I'm a rather average married guy living in my Scandinavian hometown. I was neither rich nor famous in any way when I married my boss' daughter. Most of the time it is OK but sometimes it's not funny at all. Once I got offered a better paying job, which caused hell among my wife's family. Linda, my wife, began screaming about divorce and with two small children and living in a house owned by her father I had a limited choice. Her father accepted to pay me the same salary I had been offered so I had at least won something.

Today I'm some kind of 'spider' who runs their family business. Linda's father is still the boss but he is only present a few hours a week. Her brother who is supposed to be the vice boss is completely incompetent. He is most useful for the business when he is away partying at his many useless conferences.

Linda and I had our first date seventeen years ago when she asked if I wanted to take a drive with her in her daddy's new car. I was rather wild during those days and was flattered when my boss' handsome daughter was interested in me. Of course, I did my best to get into her panties and kept on until I had reached my goal.

Her parents didn't like it but I think Linda felt like some kind of rebel when she continued to date me. We married two years later and one year after that we had our first child, Rebecca. A year after that we had our boy, Oliver. When Oliver was two years old Linda began a part time job in the family business, which she still does.

Strange things began to happen a month before my 40th birthday. Linda wanted to celebrate it with a big party and had planned and worked on it for almost a year. I think she wanted to do a rehearsal for her own big day three years later. An old saying here is: 'It is only drunks and children who tell the truth.' It was my daughter Rebecca who told it to me.

One day after school when Linda was at her aerobics class, Rebecca came to me and asked me, "Dad, why is mom having a lover?"

I was surprised and asked, "Why are you thinking anything like that?"

"Because Madeleine told me that she had heard her parents talk about it when they didn't know she was listening to them. Her mother had asked her father, 'Do you think Linda's lover is invited to her big party?'"

"I'm sure she misunderstood what she heard sweetie."

However, I made a deal with Rebecca and she promised neither to say anything to her mom nor talk any further about it with Madeleine. I sighed to myself thinking of the saying, 'The husband is the last one to know.' I felt like such a fool.

Fortunately there was one more hour left before the shops closed. I told the kids that I had forgotten an errand to do and went to the electronic store in the nearby shopping center. Today you don't need to be any 'Sherlock Holmes' for investigating. I bought two small electronic voice recorders and one electronic phone call recorder. Everything was voice activated with many hours of recording capacity.

I was back home before Linda and hid the phone recorder in the den and one of the voice recorders near the place where she sits down during her phone calls with her friends. I knew that she preferred the line connected phone because it was paid with a monthly flat rate and the calls didn't cost anything extra.

The second voice recorder was intended for her car when she got back. Then I sat down and began thinking about any clues, which could at least be collected and put together. I didn't find anything. Once again I found nothing either on our PC in the den.

On the web I searched my homepage at the telecom company for calls to and from strange numbers during the last month. Nothing. I began to think I was on the wrong track but decided to go on until I was 100% sure. I checked the invitation list to my birthday. Linda had invited many of her girlfriends whose spouses I didn't know and even several business friends. It could be one of those but it could as well be some of my own friends. I decided not to mention anything even to my best friends.

When Linda came home from her aerobics, I took a close look at her. When we met seventeen years ago, she had been rather average. But now seventeen years later she was still in very good shape and her good taste and expensive clothing magnified her personal charm. Especially compared with many of her old classmates. Today Linda was the prettiest of them. No doubt that many men wanted to get between her legs and some of them could regard me as a simple wimp who was living off her parents.

The next three days gave me nothing at all. The fourth day she had a call to her cell phone during a drive in her car. "No I can't now, not before the party. No ... no! See you at the party. No ... see you."

At home her best friend Anna had rang her and they talked a lot of 'mumbo jumbo' before I reacted to Anna saying, "You have to see thru his wife's eyes."

Then I heard the hardening in Linda's voice when she replied "Why should I?"

Anna was silent for a moment before she replied, "Sorry if I said something stupid, but it was Eric who got curious and asked me if I could do that?"

"Could you?"

"No, because I thought about what could happen if somebody who knows about your affair got drunk at the party and told Michael? I would never dare to invite him and his wife, what if somebody told her?"

"You never win if you don't dare to do something dangerous. It's a part of the game and gets me hot."

"Hot for whom? Him or for Michael?"

"It's Michael's birthday party and that day I'm expected to be and want to be his loving wife."

"I wish I dared to be as you."

"Not difficult at all. The world is full of nice guys who want to make you happy."

Then they began to talk about the party again. Now I knew. To my great surprise it was the fact that Eric knew about it and had not told me anything or given me any clues about it, which hurt me more than Linda's lover. As late as yesterday I was at his house helping him to start his lawn mower.

Linda and I regarded Anna and Eric as our best friends in the neighborhood. Eric and I often did a lot of things together and I used to help him with practical things because he was, what we use to say here 'A man with the thumb in his palm.'

He was a tax expert and used to help me with such matters. One thing was for sure; Eric was a wimp and not any real friend of mine. I felt disgusted and decided that he wasn't my friend any longer. He wasn't welcome to my party and it was my duty to tell him that at the right time.

The next three days I got only 'mumbo jumbo' from the phone and nothing useful from the car and living room recorders. After much thinking I decided to skip the whole damn party and wrote a letter to everyone on the invitation list. Then it was high time to 'throw some kerosene on the fire.' After lunch the next day I rang Eric at his job. After the usual small talk he asked what I had on my mind.

I told him, "It's the damn party."

"It seems to be great. Anna and I are really looking forward to it."

"That's the problem."

"Problem? Is that a problem?"

"Yes, it is because Linda has invited several people I don't want to have there. Therefore, I'm doing some cleaning of her invitation list. I regret to say that you and Anna are among those. Please stay away from the party."

I hung up, but two minutes later he rang me and said, "A really good joke, indeed."

"It wasn't any joke. I found out that you are a poor creep. You'll get a printed message by mail within a few days."

Linda had a day off that day but as expected, she rang me fifteen minutes later, angry as a viper and shouted, "What the hell are you doing? Have you gone totally mad?"

I tried to be as calm as possible and replied with my softest voice, "You have invited some people whom I don't like and therefore I'm cleaning your list of a few of the worst mistakes."

"You must really be mad, Anna and Eric are our best friends."

"Your friends, not mine. I don't like them any longer."

"If they don't go, I don't go."

"I can't force you to go, so I accept that you've chosen to be with Anna and Eric instead at my party."

I hung up. I understood that wasn't her last word and expected her to call again within a half hour after talking with Anna. It was exactly what she did. Twenty minutes later she was on the line again and told me, "I want to clear up all misunderstandings. If I don't go, you don't go either because there will be no party. If I have to cancel the party, I will cancel our damn marriage as well. Is that clear to you?"

It was the second time she threatened me with divorce. The first time was when I was offered a new job many years ago. She got what she wanted then but I had told her very seriously that the next time she used divorce as condition in an arguing, she got it.

I replied calmly, "Yes darling I got your message and I hope you'll remember what I told you last time when you had the divorce crap on your agenda. It is still valid. You'll get what you want. I have work to do, so please don't disturb me any further."

It was a cruel step against Linda who had spent a lot of time and money on the party. Even though much of the expenses was intended to be paid by her family business; the canceling would be an expensive affair for us. But her cheating and invitation of her lover to my party was much worse, at least in my opinion.

The last half hour at the job I cleaned my desk from my personal belongings. My secretary Emma noted what I was doing and asked, "What's going on?"