Chapter 1

My lawyer sat back and smiled. “So, Louis, that’s where we stand,” he said. “Your parents had their finances very well organized. All their accounts were ‘transfer on death’, so they automatically come to you.” Sitting next to me, my wife Stephanie squeezed my hand. “All the account holders have received copies of the death certificates,” the lawyer continued, “and now everything is in your name. Those accounts total 14.2 million dollars. The house is on the market for 6.6 million and we’ve sold the art, the antiques and the cars and jewelry that you didn’t want.” Stephanie’s grip tightened. “When everything settles, we’ll be looking at over twenty-six million.”

We? I thought. What do you mean, we? Apparently, he’d cranked out so many billable hours that he considered himself part of the family. Lawyers!

I signed the final papers, we shook hands and Stephanie and I left. In the car, I called for a lunch reservation at the Black Tulip restaurant in Cocoa Village. Stephanie was trying hard to contain her excitement. She hadn’t gotten along very well with my parents, who made no secret of the way they felt about her. They thought she was only after my – and their - money. They hadn’t mentioned Stephanie in their wills. Stephanie wasn’t going to miss them at all, but the money had her practically bouncing up and down in the passenger seat of my car.

We were shown to a table right away and ordered our drinks and entrees. Stephanie was already planning our future.

“You don’t need to work anymore, Louis,” she said. “Bill’s been wanting to buy you out for years. Sell him your shares and we’ll be able to retire and have fun.”

That’s funny, I thought. You haven’t worked since we got married.

Stephanie was bubbling away. “We were planning on that trip to Scandinavia, anyway. Now we can go first class all the way and not worry about cost.”

As if you ever worry about cost, I thought.

The waiter brought our drinks and salads. Time to drop the bomb.

“There are a couple of things we need to consider before we go,” I said softly.

“Oh, we’ll need new luggage!” she said brightly. “What else?”

“Well,” I said, pulling an envelope out of my jacket pocket, “there’s the pre-nup and these.” I put the envelope on the table in front of her.

Stephanie looked at the envelope and then at me. I wasn’t moving and I had my poker face on. “What’s this?” she asked.

“A few photos. Just open it.”

Slowly, she put her salad fork down, opened the envelope and slid the photos out. The first one showed her leaning against her car and her kissing her old boyfriend Jay, in a mall parking lot. Jay’s pants were unzipped and his erect penis was out. My loving wife had her hand wrapped around it. The next one was of her and another man on the sofa in our family room. It was the middle of the day and I was at the office. They were both naked and the man was being ridden by my wife. From the look on her face, she was having an orgasm. The next picture was of Stephanie and a different man on the nude beach northeast of Titusville. The guy’s erection was in Stephanie’s mouth and the look on his face was one of orgasmic joy.

I ate a tomato wedge. When Stephanie started to speak, I held up my hand. I finished chewing, swallowed and took a sip of wine.

“You weren’t very careful,” I said. “All those texts on your phone and the way the house and your clothes smelled was a dead giveaway. I know Jay’s a smoker. I knew a smoker had been in the house on some days when you said you hadn’t been out and hadn’t done anything. It wasn’t hard to figure it all out, especially after I read your texts, so I had you followed.” I ate some more salad. “Finding the condoms you keep in that makeup case in your purse really pissed me off. You always had to be ready for a good fuck, didn’t you?” I was starting to get a little loud. I lowered my voice. “You were prepared to cuckold me day or night. How convenient for you.” I refilled my wine glass from the carafe on the table.

“Now, as far as the pre-nup goes, I’m sure you remember the section on cheating. It says that if you cheat on me, and you have cheated on me, you take out of our marriage what you brought into it. That was damn near nothing.” Stephanie was openly crying, now. People at nearby tables were staring. I ignored them and ate another bite of salad.

“So, here’s what’s going to happen. You have two choices. Choice one: We get a divorce. I’ll give you $50,000, which you don’t deserve, and your clothes. The good jewelry is locked in the safe right now, and the combination has been changed. Your credit cards have been cancelled. You no longer have access to any bank accounts, including the ones you thought I didn’t know about. Your Lexus is in your name and you can keep it.” I drank another swallow of wine. “There’s an overnight bag in the car. If you choose not to stay with me and abide by my rules, you can call a cab and go to a hotel. There’s a thousand bucks cash in the bag and I’ll give you the other forty-nine grand tomorrow. I’ll send your clothes to wherever you want.”