*Love isn't lost. It is right where we abandoned it*
(I do not claim to be a lawyer or even a decent student of the law)
(Monday evening)
Helen Davies only noticed the differences when she stepped into the hallway; the automatic lights didn't' come one. 'What the crap?' she wondered. She put her purse down and walked over to the switch. The lights came on then.
"In here," her husband Terrance called from the den. Helen mumbled a curse and walked that way.
"Leave the lights off," he asked her as she reached for the closest switch. Helen groaned; Terrance was in one of his depressed moods. Sometimes she felt like slapping him upside his childish little head.
"Last weekend was sort of a bomb, wasn't it," Terrance continued.
"It didn't do much for me," Helen responded. Actually it had been a colossal waste of her time. Terrance had attempted to be romantic and all he succeeded in doing was being annoying. Terrance was all compassion but no passion which was something that had become more and more disgusting over the years.
"It was so bad that when we got back I forgot to tell you of something I did for you this weekend while we were at the bed and breakfast," he told her.
"What?" Helen sighed at his melodramatic meanderings.
"You remember how you always worried about your precious painting getting stolen all over the house?" he continued.
"Yes," Helen said hesitantly.
"I had motion-activated cameras installed around the house and linked to my home and work computers," he said as he lifted a glass of scotch to his lips. Helen froze, rendered speechless. Terrance picked up the remote and cut on the TV. Helen stumbled around the sofa.
"There is a glass on the table and some scotch. Why don't you join me?" he requested. Helen did nothing so Terrance clarified. "Helen, sit your ass down."
On the screen Helen saw herself and a co-worker, Cochrane Tantz, stumble into the doorway. He was peeling off her jacket and kissing her throat. Helen went to the sofa Terrance was sitting on and sat beside him.
On the TV Helen watched Cochrane and herself press each other against the walls and ravage one another. She pulled off his tie and opened his shirt so she could she kiss his breastbone. He tore her shirt open and chewed on her nipples through her bra. When Cochrane tore her panties down and drove his first thrust into her waiting pussy she thought Terrance would shut it off. Terrance didn't so Helen took another long drink.
For thirty-five minutes Helen and Terrance watched her debauchery. For the first twenty minutes Helen had to admit she was turned on. She was getting fucked hard and passionately. Then on screen she walked to the bathroom and Cochrane lay on the bed breathing deeply. She almost missed what he said.
"What a fucking cow," he whispered with a terrible sneer on his lips. When Helen returned onscreen Cochrane was all smiles again. He had her perform a blowjob on him while he playfully swatted her ass. Once she'd brought him off again they got dressed, made a few jokes and headed back out the door, but Helen was struck with how aged her body looked lying on that bed next to him.
"What now?" Helen whispered as she went back for her third glass of scotch.
"It took me about half an hour to digest this. By two I'd contacted our lawyer and by three he had two investigators in Cochrane's office ringing out a full confession from him; with the vaguest of promises that I won't tell his wife he told them everything of your three year affair."
"Oh God," groaned Helen. Cochrane hadn't even warned her. He had sat in his office until close of business and ran home to his wife leaving her to face her husband alone and unprepared.
"What are you going to do to me?" she whispered.
"I'm not sure," Terrance said evenly. "I want you to suffer; that much I know. I've already emptied our joint accounts and cancelled all of your credit cards, even the ones I didn't know about until I checked our credit report today."
"Check that; in our joint checking account I left you two hundred dollars for some basic expenses; you can still buy gas and lunch as long as you don't go overboard," Terrance explained.
"But what am I going to do?" Helen asked.
"I imagine we will get a bite to eat and then we'll go to bed," he informed her.
"Go to bed ... with you ... but ..." Helen stammered.
"I may need a blowjob in the morning. I'm not fucking you until you get a blood test. It will take my forensic accountants some time to see who else you have been whoring around with," Terrance added in his same business-like tone.
Helen had never seen this side of Terrance before. He was always so nice and considerate and pandered to her needs.
"No, I'm not some whore for you to abuse Terrance," Helen responded with some heat.
"Helen," Terrance replied in an angry tone, "there are two papers in front of you."
"One is our divorce settlement; I'll get everything of course," he continued. "You had an extra-marital affair behind my back for three years. Cochrane also told us about Danielle and once we track her down we can add a bi-sexual affair to this one. How much more will an in-depth study of your credit history reveal?"
Helen blanched. She thought she'd been careful, but that was only meant to fool a trusting husband not a thorough investigation.
"The other one?" she asked.
"You sign over everything we share in common to me, surrendering all current and future rights," he stated.
"How is this any better than a divorce?" she wailed.
"One leaves you sleeping in a hotel room tonight while two leaves you sleeping in my bed," he explained.
"With two I'm left with nothing," she told him.
"Yes," he fixed her with his angry gaze, "you will have to trust me for everything you have." Helen recoiled at that thought. For fifteen years of marriage he had trusted her implicitly and she'd betrayed that trust far many more times than she wanted to remember right then.
"Please Terrance, leave me with what I've made in my company and we'll part ways," Helen pleaded for mercy.
"Are you referring the partnership I bought into for you? I'm not saying you aren't good at marketing, but you would be another worker in the trenches without me. You used my money and my trust to get ahead and you used it to fuck underlings, so no, I'm not feeling generous," Terrance answered. He wasn't even going to call her stupid or unskilled. He'd never underestimated her in any other aspect of their lives. He had believed in her.
"How long do I have to decide?" she asked.
"I'm going to put in a ninety-second meal in the microwave. Have one of the two signed by the time I get back or I'll toss you out on your ass and get proceedings against you started in the morning," Terrance replied. Whatever else Helen wanted to say was dismissed by Terrance's abrupt departure.
Helen stared down at her two decisions. Terrance had been such a nice guy. It had made him the safe choice to marry. He'd started out well-to-do and made himself quite rich building up his own aeronautics firm, yet all the money and things she asked for had not made her happy. She'd turned to flirtations to get by, then flirtations became trysts and trysts became affairs. All the while Terrance had remained blind until now.
She heard him coming back out and the two choices -- three really (she could walk out) came crashing down. She looked at him entering the room and quickly signed.
