Edited by Barney R Messed with by me all errors are mine.

My not so tech-savvy wife punched send to my number instead of his.

I am James Silver, I was 42, Married with a 15-year-old daughter Lannie. I am married to Jennifer Silver (nee Chalmers) we have been married for 18 years, and with the text message and picture I got that day I doubted that we would be together for our 19th year.

I was working as a salesman for a local electrical supply house. That meant that I traveled in a 45 county area, and I occasionally needed to stay overnight. I visited a lot of factories and a lot of job sites. I am very good at my job, probably because I started out as a maintenance electrician.

I was and still, am a 6’ nothing 168 lbs. Besides my job, I am always tinkering with PLCs and other robotic controls. I have managed to sell a few of my programs. My bosses have all encouraged me because their sales of robotic controllers had risen whenever I sold a program. I hid that money in a separate account in a different bank. I called it my ‘Go to Hell Account’ it wasn’t there yet, but I planned to retire at 50 if I could make it work.

I was at a job site and was staying over to see if I could solve one of our customer’s problems with a controller. About 4:00 I received a notice of a text message on my phone. I could not answer it immediately, so I waited until I was at dinner to look at it. It was a selfie of my wife – naked, with what looked like cum running down her leg. The message said “Tommy; you did me so good I’m overflowing. The asshole is going to be gone tonight, and the darling little mistake is at a sleepover, so come on over and do it again.”

That was the end of my marriage and the beginning of my revenge. I quickly forwarded the message to my e-mail account so I would not lose it. After dinner, I called my customer and explained that I was needed at home and would get back to him the following afternoon. He understood.

I met Jennifer when I was working at a newly built auto plant doing some contract maintenance testing on one of their upcoming model year assembly lines. I had done the programming and was in the process of debugging and adjusting the system before the final handoff to the plant.

I was introduced to a pretty lady who appeared to be my age. She was introduced to me as Jennifer Chalmers, the company liaison and engineering assistant. I was told she was to assist me and the acceptance engineer in this debugging phase of the installation.

Jennifer was not afraid to get into the guts of the check-out process. When I was adjusting sensors, she was right there to hand me tools or provide an extra hand when needed.

We talked as we worked, and I found out that she was 21 to my 22. She did not have a man in her life, and I did not have a lady friend. I found she liked, of all things, to play cards. She liked contract bridge, 4 handed pinochle, and canasta. She also liked the theatre, hiking, and fishing.

The debugging and adjustments took the better part of a week, but because of the help, I received that was more than a week less than planned. When I presented the final report to the plant and production managers, I praised them for the excellent help they had given me as well as the cooperation of their entire group. I made a special point to ask if I could personally thank Ms. Chalmers, as she was instrumental in the early finish.

I was shown to her office by the production manager and he left. I thanked Jennifer and asked if she would like to meet me after work for a supper or a drink. She asked where and what time. We agreed on a time and went to a little mom and pop restaurant that was a few blocks from the plant.

During that first date, I found out she also enjoyed poker and dancing. We dated exclusively for the next year. We were regular partners at a local card room. We went to plays, dances, and dinners. On Valentine’s Day about 13 months after we started dating I proposed to her and she accepted.

The wedding was originally planned for the following June, but the planning got a little out of hand (the only daughter, you understand). We finally got married on Valentine’s Day, one year after we became engaged.

The wedding was grand, and we honeymooned in Brazil. What a country of contrast. Rio was high rises on the main street and around the corner were slums. Prostitutes of both sexes, some as young as 10 were all over the streets. They would be there as early as 1:00 P.M. and still there at 2:00 A.M. I would never go back there. Sao Paulo was polluted and overcrowded. We still managed to have a good time. We had each other.

After we had been married about 8 months the company I had worked for was bought out and broken up. I was laid off and began looking for a new job. After about a month, I was hired by a company specializing in turnkey production facilities. I was given a huge raise over what I was making before and for a guy under 25 and without a college degree, I was in high cotton. That job unfortunately required extensive travel and that did not sit well with Jennie. We had many arguments about me not being there for her.

She seemed to try to compensate by spending. Then we had arguments about money. I kept telling her that I did not make as much money as she spent. Twice she threatened to get a divorce, and both times I called her bluff. The first time she went away for a week. The second time, I settled her bluff by packing her stuff and showing her the door. She ran home to momma and was told to go back and be a partner, not a complainer. She was also told that at 25 I was making more money than her father was at 55.

I warned her that she had to control her spending and that I was actively seeking an inside job either with the current company or a new one. I also told her that the threat of divorce was her last threat. If she threatened it again, she would get her wish.

Things got better and stayed that way for a long time.

Jennifer got pregnant just about the time I was offered a design position with the company I was working for. She was overjoyed with the regular hours and the extreme cutback in out of town trips; there were a couple a year, that was all.

Jennie’s pregnancy was a difficult one, and when Lannie Marie was born, we decided that there would be no more. I got snipped.

Lannie was a good child, and Jennie was a great and nurturing mother. I was just as clueless as any other father, and by the time she was walking, I knew I was defeated. That little smiling face was the ruler of my being. I was now third on the totem, Lannie, Jennie, and James.

We had a wonderful life and after Lannie was in school full time, Jennie went to work at a different engineering firm as an administrative assistant.

We did all of the kid’s vacation stuff, Six Flags, Disney World and others, but by the time Lannie was 10 she would rather go to a museum, a classical music event, an art exhibit, or stage play than an amusement park. She was also a tomboy and was constantly helping with my tinkering.

We had all of the little life dramas, I was laid off of a couple of different jobs, but always found new one or was called back quickly. Lannie had most of the childhood diseases, measles, mumps, and chickenpox. She could not get the vaccines because she was allergic to eggs and egg products. Fortunately, she seemed to outgrow that when she hit puberty. She also had the usual cuts and bumps that all kids seemed to get. She broke her arm when she was 7 by being pushed off of a swing while at recess in second grade. She was proud of her cast.

I was devastated when she went on her first date. It was a group of 3 girls and 3 boys going to a seventh-grade dance, but I was sad to see my little girl was growing up. She would not be allowed to go on a single couple date until she was 16, but she went to all the school functions with a group of the same girls and rotating boys. There never seemed to be more than once or twice with the same boy.

Life went on and when our 15th anniversary was approaching, I got an inside sales job at the company I now work for. By that time, I had also gotten my bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, so more design projects were also coming my way. The design projects were a sideline and done with my company’s blessing.

After I had been on the inside job for about 16 months, my current job was offered to me. As I was and always would be a roadie at heart, I took it. I turned out to be a good face to face salesman.

The job caused a lot of complaints about my being away a lot. Then instead of threats of divorce, she started to use sex or withholding sex as a weapon. I told her that if that was what she thought, she needed to get her ass out. If she thought that my earning money to provide for my family was worth wrecking our family, fine.