he fell asleep and could hear her no longer.

He awoke at the usual time Wednesday morning and followed his usual routine except for going into the office. He drove around for a while and returned home around 9.30am to wait for the locksmith who arrived at 10.00am and spent the next 90 minutes changing and upgrading all the locks. He then sat down with a coffee and rang Susan's mother and told her an abridged version of what was happening and felt uneasy when she broke down when she realised what a trollop her only child was. He arranged to meet with her in a few days time to talk to her about the lose/lose situation he was in.

Early then rang one of the other partners of her employer and gave him also an abridged version of the current situation. The partner was extremely angry that she and Jennifer had compromised the firm's good name in such a way and he also of course knew of her affairs with the 2 Johns.

He then rang Jennifer's husband Brian at work and filled him in on his findings and Brian went absolutely ballistic after a period of silence and told Early that he had known something was not quite right for some time and although he had checked the dirty laundry basket several times he could not find any sign of her having been with another man and now he knew why.

Early got home at the usual time late afternoon and waited for Susan to attempt to enter the house and he would be able to twist the knife a little more. His car was, unknown to her, in the garage and she noticed that the automatic door opener would not work to allow her to park her BMW beside his but did not take much notice of that alone. At this stage she did not know whether he was home or not. When her key would not open either the front or back doors it still did not click with her so she rang their home phone from her cell phone and could hear it ringing with no answer so she rang Early's cell phone which he answered immediately. She told him that she could not gain admittance to the house and he then told here that he had had the locks changed and suggested that she could stay at the Welcome Inn Motel where he knew they would accept her Visa card. Her scream was quite audible to him inside at her hearing this and she collapsed in a heap at the front door and he let her lay there, watching from an upper storey window. When she came around he rang her and he told here that this was only the start of what she was going to suffer and suggested that she get a lawyer as she would certainly need one. He also quoted the passage from the prenuptial agreement which states "that in the event of adultery by either party, the other party would be granted an uncontested divorce, custody of any children, ownership of all properties both real personal including jewellery, furniture, homes, cars and virtually everything except clothes," and told her that he would adhere to the agreement to the letter as he was sure that she would have if he had been the adulterer.