Chapter 19

With the help and advice of Lexi and Junior, Bill found a new home for them. It was in a nice three bedroom, split level in a middleclass neighborhood and it had a pool in the back yard. The youngsters were delighted with that feature. It would be the magnet for many of their friends over the next few years. For Bill, however, it was a lonely and unsatisfying life. He loved his children and they returned that love many times over. When he took a moment to examine his existence, he was forced to admit he missed Marion; not the Marion she had become, but the Marion he had loved and who had carried and given birth to their children.

He felt he had been generous in the divorce settlement, but Marion didn't agree. After her first affair, Bill had taken the precaution of putting his shares of CSI in trust for Bill Junior and Alexis. They were untouchable until the children were twenty-one. Marion was furious. She saw that as a deliberate attempt to take what was rightfully hers in the settlement. Of course, she was right. On the advice of Charlie Stanbridge, it would put the shares beyond her reach, and when the children reached the age of majority, they would be set for life, and their mother wouldn't be able to touch a dime of it without their consent or generosity. Bill had carefully explained this to Lexi and Junior, and could see their smiles of understanding. Their mother would not profit from her deceit. To them, it was justice well served.

Bill and Dave Markham had spent many an hour discussing Marion and her betrayal. Bill began to think he was flawed. When he thought of his life with her, he was amazed that he had never really understood her, and was so easily deceived. He was forty two years old, and his personal life was at ground zero; starting all over again.

It took Bill a long time to come to terms with what Marion had done to their marriage. He was at a loss to understand how she could have turned so cold and calculating in such a short period of time. He finally decided to take Vera's advice and visited a psychiatrist; Dr. Jack Wasserman. At first, he wondered if there was any value in the sessions at all. After all, it was Marion who had cheated on him, and she was the first to admit that it wasn't his fault. What he was seeking to understand was what drove Marion to these extremes.

Bill spent an hour a week for two months with Dr. Wasserman and when they mutually agreed that he had gained as much as he could from their meetings, he ended the therapy. The doctor had formulated a theory about Marion from what Bill had told him. He believed that the root of her ambitions was power. When she was a teenager and everyone acknowledged that she was very pretty, if not beautiful, she realized that her looks gave her power. She would decide who would date her. She would decide who could have sex with her and who could not. Her shortcomings in her school work would often be overlooked by some teachers because she was one of the "chosen ones."

Her power continued on into her adulthood. Her beauty brought her suitors, and she could make choices about whom she would date. She could even make choices about whom she would marry. When Bill was chosen, it was suggested that Marion believed he could transfer even more power to her. After all, he was an important and respected member of the community, and she would be his wife.