Hell Hath to Fury

Terri and I got married when we both were in our early twenties. The first baby, James, came along when I was 24, and Terri was 23. Leslie followed James a little over three years later, and we decided that two was absolutely enough. Terri had her tubes tied, and I had a vasectomy just to make absolutely sure that we weren't going to have any more.

Our marriage was a good one generally speaking. The only fly in the ointment was Terri's jealousy. When Terri had been a freshman in college, she thought she had found the love of her life, and they had made plans to get married when they graduated. Her sophomore year she came back to the apartment they were sharing because one of her classes had been canceled, and found him in bed with a girl she thought was her best friend. Although I didn't know Terri then, I suspect that episode completely changed her, and not for the better. She was extremely suspicious of any woman friend I might have, and God forbid that I ever did so much as kiss a woman on the cheek; I was sure to hear about it in spades. However, as I had no plans of ever cheating on Terri, I just made allowances for it, and suppressed my normal touchy-feely tendencies.

In any event, when James was fifteen, Terri and I had really been getting along quite well, and hadn't had any real arguments in quite a few years. The October after James turned fifteen, I got a wedding invitation in the mail from my cousin Dave. Dave and I had seen each other quite a bit as children and teenagers, but I hadn't seen him since Terri and I had gotten married. We spoke once or twice a month, but it just never seemed to work out for us to even be in the same part of the country at the same time. I called Dave and offered my congratulations, and apologized for not being able to make it, but between Terri, the kids and work, it just wasn't going to work out. Dave understood, and we had quite a nice conversation.

Then about three or four weeks before Dave's wedding, the company I was working for decided to enter negotiations to buy a somewhat smaller company in Dallas, which was where Dave was living. Lo and behold, my boss and I were told to get ready to do the due diligence the week immediately following Dave's wedding. I immediately called Dave, and asked if I was still welcome at his wedding. Of course I was, and arraignments were made. I had asked Terri if she wanted to come along, but she demurred, her job and the kids just wouldn't let her.

So on a Saturday morning Terri dropped me off at the airport, kissed me goodbye, and I was off to Dallas. The company was putting my boss and I up at a very nice hotel in downtown Dallas and I had simply asked that my Saturday night stay be in the same hotel. The company didn't have a problem with it, as long as I paid for the Saturday night.

I finally connected with Dave late Saturday afternoon, and was astounded. Dave and I hadn't looked much alike as kids, or teenagers, although our hair was the same color, and our facial features certainly identified us as related. Age had changed things. If you were standing across a room, I would doubt that you could tell who was who. Up close, you could certainly see the difference, but from a distance you would have thought we were twins.

I met his soon to be bride, and immediately thought she was just about the prettiest woman I had ever seen (outside of one or two models.) Dave was my age, and Elaine was 32. Actually, Elaine wasn't really her name, but Americans had trouble pronouncing her real name, which was Yelena. Elaine had been born in Russia, and came to the U.S. when she was a small child. Her English was perfect, but there was a very slight trace of a Russian accent, which was adorable. We got along famously, and I teased Dave that if I had seen Elaine first, and wasn't married, he would have had a battle on his hands. Elaine, or Lena as Dave called her, just laughed and told me that I would have had to do more than hang the moon to beat out Dave.

I went to the wedding, and the reception afterwards, then headed back to the hotel to meet with my boss about the following week, and what we needed to cover.

Everything was going along wonderfully. Our due diligence investigation showed that if anything, the company had slightly understated the potential they had, and both Erik, my boss, and I were confident that they would fit in extremely well with our own objectives.

I made my nightly calls to Terri and the kids, like I normally did when I was out of town. Everything seemed normal until Wednesday night. When I called there was no answer, so I left a message, and told Terri to call me back when she got home, if she got back in time. I really didn't think much about it, as Terri would often take the kids over to her folks, or her sister's when I was out of town.

Thursday, there was again no answer. I left another message asking Terri to call when she got it, and reminding her of my arrival time, and flight number.

The first clue I had that something was seriously wrong was when I tried to check out of the hotel on Friday morning. We had a few hours of final meetings to go through, and then Erik and I were going to get on a plane and head out. Erik was meeting some relatives back East, and I was headed home.

I tried to pay for my stay at the hotel with my credit card, and was informed that my card was refused. I tried another, but no joy. Finally, I had to ask Erik to bail me out. Erik was not real happy about it, but he did. We took Erik's rental car out to the airport after our meetings, and then I tried to contact Terri both at home and at the office. No answer at home, and her office told me that she had taken the week off, and didn't expect to be in the office for at least another week.

Now I was really concerned. I had no idea what was going on, and couldn't get ahold of Terri. I tried her cell phone, and James' cell, and neither one were turned on. I left messages on both, and then went to catch my flight.

We landed and I headed off the airplane as fast as I could. Of course Terri couldn't meet me at the gate because of all the security restrictions, but I did expect to see her in the waiting area just beyond the security screeners. My heart fell, as I didn't see Terri or the kids as I got into the waiting area. Then I saw him, a rather nicely dressed man, holding up a sign, with my name on it, much like a limo driver would, who was waiting for his assigned fare.

I went up to him, told him I was Bob Simmons, and asked what was going on.

He looked at me, and then asked, "Robert Simmons?"

"Yes."

"I have something for you."

He reached into his inside coat pocket, pulled out a sheaf of papers, and handed them to me.

"You have been served."

With that he turned and walked away. I yelled after him, asking what was going on, but he just ignored me, and kept going.

I finally went over to one of the chairs in the terminal, and looked at the papers I had been given. They were divorce papers, that was immediately obvious, but there was a lot of other stuff in there that made no sense to me at all.

It was apparent that I needed to get a cab to get home, but I only had about $20 or $30 in my pocket, so I went to the nearest ATM machine to get some money. My card was rejected.

Oh Christ, now what?

I finally called my sister, Susan, and explained my dilemma, and she immediately agreed to come pick me up.

I was waiting for her on the curb as she pulled up about 40 minutes later. I climbed into the car, throwing my suitcase and briefcase into the back seat, and buckled myself in.

I explained what had happened, all over again, it seemed like I couldn't stop talking about it. Susan finally told me to calm down and that she would look at the papers when she got me to her house.

We got there; Susan poured me a very strong drink, and started reading the divorce papers. (I suppose I should mention that Susan is a divorce attorney, and a very good one from what I understand.)

Susan finally got done with the papers, and told me that Terri was suing for divorce. She wanted child support, spousal support, and full legal and physical custody of James and Leslie. Although adultery was not grounds for divorce in our state, she was claiming that my adulterous behavior was grounds to grant her sole custody of the kids. She also had gotten a restraining order against me, claiming that when I was served with the papers I would physically abuse her, or the kids.

"Susan, this is crazy. I've never laid a hand on Terri, or the kids, and I don't have any respect for those who do hit their wives."

"It doesn't matter. You have been hit with a restraining order preventing you from contacting Terri or the kids until the hearing on the 15th. You can't go within 100 yards of the house, or Terri's work."

I was aghast. What in the hell had ever sent Terri off like this?

"Bob, I have to ask this. Have you ever had an extra-martial affair?"

"No way. Terri would have gone off like a roman candle, and besides, I love her, and wouldn't want to do anything that would harm our marriage. God knows I have had enough chances with the traveling I used to do, but I never have."

The upshot was that I was going to stay with Susan and her husband, until I could find a place of my own. Susan would loan me the money to do the deposit and first and last months rent, and Susan would represent me in the divorce case.

The next morning (Saturday), Susan drove me down to the credit union that we banked at and we checked out my accounts. The credit cards had all been cancelled, and our accounts closed. The safe deposit box was still there, but the only thing left in it was a copy of our marriage certificate, with the words "You Bastard" written in red lipstick across it. All our CD's, savings etc., were gone. I literally had no money to my name.

On the way back, Susan decided to drive by the house. She didn't say why, and I was just numb with shock. As we approached the house, Susan suddenly said; "Isn't that your car?"

I looked, and sure enough it was, parked quite a distance down from the house.

Susan laughed; "I'll bet you anything you want that if we measured it, that car is parked exactly 100 yards from the property line of your house."

Susan stopped, and we checked out the car. It was mine all right, the backseat and truck piled with my things. It was obvious that whoever had put the clothes and stuff into the car had not bothered with making it neat and tidy. Things were just tossed in, and where there hadn't quite been enough room, they were just smashed down to get other things in.

We showed up in court for the hearing, and Terri wouldn't even look at me, let alone talk to me. Her attorney had a copy of our last year's tax return, which he was using for the basis of her request for child support and spousal support. Unfortunately, I had had a very good year, and at the year's end had gotten a very substantial bonus, which of course was included in our tax return. Susan was able to counter this with copies of my pay stubs, but it was an indication of how the whole thing was going to proceed.

Terri was given temporary custody of the kids, and I was ordered to pay child support in an amount that was going to put a serious dent in my ability to support myself. The judge refused to order Terri to give me any part of the money she had taken out of our accounts, saying that was something that needed to be taken care of at the actual trial. I was granted visitation, but only every other weekend.

After a month or so, Susan called me.

"I've finally found out why Terri thinks you were screwing around on her. Come on down to the office and I'll show you."

I went down, and Susan had a computer set up with a DVD set up to run. When she ran it, you could see my cousin Dave and Lena in it, sitting on the balcony of a hotel room apparently having breakfast. Lena just had on a nightgown and robe, and Dave had on a robe. At the end of the clip, Dave went over and kissed Lena, then they stood up and disappeared into the room.

As I found out later, one of Terri's friends at her work had been on vacation, with her kids and husband. She had let her daughter use her digital camera to go shoot scenes of the hotel. On the Wednesday she had stopped answering my calls, her friend had showed her the pictures of her vacation, and telling her that there was this really sweet sequence of two people who really seemed in love, which her daughter had shot.

It apparently hadn't been sweet to Terri.

Susan and I tried, numerous times, to get Terri to listen to an explanation. Neither Susan nor I could contact Terri directly, but Susan sent several letters to Terri's attorney trying to set out the scenario. He simply ignored them, telling Susan that this could all be straightened out in court. (I was beginning to hate attorneys.)

Visitation, well that could have been better. Actually it could have been a lot better. In the next five months I got to see the kids exactly four times. Terri always had an excuse, her parent's anniversary etc; I told my mother they could come for a weekend and so on. A couple of times I would go over to pick up the and they wouldn't be there, and no indication of where they had gone.

Terri finally blew it. Susan had been telling me that things were not looking too wonderful, particularly as the family court services report had completely taken Terri's side. They had ignored what I told them, and reported that I "was in denial" about my affair.

Susan finally got a court order for me to pick up the kids a little over a week prior to trial, in part because I really hadn't seen them much, and in part because we were going to have them see a family counselor and psychologist to try to counteract the family court services report. I had even managed to talk to James on his cell phone, telling him that I would be picking them up the following evening, and he seemed pleased that we would have some time together.

When I went over to pick the kids up, there was nobody home, just a note on the door that I was not going to poison the kids' minds with my "hired gun."

I was sitting in Susan's kitchen that evening and Susan was telling me that in the long run this might actually be a good thing, because this was essentially parental kidnapping, and the courts really didn't like it. Then my cell rang, and it was James asking me why I had changed my mind about picking them up. I explained that I had done no such thing, and that I had no idea where they were.

Apparently Terri had told the kids that I had changed my mind, so she took them to a little town down the coast and told them that she was going to make it up to them by taking a week to relax and enjoy themselves.

Susan got on the phone, and told James that we would be there as soon as we could. Susan then got busy on her laptop, then took off to see the duty judge, returning a couple of hours later with an order giving me full custody of the children, and ordering any law enforcement officer in the state to help us get the children back.

To say Terri was surprised and angry when two deputies showed up at the motel they were staying in, serving her with the order, and escorting the kids out to my car with their bags would be a massive understatement. The screaming obscenities she directed at me gave a good idea of just exactly where her head was.

Terri had done an excellent job with the kids, at least from her viewpoint. She had managed to almost completely convince the kids that I was totally to blame for the divorce, and that I really didn't want to have them around.

Susan and I worked with them all week, showing them the video, and explaining who the people were. I'm not sure they were totally convinced until the day before the trial when Dave and Lena flew in to testify. We also got out the court orders, and the declarations and notes supporting the court orders. By Sunday night, both of the kids were more than a little pissed at their mother, feeling that they had been lied to.

The psychologist interviewed both kids over a two-day period, and her ultimate report was quite favorable to me.

Trial started on Monday, and Terri and her attorney put on their case, putting on a family counselor to testify that he had interviewed the kids and that they had indicated that they wanted to live with their mother, and were extremely upset by my playing around on their mother. Before Susan could say anything, the judge interrupted, asking who had told the children that their father was involved in an adulterous relationship. The counselor said that he assumed the mother had, because they were already aware of it when he first interviewed them. The judge seemed to have a bit of a problem with that, but didn't say anything more.

Susan simply asked the counselor if his opinion would change if there had been no adultery. He said that it certainly would.

There was more testimony, basically putting on the valuation for our house, Terri being called to testify about what money she needed to take care of the kids and so on. The only thing that Susan really challenged her about was whether or not she had told the kids that I was an adulterer, and how she had taken all the money out of our accounts, and closed our credit cards while I was out of town.

Then it was our turn.

I got on the stand, and testified about how I had been denied visitation, and that I had never cheated on Terri during our entire marriage.

The courtroom door opened, and Dave and Lena walked in just as I was finishing up. To make a long story short, Dave and Lena both identified themselves as being the people in the video. Then Susan made an offer of proof, that both James and Leslie would testify that they wanted to live with me, because they thought that their mother had manipulated them, and lied to them. Susan indicated that she wanted to do it this way to avoid having the kids having to testify. We took a short break, and Terri and her attorney talked to the kids who were waiting in the hall.

Then Terri came up to me and asked if we could just dismiss the divorce action and try to work things out between us. I looked at her for a minute then simply said no, too many things had been said and done, and I couldn't trust her any more.

The judge's ruling was a bit of a surprise even for Susan. I got the kids and the house. Terri was ordered to pay the same amount of child support she had asked for from me. Terri was ordered to pay me half of the money she had taken out of our accounts, less her half of the equity we had in the house, which wasn't much because we had refinanced the house only a year of so earlier. Then to top it off, she ordered Terri to pay my attorney fees, which just about wiped out the reduction of the house equity. The judge also indicated at the end that she thought that Terri had done more to damage the children than I would have if the allegations of adultery had been correct.

Terri left in tears, and I went out to talk to the kids.

Three months later things were settling in for the three of us. I was making absolutely sure that Terri got her visitation, and the kids were beginning to forgive her a bit, as well as becoming accustomed to just the three of us living together. James had turned 16, and I bought him a car, so he could pick up Leslie from school, and run errands for us.

On a Friday, I got a call from James.

"Dad, Tiana and her mother have a problem."

Tiana was James' girlfriend, and had been for about two months.

"What's going on?"

"Their condo just burned down, and they really don't have any place to stay. Can they stay with us for awhile?"

I inquired a bit more, and finally told James to meet me at the house, and we could see what could be done. I had gotten Tiana's mother's cell phone number and talked to her a bit, indicating that something could well be done, but that we needed to talk about it.