Hi, I am Roger Welch, 38, a successful stock trader, a very successful writer of American Western Frontier novels and an occasional inventor. I have been divorced from Kathy, 35, for three years now, and I still do not understand the disrespect.

Sometimes troubles in relationships are not talked about, but there are often clues.

I met Kathy Raymond at my youngest sister’s wedding. Kathy was the sister of one of the groomsmen. Kathy somehow latched onto me even though I had duties as a stand in for my father.

My parents had died in a fire in a hotel in Aruba while on a second honeymoon. The hotel was owned by a U.S. company, and the place was a firetrap. I was left in charge of my two younger sisters, Racheal, and Rayanne. Rach was 13, and Ray-Ray was 15. I was 19 at the time and living at home while attending a local college.

We had gotten great legal advice from my father’s business attorney, so we took the hotel company to court and promised a strong media blitz if they decided to play hardball.

I had been named executor of the estate, which included the business that my dad had built. The business had major insurance policies on mom and dad as they were partners in the business. The settlement, the insurance, and the sale of the business insured that the three of us would each be multi-millionaires when we reached 21.

The money also did other things such as pay off the small mortgage on the family home and buy cars for each of us. Each car was in the name of the individual trust. We had the home ownership papers changed to make our trusts equal owners in the house and land.

I had the lawyers put the all the rest of the money after paying all the bills into equal trust funds for each of us, and for the trust to provide income, but not a complete payout until 25. Then the trust would match the income of the beneficiary. I did not want my sisters to fall prey to gold diggers.

The trusts paid for all educational expenses through post grad work in college if the girls wanted it. They did and used it wisely.

I had a full ride scholarship separate from the trust that was structured to give me a reasonable stipend and so my trust just was sitting there until I turned 21. I was attending the university in town, so I was at home when needed.

Ray-Ray was and is a genius, and graduated from high school at 16, got a bachelor’s at 19, and an MBA at 20. Racheal is no slouch in the brains department either, she waited until she was 17 to graduate high school. Then she proceeded to blow through college and graduated at 20 with two bachelors’ and a master’s. She got her Doctorate in chemistry at 22, and immediately was given a teaching position at a nearby university. She is now a full professor and the head of the Chemistry Dept. She also has three chemistry textbooks to her credit.

Rayanne met a great guy, Terry Sullivan, and they married and have a couple of kids and a thriving accounting agency. Terry is a CPA, and Ray-Ray is his CEO.

It was at a then 22-year-old Racheal’s wedding to Prof. John Leister, MA, PhD, and a major egotist, general gold-digger and total waste of space that I was supervising. She loved him, but I made sure she had an ironclad prenup. John just about had a stroke when he found out he could not get her money, but he did sign the prenup. I think he thought he would be able to get around the structures of the trust, and the prenup. I told you, an egotistical asshole. As I was a trustee for the two girl’s trusts, it wasn’t going to happen.

It was while at the reception where I met Kathy. I was greeting people as they were coming into the reception hall. She was a striking black haired brown-eyed beauty. She was also gracious and charming. After she found a seat she joined me at the door. She volunteered to assist me in identifying Asshole’s friends and relatives. She stayed by my side all night whenever I was away from the head table. It would have been funny if I didn’t enjoy it so much. I felt a connection right away.

After the dinner, the dancing started and other the dances with my sisters, I danced with Kathy every dance I was on the floor. When we weren’t dancing, we were sitting together talking. She was a newly minted high school teacher. She taught AP English and Creative Writing. She was also a successful writer of several romance novels.

She also knew of my writings. She off handily said, “I am impressed that a finance guy could be such a good writer.”

That comment got me a little bent out of shape with how she said that, and so I harshly said; “I’m sorry you think finance people wouldn’t have the ability of imagination to be a writer of fiction. I will match my book sales to yours any day of the week. I also have an offer for a movie adaption for three of my novels and an offer for another movie if I expand one of my novellas. Perhaps romance novels will work out as well for you.” Then I got up and went into the men’s room to escape her until I could calm down.

She was standing outside the restroom door when I came out. She was tearfully apologetic and said that she hadn’t said what she wanted to say in the right way.

I apologized for getting angry, and said, “Let’s just say that we are pleased with each other’s writing success.”

“OK, but I really am sorry for sounding like an egotistical snob. I already knew about your books, we have the same agent, and my publisher throws your numbers in my face to get me to write more ‘salacious’ parts into my books. When I tell him that not my style, he gets upset, but my royalty checks keep coming in and he always offers a new contract when I fulfill the current one.”

“I’ll talk to Gary Crandell, (our agent) and when you finish your next contract, you should have him put it out to other houses for bid. That is what I did when my last publisher’s rep started to denigrate my writing. The publisher called and asked why I was ‘shopping for a new publisher’ so I told him. I got a new rep, a bigger cut and all of the copyrights and movies rights.” I added; “I make a lot more per book, and now that I have the publisher’s support, I am writing more.”

“Do you think it will work? I have one more book to complete this contract.”

“Let’s talk to Gary together, and then we will know. Believe me; Gary knows how to work the system to get his clients more money, because the mercenary side of him loves to make himself more money.”

With that, we both laughed. The conversation went on to other things then came back to writing. She told me she loved her classes and had some very gifted students that would be great writers is she could get them focused on writing.

When I said, “Maybe writing is not their passion. I love finance, enjoy it when I tinker with some ideas for inventions, but writing is my passion. You just said you love teaching. Do you write as a sideline, like my financial work and tinkering is for me, or do you teach as a sideline for your writing?”

It was as if a light went on. “I haven’t explained that to my kids. That’s a great insight. I need to convey to them that work is great, but that writing is also important and if they have the passion for writing, they will find the time to do it. Thank you.”

Then she excitedly grabbed me and kissed me. Then she blushed the brightest red that I had ever seen a human turn.

We exchanged phone information and agreed to meet with Gary ASAP.

She left, and I stayed and supervised the clean up.

The next Monday, I called Gary and told him about my conversation with Kathy Raymond. He laughed and said, “I recently got a call from her publisher’s rep, he wants to reduce her per book royalty and require more books and different ‘more mature’ content. I told them that I would recommend that she change publishers. He was not pleased. I will call Kathy and see if we three can’t work out a strategy to get her the same deal you got. She has slightly more books published, and her per book sales are very close to yours, but right now, her royalty set up is only about 60% of what you get, and she does not own the copyrights.”

“Thanks Gary, call her and set it up, I will live with whatever time and day you set up. Dinner will be my treat; I hate to see anyone being steamrollered by the publishers.” With that, we ended our conversation.

I called Kathy that evening, and told her of my conversation. She told me that she had a conversation with Gary. She also told me that they had agreed to meet at the Outback the following Wednesday at 6:00 PM. I agreed to be there.

I told Kathy with a slight smirk in my voice; “I know it’s just an excuse to see me again. Well for your information, I planned it so we would meet, and you would see my good side.”

I heard and almost musical laugh and a “You wish.” Another laugh and an almost whispered, “See you Wednesday you wonderful goof.”

The meeting went very well, and Gary started the bidding wars. It ended just as I had told Kathy. She stayed with her publisher, got a different, more respectful rep, more money per book, and all of her copyrights, including movie rights. All of these changes almost doubled her writing income.

Kathy and I dated for many months, and after almost a year, I asked her to marry me. She said yes. We planned a spring wedding so we had nine months from the engagement to plan the wedding.

As we were both financially well off, we had a prenup that protected both of our personal incomes. The only penalty clause was that Kathy insisted on a one million dollar payout to the injured party if the divorce was granted because of adultery. The guilty party would also pay all legal fees involved in the divorce.

My family home was specifically exempted and protected. I had my trust buy out my sisters’ shares. I gave their trusts the money, much to Ray-Ray’s and Rach’s approval and Mr. Leister’s disapproval. Kathy was on board with living in the family home, even though it was much more than two people needed.