I sometimes wonder if it is worth it. Drag my ass out of bed every day of the week to go to work and make the money to support a life stye I don’t care for, but is expected of me by my family. Sometimes I think they only see me as a walking, talking ATM.

Me? Frank Belson. Forty-one and married to Annebelle, who is forty., for coming up on sixteen years. The rest of the family consists of Mary and Margaret, twin sisters, who will be sixteen in six weeks. You do the math.

I make a pretty good living as production manager for Amalgamated Industries and Belle (she hates being called Annabelle, Ann or Anna) is an executive secretary at the law firm of Sooem. Grabit and Runn and has been there since the twins started school which would make it a little over ten years now. She makes decent money, but still is always after me to get her this or that or some other thing.

I have a great relationship with my girls, but even so I’m starting to get tired of what has been going on since they entered their teen years. There isn’t a week goes by that I don’t hear “Daddy, can I have some money for...” or “Daddy, will you buy me...” or some other variation of the same. Not to forget it was times two.

Don’t get me wrong here, I love those two to death and it would kill me to lose them. Why am I thinking that losing them could happen? The reason was Belle’s company Christmas party.

When Belle first started working for S G and R I attended her first two company Christmas party’s and her first company picnic. It was obvious, at least to me, that her co-workers, the attorney’s anyway, looked down their noses at me. A lowly factory worker didn’t belong in their world. They were arrogant and condescending to me and at one point or other I so wanted to punch their lights out.

After the third instance I told Belle about it she told me it was just my imagination. I told her it wasn’t and that I wouldn’t be attending anymore of her company social functions.

Her last Christmas party was two months ago and she worked on me for five or six weeks to get me to go with her to it. I didn’t really want to do it, but to keep the peace I finally gave in.

I’d been there about two hours before I got a call from Mary. She and her sister had been using the game console and power went off in the room and she wanted to know what to do. I stepped outside to take the call and then asked her if the other rooms had power and when she said yes, I told her where the circuit breaker box was and what to look for and what to do if she found a tripped breaker. I told her to call me back after she checked the panel. I waited outside for her to call back.

While I was waiting a couple of guys came out to take a smoke break. I didn’t know either of them. They could have been spouses like me or they could have hired in after the last company affair I’d attended. They either didn’t notice me or if they did they didn’t know who I was because I heard:

“Have you gotten to spend an afternoon with Belle yet?”

“Not yet. I keep coming close, but no cigar. I wish Grabit would lower things. He won’t let you have her unless you bring in at least hundred thousand in new business. I’ve brought in eighty thousand and ninety thousand twice.”

“He doesn’t want to make it too easy. He set it at a hundred thousand to keep the prize worth striving for.”

“You’ve had her?”

“Yes, and I would dearly like to get there again.”

“She’s really that good?”

“Only woman I’ve ever known who has only two limits. No marks or pain. Everything else is on the table.”

“Even anal?”

“Especially anal. Belle loves it in her butt.”

“I guess I’ll have to work harder. I’ve never had anal. My wife absolutely refuses to even think about it.”

Just then Mary called me back and I missed the rest of their conversation and they went back inside before I finished with Mary. The problem was a popped circuit breaker. She reset it and things were fine now.

Of course, my first thought on hearing the conversation between the two men was that it wasn’t my Belle they were talking about. There had to be another Belle working for the firm. I mean, come on, if it was my Belle I certainly would have seen some sign she was cheating. But then again, maybe I had, but didn’t realize it at the time.

There were evening when she would come home from work and go straight to the shower. She told me she had been in a smoke-filled meeting and needed to get rid of the stink on her. It only happened once in a while so I never gave it any thought. But something I’d just overheard nagged at me.

The “Have you gotten to spend an afternoon with Belle?” If it only took place during an afternoon while she was at work what were the odds I’d ever find out? The more I thought about it the more questions I came up with.

Grabit only gives her to people who bring in one hundred thousand in business? Were the other partners in on it? Was Belle doing all of them? How did it start? How long had it been going on? And the biggie! What was I going to do about it? If, of course, it was my Belle.

First order of business was to find out if there were any other Belle’s working for the firm. I took care of that part in the car on the way home. We were about half way home and we had been talking about the party when I asked:

“Are there and other Belle’s work for the firm?”

“Why would you ask me that?”

I told her about the call from Mary and that I’d gone outside to get away from the noise of the party talk with her. “While I was out there a couple of guy’s I didn’t know came out for a smoke break. While I was on the phone with Mary, I overheard bits and pieces of their conversation. Something about Belle’s husband not being too swift. They couldn’t have been talking about me, could they?”

“I don’t even know what not being too swift means.”

I noticed how she avoided giving a direct answer and said “I think what they really meant is that the husband is clueless.”

“Well, they most definitely were not talking about you. No way were they talking about you. You are the most together guy I know. They had to be talking about Annabelle Martins husband. But other than seeing him at the firm’s social functions I don’t know him or anything about him.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met him.”

“Not surprising. He’s a bit like you in that he doesn’t like attending the firm’s social events so he avoids them if he can.”

I decided to change the subject until I could learn a little more about things.

Monday morning I called Sooem, Grabit and Runn from my office and asked to be connected to Annabelle Martin and I was informed that no one by that name worked for S, G and R. That put an end to my hopes that it really wasn’t my Belle the guys were talking about.

My next phone call was to my cousin Ralph. Ralph was a lawyer. He was a corporate attorney and he didn’t do divorce work, but he would know who to point me toward. What else he could do was point me toward a good private investigator. Of course he wanted to know what was up. I told him to meet me at Bud’s Bar when he got off and I’d buy him a beer and tell him what was going on.

He gave me the information I wanted and my next call was to Spenser Investigations and I made an appointment to see him that afternoon. When I met Garland Fields at Spenser’s I told him what I wanted, but I didn’t know if it was possible. I’d read about it, but I didn’t know if it was fact or fiction. He assured me it was real. He quoted me a price, I agreed to it and the next day (although I had to get up in the middle of the night to do it) my wife’s phone was bugged, there was a bug in her purse and it was all being recorded and I could access the recordings with my phone.

It was very expensive, but it paid dividends almost immediately. It was from her purse and I recognized the voice. It was Ron Grabit. They were at lunch and he asked my wife:

“Has the cuck shown any more signs of being suspicious?”

“I do wish you would stop calling him that.”

“Why? It is what he is.”

No he isn’t. The term applies to someone who willingly lets his woman screw others. Frank doesn’t know. At least I hope to God he doesn’t know. But to answer your question, other than what he said in the car on the way home from the party, I haven’t seen anything.”

“So, we are good to go?”

“Of course.”

“Okay; meet you at the hotel in five.”

The next thing of interest was what was said at the hotel. It was disgusting hearing the two fucking, but what got to me was that Grabit fucked her in her ass. I’d never been there. Of course I’d never asked for it, but she had never offered it to me either. If she had I’ve had tried it. I did with everything else she’d wanted to try.

She was the one who wanted to try cow girl and reverse cow girl so why not anal? But what was really pissing me off was that she was giving someone else something she had never given me. That upset me almost more than her cheating on me.

As they were dressing after taking a shower together Grabit said:

“Nelson closed on the Montgomery case. It brought in one hundred and seventy thousand. I scheduled him for Thursday at the downtown Hilton.” I noticed that all Anna said was “What time?”

I might still call her Belle when I was talking with her, but in my mind from that point on she was either going to be Ann or Anna in my mind.

Once I was certain that Anna was doing what the two men I’d overheard said that she was doing I needed to figure out what to do. Of prime importance to me were my girls. I knew how the courts treated fathers in divorce cases and the last thing I wanted was to become a part-time fixture in their lives. The best solution was the one I didn’t think I could handle and that was to suck it up and hang in there until the girls left for college. I would only have to tough it out for one and a half years, but I didn’t think I could go that long without coming unglued on Anna.

How could I bring myself to make love – No, scratch that – bring myself to fuck Anna knowing what I now knew? Getting sloppy seconds? Maybe not on Saturdays and Sundays since she didn’t work those days, but Monday through Friday I could never be sure of whether or not some asshole got rewarded that day or not. I knew I would know if I listened to her purse bug full time during the day, nut no way I could do that and still do my job.

The only other options I could see were divorce or just loading up my Suburban with my things and just disappearing. But neither one of those would work for me because of the girls. But if the girls would go with me the disappearing thing would work for me. But not for the girls. Having to give up all their friends? Having to give up all of their activities, field hockey, soccer, softball and basketball? No!

Toughing it out until the girls left for college was the way I was going to have to go. But could I do it was the question. Could I live with Anna for the next year and a half and hold it together? Granted, it would only be about four waking hours a day during the week and sixteen or so on the weekends, but I’d be spending those hours knowing she was cheating on me with Grabit and whomever brought in a big score for the firm.

And, of course, could I still make love to her three or four times a week? And regardless of what I said earlier it would be making love because I did love the cheating slut and had since the day I met her in our sophomore year in college. Probably always would even after I bailed on her. I guess once I admitted that to myself the decision was made. I’d hang in until the girls left for college. What I was going to have to do was get myself ready for the split when it did come.

The next day I set up a new account in my name only in a different bank. I’d put ten percent of all my paychecks in it along with all bonuses.

The only question left was should I confront Anna with what I knew and let her know my intensions or did I just keep my mouth shut and tough it out? I thought long and hard on the question and in the end I decided to just keep quiet.

My reasoning was simple. I couldn’t predict what Anna would do when confronted. One of the things she might do was decide that since I was aware of what she was doing she could leave, taking the girls with her, and sue for divorce. I couldn’t risk it. I DID Not want to lose my girls. The decision made, to just ignore and move on, I settled in to try and behave like the clueless twit Anna thought I was.

For the next seven months things went along with no change. The girls had their sixteenth birthday and we threw a big party for them. Anna and I continued to make love three or four times a week. Things were going okay until one day I took Mary and Margaret to a Burger King following their soccer game.

As we sat there munching on burgers and fries Mary said:

“I know you know what Mom is doing. Are you ever going to do anything about it?”

“You know? How?”

“I heard her talking to someone named Ron on the telephone. She asked him if someone named Terry wanted the full package including anal. Then she said Thursday would work better for her because she would be over her period by then. And then she laughed and said she could if he didn’t mind her still being a little spotty. Then I left before she could find me there.”

“Why don’t I know about this” Margaret asked

“I didn’t tell anybody because I was afraid if it got out it could cause a divorce and I did not want that. There are kids in our class that have divorced parents and I don’t want what they are going through to happen to us. A divorce would have put us with Mom and I definitely didn’t want that.:

“If that’s the case why bring it up now?”

“Because I’m sixteen now and in this state when a child is sixteen or older she can choose which parent she wants to go with.

“Does that mean you would choose me if things go the divorce route?”

“It does.”

“How about you Margaret?”

“I don’t know. This is all new to me. I always thought Mary shared everything with me like I do with her, but this? This is hard for me to get my head around. Mom cheating? I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

“Well think about it, okay? I’m not going to do anything that will split the two of you up. I’ve known what you mother is doing for over eight months now and I haven’t done anything that will cost me you two. I planned on living with your mother until you both headed off to college before dumping her, but if both of you would choose me in a divorce, I’d go for it tomorrow.”

It was a very somber trio that left the burger joint that night.

Over the next week I left the girls alone and let them talk things over. I did make an appointment to see a divorce attorney that my cousin Ralph recommended.

I found out Mary was partly right on the minor children over sixteen issue. They could have a say as to which parent they wanted to go with. The key there was they could have a say, but it didn’t mean they would get what they want. It all depended on the judge sitting on the case and the circumstances. Boys wanting to go with their father almost always got their wish. Girls wanting to go with their mother was almost a given. Girls wanting to go with their dad, not so much. Some judges firmly believed that girls needed to be with their mother and would rule that way regardless of the child’s preference. It pretty much depended on the judge who got the case.

There were nine judges that sat on divorce cases. Three were women who always rule that the girl goes with her mother. Of the six male judges two always rule that way and three always grant the child’s request. One could go either way depending on the circumstances of the case.

“Circumstances” I asked.

“Is the mother unfit? Can the father financially take care of the children? Is the reason for the divorce spousal abuse by one party or the other? There are hundreds of things that might come up.”

“Go ahead and get the paperwork started. I’ll talk to the girls and then get back to you.”

The next day was Saturday and the girls had a field hockey game in the horning and a soccer game in the afternoon. Anna said she had some errands to run and I suspected that I knew what they were (purse recorder later confirmed I was right) so it was just the girls and me for the day.

After their soccer game we went to Village Inn for dinner and I filled them in on what the attorney told me.

“That sucks” Mary said. “The law says we have a choice and then the law in the form of some judge says we don’t.”

“Well, I can tell you one thing” Margaret said, “If I chose you and they say I have to stay with mom I won’t do it. I’ll run away and keep running away until they let me go where I want.”

“You can’t run to dad” Mary said, “That will just get him into trouble.”

“Let’s not be talking about running here” I said. “We need to figure out what we want to do. It is beginning to look like just hanging in there until you are eighteen is the safest thing to do.”

Then Mary said “Why don’t we just confront her with what we know and hash it out before going for the divorce? I’ll just let her know up front that she disgusts me and I want nothing to do with her?”

“Slow down there girl. She is your mother and she has done a pretty damned good job of raising you. Regardless of what she is doing to me she does love you. Don’t turn your back on her just because she doesn’t care for me anymore.”

Then Margaret said “If she cares for us so much, she sure doesn’t show it. She can’t even be bothered to show up for our games to cheer us on. She is off today, but could she spend any time with us? Oh no; she had some errands to run. Do you realize she hasn’t been to one of our games in over two years?”