With that surprise, I walked out of my house and out of my marriage.
Chapter 1
You probably want to know what my story is. Well, it began almost fourteen years ago. I was young, brash and full of myself, and I had just returned home from the army where I spent eight good years learning to kill with my bare hands. To make it even better, I learned to wire explosives to kill more of the enemy at one time. Later, I modified them so they could be set off by any idiot, especially officers hiding out of sight and out of danger. I was damned good at both and my Captain begged me to re enlist but I wanted to get out and start earning a living and have the good things that money can buy. I came home to Youngstown Ohio, the city of my birth.
With my training fresh under my belt, I went to work as an explosives expert with a mining company in southern Ohio, where they still dug for coal the old fashioned way: strip mining. It was a good paying job, mainly because the so-called experts didn't last very long. Most blew themselves and anyone near them to kingdom come. But like I said, I was full of myself, very good at it, and immortal. Nothing could happen to me.
I did my job and in a few months was making damn near $2,000 a week setting charges for the company in three different mines. I moved around, going where I was needed and I was always in demand. The bosses knew I was safe and could blow the rock with less explosive than most. Even though I was making good money, I was too smart to continue to do this kind of work, so I put almost everything I earned aside. When I had a nice stash of over $20,000, I decided to look for greener pastures.
I went to work for a construction company knocking down buildings, and was making at least as much as before, only now it was under blue skies rather than in a trench of dirt and rock. I found this work to be fascinating and learned all I could from the guys who had been at it for a while. There was a pattern to setting the explosives and for some reason those patterns seemed to jump out at me when I saw the blueprints for any building. I quickly became one of the leading experts at setting charges.
My dream was to have my own company, one that specialized in demolition of all kinds. You'd be surprised how many kinds there are. I knew all of them and I knew how to do what had to be done. I worked for over two years before finally taking the plunge. I got a license and talked to a lawyer who told me how to incorporate myself and I was in business. Cranston Demolitions, Inc. That was me! I was Russell Cranston, I was thirty years old, and I finally had my own damn company!
Within three more years, I was solvent and making money faster than I knew what to do with it. I hired some good men, all with military backgrounds in explosives and demolition and started to expand. We picked up work around the state and then all over the country. I began to use my guys more and more to travel and take over jobs. I was an ex master sergeant: I knew how to delegate work. So I had free time and I began to frequent the local watering holes. Not to get drunk. I never liked the feeling, and I couldn't hold my liquor, so what I generally did was have a beer and watch the girls. That's when I met Joyce Kenyon.
Joyce was one of five girls that came into Clancy's Bar and Grill where I was holding court one evening. I couldn't tell you what the other girls looked like since I only had eyes for Joyce. She was beautiful. Tall, slim figure, nice boobs, long blonde hair worn straight, blue eyes that took your breath away and a face like an angel. She held herself in a way that said money. One look and I was hooked. I swallowed my beer and asked her to dance.
For some reason, she seemed to like me and we danced together most of the evening. Some other guys broke in once or twice but she always came back to me. I got her name and phone number before she left and called her two days later. We made a date and I picked her up at her house. That was the first surprise. Her family was well to do and lived in a very upscale section of town. Not my part of town by any means. Remember, I didn't even go to college and spent most of my time in the military blowing shit up. So, I had my doubts right off about the two of us going anywhere.
But Joyce and I continued to get along great and after two very hot dates, she let me get her clothes off in the back of my car and we did it parked out by the lake outside of town. It was the best sex of my life and she seemed to like it too. Fortunately I had a lot of experience and I knew how to make a girl feel good. I found out later that she was a virgin and that was her first time. Good thing it was a good one. She liked it and after that we did it as often as we could. She was on the pill and I used protection just to be safe.
After a whirlwind courtship of almost a year, I asked her to marry me and she accepted. I went with her to tell her parents who took the news better than I expected. I knew I had earned her dad's respect when he found out I owned my own company and it was well known around the city. But not her sister Eileen. She hated my guts for some reason but it made no difference to me. Joyce said yes so that's all I cared about.
I had a good amount of money in the bank so we bought a nice home in a good part of town and settled in to start a family. Joyce had no problem with getting pregnant and we had Jason, our first, almost immediately. He was perfect and Joyce was a good mother. She wanted to have another baby as soon as possible. She said she wanted to have two children and have them early so we could raise them while we were young. Julie came along twelve months later and we now had one of each. Both of us were satisfied with our new family so Joyce went back on birth control and I continued to use condoms.
For the next seven years we had a perfect life. I loved my kids and my wife and she seemed as happy as I. My company continued to grow and we began to take on work outside of the country. I hired several more ex military types and they did most of the travel and set up the work. I reviewed and signed off on all the plans and went only to those jobs that were highly sensitive or exceptionally difficult. Business grew and I made more money.
When both kids were in school during the day, Joyce decided to take a job with a real estate company as a receptionist and general secretary. She just wanted something to get her out of the house and give her some exposure to people, rather than other mothers who talked about nothing but children. She enjoyed the job and the hours were good, allowing her to be home when the kids got done with school.
Five years went by and it was in the summer of 2006 that I took on a job in Brazil. It was leveling a mountain to open up land for a few very rich Europeans who wanted the anonymity that Brazil was famous for. We had done that in California so it was really a piece of cake but I was asked to attend to it personally. For the amount of money I was promised, I would give them my first child. It seemed that I was enough, so I went to Brazil. Joyce decided to stay home rather than go with me, so I took one of my guys instead.
My only condition was that I wouldn't stay away for more than a week so I stayed there during the week and flew home on a chartered jet provided by my hosts on Friday. I spent the weekend with my family and flew back on Monday morning. Joyce understood so I continued this for the next two weeks.
The third week I was there, the work was finished, and my clients threw a celebration party. I wanted to attend to say goodbye to several of the men I had come to know during my time there. We had a good time, I found their local wine to be much to my liking and by the end of the evening I was drunker than I had ever been in my life: so drunk that I ended up spending the night with a young woman that had been making moves on me from the very first. I wasn't too drunk to remember what we did and it was outstanding. I apologized to her that morning but she simply told me she had no regrets. I did, and the thought of what I did kept me in the bathroom all morning, heaving my guts out.
Back home, I tried to forget about the whole thing but the guilt was really giving me fits. I began to lose sleep. I lost my appetite and finally found myself making mistakes at work. I decided I had to tell Joyce what happened and beg her to forgive me. If I had talked to someone who had been through this, maybe I would have done things differently, but I didn't. I went home that Friday and told her after the kids were in bed and asleep. It didn't go well.
"Joyce, there's something I have to tell you. It's been hard for me trying to keep it secret so I have to be honest."
