"Honey, I promise I'll make this up to you. I don't know how you found out about me and Keith but I swear to god I'll make this up to you once we've run our course. I promise you'll never regret giving me, giving us a second chance."
This from my "loving wife" of 16 years. I had gotten a text with an attached video of her bent over his desk the day she and Keith Williams, (her immediate supervisor at the law firm she had worked at since 6 months after our wedding), were supposed to fly out to Florida for a company retreat and her promotion celebration. The video had been shot on the inter-office security system cameras. She had just made Jr. Partner, he was the Sr. partner who she'd been assigned to as an associate, who had "mentored" her throughout her career. I recognized the camera angle because my company had just gotten the contract to maintain that system. I'm pretty sure one of the disabled vets I hired to monitor that system had sent me the heads up.
First thing I asked her was "how long?"
Her reply was "You don't want to know."
I told her "You start giving me the full answers or we are done right now. Your own dad shoved that prenup down my throat and I swear to god I'll use it."
That's when the waterworks started. She had 4 hours before she had to go to the airport, she spent the first-hour being evasive and crying, the next hour plus finally coming clean and the last bit begging me to give her time to end it and to start "making it up to me." if it was the last thing she ever did. Thank god I didn't voice my thoughts about my ensuring her last thing.
I learned that the two of them had been fucking for just over ten years. That he basically laid it out that if she wanted to make partner she'd better be his office "partner". She explained that she never even hesitated, that they had their first sex right then and there in his office. She told me it wasn't done to hurt me and that great pains had been taken to keep me and his wife from finding out. That she loved only me and it had nothing to do with "us". Just before she had to head out to make her flight she was begging me not to do anything drastic until we talked once she got home. She wouldn't say they weren't going to get together in the 2 weeks while she was gone, she wouldn't look me in the eye. I'd shown her the video clip and she admitted I had all I needed to enforce the prenup but she begged me not to do anything till she got back.
Thank god the kids were with my folks that afternoon. I'd been planning on some pre-trip nookie but then I'd gotten the video and had a confrontation instead. I know it was petty but I made her load her own bags in her Explorer and I felt good about it.
She wasn't gone 5 minutes and I was on the phone with David Sharpe, one of my employees. David ran my security guard side business. He was 6'3" and 280 lbs of muscle and surgical steel. David's left leg was gone just blow his knee as was his left arm 5 inches below his elbow, courtesy of some ragheads in Iraq. David and I went back 6 years. I needed a security guy for a contract and he more than filled the position. When I told him what had happened he said "I'll get a couple of the guys together and come over Mark. I can't believe Meridith would do that to you."
As much as humanly possible I exclusively hired vets for my various operations. My baseline was building maintenance, but we also did site security, in house security and video surveillance, and most recently, I hired some former MPs to do PI work. I also had 2 geeks on my payroll who could make a computer tell them anything.
She'd been gone less than 30 minutes, probably been at the airport less than 10 when I got a call from good ole Keith. He told me that he was sending a couple of the law firms guys over to "chat" with me about how I was going to act and behave as "Meri's" house husband from now till further notice. I listened but didn't say a word past hello. Gotta love that "record conversation" feature on my phone.
Keith had barely hung up when David showed up with his buddy Jim and his other buddy Jim (who was called "Squint") and Tom. All 3 of them were also gulf vets and they all had scars and all their parts. All 3 of them had come "home" to cheating wives, all of them had had issues finding work, all of them had started having issues with drinking, at least till they ended up crossing my path.
They weren't in my place 10 minutes when "Uncle" Abe Goldberg, the founder and most senior of the senior partners (with 55% of the voting stock), called to express his regrets that "Meri and Keith hadn't broken things off when he told them to 6 years earlier." "Uncle" Abe was Meri's Uncle. He had written the prenup her dad insisted I sign. He'd made it clear to Meri and I that he wanted her to take over when he retired but that she was going to have to earn the position. Uncle Abe was the reason I met Meri in the first place. I was fixing things in his house when she came for a visit during the spring break of her last year of school. I was in lust the moment I saw her, and in love by our 4th date. She seemed equally interested and we were married in December of the year she graduated. Meri was in her first year at work when Alice was born and her third when Mort came along (Mortimer Douglas Allen, named after his grandfathers). Mellissa came as a surprise, at least to me, I'd thought we were done at 2 but Meri went off her pills without telling me. My Missy was almost 8 now. Abe had started it all, and here he was telling me he knew about this shit for years and kept me in the dark. That was fucked up and I told him about it, I considered him my friend and he had hidden it from me.
Time for some descriptions, I'm just shy of 6 ft, blondish, grey to blue eyes dependant on mood, 220lbs or so. I've got the dad's bod going. Meri is almost as tall, hair so blond its almost white, pale cause she's never in the sun, ice-blue eyes, a trim, fit 135. The older kids look Scandinavian, blond n blue. Then there's Missy. Missy looked like her mom's dad and Uncle Abe, dark brown hair and eyes.
All good ole Uncle Abe had to say was "don't do anything you'll regret later Mark, please."
My reply was "well fuck you too Uncle Abe." and I hung up.
Dave took my phone, pulled the back off and dumped the battery. He told me to go to Walmart and get a Straight Talk phone and minutes card, get a new number and to dump my old ATT contract first thing. He also advised me to get the older kids' phones and disable them at least until I had talked to them. Squint spent a few minutes on my laptop and their plans were temporarily suspended.
About that time we heard a car pull up and several doors open and close. Dave looked and a couple of the goon type PIs that the law firm used from time to time were coming up the walk. Dave, Jim, Squint, and Tom went into the kitchen, I went into my den. I keep a 12ga pump shotgun there loaded with #9 birdshot. #9 birdshot is a wonderful thing. Across a room, it hits flesh like a slug but it won't go thru 2 layers of sheetrock with enough force to break anyone's skin. Dave and company are concealed carry permit holders and always carry.
Dave had parked on the street opposite my place in front of my neighbors. I'm not sure but I don't think it would have mattered to the goons. They didn't even knock, the first one just kicked my front door in and they rushed into my place. Rushed in to find a 12ga in front of them and 4 handguns behind and to one side of them. Outnumbered and outgunned, 2 had drawn pistols of their own, they decided to cooperate with Dave and co. When I went into my den I triggered my alarm system which video and audio recorded their entry, confrontation, and dis-arming. The alarm company called 911 for us and by the time the cops arrived they were trussed up like hogs going to slaughter with zip ties.
The first officers took one look at the scene, ordered everyone to drop their weapons, took us all into custody and called for backup, lots of backup and a supervisor. I think every LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) in 25 miles eventually showed up at my house over the next 30 minutes. We had officers from at least 4 departments show up. The supervisor they called for was one Sgt. Braden. Emery Braden was another veteran and I had contact with him fairly regularly through my business operations. Everyone's statements were taken, the 3 company goons asking for lawyers, and the security video was looked at and provided to the cops as evidence. Dave, Squint, Jim, Tom and I were released and our various weapons were left on the kitchen table, unloaded. the 3 goons got a ride to the county lockup. It was nearly 2 hours later and the last of the cops were gone.
I had called my folks while the commotion was still going on (with Dave's phone) and asked them not to let the kids speak to Meri or anyone from her work till I said so. When mom asked why I told her. Dad was on another handset and so was Alice. They didn't know she had picked one up and she heard the whole deal. I'd barely finished when Alice yelled "that fucking, lying, cheating cunt." there was a loud burst of static then because she had thrown the handset to the floor and smashed it. My daughter Alice has more than a bit of temper and like all my kids was very protective of dad. Not so much mom. It was dad who took them places, went to things, was there when a parent was needed. Mom (Meri) was almost always too busy with work and honestly, it seemed she saw the kids as a bother. Maybe that's why I overcompensated and spoiled them as much as I could. Long and short of it, by the time I got to the kids Alice was sure to have told them what was going on.