Have you ever really listened to some of the country songs from the years gone by? Stuff by Garth Brooks, Ronnie Milsap, or even George Jones? They have some of the saddest lyrics you will ever see or hear. One that I have always liked, because of the haunting melody and the words that tell of a man that knows something isn't right at home is 'A Stranger in My House' by Ronny Milsap. He can't really place his finger on what, but something is very different.

There's a silence here between us
I've never heard before
And I can't find the love
In her eyes anymore
There's some changes going on
I'm beginning to understand
When I'm holding her
I swear I feel the presence of another man

Those words were never truer when Anthony S. Crawford & Shae Jones wrote that song, than they are right now in my house, or is it still 'our' house? I just don't know anymore. There really seems to be a stranger in my house.

I guess I need to give you some background as to the who, what, and where, of this tale of woe. I'm Bob Starr; I'm 34, 5'-11 and 180 lbs. I have sandy blond hair and blue eyes. I'm not ugly, but not classically movie star handsome either. I'm maybe a little better than average in looks, but I'm fit, as I run and do the home gym daily. I work for an engineering consulting firm. I do travel, but it is rare now since I became a division manager. I may only travel for a couple of days every other month or so.

I've been married to the beautiful Alice Louise Gardner-Starr for just over ten years now. Alice is 32, 5'-4 and 120 lbs, with a figure that is sure to give rise to certain appendages when she is around. She is a beautiful woman in anything she wears; she can be in dirty jeans and a sweatshirt and look fantastic, and she breaks hearts and almost causes panic in every male, and a few females, who see her when she dresses up in a gown. We have two children, a boy, Keith, 9, and a girl, Melinda, age 8, who is the spitting image of Alice at that age. We live in a small bedroom community in Austin, Texas. We have a large four bedroom, single-story home on ten acres, just outside of the Hutto city limits.

Alice is a local claims adjuster for a large national insurance company. She doesn't travel at all, as she works out of a major claim center in Austin. She sees or talks to probably fifty people a day, but only travels between body shops and the claims center in a company car.

I think we're kind of a normal couple who has been married for ten years; we love each other a lot, we have sex at least three to four times a week, usually when we can get away from the kids, or at night, long after they have gone to sleep. Both of us like oral and straight sex, even some kinky stuff sometimes. We also role play; I have a cop's uniform and TV repairman coveralls that I can change the insignia on to make myself the pool boy, garage mechanic, or just about any other guy. Alice has a schoolgirl outfit (think St. Trinian's or Catholic school girl from thirty years ago), she has a slut uniform, with 6 inch spike heels, a micro skirt with fishnet stockings, and see-thru blouse, a nurse's uniform, and a few others. We have even gotten a sitter or sent the kids to their grandparents, and I have picked her up in the bar of a hotel and gone upstairs and fucked ourselves silly. So I would say that our sex live is great. That is what I can't understand. If our home life is so great, then why do I have this feeling that she is being unfaithful?

I have looked for all the normal signs of cheating; the lack of sex, the snide remarks, the lack of affection, or a cold shoulder. But I see none of those things; Alice doesn't even go out with the 'girls'. I had let her know early on that she could go out and let off steam with her co-workers if she wanted to, but she didn't want to do that. She said that she would much rather stay home with her loving husband and growing children. So I blew it off as she was a homebody and she didn't need any of that stuff. I didn't need any of that type of thing either, as I was able to bond with my friends at work or have friends from both of our workplaces come to our home, or we went to theirs about once a month. We had other friends besides work friends that we saw at these parties too.

But the feeling that something wasn't right kept invading my mind. I started to really pay attention to us more. Alice would suddenly start to say something, stop in mid-thought, then go back to what she was doing. It didn't happen often, and when it did, I would ask, "Baby, is anything wrong, did you need to say something?"

She would come back and say, "It's nothing," or "Never mind, it was just a random thought," and that would be it. It would be three or four days later before something triggered my acute awareness that something was wrong again.

Then one morning, I knew for sure that she was cheating on me. I had come out of the bathroom while Alice was getting dressed for work. She already had on a panty and bra set as she looked in the mirror, shook her head, then she took them off and changed into another set. I backed up and stood just inside the bathroom and watched as she again took that set off and tried a third set. This set was one I had bought her at Frederick's and was pretty sheer and see-thru. She then put a new black skirt on that I had not seen before. It was short, coming to about mid-thigh. She normally wore ones that came about two inches above the knee except for our costume ones. She pulled this one down so that it came lower on her legs and added a cream blouse that was satiny. I could see now that she was dressing for sex, she had a lover and he was going to get so lucky.

I retreated back into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat. I was stunned, to say the least. I thought that I had somehow been missing something I should have seen. When did this start? Who was she going to see dressed like this? I needed to know what was going on. Should I confront her now or after I had someone follow her and learned the truth. I sat there, stunned, until Alice came in to do her makeup. I just got up and walked out, never saying anything to her. I got dressed, woke the kids, and started breakfast. The first one downstairs normally made breakfast. Usually, she was the first to go downstairs, but today it seemed to be my turn. I was just going through the motions. When Keith came downstairs, I was pouring milk for his cereal when he said, "Gee thanks, Dad, chocolate milk on my cereal today, is it my birthday and I didn't realize it?"

That woke me up from this morning's stupor, and I said, "I just wanted to surprise you." About then, Melinda came in and saw her brother's bowl and asked if she could have some too. I said sure and poured her bowl full too. The funny thing is that Alice didn't even notice until Mel said something to her about getting a treat this morning.

Alice looked at me; I frowned, shook my head, and mouthed 'later'. Alice left right before the kids did, saying she had an early meeting, so 'later' really would be later. Actually it was even later than I thought.

I had a buddy from college who was a cop until he got shot in the line of duty. He decided to be a PI and an investigator for the DA. I called Brian as soon as I got to work and asked if he would work for me and find out what Alice was up to. He had been a PI for about five years now, and had two young investigators, and one older ex-cop whose wife left him and took him to the cleaners, as employees. Brian said he would use all of his resources, if necessary, to find out what was going on. I gave him the gist of what I knew and what I suspected, and he went from there. I told him a check would be forthcoming. He said, "Bob, for you this part is free, if we find evidence, then I want to be paid, but until we know what's going on, I don't want her suspecting that you know."

I heard back from Brian before the day was over. Yes, she was having an affair and it was not with just one guy. He had videos of her and three different guys today, so far. Each one was at a motel in San Marcos. They came in about a half hour apart, and he was trying to track down who each guy was, but it didn't look good for me. I thanked him and said I would check with the bank, then go see my lawyer. He recommended Sylvia Burnett. She loved going after cheating spouses, and she didn't care if they were male or female, only that children were involved. Brian said, "She's a real ballbuster on men, and God, I swear she hates women cheaters more than the men. She's expecting your call."

I sat at my desk and cried, I had my head in my hands and just let it all out, I sobbed, I did almost everything except yell and scream. Brian had called at 2:00 PM and at 2:40 PM, Betty Monroe; my PA came in after knocking, took one look at me, and said, "That BITCH!!! Some lawyer is on line one and she is hot to talk to you. She said the sooner the better. Now stop being a wimp and pick up the phone."

Once I picked up the phone, Betty left and quietly shut the door.

I answered the phone with, "Hello?"

"Mr. Robert Starr, I presume. I need you to come to my office today as soon as you can and we can get things started. I understand that you have two children, one 8 and one 9, right? Do you know if they are yours? Don't worry, I'll get them tested, besides some hospitals do DNA and type crossmatch when a child is born; it's for tracking the child if they are kidnapped or killed. What hospital were they born at? I need a DNA sample from you too. Now, Brian told me what he found, so we are going for adultery for her and alienation of affections for the men, so not to worry. I'm pretty sure that with the evidence we have, we can get you as permanent guardian and we may have to accept some visitation, but supervised, if at all. Do you have separate accounts or all in one?" She waited a bit, then said, "Well, can you talk or am I just flapping my lips to make sounds?" Her brisk manner and nonstop talking surprised me.

"I'm sorry, Ms Burnett. Yes, we have two children, I'm almost positive they are mine. I think this didn't start until recently. They were born in Seton Northwest, and I think DNA samples were taken. We had a single account until about a year ago, when Alice got a separate one and contributes half of her check for a household account. I already had an account, but it was converted for savings only when we got married, and we opened a separate joint household account. As far as I know, they are all at the same bank, but I wouldn't know for sure about Alice's. I have seen her checks I think and they are on the same bank as mine."