Chapter 3

About 10:30 this morning, I got a call from Marge. I only asked one question and then hung up. I asked, "Was she a good girl?" I heard, "No; she wasn't..." I hung up, and lay my head on my arms on my desk and imploded. The next thing I knew my PA, Shelia Peterson came in after lunch and asked if I was okay.

"Shelia, I'm not feeling well; I haven't slept well for the last couple of days, and I may be coming down with something. I'm going home and see if I can get over this. Have Jeremy handle anything that comes up. I'll call in and let you know when I'll be back."

"Of course Mr. Sterling, I'll let Jeremy and Stewart, [my boss, ] know what's happening. Now, Rob, are you sure you are in any shape to drive home? I can get someone to drive you home or call a cab."

"No Shelia, I need to make a stop along the way. I don't want to put anyone out. I'll be good as new in a little while. I'll rest a bit more and then leave, but I do thank you for your concern."

I went to the restroom and cleaned my face up some and tried to calm down some. I knew I would have to sign the new papers for adultery, but that could wait until tomorrow. I waited around another hour and then drove over to Marge's office and sat down.

"Rob, do you want any specifics about Mobile?"

"No Marge, just to know that she was with someone else is enough. If I were to see or hear anything that went on, I might just strangle her with my bare hands when she comes home. Who was it?"

"It was Charles Rider and Lamar Robinson; both are black men and co-workers of your wife."

"Please don't mention wife's name or status to me again, thank you. She may currently hold that position, but not for long. I suspect that there will be quite the orgy in Atlanta. Paul, Tom. Harry and Dan will want to get their share of the prize as well. Let me sign the papers, and we can have her served on Friday when she comes off the plane. I would also like to have her given a note."

I had written this note before I left work. I handed it to Marge, and she asked, "Is it alright if I read it?"

"Sure."

Janice,

If you must come home because none of your lovers will put you up for a while, then know that your place is now is the spare room. I have taken the liberty to move all your things in there and the adjoining bathroom. You have two weeks to vacate my house, permanently. Someday I would like to know why you hated and disrespected me so much that you had to take some lovers on the side. Right now, please do not talk to me for any reason. We will speak through our attorneys only. I would advise you to get a good lawyer as mine are the best in the area. Please do not call me or hound me with pleas of your undying love because it is all BS, and you know it.

Rob

P.S. I think I will have to burn the dining table now.

"Rob, are you sure you want to say this to her. She will be very upset when she is served, and this note could unleash something you might not be able to control."

"Marge, she unleashed something that she has no control over too. When I first saw her and her boss, I was sorely tempted to go to the garage and get my gun and shoot both of them and then myself, but a cooler head prevailed, and I captured on video their defilement of my dining room table and my marriage. So if she wants to unleash a tiger in her, fine! She will find I do not scare easily, and I will be more than ready to fight back."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you. Here are the new papers, and I can register it with the court, and she can be served on Friday evening when she gets back. Now as for the other suits, when do you want the co-respondents served?"

"How about at the same time, why send someone out two or three times if they get wind of the divorce from Janice, they may just crawl back into the rat hole they came out of. We can get the employer on Monday."

"Very well Mr. Sterling, we will get everything set up. I would be prepared for a lot of grief, come Friday evening."

"I doubt it; the locks are being changed tomorrow morning, and I will have the only keys. The mortgage is in my name only, so it is my house, there is almost no equity in it either, between the first mortgage and the equity loan for her car. So how can she cause trouble there?"

"The home was acquired during the marriage, right?"

"Yes that is correct, but she was at a seminar and couldn't be here for the closing. So we went with my income only, and I got the house. Janice never even bothered to ask about signing the mortgage, so she is not on it anywhere."

"That is highly unusual; most mortgages companies want both husband and wife on a mortgage, so that they are covered if one of you dies."

"I have that insurance so that if I die, the mortgage is paid off, so I guess that they were covered, so no problem with Jan not signing."

"Okay Rob, we'll get everything set up. Someone will be at the airport with a sign for Scott's Marketing and Research, and then they can ask for names and serve them the paperwork. I have the perfect person to serve them; he is a Travis County deputy sheriff. He is six seven and kind of imposing, plus he just got back from Iraq and knows about fifty ways to kill or maim a person almost instantly. John would be perfect for this; he would probably love to do it since his wife was six months pregnant when he returned from a fourteen-month stretch over there."

"Thanks Marge, let me know what happens. I want to be prepared for when she tries to drag her ass home on Friday."

"No problem Rob, I'll stay in touch."

That was it, we had just plotted the end of my marriage, and in some ways I was elated and in others, I was deeply depressed. You can't go from being madly in love with someone for over ten years suddenly to stop loving them, hate them instantly; sure, but love is a more deeply set emotion, most times it builds slowly with time and becomes a part of your entire being, and in some cases it becomes your whole life. That is what happened with me.

Jan became my life, what I lived for, what I got up in the morning for, why I went to work each workday. She is why I hated her traveling because it meant that she was not home when I wanted her to be. I hated my traveling because it took me away from her. Then to find out that I was a forgotten entity, an afterthought to her life, it killed something inside of me that I thought was strong and could withstand any adversity. To find out what I did and the way it happened, forced that love and devotion down into the deepest, darkest recesses of my psyche and suddenly without warning hatred entered the picture and somehow erased the ten years of love, I had just moments before. This turned into a twisted and dark thing that threatened to tear me apart at the seams.

That hatred was trying to unleash from me something that only occurs in late-night horror films or horrid nightmares of a twisted mind. However, that was what I thought of when I heard her name mentioned, or the word wife. Those words invoked in me something that even I never knew existed. Regardless of my physical attributes, I wanted to confront each and every one of those filthy bastards who defiled my marriage and my spouse and rip their dicks off and shove them up their asses, then tear their heads from their body and shit down their throats. But yet I also wanted them to suffer the agony that I have suffered. Maybe I could torture them, burn their dicks and balls and other parts of their body with red hot pokers, then too I wanted to make them watch as I defiled their wives and girlfriends, just as they defiled mine. I knew in my broken heart that I would feel better if I did those horrible things, but I also knew that I could never bring myself to do any of that. So yeah, I took the high road, sort of, and I would kill their job, I would kill their marriage, and they would know not to mess with a married woman again, or at least not my woman.

I know that this is just my mind playing tricks on me. I know that there is no way I could do those things; I'm just not that kind of guy. Would I like to be, maybe? Maybe I would like to do some of those things, but the consequences would not be pretty. I would be in jail and probably end up being someone's bitch. No, the consequences were not what I would want for me. I guess I will have to suffer alone the rest of my life and wonder why it had to be me that got the shitty end of the stick.

I had taken the rest of the week off and got the locks changed and got some packing boxes from shipping and receiving and left them in the garage. Late Friday afternoon, I did get a call on my cell phone. It was Paul.