Edited by BarneyR. Messed with by me. All errors are mine.

My wife and I had been married for 24 years. She was my reason for being in this house, in this city, in this state. She was not that anymore.

I am Rafael Evers, Rafe to my wife and my friends. I am 45 and my wife is Karrie, 42. We met in high school, and were married six weeks after she graduated from high school. We had dated for two years before we were married and came to understand that we were good together.

We have two children, Gary is 20, and Sara is 18. Both are away at college. I suppose that Karrie was feeling a loss of her children or was experiencing ‘empty nest’ problems.

Like all marriages, we have had our problems. Some were small and caused arguments. One was a huge one and it caused us to be separated for almost a year.

I was a junior in college when we married. I had full ride academic scholarships and a monthly stipend from a trust my Grandfather left me. I was doing so well financially that I was saving money every month. I was going to graduate in less than a year. I would have a degree in financial planning and a minor in English. Because of my trust fund my lawyer demanded a pre-nup that protected the trust. Karrie signed, almost without reading it.

I graduated and found a great paying job at a local office of a national brokerage house. I knew and told the manager that I was only there short term. I planned to work toward a certification as a certified financial planner and then open my own office.

Karrie told me she would work and go to night school until kids came along, then night school and a full-time mom until they were all (if any) in school. That five years lasted until Sara was three then things changed. Sara was in preschool, and Karrie seemed lost at home alone. She told me she wanted to back to work, at least part time. I told it was her decision.

She found a job at a local insurance office. Her boss was a man about ten years older than me. He also rubbed me the wrong way. I really didn’t have a reason to feel bad about him, but I did.

I told Karrie what my feelings were, and she just blew me off. “You have nothing to worry about. I’m married to you, and nothing will come between us.”

We had been married for seven years when things at home got testy. Sara had started Kindergarten. I was getting blamed for little problem that came along. Every time I was late getting home from work I was ‘cheating and she wasn’t going to stand for it’. I finally decided to move to the guest room. The complaints didn’t stop.

Then I discovered that Karrie was cheating. She was having an affair at work. I moved out and got an apartment near my office. I had Karrie served with divorce papers.

After we had been apart for almost a year, I was still ready to end our marriage. We are only still married then because when Karrie got the divorce papers, she fought and delayed the process until she insisted that we talk.

Karrie insisted that the affair was over, and she would never cheat again. She pleaded with me to forgive her. I still loved her so I forgave her but warned her that I would never forget the hurt; nor would I accept it happening again. We got back together, but I had my lawyer create a post-nup that would give me custody of the children and her nothing if she cheated again. It had no time limit. She squawked but signed.

Her ex-boss suffered a few hardships and a divorce while we were separated. He left town within six weeks of my discovery of the affair. He was still in the casts from one of his ‘hardships’. I was questioned about that, but I was at the courthouse suing him when he somehow fell down a stairs at a local motel while in the company of a woman, not his wife. His wife took him for all that my lawyer didn’t get. He decided to leave town.

Karrie was ever attentive after that. We had all of the usual problems, the kids got sick, the kids got hurt. The appliances quit working. The cars broke down. The house needed repairs. We managed to survive all of those problems.

When Sara was in school full time, Karrie wanted to work full time. We didn’t need the money, my grandfather’s trust was mine now, and I had qualified and passed my certification testing I was now a certified financial planner.

I had opened my own office like I had planned. Because there was an opening, I asked if she wanted to work for me in the office. She jumped at the chance.

We went along for several years, and my practice prospered, and I hired four associates. Karrie became the office manager and a partner in the business. I stepped back and only worked for clients that insisted I handle their accounts. We had a smooth running and successful business.

I was not using all of my time at the office, so I started writing again. I had three unfinished novels that I started in college. I didn’t know if I had any talent, but I had the bug. I finished the three in six months and started another.

I sent them to a literary agency that worked with many publishers. After several rejections, a publisher took the book and made a deal to publish it. They paid me a medium size advance because I insisted on all copyrights, paperback, and movie rights.

The publisher also optioned three more books. I had two more finished and nearly finished a third. The publisher just waited until the first book’s sales came through. They eventually purchased all four.

The publisher decided to stop publishing that type of book, so they did not option any more of my books. The agency found me another publisher.

As I was not really doing much in the office, I promoted one of my associates to a junior partnership. Another change was that after almost eight years of working for me, Karrie sold me her partnership, quit, and went to work for a local nonprofit. She claimed she was not satisfied in her work for me. I promoted our office secretary to my assistant and hired a new secretary.

Karrie seemed very happy, and there did not seem to be any problems with our marriage. The nonprofit was doing well, and Karrie was promoted after a year. Her replacement was a young man fresh out of college.

This was our life until shortly after Sara left to go to college. Then things were different and very argumentative in the house. I did not understand the reasons, so I asked her.

“Karrie is there something bothering you. You seem to be ignoring me. When you do talk to me it is to pick a fight.”

She looked at me and started to get an angry look.

I held up my hand to stop her. “You have been a royal bitch since Sara left. I won’t put up with it much longer.”

She shuddered, turned, and went down the hall to the bedroom.

I went into the safe, took out the old divorce papers and put them on the kitchen table. I then left and went to a hotel. My phone started ringing almost as soon as I got into my room. I looked and saw it Karrie, so I let it go to voice mail. A few minutes she called again. That too went to voice mail.

I went down to dinner, leaving my phone in the hotel room. When I got back, I picked it up and saw 12 calls from Karrie. I shut the phone off. I called Karrie in the morning; without listening to any of the voice mails. She was not answering. I assumed she was at her work.