Indiscreet
My life began its nosedive on the evening of 14 December, the night of my wife's company Christmas party. I had been to quite a few of these soirees over the years and, generally, had a good time meeting my wife's co-workers. This year, however, saw a change, a big change. To begin with my wife, Julie, had tried very hard to talk me out of going in the first place. Then, while at the party, I noticed she was paying a lot of attention to one co-worker in particular at the exclusion of everyone else, including myself.
I was sitting by myself nursing my glass of wine when the bank's president, Guy Samuels, sat next to me and asked if I was enjoying myself this year. I replied, "Not really. Who is that guy standing with Julie?"
Guy looked over to where I was indicating and said, "That's Julie's new boss, Chad Simmons." Guy looked at me and then asked, "You don't think anything is going on between those two, do you? Our bank has a very strict ethics code which forbids co-workers from any improprieties. Being caught in an indiscretion is cause for immediate termination, so I don't think those two would risk that."
I looked at Guy and said, "The state imposes speed limits on the highways, but that doesn't stop people from speeding. As much as I hope you are right, I'm pretty sure those two are having an affair. She's looking at him the way she used to look at me when we were first dating. She's in love and not with me anymore."
Guy looked at me with pity in his eyes and said, "Sam, I hope you are wrong for everyone's sake. Chad is married with two young children. Actually, I'm surprised that his wife isn't here with him."
"My guess is that he didn't tell his wife about the party. My wife really tried to talk me out of coming tonight. In some ways, I wish I hadn't come and continued my life in blissful ignorance, but alas, here I am."
Guy stood, patted my shoulder and said, "Well, I hope you're wrong about them." He then moved off to talk with other groups of people.
I continued to sit and stare at my wife and her paramour with what I'm sure was a very sour look on my face. Finally, Julie looked over towards me and gave me a half smile until she saw the look in my eyes, then flushed red for a moment and turned her attention back to Chad. Of the 3 hours I was at the party, Julie spent a half an hour with other co-workers, 15 minutes with me and the remaining time staring dotingly at Chad.
I had, finally, had all the fun I could take, so I walked up to Julie and Chad and said, "I think it's about time we went home. Unless you need or want to stay. Perhaps this gentleman can give you a ride. I don't think we've met, I'm Sam Butler, Julie's husband."
I stuck out my hand to shake and Chad took it as he said, "Chad Simmons, nice to meet you. I'd be happy to give Julie a ride home if she would like."
Julie got a look in her eyes like Christmas had come early as she said, "Are you sure you don't mind. I am having a good time and don't really want to leave yet."
"Whatever you want, dear. I'll see you later, but don't be too late."
I gave Julie a peck on the cheek and then turned to leave. As I fetched my coat I surmised that I was 75% correct that those two were having an affair. I went out to my car, turned on the engine to let the heater warm things up and decided to wait until the two lovebirds left to see what they would get up to. An hour later, the party broke up and people began streaming out to the parking lot.
I had moved my car from its original parking spot to a dark corner so I could observe unobtrusively. As it turned out, Chad was parked just on the other side of another car from me. I watched the two of them walking towards his car holding hands like teenage lovers. I began taking a video with my cellphone of their stroll towards the car. When they got to the car, Chad walked Julie to the passenger door, took her in his arms and with a cursory look around began kissing her passionately.
I was able to get a picture of their heads as they kissed through my open window. Much to my chagrin, Julie didn't rebuff Chad in the slightest, but seemed to exult in their embrace. When they broke the kiss, Julie said, "I love you so much, Chad."
"I love you to, Jules. When do you think we can be together again? I want you so bad."
"Sam is due for one of his trips to his corporate headquarters very soon. As you know, he's usually gone for several nights, so we can have some time together besides quickies."
"Well, as soon as you know anything let me know." They then began kissing again.
I had heard enough and started my car, which caused them to hurriedly jump into Chad's car. I pulled out with my lights off making it difficult to identify my car and then headed for home. When I got home, I thought about our daughter Lizzie who was oblivious to the hell that was about to befall our family. I went to her room to see if she was there and found that she was and that she was sound asleep.
I went into my home office, fired up my computer and began doing a check on Chad Simmons. I worked from home for a computer security company, so I have access to a lot of databases not available to ordinary people. I did some preliminary research until Julie came home, about an hour after I arrived. I went out to the living room as she walked in the door and noticed that her lips were a bit puffy, that she had some whisker burn on her cheeks and that her hair was mussed a bit. I told her Lizzie was asleep and that I was going to do a little work before going to bed. I then turned and headed back into my office and closed the door.
I couldn't believe she would come home in her condition, so I sat down and began working on a strategy to extricate myself from my failed marriage. The first thing I would do is announce to Julie that I had to fly to New York in a couple of days to our corporate headquarters. I had no intention of going anywhere, but would observe what Julie and Chad got up to. I decided that I would invest in some miniature cameras and place them around the house to record what happened in my absence in our home. I, also, decided to rent a car for my stay in the area in order to be able to spy on my wife and her lover more easily. I waited to get into bed until I was confident Julie was asleep because I didn't want to have to interact with her in any way.
The next day was Sunday and I announced to Julie that I had to fly to New York on Wednesday for several days. I saw a brief smile flash on Julie's face as she acknowledged that I was going away. I then spent the bulk of the day doing work around the house preparing for the day that I would kick my wife out. I bought a set of new locks for the house from the hardware store to install when I gave her the boot.
Lizzie had spent the day at a friend's house doing whatever 18 year old high school students do. Lizzie and I had a close relationship because I was always home for her due to my job. I helped her with her homework, talked to her about problems she had with school and people and took her places on weekends when she wasn't doing things with her friends.
On Monday, after Julie went to work, I set up the miniature cameras I had purchased earlier that day and linked them via Bluetooth to my computer. I put the cameras in our bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and managed to get one in the hallway. I wanted to make sure that she wasn't cheating in our house.
On Tuesday, I went to a divorce lawyer to find out what my options were. I found out that our state was not a 'no-fault divorce' state and that I could sue for divorce based on adultery. If I could prove unequivocally that Julie had an affair. If I could I probably would not have to pay alimony. Since Lizzie was 18, there was no issue with child custody. After all I had seen on the Christmas party night, I thought that it would be a pretty simple matter based on how indiscreet the two had been. I told my lawyer that I wanted a no holds barred divorce and that I wanted to punish the two cheaters as much as possible. Our house had been left to me by my grandparents after their death, so was not brought into the marriage after we had married. Other than the house, our assets included a savings account with about $30,000, what we had in checking and our individual retirement accounts.
After visiting the lawyer, I set about establishing a separate checking account in my name only and transferred all of our joint checking and savings account to it. I, also, cancelled our joint credit cards and paid them off, and set up a new credit account in my name only. Additionally, I started new cell service for Lizzie and myself. I decided to leave our original service alone, until I caught the two red-handed.
So, Tuesday night I packed as I normally would for a trip to headquarters. I was having a difficult time remaining calm when I was around Julie. I couldn't understand why she didn't love me anymore and why she fell in love with another man. I had always thought we had a perfect marriage. We rarely argued, we didn't have money problems, our sex life seemed excellent, though it had tapered off lately, and we had Lizzie.
On Wednesday, I got up, fixed Lizzie breakfast and got her ready for school like I normally do. Once she was out the door I said goodbye to Julie and told her I would see her when I got back on Friday or Saturday. She waved goodbye and said that she loved me. I replied, 'I loved you too', and headed out of the door without so much as a kiss on the cheek. I thought that maybe I was reading things into the situation, but Julie seemed very anxious for me to go. I headed for the airport, parked my car in the lot and then headed for the rental car area to pick-up my rental car.
I had discovered Chad Simmons' address in my research, so I parked near his house and waited to see what he did. A short while later saw Chad get into his car and drive off. I followed him until he got to the bank where he and Julie worked. Figuring he wasn't going anywhere for a while, I walked over to a nearby Starbucks and bought a large coffee and sweet roll and then headed back to my car. At about 2:30, I saw Chad head back to his car with a big shit eating grin on his face. I was pretty sure I knew where he was headed and sure enough he was headed to my house.
As Chad approached the front door, I saw Julie throw it open for him standing in the doorway with only a sheer, see through night gown on. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately in view of all of our neighbors. These two were showing no discretion at all. I couldn't help but wonder about this change in Julie's behavior. She was, generally, very circumspect when it came to outrageous, sexy behavior.
I sat in my car for quite a while in order for my video cameras to catch as much action as possible before I went in and busted them. I figured an hour would give them plenty of time to hang themselves, so when an hour was up I entered my house. I could hear the two of them going at it as they were quite noisy. Julie and I used to be noisy before Lizzie came along and since then we had to exercise more control than these two were.
