Today's story has a unique twist. I have presented the first six months of the story exactly as it was told to me. Then you hit a fork in the road. You will be offered two endings; one is as it happened whilst the other has been made up out of whole cloth. I invite you to read both then vote which is which. Your comment can be as simple as "angel" or "devil" however I encourage you to voice your opinion and why you reached it.
Did it really happen? I will leave that to the reader to decide. Without further ado, I present for your consideration Devil or Angel
Constructive criticism is always welcome. Ad hominem attacks will, of course, be deleted. All names, dates, and locations have been changed.
*****
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
I never suspected my wife Michelle was considering having an affair. There was nothing; no changes in routine or out-of-the-ordinary behavior that would stir up suspicions. Just a shit load of e-mails on her company laptop from a weasel named Keith Ravlis trying to get in her pants.
It all began to unravel one Saturday afternoon when Michelle went grocery shopping. I noticed her computer sitting on the counter. Out of idle curiosity I woke it up and started to snoop around. My wife wasn't exactly creative in her password. MV050785; her initials and birthday.
I started to scan her e-mails. They were chock full of correspondence like you would expect from a customer service rep for a machine tool supplier, price quotes, change orders, etc.
I can't say why but I checked her recycle bin. Michelle had been dutifully deleting scores of e-mails but never bothered to clear out the trash.
I was about to shut it down when I noticed a name kept appearing with increasing frequency, KRavlis#1.
I scrolled back through time and found the first message; it was written the day after the company Christmas party. I'm pretty damn sure I knew who he was. There was an asshole who kept hovering around my wife. He wore a wedding ring but his wife was not in attendance. I warned Michelle he was bad news. She giggled and said I was imagining it. I was certain it had to be him and his message was wholly inappropriate.
"Michelle, you looked drop dead gorgeous. I wish I could have had more time to get to know you better but your shadow followed you like he was afraid you would talk to another man."
Her response, "He's my caveman and I love him."
Thus began what became a daily exchange of e-mails. After a couple dozen messages where Ravlis took none too subtle digs at "your husband" my wife's spirited defense began to wane.
He seemed to sense he was making progress and upped his attacks to twice a day, referring to me as the knuckle dragger. He started asking personal questions about our marriage then spinning her answers to the negative.
Michelle's response to his attempts to emasculate me was l-o-l.
I almost smashed the computer when I read, "Your husband doesn't appreciate what an incredible woman you are."
I looked at the clock and knew Michelle would be back in about half an hour. I still had three more months of messages to read so I got a thumb drive out of my desk and downloaded everything in the garbage can.
Next I found a program on-line designed to monitor a child's computer use and downloaded it. I would now have access to her laptop at my leisure.
It was obvious this predator was grooming her to have an affair. I was furious but decided not to confront her until I read the rest of the exchanges. I began praying she regained her senses and told the bastard to fuck off.
I pretty much avoided Michelle until dinner time; I can't even tell you what she cooked but I do know I wasn't exactly good conversation. I sat down in my recliner and stared at something on TV.
She kept asking me if everything was alright. I got so far as to say "No, it isn't," before I clammed up. I knew if I confronted her we would have an argument. Okay, we would have a knock down drag out fight. I also knew she would claim it was just harmless banter with a bored colleague. I could almost hear her attacking me for violating her privacy. The bile in my mouth was certain it had as much of a chance of boomeranging and drive her into his bed to spite me.
That night I barely got any sleep. But I made use of the time to formulate a plan. Step one would be reading all of the e-mails to see how bad things were.
Next, if I was going to divorce her I needed rock solid proof to enforce the prenup.
I left home an hour earlier than usual so I could read her e-mails uninterrupted. I didn't even kiss my wife good bye. The offices were dark when I arrived and put on a pot of coffee. Five minutes later I was having a liquid breakfast and reading. This bastard was ramping up his attacks. His theme had evolved into "I would never take a woman as wonderful as you for granted like your husband does."
And my wife was gullible enough to let him get into her head.
Then, about eight weeks ago they abruptly stopped. I double checked a couple hundred deletes to make sure he hadn't changed names but there was nothing. Was that good? Did they break up or find a more secure way to communicate?
My company employs a private investigation firm to do background checks on potential employees. They are real good. At 9:00 I called and talked direct to the owner, Lee Thorsen. I explained my problem. He said I should get right over so we could plot out a course of action.
We spent a couple of hours reviewing what I knew. "I think the two of them were worried they would get caught using the company e-mail for inappropriate personal business and switched to text messages on their private phones."
"Where does your wife keep her phone when she's sleeping?"
"On the night stand next to our bed."
"That's a problem. But I have a solution. I need you to disable the outlet she plugs the charger into. I can show you how. Then you have to get her to use an outlet downstairs. That night one of my employees will come by when you're sleeping and clone hr phone."
When Michelle discovered all of the outlets in our bedroom were dead I offered to plug it in downstairs on my way to check the circuit breaker box. I called the number he gave and said I would leave the back door unlocked and the phone would be on the charger on the kitchen counter. I never heard him come or go.
The next morning Thorsen called to tell me he was able to monitor everything my wife did with her fancy new phone. I knew I hired the right guy.
His second call that afternoon tore my heart out. "Brian, I've got some good news and some bad news."
"Give me the good first."
"I read all of their texts-your wife never deletes anything. So far they have not had sexual intercourse. They have, however, done some kissing and groping."
"If that's the good news..." My voice trailed off.
"Ravlis works at the south side distribution center for the same company as your wife. On alternating Fridays he comes up north for a managers meeting. Last month he met her for drinks after the meeting at a small bar about fifteen minutes away from the plant. They picked it because she wanted a place where nobody would recognize them."
"That can't be right. She's always home at the same time as me every evening. I would remember if she was late."
"Sorry to inform you but your wife works through lunch two days a week and is allowed to leave a couple hours early on every other Friday. They've done it twice now. I'll send you the texts they exchanged afterwards.."
There was a long pause. "And tomorrow is a second Friday."
"Damn."
"Not to worry, I've got a plan.
