Chapter 4. The Cougar

Joel

I went to Edmonton after the symposium to solve some problem at an oil and gas company. Beth sent her first E-mail to me from our city, when she arrived home.

She wrote, "I love you and please do not forget that I will begin the divorce in June, and you will follow me three months later. I will send my next mail next week."

I answered, "It will be difficult for you to wait a year! I love you too!"

We had discussed our future and had decided it together in the hotel. Beth would begin the divorce the following year in June and I would follow her three months later. We would meet accidentally so that Beth could tell everybody she knew me from her PI video files and photos, and that's where I would be familiar to her. This would be a white lie to our families. We had not known that time but Beth's idea of the three months' delay for me turned out to be the most fantastic, I am thankful to her. It was two and half months' delay in reality, but it was worth. I will tell later why it was a blessing. We would not meet at all until my divorce started. We arranged that we would write one E-mail a week, except for emergency. I must emphasize again that it was very difficult for both of us, but we accomplished.

The symposium was a big success for our firm, because a Finnish mining company wanted to use our machines and instruments for nickel mining. They developed a special mining technique, which uses bacteria to extract the nickel from the ore and drilling instruments were needed to yield the nickel solution from the deep. I went to Finland several times to set our machines and instruments. This nickel mining was a financial success both for our partner and our company as well.

I went home for the sake of my daughter only and I used Heather like a prostitute or a free of charge escort girl. I regarded her as a whore in my mind. After my encounter with Beth my hatred set in a level and I checked my surveillance system weekly from my workplace. But Heather did not take any more lovers in our house after the 18 years old sex student neighbor boy, who went to college in another city. She might have had other lovers at her workplace, but the house was lover free, according to my bugs and video cameras. I wanted to use the video files to avoid the counseling session ordered by the court. I wrote in an E-mail to Beth that I was thinking of buying a tape measure to cut a little of it day by day until the divorce started. She replied that she laughed a lot at my idea. I was glad to have found a woman with such a good sense of humor as Beth. Heather lacked any sense of humor.

While Belinda was at college studying to be a math teacher, my younger daughter, June, wanted to be a nurse, so she wanted to go to college, too. When she graduated from High School, I went to her graduation ceremony with Heather.

Beth sent her most important E-mail to me after her son's graduation, saying "I gave John the divorce documents and he was glad for it. He told me he would have given me his divorce documents, if Ed had gone to college. The damn son of the bitch! I was right about him. I hired a condo with two rooms. Thank you for waiting for me. You will be with me soon. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!"

Meanwhile, at the college Belinda found a guy for a serious relationship from our city. He was a cocky noisy guy, I did not like him, but I did not tell my opinion about Jack Scuderi to Belinda, who thought she found the right man. Beth and I planned the three months delay, but how the three months became two and half months, I tell you now. Belinda often brought Jack to our home but sometimes they went to Jack's parents as well. When he was at us he was very cheeky with me. I was tolerant with him for the sake of my daughter. Heather liked him. The last two months passed slowly before I finally went to the divorce lawyer. Beth and I chose different lawyers to avoid any connection between us. The lawyer told me he would be ready with the documents within two weeks. I could begin the divorce when I wanted. I wrote this to Beth. Beth answered she found an apartment for me three buildings from hers and there was a supermarket in between. She wrote we could meet there "accidentally" after my divorce began. I used the secret money and I rented the recommended apartment for four months and I took some of my personal belongings to the apartment.

Soon after this I had to go to Finland for a week to solve some problem. When I came back and I went to work I checked my secret spy system routinely. I wanted to delete the files but I almost fell off from my chair when I looked at the video files more thoroughly. The cocky impertinent Jack Scuderi, my older daughter's "right man", was the lover of my cheating whore. As our divorce was to be started soon, Heather could have had a lover like Sigourney Weaver's alien, ET or a green UFO being in her collection, it didn't matter to me. However, my daughter's happiness was one of my most important things in my life, so I was totally angry with Heather and Jack. I saved the files to a thumb drive. I wrote an E-mail to Beth. I knew Beth checked her E-mails several times a day for emergency in the last days.