Chapter 1

The silence in the room that Monday night was oppressive in its intensity. Bill and I sat there stunned, as Jenny, my wife repeated her statement. "Friday, I'm going on a sex retreat with Shirley for the weekend. You'll be waiting here when I come back, Roger."

Jenny turned and walked out of the room leaving Bill and I sitting there quietly. Earlier at the office Bill had told me about how Shirley had planned a weekend at some resort with four men she had met, and that she had instructed the men to bring lots of lube and condoms, so I was stunned by the announcement.

"I knew Shirley was cruel and wanted to get back at you for what you did, but I never thought she'd take it this far," Bill said as he set down his beer and started putting his notes away. We had brought a new marketing plan for his store chain over to my house, planning on reviewing them after dinner while watching Monday Night Football, but the pained atmosphere after Jenny's little speech had quickly ended our thoughts of work.

Still it took a moment before what Bill had said registered. "What do you mean?"

Bill shrugged as he put the last of the papers away in his briefcase. "Shirley remembers that you helped me stay strong after I caught her in bed with that delivery man. And she believes that you were involved in the sting that got her picked up for lewd behavior during that party at the bar. She must have decided that her revenge had to include you and the easiest way to achieve that was to turn Jenny out as a slut and force you to accept it. After all, you have children. She's probably told Jenny that you won't get a divorce in order to protect your kids."

I could feel the nausea rise I as listened to Bill. "She can't be that evil. To ruin my marriage just because I've supported you, my boss and friend?"

Bill nodded sadly. "Yes, she can. And remember, Jenny took the day off from her work to go and help Shirley move into her new apartment. I imagine that they had a long talk over lunch, during which I'm sure my ex-wife kept talking about how great cheating sex is."

I looked at Bill feeling a gaping pit open in my stomach. Bill looked back into the now darkened hallway that Jenny had walked down before finally standing and offering me a hand. "You need to sleep on this, and tomorrow we have to get some things set up. Let's take you to my place. Right now I'm sure you don't want to be near Jenny."

Robotically, I accepted Bill's hand and stood up. Part of me wanted to walk down the hall to my regular bed, but Bill firmly guided me out of the house and into the passenger seat of his car. My mumbled protests went unheeded as he started the car, and made the half-hour drive to his townhouse.

Happily, Bill did not try to push alcohol on me, or spend the remainder of the evening bending my ear on the evils of women. Once at his place, he efficiently and quickly got me set up in his guest room and ordered me to sleep for the night, saying that we'd be very busy the next day.

Bill woke me in the morning and announced that we were going to take a day off from the business in order to get some important errands done. "You'll meet your children as they get out of school today, and every day until Friday. It's fine if you return home, but I don't recommend having sex with Jenny. Meanwhile, we need to get you some clothes."

I immediately tried to protest. "I have plenty at home."

Bill gave a bitter laugh. "A meeting with Jenny right now might end with you in jail. It's best if we just purchase you some for the day. You'll understand soon." He filled me with breakfast and then once again took charge and pushed me out to his car.

I wanted to start a conversation, but I could see tears in Bill's eyes during this first drive. He surprised me by pulling into the parking lot of the local Target store and finding a spot to park. "We have meetings starting at eleven, and you need to look a bit nicer. Let's go inside."

Within minutes Bill had found a pair of khaki slacks and a polo shirt that he said would work. It was not a high quality outfit, but both Bill and I wore such to work when we did not have business meetings with outside vendors, so I relaxed a little. Bill surprised me by insisting on paying for everything, telling me that Jenny's little adventure was definitely being financed from Shirley's revenge fund.

The next stop was at a law office, where I expressed a bit of surprise that Bill could get an appointment so quickly. He merely smiled and led me into the office where an aging lawyer listened to my story and nodded, saying that he could take the case, but would have little chance of getting me custody of my children. Bill thanked him, and said that once I made a decision we'd call again.

I figured the other errands had to be to the bank, but groaned as Bill stopped in another small office park and guided me to the office of another lawyer. He insisted that I had to talk to Debra Hodgekins, and all but forced me inside.

A young Hispanic woman looked up as we entered and immediately activated some kind of intercom. "Your twelve-thirty is here."

I saw a set of chairs and was about to go sit when the intercom crackled to life. "Good, send them back."

The receptionist immediately stood up and led Bill and I to a small, but elegantly decorated office. As we entered a young brunette woman wearing a finely cut business outfit stood from behind a desk and looked at us. "Bill, I thought you were using Jason Arthur as your lawyer. I haven't heard that he's gotten himself disbarred so what brings you here?"

Bill paused and indicated that I should hold my hand out. "Sorry, today is not about me, but Roger here. Shirley has talked his wife into a cuckolding vacation, and-"

Debra had just taken my hand, and I was surprised as her grip tightened suddenly. "And you brought Roger around for a fashion show? Is that it?"

I looked over a Bill and noticed that he was fidgeting while looking away from Debra, who had not yet let go of my hand. "Well, Roger is my best friend, and I want to protect him. He has kids, and-"

The grip relaxed suddenly and Debra sighed. "So you decided to make sure that the bases were covered." She absent-mindedly waved me towards a chair and picked up a legal pad from her desk.

I finally voiced my confusion. "What's this fashion show?"

Debra snorted. "It's not too complex. Although there are fifty or so lawyers in town that handle divorces, we all know who the best ones are. Bill is just going to take you around to consult with the top three divorce lawyers in town"

"We've met Colin Nash already, and will see Jason Arthur after you," Bill interrupted.

Debra raised an eyebrow. "Having you consult with us before your wife does makes you a client, even if you do not retain us for the divorce. That means that once the divorce begins your wife cannot hire us, because it would be a conflict of interest."

"But I love my wife," I protested. "I haven't decided what to do. Her ultimatum came suddenly."

Debra looked kindly, but professional. "What ultimatum is that?"

I paused and watched Bill sit in another chair, as Debra leaned against the desk. "Jenny told me that she's going on some weekend sex retreat with Shirley, and that she expects me to be home when she returns."

Debra looked confused, so Bill interjected. "Shirley's little retreat is to a beach cabin out near San Diego. She's invited four men to go with her, and told them to pack lots of lube and condoms."

I felt even sicker hearing again about this planned weekend now that I knew Jenny was going to be there with Shirley. Debra seemed a bit surprised as well by Bill's bitterness. "Okay, now I know what is going to happen. I guess the first question Roger is what do you want out of this?"

I thought back to the meeting with the earlier lawyer and tried to put my thoughts together. 'I don't know. I love Jenny, but I'd have to say my children are more important. And, to have Jenny go out and fuck other men and expect me to be happy about it, or tolerate it is an insult in my opinion. That's not love, or why I got married."

Debra nodded. "So you have children?"

I sighed. "Yes, two, Lance is six and Morgana is eight."

Debra looked a bit upset. "Then we have a problem. I won't lie to you. Divorce here is now mostly no fault, which means that the judge is going to try to split everything down the middle no matter what reasons are used to bring the divorce action unless there are criminal charges involved. However, the children must both go to one parent and unless you can prove that Jenny is some kind of vicious monster, she'll get the kids. You might get some kind of joint custody where every weekend the kids will visit you, but your wife will most like get primary custody."

I tensed. "So basically I have the choice of tolerating her blatant infidelity, or I lose my kids?"

Debra nodded sadly. "That's the way it will work. I decided to become a lawyer because my parents had an ugly divorce and the system treated my mother unjustly. However, I now see too many divorce cases where an honest man is ruined by the system. You would be just one more."

I closed my eyes and considered what I just heard. I had not expected good news, but this was terrible. My mind projected an image of a giant stew pot bubbling over as Jenny lowered me, asking, "How do you want to be cooked?"

The silence in the room echoed and then Debra spoke up. "I will warn you that depending on how friendly the divorce is Jenny could play games to keep the children from you should you divorce her. It will most likely be very nasty. But for now, how about we just get the preliminaries over with? I can see you aren't ready to act today."

I opened my eyes and nodded, listening closely and answering the questions Debra had. She kept the meeting short and professional, quickly covering the basics of what I could expect in a divorce and verifying some of my financial and personal information. It was far more draining that the meeting with the first lawyer, but strangely comforting.

We finished and Debra passed me a business card as I left. She wished me luck as I finalized the payment and then Bill rushed me out the door saying we had one more meeting before I went to pick up my kids.

On the drive to the next meeting I looked at Bill and finally spoke. "You don't expect my marriage to survive, I see."

Bill looked a bit embarrassed, but shook his head. "Sadly, I know Shirley far too well. If Jenny is openly saying she will go on this fuck-a-thon, I can guarantee that every possible argument you might come up with has already been discussed and discarded. Shirley is thorough. Jenny will be on that plane on Friday. You cannot stop her, and trying will only break your heart again."

"Shirley was always thorough about things, except when it came to remembering your meeting schedule," I said remembering how this all started.

Bill is my long time boss. He inherited a trio of slowly decaying convenience stores when his great aunt passed on, and rather than selling them, decided to see if he could bring them back. The neighborhoods they stood in were not the best, but once he found honest and reliable managers, the stores turned around and started showing a significant profit. He talked me into joining him as he expanded his shopping empire, as he called it, and we now had fourteen stores in some of the less served parts of the state. Shirley was his ex-wife, and a rather vicious lady. Bill had met her when she had entered one of our stores looking for a cashier's job, and he had fallen hard. They were married after only six months, and for three years, Bill and Shirley often shared barbeques and parties with Jenny and I.

He likes to think that he is my best friend, but I am rapidly discovering that Bill is mostly out for Bill. He has been willing to pay me well, but he is abusive to vendors and customers, and over time flaunted his affairs much to my annoyance.

Of course that habit caused his marriage to break down after Bill returned from a three-day swing through our southern stores. Shirley must have figured that his trip was going to last at least five days, and that she would get a bit of revenge in, because Bill came home to find her leaning over their coffee table, giving a UPS man a blow job. Bill turned up at my home twenty minutes later, white as a sheet and crying about how Shirley had betrayed him. Shirley did not even know he had come home until the next morning when she discovered his wedding ring sitting on their dining room table.

I avoided the first attempted reconciliation meeting between Bill and Shirley, but Bill came back from that one even more depressed and filed for divorce immediately. Once she was served Shirley started showing up at my house and begging Jenny or I to talk to Bill and let her know that she really did love him. I was dubious, but did try to arrange one meeting.

That meeting proved to be a disaster as Shirley showed up with a freshly fucked glow and no panties. She and Bill ended up exchanging even harsher accusations before he stormed out, refusing to have more to do with her.

Jenny did beg me to set up one more, but the day I was almost convinced to try, I happened to see Shirley in a bar parking lot with another man as they entered the back seat of his car. The rocking motion that started a few moments later made it clear what the couple was doing, so after that I started to tell Bill that I supported his decision to go with a divorce. He had been considering taking her back despite it all, but after I began to support him in not taking Shirley back, he turned around and stopped talking to her.

Perhaps Shirley would not have been so angry, if there had not been a solid pre-nuptial agreement, which protected the majority of Bill's assets. She did receive a cash payout, and got to keep the house they had lived in together, but the stores and their sizable income remained Bill's.

Of course, Shirley and Jenny still met often to talk. Jenny was working in an office doing data entry and records management while the kids were in school. Afterwards, Shirley tended to show up for long chats over tea and cookies. I had never really worried much about those talks, but it was now clear that Shirley had used them to set up her revenge.

The meeting with the third lawyer was a brief as the first meeting. Jason Arthur obviously knew Bill well, but other than a rather perfunctory review of my problem, declared himself uninterested until I was ready to file.

Bill then drove us over to Kennedy Elementary School, where we arrived just in time to greet Morgana and Lance coming out of the front. Morgana was surprised to see us, but gave me a big hug before settling in to the car. Lance was less demonstrative with his hug, but also settled in quickly.

I was extremely uncertain about how Jenny would receive me tonight, since I had failed to spend the previous night at home. It took a moment to decide, but I pressured Bill into stopping at a McDonald's to pick up food and told the kids that we would pull out a game and have fun together for the afternoon, earning a cheer from both of them. Bill pressured me to come back and spend the night as his place, but I decided that being near my children was more important.

Jenny was not home when we arrived, so I quickly got out the Candyland board and set it up. Morgana rolled her eyes a bit, but when she noticed Lance's joyous reaction she giggled.

Bill left, with a promise to be available if I called, and I turned my concentration to my children and the game.

Three hours later, we had finished Candyland, as well as a game of Sorry, and Morgana and Lance were taking turns crushing me at Guitar Hero and Rockstar. Each failure on my part was received with gales of laughter from my kids. They were still joking about my latest failure when Jenny walked in the door.

Morgana and Lance ran to her, as I turned off the Playstation and started to put away the controllers. As I did I took a moment to look more closely at my wife.

Jenny is not a classical beauty. Most might consider a girl next-door type with her dirty blond hair and brown eyes. She never had a model's figure, and as she passed thirty, the extra pounds one gains with time have not come off even after Jenny joined a gym and started to exercise. Still, I never complained and even tried to compliment her appearance when I had the chance.

Today, she must have worn a brown pantsuit to work, because she was removing the jacket when the kids finally released her from the hugs and ran off to their rooms. She gave me a quizzical look as she draped the jacket over a chair in the dining room. "You're not usually home this early."

I stood quietly. "I thought I might want to spend more time with Morgana and Lance. They don't get enough of my attention and time."

Jenny sniffed. "Well, I hear you gave them McDonald's for dinner, and got them from school. Shouldn't you check with me first? Fast food isn't good for them."

"It's not like I do that everyday," I replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll spend a couple hours reading a book."

Jenny gave me another confused look, but seemed to recover quickly. "Well, that works. I'm going to spend the evening out with Shirley, and won't be home until at least midnight. I just need to change." She then started walking to the back where our room was.

I clenched my hands against a chair for a moment, and then slowly relaxed. I had planned on grabbing one of the recent spy thrillers I had picked up on a trip to a used book store, but Jenny's pronouncement caused me to again consider the children and I found my battered set of the Arabian Nights, grabbing the first book.

"Kids, how about I read to you for a while?" I shouted.