Chapter 1: Sad Beginnings

I have a very sad tale to tell. I'll start at the beginning and try to get to the end.

My name is Ross Hanson. I was born in Round Rock, Texas, to James and Margaret Hanson. At the time, my mother was 54 years old and my father was 58. Yes, I was a very late in life baby. My mother thought she was going through the change of life and only saw a doctor when she gained twenty pounds all in her stomach. She was six months along at that time and, needless to say, I was a small baby. I weighed in at five pounds six ounces and seventeen inches long at birth; at six months, I was almost three times the weight and another four inches longer.

My parents ran an ostrich and emu farm just south of Taylor Texas. I had two older brothers; James Junior, or JJ, at 38 and Jonathan aged 35 when I was born. I also had a sister, Sophia, who was 37 at the time. To say it was unusual for me growing up with elderly parents is an understatement of great proportions. My mother was mistaken for my grandmother when I started school at five, and after a few arguments it became a moot point.

I had a best friend, Todd Peterson that lived a few doors down from us, who I met when we started school. We were like brothers, inseparable from the time we started school in kindergarten til he died in a drowning accident at Hamilton Pool the summer we were 13.

I grew quite a bit and by the time I was 14, I was 6'-1" and 155 pounds. My dad was now 72 and my mom was 68. We moved to an apartment in town when my parents retired from the farm and sold it to a friend.

Once I graduated from high school, they left for south Texas. They were to look at a retirement home in Pharr when they were killed in an auto accident. It happened in Alice, Texas.

A semi loaded with fruit was heading north out of Alice on SH 44/359 and as he came under the US281 overpass he noticed my parent's car in the intersection. He hit the brakes; they weren't there. He knew he had a tiny air leak, but since the compressor kept the pressure up, he wasn't worried. When he hit the brakes, the air line ruptured and he had no brakes at all at first, and then the emergency system kicked in and they locked up. He hit my parent's car broadside and pushed them into oncoming semi coming south from San Diego - Texas, not California. The light had turned and my father had assumed the semi would stop for him; they were killed almost instantly.

That was my 18^th birthday present.

On my behalf, my brother JJ sued the truck company, the driver, and anyone else he could possibly sue and I ended up with just over six million in damages. I was now able to go to college without a worry for money.

But it was just not the same without my parents. They had paid for my first year at Texas State before they left. I vowed that I would not let them down. I was going to get a good education and make something of myself. I wanted my parents to be proud of me and what I would accomplish with my life.

JJ was living in Jackson, Tennessee with his wife, Shelia; his three children were all out on their own now. John and Candice were in California somewhere, the last I had heard. Sophia was a literary agent in New York City. So I had no close family and I was essentially on my own. Too bad I never got to show my parents what I could accomplish.

Why was it that my close friend and then my parents died without me saying goodbye one last time except at their funerals? Was this what my life would be like, always saying goodbye to everyone I ever loved or cared about?

Why didn't my life amount to something? Guess. Yes, a woman was my downfall. Her name is Laura Gernsbach; well it was when I met her in college during my sophomore year. I met her by chance when I had turned around to say something to Brad Pearson, my roommate and friend. As I turned back around I was slammed into by this angel. Laura was five-six and maybe a hundred pounds, but oh so put together in just the right places. She had long blond hair that shone with an inner light. She had on white shorts, white tennis shoes, and a pale yellow button up blouse. But she looked anything but angelic sprawled on the corridor floor with daggers shooting out of her eyes. I cringed a bit expecting the fury of this angel that had the look of the devil on her face, until her face softened with a giggle and then I was blinded by her smile.

I offered my hand and as I lifted her to her feet she weighed nothing, but the electricity that flowed through us gave me an instant hardon.

"Are you alright Miss? I'm so sorry, I should have watched where I was going," I drawled.

"It's Laura, Laura Gernsbach, and it was entirely my fault. Mister..."

"Ross, Ross Hanson, and the fault is all mine. I should have noticed an angel falling from heaven. Do you have class now?"

"No, I'm finished for the day. Why?"

"I would like to buy you a Coke or something to make up for my clumsiness. Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose that you already have a boyfriend, seeing as lovely as you are and all. Please excuse my brashness, but I never knew angels were real, until now."

"I would love a Coke, Ross. And believe me, I'm no angel either."

That is how this all started. We dated for two years, then became engaged, and then married after we graduated. I found work at a hospital equipment company in Taylor and Laura worked at a law firm in Round Rock. We seemed to be happy, just the two of us. We had found a nice little bungalow in Hutto, which was kinda between both our work places.

I thought we had the ideal life. We loved each other with the intensity of our youth. We were making decent money, so we went out a couple of times a month, mainly to Graham Central Station in Austin. Well, they may have an Austin address but they are surrounded by Pflugerville and Round Rock, right off IH-35 North. It's a club that has six different venues: top 40, C&W, Live local bands, 70s, 80s, and 90s music, a party animal room, and karaoke. We mostly did the Denim and Diamonds room which was the country room. We went to shows and to dancing at the Old Coupland Inn several times a year too.

Things were quite good until her last promotion about eight months ago, during our fifth year of our marriage.

Laura had received that promotion to law associate for one of the senior partners. Then, about three months afterward, she had to start working late and traveling. They were mostly two to three day stays, but it happened frequently enough to really cut into our time together. I had gotten a promotion to floor supervisor in the cabinet section and I was being groomed for more responsibility.

Then the sex started to change. Laura would fuck me blind before a trip and then, for two to three days after coming back, I was cut off. Some days she would come home about an hour late, go right to the bathroom, and take a long soak. Not her usual shower, but a soak in the tub. That had me wondering what was going on.

With our money situation I couldn't afford to hire a PI, so I was stuck with what I could figure out on my own. Well I really could, but JJ, with my permission, had put all my millions into a trust that couldn't be touched until I was fifty, but I could get some during an emergency. We set it up that way so I would have a great retirement fund to be able to do what I wanted. But it did pay me just about $15,000 a year in December from the interest.

I talked to a couple of the guys at work, mentioning that my friend Brad thought his wife was cheating on him. That he was asking me what he should do and what he should look for. Brad now lived and worked in Dallas so no one here knew him. The guys were clueless as to what was really happening. Brian suggested that I check with some of the women I knew to see if they had some clue.

After asking some of my guy friends, I tried some of the women friends I had at work. They told me that with Brad's wife, Shirley, was not having sex with Brad right after coming back from a trip because that meant that whoever she was having sex with was larger than Brad. Then I mentioned the baths after work. One woman was sure that this other guy was bigger and he worked with her, that's why the baths. Shirley must have been so stretched out from the other guy that she had to work her Kegel muscles to bring her nether regions back to normal, and the two to three day wait was the same reason. The soaking would help with those exercises. That gave me the information I needed.

I asked to speak with my upper management boss, Rob Preston, he had recovered pretty good from a gunshot wound about a year ago, and was now back to work full strength again. Anyway, I asked if there was any training I could go to for a couple of days. Rob was where I was a few years ago, so he remembered that there was a useful training session that met one night a week at the Texas State School in Round Rock. The course was Instructional Strategies. This was learning to teach others how to do jobs, dealing with the strategies of how to teach people of differing backgrounds and education.

The class would run from 6:30 to 9:20 each Monday evening for six weeks. But I thought I could say the classes were on Monday and Wednesday evenings and I would have a window of opportunity to spy on Laura on my 'Wednesday class' night. The company would reimburse me once I passed the course so there would be no real money outlay. The only real cost for the course would be just my gas money to and from school.

I had to wait for two weeks before I could sign up. Fortunately, they broke up the semester into smaller segments just the length of these special courses. Those two weeks gave me plenty of time to discuss it with Laura and for us to decide that the course would be a good step towards my advancement. Once she agreed, I would be set. Laura, as a law associate made a bit more money than I did, but within a couple of years I could possibly pass her if she didn't advance as fast as I did.

I really liked the class and was getting a lot out of it. I would only tell Laura some of what I learned on Monday and then more on Wednesday evening when I got home. I let it go for the first week and then I hung around the neighborhood on the next Wednesday night. It was the spring semester and still got dark early. So I could sit unnoticed about half a block down from the house and watch everything that went on at the house, or if Laura left.

It was just about seven when a newer 'vette convertible drove up by the house and then turned around in a driveway about two houses down from ours. The car slowly drove up to the house just next to ours. Some tall guy got out and walked down to the house past ours and then back to our drive. Subtlety obviously was not his strong suit. When he knocked at the door, he was let right in and stayed until 9:15. It sure seemed like he skulked a bit when I saw him come out and leave. I normally came home around 9:45, so I drove home and acted horny.

"Ross! Not tonight, please. Did you see some cute coed bending over in front of you tonight that got you all hot and bothered? If you need it so bad, I can maybe give you a hand job."

"How about one of your patented blow jobs? That shouldn't take a lot out of you if you're tired."

"Not tonight, Ross. I'm not feeling good, okay?"

"Sure, Sweetie. Some other time is fine with me."

That pretty much told me what was going on. Sure, it could have been business related, but I really didn't think so. Well, next Wednesday night I would have to take my camera with me. I could then sneak back into the house and take some pictures as proof.

I wouldn't really need proof for a divorce, but did I really want a divorce? Or, did I just want Laura to stop cheating on me?

Divorce was expensive and the cheater would get the most benefit instead of me. I would probably have to pay some alimony even though she has the bigger salary. Most men do, right? And then give her half of everything we have accumulated so far. True, a lot of what we have came more from her paycheck than mine. But I pay all the bills and her pay goes for things we want over the household bills.

God, what to do? Do I just let her go on cheating? The question is not do I let it go on, but can I let it go on? Man, I love Laura more than anything or anyone in this world. But this is just about killing me. I had to really think about this dilemma some more.

I tried to sleep that night next to the cheating slut, but I kept tossing and turning, so I slept on the couch. Even still, it was a very short night. The couch was lumpy and I kept seeing things in my mind ... like some tall guy with this huge cock pounding into my Laura.

At work the next day, my supervisor Bill Peters took me aside to discuss my recent distraction. I didn't know I had been so obvious but we talked and I told him everything. I couldn't believe I told anyone, but he got a stubborn look on his face and escorted me to our boss, Rob Preston. He shut the door to Rob's office and explained what I had told him.

Rob picked up his phone, "Kathy, I'm not to be disturbed til I call you again. Thanks." He hung up and then dialed another number. "This is Rob Preston; I need to talk to Steve Pender ... No, that won't do, it's an emergency ... Then have him call me right back. Thank you."

"Ross, from what you say, someone is coming over to your house when you are supposed to be at school, right?"