I have to admit that I did have mixed emotions as I looked at the papers I had just finished reading. Ten minutes earlier a man had come into my office:

"Mr. Esau? James Esau?"

"Yes."

"These are for you" and he handed me an envelope. I took it from him and he said, "Sorry, but you have been served."

He turned and left and I opened the envelope and found that my wife was suing me for divorce using irreconcilable differences as grounds. I reached for the phone and punched in my home number. The phone rang four times before she picked it up and said hello.

"I just got your surprise package. Are you sure that this is the way you want to go?"

"I can't see any other way. You can't accept me as I am, I don't want to change, and I can't stand the look on your face every time you look at me."

She was right of course. I couldn't accept what she had become and if she wouldn't change there was no real hope for us. But I am nothing if not practical and I would do what I had to to protect my assets and myself.

"Well, if you are determined then I guess there isn't anything else to talk about. I'll have my lawyer get in touch with yours. Meanwhile, try and be out of the house by the time I get home tonight."

"Why do I have to do that?"

"Because it is my house and I'm not going to share it with someone who wants to get away from me so bad that she started divorce proceedings."

"But my lawyer sa..."

"I don't care what your lawyer said. Either he is stupid or you didn't give him all the facts. The corporation owns the house and the corporation leases it to me. My name is the only name on the lease so please be gone when I get there. I'll be late so as to give you time to clear out. Goodbye."

That was just the beginning of course. I saw my lawyer next day and we counter sued. I was being hateful, but at that point I didn't really care. Thanks to my father, who was the major stockholder in the corporation (57%) and who was one hell of a good tax lawyer I was covered. All that I had was owned by the corporation and leased to me. The two cars, the house, the cabin on the lake and the boat, and the time-share at Vail. I owned my clothes and that was about it. All Mia could go after was child support and alimony and I intended to fight her tooth and nail over both.

It took a week before my papers were served on Mia and I heard from her that very afternoon. She called me at my office just after lunch:

"What are you doing? Why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm covering my ass Mia. I'm in a highly competitive business and in this town reputation is everything. If I just laid back and let your divorce go uncontested your charges against me become part of the public record. Then there is the matter of your attorney and his fees. I'll be god damned if I'm going to pay your lawyer just because you are divorcing me because I don't like the fact that you are a paid whore. No Mia, the record is going to show that we were divorced because you decided to become a hooker."

"But if you do this it will come out and my family will find out."

"Not my problem Mia. That's one of the things you should have been thinking about when you decided that it would be exciting to fuck for money."

To be honest I do have to admit that I was partially at fault for what had happened. If I had paid more attention to what was going on I could have stopped things before they happened. One of the drawbacks of being successful is that the higher you climb the harder you work which translates into spending more time at work and away from home.

The problem surfaced early in my marriage to Mia in the form of complaints that I never had any time for her. So I made an honest effort to see to it that she went with me to business dinners, trade shows, conventions and any company or corporate function where she could fit in. It didn't seem to matter to Mia that when we were at those functions I spent most of my time talking business which was, after all, my main reason for being there. It seemed to be enough for Mia that we were together. Mia is a very beautiful woman with a very outgoing personality and she was always able to find something or someone to keep her occupied until I could finish my business.

One of my major suppliers was putting on a trade expo at one of the local hotels. They had rented two of the ballrooms and several hospitality suites and the expo was to run for three days. When I told Mia that I wouldn't be home until real late on Thursday because of the expo she asked why I wasn't taking her. I told her that it would be very boring for her since it was all going to be of a highly technical nature and there wouldn't be much of a party atmosphere.

That wasn't really true. The real reason that I didn't want her there was because the company putting on the expo had a reputation for pushing the envelope when it came to hospitality suites. They hired high dollar call girls to act as 'hostesses' and to entertain their best customers. At least one of the suites would be well stocked with cocaine and other recreational drugs and I just did not want Mia around that kind of affair. But Mia kept after me and to keep piece in the house I finally agreed to let her go with me.

We arrived early, had a couple of drinks from the bar, munched on the snacks from the snack table and then I saw someone I needed to talk to. Soon he and I were wrapped in a conversation and Mia, as was usual at these affairs, was left to her own devices. I saw her off and on over the next couple of hours and when she dropped out of sight I didn't notice.

It wasn't until it was time to leave that I noticed that she wasn't around. I went looking for her and when I didn't find her in either of the ballrooms I tried all the women's bathrooms, all to no avail. The only places left to look were the hospitality suites and so I caught the elevator and rode up to the fifth floor where the five suites were located. I had looked in three of them without finding her and I was checking the fourth one when an old acquaintance stopped me.

"You still a happily married man?"

"Afraid so Tom."

"Still the straight arrow?"

"That's me Tom, all the way, why?"

"One of the hostesses this year is the most fantastic piece of ass I've ever come across. This girl deep throats like you wouldn't believe and she loves it. Either that or she should be in Hollywood collecting Oscars for her acting ability. If you weren't so happily married I would highly recommend her to you."

"Thanks for thinking of me Tom, but as they say, that just isn't my bag."

I had turned and was just getting ready to leave the suite when the bedroom door opened and I heard a man say, "Thanks sweetie, that was just great" and a voice answered, "No baby, thank you. It was fantastic."

Then the man came out and the door closed, but I was frozen in place. The voice had been Mia's. But it couldn't have been. Those bedrooms were used by the hostesses so it must have been a case of someone sounding like Mia. I shook my head to clear it and then went on to the fifth suite, but Mia wasn't there either. I don't know why I did it, but I went back to the previous suite and asked Tom where I could find the girl who loved to deep throat. He pointed to the bedroom door that the voice I'd heard had come out of.

"She's in there. Just knock twice, stick your head in and if no one hollers at you to shut the damned door just go on in. Thinking of straying?"

"No, not really, just curious."

With a nudge and a wink he said, "I'll just bet you are" and he walked away. I found a chair where I could sit and watch the door and over the course of the next thirty minutes I saw three men walk in and then come out smiling. Twice I almost talked myself into going into the room, but at the last second I backed out. Finally I convinced myself that my imagination was running away with me and that Mia was probably down in the ballrooms looking for me.

I toured the first floor once again without finding Mia and was just getting ready to go back up to the hospitality suites when I saw Mia walk into the room.

"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

I'm sorry honey. I ran into a girl I went to school with and I've been up in her room visiting with her and her sister and I lost all track of time. You ready to go?"

On the way home Mia was very chatty about her old girlfriend and the things they had done when they were in school. Her friend had already been through three husbands, but the fourth marriage looked like it would last, yadda, yadda, yadda. By the time we got home my mind was at rest. It most definitely had to have been someone who sounded like Mia in that room.

That is my mind was at rest until we got home and it was time to pay the baby sitter. Mia had rushed into the house because she had to use the bathroom and she put her purse on the little table just inside the door as she rushed for the toilet. I hung up my coat in the hall closet and went to pay Stella for watching the kids. Then I remembered that my wallet was in my jacket and I went back to get it. When I opened the closet door it bumped the table in the hall and Mia's purse fell on the floor and some stuff spilled out: a lipstick, a small make up case, a pair of eyebrow tweezers — and a condom. The implication of what that meant staggered me as I picked the items up off the floor and put them back in the purse and put the purse back on the table.

I paid Stella, thanked her for watching the kids and then I went and made myself a drink. I thought about what I had just seen. After the second child Mia and I had decided that two was enough. Not looking forward to having to use a condom for the rest of our lives I had gotten a vasectomy. So why did Mia have a condom in her purse?

I heard the toilet flush and then Mia came into the room. I wanted to say something, but what if I was wrong? What if there was a perfectly good explanation (I know now I was in denial) for the condom?

"Coming to bed sweetie?" Mia asked.

"Be up in a minute dear."

Mia went on up to bed and I sat there and nursed my drink. When the drink was gone I got up to go to bed and I noticed that the purse was still on the little table. I was drawn to it like a nail to a magnet and I picked it up and looked inside. I found six condoms and a roll of bills which I counted. Sixteen hundred dollars! Mia never carried that much cash around with her. What I should have done was go right up to the bedroom and demand an explanation, but I didn't. Who knows what the confrontation might have done to us if there were perfectly logical explanations? After all, what did I have to go on besides suspicions? A voice heard through a door, some unused condoms and what Tom had said about the whore in the bedroom — that she deep throated and seemed to love it — just like Mia. I slid into the bed and Mia rolled over and snuggled up next to me and in a minute she was sound asleep, which was something I didn't get much of that night.

The next morning at breakfast Mia asked me if we were going to the expo again that evening. I told her no, that I had done what business I needed to do the night before and then I asked her why she wanted to know.

"I told Mary I would meet her for lunch and I thought that if you were going to the expo I could meet you there."

Something in the back of my mind made me say, "No, no expo tonight, but I will be home really late. I have a business dinner with Jones from Selco. Have fun with your old school chum and I'll see you tonight."

There was no Jones and there wasn't any Selco. Apparently while part of my brain wanted to believe there were reasonable explanations for the previous evening another part was saying, "Bullshit Jack, you are being played."

I skipped work that day and I was at the hotel when Mia showed up for her lunch date with her old school chum. I expected her to go straight to the elevators and take one to the fifth floor, but she turned into the ballroom and was headed straight for me. I was just starting to panic when she stopped at one of the displays and exchanged 'cheek kisses' with the hostess at the display. Mia's old school chum was a high priced call girl! The two women stood there talking and laughing for about five minutes and then a man walked up to them. I saw Mia's chum introduced her to the man and then the three of them stood talking for the next three or four minutes and then Mia and the man walked to the elevators, got on one and I watched the indicator until it stopped at the fifth floor. I no longer had doubts about what Mia was doing.