Preface:
This story is fiction and any resemblance to any specific person or persons is pure coincidence. It is intended for adults only. The chapter involves references to adultery and revenge and contains sexual references.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I slide the gear selector into "Park" and turn the ignition off. The low background noise of both the radio and the engine disappear into darkness only to be replaced by silence in the car. I glance over at her sitting a bit nervously in the passenger seat. Neither of us has said a word since she got into my car. I am having serious second thoughts about agreeing to this little drive to a small rise overlooking Austin. I think back at how quickly the past six months have slid by.
It's been a trip to hell and back, riding in a train named heartbreak. My first decision was to break with everything I knew in Dallas and move back down to Austin and the University of Texas. I knew all the details of Susie and my breakup would eventually leak out into the gossip hungry world of attorneys revolving around Dallas. There was no way I could have survived in that notoriety. Just like the old West ... I had to get out of town.
At UT, they were glad to have me as a guest lecturer at the end of the term. Austin wasn't far enough to escape the gossip that drifted down from Dallas but the more liberal environment of academia has been more forgiving than anything I would have faced back up north. Just last week the Dean of the Law School offered me a full time position at which I jumped. I was quite proud of how well Kristy had taken up my role at my old firm. It seems I taught her well and it was good to see her blossom on her own. Because of how well my tutelage of Kristy turned out, the idea of teaching full time is now a strong attraction and I'm more than ready for a change. I think teaching will be a much more fulfilling occupation.
I don't think I'll miss the corporate world at all. I'm certainly not hurting for funds. In my divorce from Susie, we did split our community property even-steven. But since the house was mine before the marriage, I retained full ownership since I brought that value into the marriage. Plus, Susie refused to have any of the proceeds of my severance package from my old firm. At the time I would have fought with her tooth and nail over every penny so I was surprised when they didn't fight over any of the six million dollars. Looking back now, six months down the line, I find much of my anger against Susie has faded.
Our divorce wound a seemingly slow course through the Texas judicial system. Susie didn't contest the financial settlement portion of our divorce, but she did contest the divorce itself. She wanted us to go through counseling and was able to convince the judge assigned to our case to agree. However Bill was able to get the "couple counseling" limited to just six hours. Because I had moved to Austin, the logistics of attending counseling became messy as it required someone to do a bit of traveling. Through our attorneys we finally agreed to three monthly sessions of two hours each. The first two were in Dallas at a counselor of her choice. The third and final session was down here in Austin with a counselor I chose.
Susie wasn't very happy about splitting counselors, but she really didn't have much choice. The judge made no stipulation on how the counselors would be chosen, just that a mandatory six hours were to be completed and reported back to the court. She knew as well as I did that if she contested it, a judge would find the 2-1 ratio in her favor more than fair.
I couldn't have predicted the outcome of the first two sessions any better. The counselor was female and the entire four hours was spent in narration. I sat and listened quietly about how women are suppressed from childhood. How this early domination of their spirit led to sudden outbursts in life, mini-revolutions so to speak. It was all I could do not to laugh as the counselor tried to excuse Susie's behavior. It wasn't a counseling session as much as a rationalization.
After both sessions in Dallas Susie tried to get me to stay after the session to talk, even asking me to stay over at her place. In making the move to Austin I had quickly put my old home on the market and was pleased at how quickly it sold and at the price I wanted. Both times Susie offered, I politely declined and without any further communication made the long drive that same night back to Austin.
Tonight was the third and final counseling session. I knew she would have trouble finding the counselor's office so I agreed to meet her at the LBJ library and drive her over.
Susie looked dejected and resigned when I picked her up at the library. The farce of the first two counseling sessions had been exposed as nothing more than attempts to excuse her behavior and get me to forgive her and begin reconciliation.
I almost laughed at her surprise when she saw I had chosen a female counselor. Little did she know what a hard night it would turn out to be. But I ended up being more surprised than Suzie at how this session did turned out. It was the last on the counselor's schedule starting at 7:00 pm. It was only suppose to be for two hours and then I would be free, having met the last requirement before the divorce could be granted. We didn't walk out of the counselor's office until after 10.
I had already met with the counselor before tonight. I've been seeing her on a regular basis and she was already familiar with the situation from my perspective. She also knew all about the first two counseling farces, although the word "farce" is my descriptor, not hers.
I knew something was decidedly different five minutes into the session. My counselor told Susie she knew all about our relationship going back to college to present. She told Susie that she had heard from my perspective, and now she wanted to hear Susie's version. She wasted no time before probing with questions. Contrary to the previous counseling sessions and to my surprise, Susie made no attempts to defend herself or her actions. She didn't flinch away from any of the questions. At some point I got the impression that Susie had realized it was over and that there wasn't any reason to hide her emotions any longer. In amazement I watched as my hard-headed domineering soon to be ex-wife surrendered to my counselor.
Over the next three plus hours we all learned a great deal. In the time I've known Susie there has never been a father in her life. Early in our relationship I learned it was a touchy and taboo subject. I accepted her feelings and never broached it with her. It was also apparent that while she loved her mother, she had little respect for her and virtually no relationship. Even to a dunce like me it became obvious Susie had grown up early and had learned to take control of her life.
What I learned is how her father had controlled her mother. How he threatened to go out with other women unless she did sexual favors for him. Dependant upon him, Susie watched her mother submit to his requests, even if those requests required her to go to bed with other men. I listened as Susie described one night from her childhood when she was supposedly locked in her room. Instead she was hiding in her parent's bedroom closet. At the time she didn't understand what she saw that night, but later she figured out that the two strangers her father had brought home had sex with her mother. It was her own father's voice warning her mother that she had better swallow.