The first thought that crossed my mind when I woke up was that my throat was a bit sore. I tried speaking but found that I couldn’t. That’s because there was something in my throat – something hard. I looked around and realized I was in a hospital room with tubes and wires connected to various parts of my body. I also discovered a cast had been placed on my left arm and I could feel the bandages on my face.

What the hell’s going on, I wondered. How long have I been here? What happened to me? I tried moving but found it difficult. The door to my room opened and a nurse came in to check on me. She looked at my chart and checked my vitals, then left the room.

A few minutes later, she was back with what I presumed was a doctor. He also checked my vitals and flashed a light in my eyes. After he finished humming and hawing, he spoke to the nurse and the two of them removed the tube that had been placed down my throat. That explained why I couldn’t talk earlier.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Neely,” the doctor said, standing up. That was me, by the way. Jackson Neely, or “Jack” to my friends. I tried talking, but my throat and lips were too dry. The nurse gave me an ice chip and I sucked on it until it melted, then she gave me another.

“How ... long?” I managed to croak.

“You’ve been here for ten days, Mr. Neely,” the doctor said. “You had some swelling on your brain and we put you in a coma to let your head heal. You took quite a blow to the head. You also suffered a broken arm.” He turned to the nurse. “Why don’t you call Mrs. Neely and let her know her husband is awake,” he said. I shook my head when he said that.

“No!” I told him. He looked at me, concerned.

“Why not?” he asked.

“She’s the reason I’m here,” I said as I sucked on another ice chip.

“I see,” the doctor said. “Perhaps we should contact the police, then?” I nodded my head.

“Yes,” I said. “And a divorce attorney.” The doctor laughed at that.

“We’ll get the police for you,” he said. “In fact, there’s already been a detective asking us about you. You’ll have to find your own divorce attorney, though.” I nodded my head.

“Thanks anyway,” I told him. He chuckled, then ordered the nurse to take me down for X-rays. When I was wheeled back into my room, a man wearing a trench coat came in and introduced himself.

“Detective Mel Greene, Metro PD,” he said as he flashed a badge. “You feeling good enough to talk for a few minutes?”

“Yes,” I said as I took a sip of water. He sat down next to my bed, pulled out a pad and an audio recorder. He set the recorder on the tray in front of me and turned it on.

“I hope you don’t mind if I record this,” he said.

“No, not at all,” I said. He spoke into the recorder, to mark the date, time, and location of the interview then turned to me.

“Okay, Mr. Neely,” he said. “Tell us what happened.”

“Well, I had just got home after spending a couple days in Pittsburgh with a client,” I told him. “I had finished the visit a day early and wanted to get home to be with Julie, my wife. When I got home, I saw a strange car in the driveway.

“I figured that she was maybe having company – one of the girls from her office. I parked in the driveway and went into the house. Most of the house was dark, but I saw light coming from upstairs and I heard moaning.

“I had a pretty good idea what was going on, but I went upstairs anyway. That’s when I saw them – Julie and some guy – having sex in my bed. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Well, I stepped into the room and yelled out. They stopped and looked at me like I was an alien or something.

“The guy unplugged from my wife and I went after him. I was gonna belt him in the mouth, but he beat me to the punch. Literally. He hit me square in the face. Once. That was the biggest fist I had ever seen in my life. The next thing I know, I’m waking up here,” I said.

“Uh-huh,” Detective Greene said. “Did you recognize the man with your wife?”

“No, I’ve never seen him before,” I said.

“Did you know your wife was having an affair?” he asked.

“I suspected something was going on, but I wasn’t sure,” I said. “Wait a minute,” I added. “I just remembered. There are cameras set up in the house. I hired a private investigator just before my last trip. I wanted to find out if my wife was cheating on me. He wired up the house for audio and video just before I left. Everything was supposed to be saved to a cloud server. I never got a chance to check when I got home. It’s probably still there.” Detective Greene opened his bag and pulled out a laptop.

“Think you can access that from here?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said. “I have the credentials written down on the back of a card he gave me. It should still be in my wallet.” The detective went to the small wardrobe in the room and pulled my wallet out of the back pocket of my trousers. I looked through it and found the card. “Here it is,” I said, pulling the card out. I handed the wallet back and he tucked it inside my back pocket.

“Angus McGregor,” Detective Green said, reading the name on the front of the card. “Is that your PI?”

“Yes, it is,” I said.

“He’s the one who called 911,” the detective said. “From what I was told, he gave officers a statement, then followed the ambulance here and gave the hospital your insurance information.”

“Have you spoken to him yet?” I asked.

“Yes,” Greene said. “Told me he found you on the floor at the foot of your stairs, then called 911. No one else was in the house at the time he found you. Let’s see what the video shows us,” he added as he fired up his laptop and connected to the hospital’s wifi. Once connected, he swung the laptop around so I could log in.

I typed in the information Julius had written on the card and was presented with a directory listing of videos. I selected the video corresponding to the time I was at the house and hit play. The video began as Julie, my soon-to-be ex-wife, entered the living room through the front door, followed by a very large, muscular, bald-headed man.

“Do you recognize that man?” Mel asked.

“He’s the one who hit me,” I said. “I’ve never seen him before that day, though.” We continued watching the video. After looking around the room, Julie turned to the man and gave him a scorching hot tongue kiss.

“C’mon,” she told him. “Let’s go upstairs and finalize our deal.” The big man sneered and swatted her on the ass.

“Let’s do it,” he said. They walked up the stairs and the video ended shortly afterward. I remembered Julius telling me the cameras were motion-activated, so I went back to the directory and double-clicked on the next one in the list. That video started with Julie and the two-legged mountain walking in the bedroom.

Julie walked to her side of the dresser, opened one of the drawers, and pulled out a thick envelope. She handed it to the man, who pulled out a huge wad of cash. He quickly counted it, then put it back in the envelope.

“Half now, half when the job is done,” Julie said. “Just as we agreed.” Holy fuck, I thought. Was she paying this guy to kill me? He sneered as he looked her over.

“Well, sweet cheeks, what do you say we seal this little deal?” he asked. Julie smiled as she looked him over. Then she started undressing. Soon, she was naked before him. The man took his clothes off and the two of them embraced one more time before getting on the bed. “Which side does your husband sleep on?” he asked.

“Why?” she asked in response.

“That’s the side I wanna fuck you on,” he told her. She giggled and pointed to the side closest to the door.

“He sleeps right there,” she said.

“Good,” he told her, pulling the covers back. “Go on, get over there. Let’s leave a nice wet spot for him.”

“You’re so wicked,” she said as she spread her legs for him. He positioned himself between her legs and aimed his cock at her hole. Compared to the rest of his body, his cock looked to be fairly small, certainly not any bigger than mine. He grunted as he pushed himself inside her. She grunted in response.

“You like that, do you?” he asked as he began pumping into her.

“Oh yeah,” she moaned. “So much bigger than my husband. C’mon, fuck me senseless.” We watched as the two of them rutted like animals on my side of the bed. They went at it for some time and I could tell that he had ejaculated inside her at least once and was working himself into a second orgasm. That’s when I walked in and caught them.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I yelled in the video. The two cheaters stopped fucking long enough to take a look at me. Julie had a smirk on her face as the big man pulled out of her. I watched myself charge the much bigger man as he stood, but he pulled back with one fist and caught me right in the middle of my face, causing me to fall down instantly.

Then he picked me up by my collar and hit me again. And again. And again. He hit me in the face several times, then dragged my limp body out of the room. Julie got out of the bed and followed, not bothering to cover herself. The video ended at that point. I went back to the directory and selected the next video.

That video showed three sets of feet at the top of the staircase. One set of feet – mine – was the only one with shoes. The big man picked me up and literally threw me down the stairs. My body lay still at the bottom of the staircase.

“Is he dead?” Julie asked.

“Don’t know,” the man said. “Want me to finish him off right now?”

“Not in my house,” she said. “I don’t wanna have to clean any more of his blood than I have to. Let him lay there. Maybe he’ll do us both a favor and die.”

“Maybe,” the man said. “Even if he doesn’t, I can come back and finish the job. Let’s get outta here. We can finish what we started at my hotel room.” A couple minutes later, Julie and the man came back down the stairs, dressed, and walked out of the house, stepping over my body. The video ended shortly thereafter. Out of curiosity, I checked the next video and opened it up.

In that one, Angus was seen coming inside the house. He checked on me, then pulled out his phone and called 911. He sat next to me until the paramedics and police arrived. I ended the video and checked the directory. There were no more videos after that. Whatever the cheaters had done, they apparently chose to do it somewhere other than the house.

“What now?” I asked.

“Well, we need to find your wife and her accomplice and arrest them,” he said. “You sure you’ve never met that man before?”

“No, never,” I said. “You sound like you know who he is.”

“His real name is James Hammond,” Detective Green said. “He goes by ‘Jimmy the Ham.’ He’s a hitman. Wanted by the feds for a string of murders. He’s well-known for killing his victims with his bare hands after he cuckolds them. You’re damn lucky to be alive. I just can’t figure out why your wife would want you dead. From what I know, you’re basically a salesman.”

“Account representative,” I said, correcting him. “I travel a bit, and I do some sales, but most of my job is keeping customers happy by keeping them profitable.”

“Any problems in the marriage?” Greene asked.

“Not until recently,” I told him.

“Are you one of those guys who play around when he’s out of town?” Mel asked.

“You mean, do I cheat on my wife?” I asked. “Hell no. You think I’d cheat when I have that at home waiting for me? You saw her. Would you be out chasing women with that at home?”

“No, can’t say that I would,” Greene said. “So, revenge is out as a motive. Tell me, do you have a life insurance policy?”

“Yes,” I said. “I have a million-dollar policy through my work. Pays double in the event of an accident.”

“And your wife is the beneficiary of that?” Greene asked.

“Yes,” I said. “But there’s more.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“I won a lottery prize not too long ago,” I said. “Three million after taxes. I was going to surprise Julie with a cruise for our anniversary.”

“Did she know about the money?” Greene asked.

“I told her I had won, but I didn’t tell her how much we won, though,” I said. “I normally handle all our finances, so I didn’t think she would find out about it since she rarely looks at the bank statements.”

“So, if something were to happen to you, she could potentially walk away with as much as five million dollars, right?” Greene asked.

“I suppose so,” I said after giving it a bit of thought. “You think she’d really kill me for money?”

“One of the oldest motivations known to man,” Greene said.

“Damn,” I said.

“Why don’t you log into your account and see how much you have left?” he suggested. I did and found that Julie had made three withdrawals of $5,000 over the last 12 days. The rest was still in the account. “While you’re here, why don’t you go ahead and cancel any joint credit cards you may have. Once you’re done, I’ll make a call and put a temporary freeze on the account, just until we have her in custody,” he suggested.

I followed his suggestion and canceled our joint credit cards and reported her ATM card as stolen. When I finished, he made a call to get an order freezing Julie out of the account.

“Any idea where your wife is now?” he asked when he finished. I shook my head.

“No idea,” I said. “Ordinarily, I’d say that she would normally be at home this time of day, but I really don’t know. Angus might know.”

“Your PI?” Mel asked. I nodded my head.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Give him a call,” he said, handing me his cell phone. “We’ve been playing phone tag the last few days, so he’ll be expecting a call from me anyway.” I took the phone and dialed Angus’ number. He answered after the second ring.

“McGregor,” he said when he answered.

“Angus, this is Jack Neely,” I said.

“Jack, you’re awake,” Angus said. “Thank God. I was so worried. This isn’t your phone, though.”

“No, Detective Greene is with me in the hospital,” I said.

“Even better,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with him, but we keep missing each other.”

“Angus, do you know where Julie is?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Put me on speaker and I’ll tell both of you.” I put the phone on speaker and set it on the tray in front of me.

“This is Detective Greene,” the detective said. “Can you hear me okay, Mr. McGregor?”

“Of course,” Angus said. “And call me Angus, please. Mr. McGregor was my father.” We all got a chuckle out of that.

“So where is Mrs. Neely now?” Mel asked.

“She’s at the international airport and she just purchased a ticket for Chicago,” Angus said. “The plane doesn’t leave for four hours, though, so you should have enough time to apprehend her.”

“What about James Hammond?” Greene asked. “Is he with her?”

“Not now,” Angus said. “But from what I’ve learned, he’s set to meet her there in the next couple of days.”

“Okay,” Greene said. “Angus, you keep your eye on her. I’ll make a call and have her apprehended.”

“Will do,” Angus said before ending the call. Det. Greene called his partner and instructed him to get an arrest warrant for Julie. Then he made another call and put an APB – all points bulletin – out for Hammond. By the time he finished, the doctor came back into the room.

“How long is Mr. Neely going to be here?” Mel asked.

“Probably a few more days yet,” the doctor said. “He’s healing just fine, but he took a pretty bad beating, you know.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Mel said. “I’m going to arrange for a couple officers to stand guard over him while he’s here if that’s alright.”

“That’s alright with me, so long as they don’t get in the way,” the doctor said.

“Good,” Mel said in response. He turned to me before speaking. “You take care of yourself, Jack. We’ll be in touch. Call if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Detective,” I said. After he left, I lay in bed and tried watching some television, but my mind kept going back to my wife. Why would she do this to me, I asked myself. Wasn’t I a good husband and provider? I thought back over our lives together and wondered what happened to the sweet girl I met in college.

I went straight to college out of high school. My father had worked his whole life in a factory and he made sure I had enough money for college. So I went and got a degree in business. That’s where I met Julie Hempstead. I was smitten from the moment we first met. We dated for a couple years, fell in love, and got married after we graduated.

I went to work for a financial services company that specialized in helping small to medium-sized businesses maximize their bottom line. She got a job working for a bank downtown. She started as a teller, then worked her way into the home loan department. We both made pretty good money and bought a house about a year after we married.

The first four years of our marriage were wonderful. We had sex almost every day of the week, twice on Saturdays and Sundays. I thought we were a happy couple living the dream. We had even started talking about having children. So why, after all this time, would she do this, I wondered. Was it just the money?

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a knock at the door. I looked up to see two policemen poke their heads into my room.

“We’ll be right outside your room if you need anything,” one of the officers said. I nodded my head.

“Thank you, officers,” I said. Shortly after that, there was another knock and Angus came inside. He walked to one side of the bed and looked me over.

“You look a lot better than when they brought you in,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been run over by a truck,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Well, they arrested your wife at the airport,” he said. “From what I gathered, they’re charging her with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”

“What about Hammond?” I asked.

“They’re still looking for him,” Angus said. “They’ve also got officers around your house, but no sign of him just yet. By the way, I found your phone on the floor in your house. Couldn’t find the charger so I bought one for you. Let me just plug it in and get it charging for you.”

“Thanks,” I said as he plugged the phone into the wall and set it on the tray next to my bed.

“I take it you haven’t had a chance to speak with a divorce lawyer yet,” he said.

“No, I just woke up from a coma earlier today,” I said. He pulled a card from his pocket.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Give this lady a call as soon as you can. I do a lot of work for her and I already gave her a heads-up that you’d be calling. She’s very interested in your case and she absolutely hates cheaters, by the way.”