Hate Me, Hate You
And hate me hating you
There are so many of these stories on LIT. I was reading yet another in which the jilted husband starts drinking too much and moves his money around, although there is no later mention of the cheating wife finding out. The dude moves to the spare bedroom in defiance of his wife's telling him she is spending the night with some other man, blah, blah, blah...
The unparalleled bitch does a 180 upon return, trying to "make it up" to her hubby, then the crying starts. "There isn't going to be any divorce," she claims, like thousands before her. Our hero has limited options due to the state's divorce laws. The kids, like always, never get any say in the decisions surrounding the dissolution.
Now, the funny thing is, I can almost envision where these fictitious couples live in the country based on how the characters behave and whether the family at large sides with the cheating wife.
Saddletramp is one author who doesn't F**k around with his characters. They take decisive and controversial action. But honestly, from just east of Bellevue, WA, to the Florida Keys, most states have a small county with few people, no sheriff, no judges or jury of your peers, just roads with steep drop-offs, where things that are no longer wanted end up. And they were created intentionally for just that purpose.
"Whoa, hang on, Gas," I can hear some of you. "You're not suggesting that murder is a just punishment for cheating, are you?" Of course not. I do not condone that at all. What I'm saying is that shit happens every single day in real life, and not just with wayward spouses, so why do all these hubbies hide in the spare room until they can figure out some ill-conceived master plan? Well, that's somewhat rhetorical because I think I figured out a solution here. As always, I'm sure you'll let me know.
This story was a collaboration with Strikesandballs. It was a pleasure creating it together.
Relax; it's just a story, people.
[Copyright 2025, all rights reserved, including section 107 of US and International copyright law. Conversion of this work to audio file is strictly prohibited]
I wasn't always like this. Perhaps that isn't true; it's hard to say for sure. Maybe it was always there, just below the surface. Justice was always a thing for me, at least justice that fit the crime. Besides, when someone fucked me over, I was able to turn off my feelings towards them. Maybe I should tell you my story.
I'm John Corbin, married to Leah, unfortunately, for eighteen years at the time, and father to Christopher, sixteen and a half, and Hallie, fourteen. I say it was unfortunate, but it wasn't always that way.
I met Leah near the end of our freshman year at college. Her bubbly personality, gorgeous face, and smile drew me in hard. Leah was always a little on the plump side. 'Pleasantly,' I think people call it. No one would call her 'fat.' That was fine by me because I wasn't into petite women; no skin and bones for me. That had to do with an earlier relationship, so I'll rewind a bit.
My dad was a drunk, and a mean one at that. He liked to dole out beatings when he was drunk, which was six-point-eight days out of seven. He never laid a hand on my two younger brothers, only me. Mom caught him once when I was twelve, and she divorced him. People always said it was a disease and not his fault. I couldn't accept that. He knew what he was doing. He had to choose to beat me as well. He drank so much, so often, that he never seemed any different, drunk, inebriated, or sober, so both things were clearly a choice.
Leah's parents were nice to me but it soon became clear that they weren't enamored with me. Leah's sister, Lorna, was a bit of a different story. Where Leah had that plumpness, Lorna was a scrawny beanpole and awkward, almost goofy. She played power forward on her high school basketball team. Leah also had a more rounded, prettier face, and it was easy to see that Lorna had spent her adolescent years dealing with her inability to compete with her sister's looks. And Leah interacted with her as if Lorna was her lady-in-waiting which, over time, soured Lorna's impressions of her big sister.
I always tried to be kind to Lorna. Early on, I sort of felt sorry for her, and it was easy to engage her. Over the years, though, I found Lorna to be smart and easy going. She always had trouble cracking a joke; that was just her self-esteem, but she sure grew on me, no pun intended.
As she grew and her basketball talent emerged, she began to display that confidence that seems to befit successful athletes. By the time she was a senior, she was still a beanpole but she showed the beginnings of a body maturing into a woman, with her hips and curves seemed to be trying to emerge.
So, Leah and I got married at the age of twenty-four and one year after getting our college degrees. We were in love, after all. Those early years were both exciting and difficult. I went to school for an engineering degree, and Leah for accounting. I put myself through college with a little help from my parents and by working as an apprentice in a machine shop. After graduating, I found I liked the work and stayed on.
Chris was born twelve months after we married, which meant Leah put her career on hold to raise our son. Not even two years later, Hallie joined our crew. Those were tough financial times, and our stress was through the roof, even though we enjoyed our children. Looking back, they were what grounded us.
Five years later, once Hallie was in kindergarten, Leah went back to work with a larger accounting firm. At the same time, I decided to open my own shop, which further strained our money. Still, we worked hard, Leah in a job and raising the kids. I spent the first year looking for clients and a partner. Often, Leah or I would have to pick up the kids at her parents after school, and I'd see Lorna, who was then 'Auntie Lorna' to Chris and Hallie.
Like many families in our situation, we didn't start to realize the fruits of our labor until the kids were heading to junior high school. If it sounds horrible, it wasn't. We had love and lots of it. The sex was better than good, at least if what she was saying and how she was behaving were good indicators. While love doesn't solve everything, it's always mandatory for a cohesive and successful family unit. At that point, I had absolutely no concerns regarding fidelity or loyalty.
It was as Hallie was preparing to start high school that I became uneasy. Nothing ever stays the same, and I embraced that, but Leah seemed unsettled occasionally, almost longing for something. I couldn't put my finger on it, but whenever I asked her about it, she would blow it off as nothing, which was my first red flag. There had been changes of any kind concerning work or our social lives.
Proactively, I did some research. The first thing that came up in my search online was the ten signs of a spouse cheating. Leah exhibited only a few. Boredom, uneasiness, and anxiousness were all things that seemed to affect women as they got older and saw themselves as less attractive. Again, she was a bit chubby, but in a good way - I thought it added to her sexiness - but women can be their own worst critics when it comes to their appearance. A few articles pointed to the beginning of menopause. I certainly didn't like that word. It sounded too much like man-o-pause. Besides that, Leah was the same person around me and the kids.
