Conclusion
Well, I left you hanging at the end of the first chapter so here we go continuing this fictional tale of woe and marital discord for our friend, the famous E. R. doctor, Dr. Jon Williamson.
I stared at the report through my tired eyes. Three thirty AM is not the time to get anything new started.
As expected, my blood type was O+.
I knew my son's blood type was A+.
My wife's blood type was (my eyes blurred as I read) O+. Hers was identical to mine. My son was not and could not be my biologic offspring. Sherrie had duped me low these 15 years. Someone else had been the sperm donor. I didn't know for sure who it was, but I knew who it wasn't. I had a an inkling of an idea as to whom it might be.
This person suddenly was my mortal enemy, as was my cheating wife. Some how I felt relieved. Now I had the sad goods on her. Now I needed no expensive DNA testing. Old cheap and easy technology won out over the newer expensive kind. There could be no argument or effective denial on her part. The remaining questions were now becoming clear. Who? Why? And what was I going to do about it? Only the third question was of any importance to me. The "What was I going to do question" had to be answered.
The phone rang and I was needed back in the E.R. treatment area. Patients are waiting! I wondered if they wanted treatment by an emotionally impaired physician as I felt myself to be. I wondered if I wanted to make any difficult clinical decisions so soon after such a shock. There was no alternative at this time of day. I had to do what I had to do and do it to the best of my professional training. The rest of the shift was actually clinically easy and quiet. I'm still amazed at how many moms bring their kids to the E.R. at 4 am with a runny nose of three days duration.
As I left the E.R. at 6 am at the end of my 6 to 6 shift, I suited up in my "civis", told the new 7 to 3 nursing shift hello then walked the one block off campus and got an Egg McMuffin and large coffee. watched the am news of shootings and drunken fights on channel 42. As 8 o'clock approached, I found my self driving to the Investigators office. Ushered in again, I requested that more information be acquired concerning my wife, her daughter Sammie and this Mr. Sherbert. I was conjuring up nothing less than a tsunami for Mr. Sherbert and justice for my wife and me.
Upon leaving, I confirmed my appointment with the divorce lawyer for the day after my third night in the ER. I planned to take action even before all the information was gathered together. My anger seemed to overcome caution and good sense. Things I thought about later.
Sleep came easier than I expected. The next two days became just a blur in my memory. All I remember now is the growing feeling of the finality, the death, of my once sacred loving marriage. Acceptance of this fact gradually overtook the anger I had felt which had developed after the shock and disbelief. I recognized that I was progressing through the stages of grief to the finality of the fact: the death of my marriage but the burial was yet to come.
However, there was unfinished business that needed to be attended to. . I had to make "Final arrangements" for my marriage. This included retribution to the offending parties and reconciliation among those injured innocents. As the short time progressed, I was doing better and feeling increasingly empowered.
On the fifth day, I was sitting in my attorney's office with the confrontation with my wife yet to come. I spilled my guts to her and included every bit of evidence I had. It took all of thirty minutes before I was relieved of keeping secrets with everyone about my situation. I felt like I had had a very satisfying mental and emotional bowel evacuation.
"Dr. Williamson, what do you want to be the outcome?" She looked at me as if I was her son. She was certainly old enough to be my mother.
"First I want that this never happened. Obviously, we have no time capsule so that cannot happen. Next, I want to review my legal options. Then I want you to help me through the legal steps. Frankly, I cannot see living with my wife and I cannot envision the details of a future with or without out her. I am still overwhelmed emotionally but slowly becoming aware that there needs to be a rapid final solution. I want out! I want it to be total and quick and clean with as many of rights as possible. I want full custody of my son then I want my life to be as undisturbed legally as possible. I want a rapid, clean, final solution".
"Counselor", my mind wandered temporarily as I thought of the unspeakable. "I tremble with horror as I remember the Nazi's use of those words "final solution". In my memory, pictures of the starved and partially cremated bodies flashed in my mind. Those words meant the extinction of millions in Nazi ruled Europe in the early 1940's. Surely, I do not mean that kind of "final solution". Yet hate has not totally exited my thinking. So yes, I want a final solution visited upon the monsters, both of them. I have never struck a woman. I have mixed feelings about the thought of hurting the one to whom I am still married. This thought is very alien to me even though she has destroyed my life and seriously hurt my family. She and her ex have cuckolded me. My desire to rain down fire and brimstone, Sodom and Gomorrah style, is still quite inviting to my conflicted mine. Perhaps she will also turn into a pillar of salt."
My mind came back to the present.
"I am ready to flee this relationship and see the culprits burn in hell. Like the ancients, I want to be far enough away so that the just rain of fire and brimstone destroy only the guilty. I want as little "collateral damage" especially to my children, as possible. That's why I'm here."
"Well Jon, I see you have read secular and Biblical history. Now let me show you the legalities and options awaiting you."
Her tone was both professional yet friendly. (I had not yet learned that she and my mother had been classmates in college and roommates for their freshman and sophomore years, and that they had remained friends.)
"First, if you do violence and get caught...as is likely, you go to prison and lose out really big time. Just give up on raining down fire on them or washing them away with a tsunami of your own making. In addition, you end up denying your own faith in God to make things right eventually. You will destroy yourself with first hate, then violence then regret and you will have many terrible beyond current comprehension, awful, isolated days in prison to regret your bad decisions. Just forget about that option."
She looked straight into my eyes as she then questioned. "Who will your son have as a father then? He will have an angry convicted felon wasting his life in prison as a father. Is that what you really want for him?" (That put an end to my thoughts for violent retribution for my son's welfare was paramount).
"Second," she continued in a rather benign tone of voice, "This is a no fault state. Divorce is relatively easy. You will end up splitting assets equally plus and you end up paying alimony and child support. Her ex, still has parental rights and may be a formidable adversary causing you unknown grief. Your son will be forced to live with your Ex, his mother. In addition, if you go to prison you lose most of your half of the estate. It might be in your best interest not to divorce her at all.
"Third, the judges in our community are high on marital counseling and generally require some before granting even an uncontested divorce. Claiming adultery, even if admitted or proved, complicates everything legally and family relation wise. We can consider later.
"Fourth, you could move to Nevada for six months then divorce her. That is a viable option but I would lose you as a client." She grinned a little and paused. With a smile she continued "and much of my fees for all this".
She continued after a brief pause. "If you do this, you should engage a divorce lawyer in Nevada before changing domiciles and you should let me know so I can do all that I can to protect you here both before and after you leave. That is if you choose that option. You might learn that that option is not so attractive once you get the details on Nevada law. I am not going to counsel you about Nevada law but I see this as the wimp husbands solution: just run away. That is not in your son's best interest for sure. It would be legally difficult, financially disastrous and giving your son a very weak and pathetic father figure for a dad.
"Fifth, you can just disappear with your assets to live overseas somewhere. This is another wimp solution. Do not plan to return to the USA if you do that, as she will likely have an arrest warrant out on you. You likely will not be able to take your son either. Generally, a country will not extradite you if you have not committed a crime here and selling out and leaving is not a crime. Disappearing with your minor son is a crime. If you leave this country, you leave him behind but with her. I think you do not want that. In addition, getting work in another country is sometimes very hard and at other times quite easy. The UK has need of general practitioners, I hear".
Of course you can forge ahead, bullheaded and blind folded, in effect without counseling. True, you can do it on your own but the price, knowing your personality, might get very difficult emotionally for you. Get the divorce process started. Then a period of separation. Hours of grief trying to sort out your to be split finances. fighting for custody, arraigning for child care, trying to stay calm mid the many emotional battles. You can do it without personal or marital counseling but you will be picking to sail out of the safe harbor into a hurricane. And, unprepared, I might add.
"Lastly, you can reconcile. Impossible situations, like yours, frequently are not impossible with counseling and time. I suggest this route. If that fails, I will try to help you with your other options but I insist you try counseling first. I have contacts with several very professional and successful counselors."
With that she stood, effectively ending the interview.
"Thank you" I smiled meekly. "Please write those options out for me as I obviously have not taken notes.(I had already memorized them as she went along. I'm good at doing that but I wanted back up memory also.) I must now confront my wife and my future, most likely not including her." I added the last to indicate my lack of faith in counseling. (but I had to try, if only for my son's sake.)
I turned with both firmness of intent yet trembling of hands to head home.
First on my agenda was some sleep which I badly needed. This was the third day after three night shifts and sleep came easily, helped on my Lunesta sample. I set my alarm for 5:30pm. This would get me (as usual) up for supper with my wife and son. The next thing I remember was the alarm clock telling me to get up.
I did my morning routine at 5 pm after 7 hours of needed sleep. Sherrie knew my routine and had supper ready at 6:30. As usual for teenagers, my son was in a hurry and left shortly before supper was actually over. He raced out to attend some type school function planning. He was always in a hurry. Typical teenager, I guess. Supper chat was light and benign. I helped Sherrie with the dishes keeping everything seemingly normal. Easing up behind her and putting my arms around her waist, I whispered that I needed to talk to her after we put the dishes in the dishwasher. She tensed a little then nodded her head as she hung the dishcloth up on the appointed hanger.
"Do I need some wine for this?" she inquired.
"Probably you will but I just want a cup of the left over coffee."
We sat at the now cleared table. She took her usual place at the right hand of the head of the table, which was my place. This was symbolic of our places in the family structure.
