"I heard his wife got almost everything in the divorce," Saffi said, a little taken aback by that wicked smile of his.
"Good. I had hoped it hurt!"
"Not the turn the other cheek kind of guy are you?" Saffi asked, as his eyes flickered over to her.
"Do I look like that kind of man to you?" Magnus asked, taking another drag of his cigarette.
"No... you don't strike me as that kind of man," Saffi noted before taking another sip of her beer.
"So as I was saying... Iona and that ass always had some big case they had to work on late into the night. Now you see, I knew Iona well enough to know when she's lying, her right eye always twitches when she does. At the time I just couldn't understand why she would have to if it was all above board, you know what I mean?"
"I do," Saffi nodded in agreement. She personally knew how bad it felt to be cheated on. She personally hated people like that. She was glad Iona had lost everything when it all came out.
"So... I think it was in January, when I showed up one night at her office since she so had to work late again for the third time that week. I pretty much had enough of it, yet I tried, I really did try to keep the marriage together. I didn't ask her to give up her job, just to cut back on the hours so we could be husband and wife again. Was that too much to ask?" Magnus asked, with a pointed look.
"Sounds reasonable to me."
"You and every sensible person out there," Magnus said, sweeping his arm outward to the world. "Yet not so much to Iona. Oh, how she bitched and whined that I didn't understand, blah, blah, blah," he said, his venom was clear as day. "So being the good husband, the faithful husband that I was, I showed up with dinner, thinking if we couldn't have a meal at home I could at least have one with her at her work. I nodded to the night guardsman as I walked past the front desk. Seeing how I've been there before he knew who I was. As I got to my ex-wife's desk, I arched an eyebrow when she wasn't at it. Then I heard something. I turned my head, the heat of the lasagna dinners I had picked up heated my leg before I went to investigate. How I wished I didn't," Magnus said, sadly.
"What did you see?" Saffi asked, while she felt for him, she knew this was going to sell a lot of copies once it went to print. A torrid love affair normally does, especially when it involved a rising star like Magnus.
"My wife on her back on the conference table with that bastard thrusting between her legs. Of course, they couldn't hear me or the bag falling to the floor when it slipped from my hand as I stood there in shock as I listened to her moans and that man's grunts. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to take a couple of photos of them in my state of mind. I knew then and there that my marriage to Iona was over. I wanted nothing more to do with her. The moment she stepped out of our marriage she was done. Now I had the proof, and in Mississippi it's a fault state. So, I knew I'd take her to the cleaners. Adultery is still a crime there even if no one gets arrested for it any more. So, I turned on my heel, leaving the food on the floor as I had lost my appetite. Pulling up my contact list, pressing my wife's number, I heard her phone ringing in her desk as I walked by, naturally," Magnus spat. "The whore didn't want to be interrupted by me when she was getting fucked!"
"I'm going to assume you left a voice message for her on her phone?" Saffi inquired, keeping her smile hidden knowing all this was going to make her editor's mouth water. However, she couldn't keep herself from chuckling as Magnus rolled his eyes at her question.
"Of course, I did! When it went to her voicemail I told that two-bit whore not to bother to come home. That she could stay with her fucking lover... then I said, oh wait! He's married! How does it feel knowing you have ruined two marriages?! Telling her she could pick up her shit in the morning or I'll throw it in the garbage where it belongs along with her skanky ass! That once she did I didn't want to ever see her again! So, once I got home I tossed everything of hers in garbage bags and tossed them out onto the breezeway in front of the door. Whether or not if they were there in the morning I didn't care. It was sometime around eleven when my phone buzzed like mad. No doubt they had stopped long enough to notice the spilled lasagna or my voicemail, I don't know which. Personally, I didn't care, still don't. I didn't answer. I phoned Cary Bags instead. Telling her of what I saw that night, texting her the pictures I had taken. How I got her number?" Magnus asked, seeing the questioning look in Saffi's eyes. "She gave it to me at the very first company event that they held. Telling me the spouses had a group that gathered once a month knowing how it was with lawyers and how many hours they put in. While I never went to one, I did keep her number on hand. Why? I can't say, but I'm glad I did.
While I did hurt for her, me being the barer of bad news that her husband was nothing but a cheating bastard, she needed to know the truth. After she had calmed down she did thank me for the evidence before hanging up. Then the texts came pouring in. Turning off my phone, I had nothing to say to her nor did I want to hear whatever excuse she had prepared for the moment she had been caught. Nothing she had to say could be trusted. It didn't matter if it was one time or many, once was enough to end 'a' marriage. I could never trust her or her word ever again. Then as I began to lay down for bed, my anger slowly turning into hate. My front door burst open. Honestly, I don't know why she even bothered," Magnus said, thumbing his ashes.
"So, what did she say to try to justify her cheating?" Saffi asked, her eyes slyly running down his chest. Noting how his t-shirt clung to his pectoral muscles. Wondering how the woman could have given up such a handsome, defined man, for what, in her eyes, was nothing more than a mid-forties, balding, pot belly of a man.
"That she was doing it for us, that it didn't mean anything, that it was just sex etc. etc.," Magnus said, stamping out his cigarette. His fingers ran through his beard as he felt himself trembling in anger. Then again, that always happened when he thought about Iona. "I told her to shove that shit up her whorish cunt! That nothing I had done warranted her cheating on me. That she was nothing more than a selfish bitch who was only thinking about herself, not caring that her actions would be the downfall of our marriage. How I took joy in the horrified look on her face when I said that. So, I told her to get her shit, and get her whorish ass out of my apartment seeing how it was my name on the lease. Oh, she ran crying out the door, not that I cared. Okay, maybe a little, I mean I did just give that woman seven years of my life only for it to go to waste.
I hunted for a good lawyer to take my case for the next week. Went to the bank took out half of our savings and checking; there was no way I was going to let that bitch have access to my money. Then went to another and created an account in my name only. We had been saving to buy a house, thank God we didn't. I didn't want to be stuck in a house that reminded me of her, and thankfully we never had kids, I so didn't have to deal with her if something happened to them. Where Iona was staying I didn't know, and I didn't care. She could have been dead in a ditch somewhere and I wouldn't care. That was until I saw my mother's car pulling into my apartment complex. Ever since I had brought her home to meet my folks my parents took a liking to Iona. Treating her like she was their own daughter, given that Iona was a ward of the state until she reached the age of eighteen. When I told them we were getting married they were ecstatic. Then came a pounding on my door. My mother's voice filtering through the door demanding that I open it. Mind you, I hadn't been to work all week. So you can believe how upset they were with me for that. Then again, what came next I'm glad I didn't," Magnus said, taking out another cigarette from the pack to calm his nerves.
"'Magnus! Open up!' My mother yelled. I sighed heavily, knowing I was going to have to tell them sooner, rather than later, that Iona and I were divorcing. As the door opened there my mother stood, with an angry look on her face, and behind her stood Iona. Her head was bowed, she wouldn't even look at me. Then again, she was caught red handed. Then my mother laid into me about how foolish I was being. That Iona made a mistake, a very stupid mistake, and that we could work it out if only I would stop being stupid and just listen to her..."
"Your own mother was actually taking your wife's side?!" Saffi asked, a little surprised and shocked.
"I know, shocking," Magnus said, sarcastically. "You would have thought my own parents would have been on my side for once in my life, but no they chose her over their own son."
"So what happened next?"
"I stood there in my doorway quite shocked, as you can believe. I think anyone would be when your own parents took the side of the lying, cheating slut over their own flesh and blood. I asked her to clarify if she was actually taking Iona's side over mine. She fumbled with her words for a bit muttering how she was only trying to save my marriage, but I was being pig headed and not allowing Iona to explain herself, then her insistence that I let them in, so they didn't air our dirty laundry for all to hear. I personally didn't care if they knew or not. I knew the people beside me and below me had heard quite a lot when I found out about my cheating wife, so what if they heard a little more? I had heard enough. I leaned in looking my mother in the eye and said very plainly: 'No. If you can't be on my side when that whore...' The slap came out of nowhere; that was the first time my mother ever raised a hand to me. She seethed at me telling me never to call a woman that. I countered with, 'if she can't keep her legs closed like some two dollar hooker then she shouldn't be surprised when she gets called one.' So I continued: 'lies to me, cheats on me, destroys everything we had worked for. Then I don't want to be your son any more. Since you care so fucking much about her why doesn't she be your daughter since you, and I'm guessing my sperm donor, are bending over backwards for that slut; and I'll just go about my merry way.' Clearly my mother didn't think I would dare say that to her, how wrong she was. Stating that I didn't know what I was saying that I was letting my anger get the best of me. Now I'm not quick to anger but when I am I'm like a storm destroying anything and everyone that stands in my way.
So I told my mother... let me clarify, my birth giver since I don't have parents any more. That I was very serious and to tell my sperm donor that as of that moment I quit then I slammed the door in their faces. Whatever my wife had to say I never found out. And so, three weeks passed, and my lawyer had informed me that my wife had officially been served. Little did I know at the time that my birth givers were financing my wife's lawyer," Magnus said, looking out at the vast expanse of his land.
