Love Hurts

I was sitting in a bar having a quiet time drinking my usual scotch and water when I watched her walk up to the jukebox and put a quarter in. To me she was still the most beautiful girl in the world and had been since I had first met her. I knew she knew I was there. She had come to give me a reminder once again of where we were in our relationship. I knew we were in limbo because I could not decide how to resolve it all. It took about thirty seconds for the record to start to play.

'Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and marks' blasted through the speakers. The words of that song took me back to the day I had realized it all had begun.

It had reached the point that I had put together a great scheme by one to take me down and destroy my marriage. The Bitch had almost succeeded. All it had taken was determination, focus, and attention to the details along with the time for the power of persuasion to work. It didn't hurt that she had the power and influence. The problem for me was I did not know how I could get that person's ongoing conduct to end. Once she failed, I knew she would try again.

The angle of how it had been done had been so masterfully applied that no one would believe the person behind it had almost achieved it. I even knew the reason my problem now was coming to ahead. The question I had to decided was how I was going to deal with it. The problem started years ago on the day that Jody and I got married.

Jody's first two names are Joanne Mandy. Her parents started calling her Jody long before she started grade school. I met her at a mutual friend's birthday party a year after I started teaching high school. I wasn't looking for love or a relationship and had stepped in to break up an argument between her and her date.

I got them parted and had escorted him off the property by suggesting he go home and come down from whatever he was high on. As I watched him drive off, I called the local police station and warned them that he was driving under the influence of something. I have even given them the make, model and plate numbers.

When they pulled him over with his anger still raging, he had decided to swing at the police officers. That was his first mistake. That allowed them to search the vehicle and they found enough drugs to charge him with possession with the intention to sell. What I didn't know he used Jody's brother's name to try to defuse his situation.

Since Jody had come with him, I offered to give her a ride home when the events started to wind down. She asked about my date and I said I had come alone. That perked her interest and I explained that I was to busy paying down educational debts and couldn't afford one. She laughed and said get serious then accepted the ride home.

Her older brother a police detective had heard about the bust and was waiting at his parent's place for Jody to get home because he was concerned about her wellbeing. I didn't know when I first met him that he was one.

The jukebox belted out 'any heart, not tough or strong enough to take a lot of pain'. Jody was playing it deliberately to try to get me past the pain that I was dealing with like those unexplained nights and the lies that went with them. Little did she realize she was making me relive it all again. My mind went back to the night we met.

Like all overprotective big brothers, he had to check me out after I had safely brought her home. It was he that gave Jody my phone number and told her that I was coaching a basketball game at the high school that Friday night.

Jody came to the game with her parents only to watch our team get beat badly because two of our best players were carrying out their anger to each other over one of the school cheerleaders that the two of them were chasing. Team spirit went out the window during the first half and we were down so far, we couldn't recover.

During the second half, we outplayed them and doubled their scores, but it was still not enough. The two players involved in the dispute had been benched for the second half. Before they went home that night everyone knew they were out for the season.

We went to the divisional championships that season. Jody's father said that I had been given no choice and agreed with my decision. The two players had allowed their dispute between the two of them to destroy the unity of the team.

The next day Jody and I met for lunch and that began our relationship. She had wanted to thank me for how I handled the situation with her former boyfriend. Jody's personality to me was addicting for she seemed to find humor in everything. Eight months later I asked her father for his daughter's hand and he gladly gave me his blessing.

The jukebox boomed, 'takes a lot of pain love is like a cloud holds a lot of rain Love hurts'. No truer words could have been spoken to me because in the solitude of my mind that's where it sat. Each day at school I saw the smiling faces of young couples in love and it reminded me of innocence that Jody and I once had.

Slowly I had begun to figure it out. Pat Robertson's son and I were about the same age. Pat a female in her forties at the time worked beside my wife on the second floor at the blue cross data processing center in our small town. Five days a week fifty-two times a year for ten years. Routinely the four-floor office complex processed medical insurance claims daily.

Each one had to be reviewed and gone thoroughly completely to save as much money as possible. It was surprising how much was refused by a simple thing such as improper coding. Blue Cross was able to cut its responsibility for claims by ten percent on that alone.

Pat Roberson my wife's supervisor met me for the first time on the day of Jody's and my wedding. By that time, she had worked with my wife for three years. I knew as soon as I met her by the way she looked at me that she did not like me. It would take time for me to find out the reason. I learned from staff socials over the next few years the reason behind her personal feelings.

As I watch Jody and her father walked towards me, I thought I was the richest man in the world. She looked like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. With her blonde hair styled to perfection, the white full-length gown hugging her frame, and a smile that lit up the whole room.

From the moment of our return from our honeymoon, Pat Robertson began to hunt for a reason and a way to degrade me or my views in my wife Jody's eyes. Over the course of the last few years of our marriage, she had caused a lot of minor problems for us until both of us found out why she was doing that. That's when my wife began to learn to just block her out whenever she mentioned my name.

Pat had one big problem according to all I had talked to. She believed that my wife had married the wrong man. The man she should have married was her son. Matt was a computer nerd who ran his own business and was quietly successful. His biggest problem was he was socially inept.

His only problem that because of his upbringing he was socially backward and hadn't dated anyone in years. Most who had gone to school with him had said they had never met a more boring person in their lives than him. Pat felt it was her responsibility as a mother to find him the perfect wife. To her Jody was it.

The lead singer of Nazareth sang 'love hurts love hurts.' Boy does it ever, especially when the pain is caused by others outside of the lovers' control.

It became more a problem for Pat Robertson when Jody gave birth to our first daughter. That little ray of sunshine should have been her son Matt's and Jody's not Jody's and mine. Then two years later our second child also a girl came into the world which made Pat's problem worse. Jody and I had two kids that should have been Matt's and Jody's instead of Jody's and mine.

What I did not know was that was the day that Pat decided she had to destroy our marriage if Jody was going to be able to give her the grandchildren she wanted. Pat was a woman who did not give up or back down. When she wanted something, she achieved it regardless of the consequences.

During her short walk in life, she had already proved that her greatest mastery was in destroying marriages. She had done it three times. Taking the man, she had trapped into marriage down each time making herself richer because of it while leaving the man she had dominated broke and beaten. That was why most of those who knew her son believed that he was afraid of women. Yes, to most who knew her background she was one scary woman.

She was aided in her plan by the human resources department that promoted her to the assistant administration manager and allow her to promote who she wanted to her former position as a sectional supervisor. This gave Pat Robertson access to every security code the data center had in its system. That was when her long term scheming turned into action. Of course, she picked my wife to step into her shoes.

As a result, a pattern was established by her. She started to send with human resources approval Jody on every training session for management as possible and got her taking courses online to improve her qualifications in the new field. By doing that Pat thought it would speed up the breakup of our marriage because of the time it would take away from she called family responsibilities.

Jody thrilled with the chance of further advancement and self-improvement ate the attention up. That only aggravated Pat even more because I was too supportive of my wife and her new opportunity. Pat had expected that in her eyes I would not have supported her. What Pat failed to understand that as a high school teacher I encouraged everyone to follow their dreams in the educational fields.

One of the new inhouse programs Pat set up overtime was the Thursday night meeting with all sectional supervisors. Since the data center for the blue cross was primarily filled with women it left quite of their husbands totally pissed off. With four section leaders on each floor, there were sixteen females who had their lives routines changed overnight.

The song went on saying 'I'm young, I know but even, so I know a thing or two.' That's what the problem was. What I learned before the truth came out was really an eye-opener.

Slowly one by one the husbands found the name of another one of these husbands who were having their marital lives indirectly affected by the new policy that Pat brought in. We all personally believed that if Pat had of being honest about who and what she was all about. She would have come out and admitted that she was a Butch Dyke.

Between us all, we formed an informal social group. All of us believed that we had to find some way to force the corporation to cut the mid-management staff some slack.

It was on a Thursday night when one of the Thursday night wifeless father's stopped off at my place asking me to watch his kids. He had reached the point where he was tired of the bullshit and wanted to find out what was so important about these Thursday night meetings.

He drove over to the Blue Cross data center to discover there were no cars in the parking lot. After banging on the doors for a few he attracted security. Who came on prepared to take him into custody because of his agitated state? Once he explained why he was so upset that was when the conversation began to get serious.

There was no Thursday night management meeting and never had been. When he accused them of lying, they produced for him in minutes the electronic sign out times on the timecards for his wife on Thursday nights for the whole time period and gave it to him. He was smart he had recorded the conversation on his cell phone.

By the time the ladies, were due to be home from their usual Thursday night staff meeting every husband had been forwarded via cellphones a copy so they could discover for themselves that for the last sixteen months their wifes had been lying about what was going on. Over the course of the evening through multiple phone calls, we all decided as a group to keep quiet for now. That's when I decided I needed some guidance.

The song continued 'I learned; from you, I really learned a lot Really learned a lot.'

It came to me in the middle of the night that whatever was going on was Pat Robertson's latest attempt to drive a wedge between Jody's and my relationship. There were two things I did not know. Was Jody a willing participant in it and was she actually involved with Pat's son Matt?

With all that was going on the next Saturday morning, I met Jody's older brother Bob for coffee. He also knew about Jody's Thursday night meetings hell everybody did. It had cost her attendance as some of her side of the family's special events. Bob had just written it off as it being part of the employment situation his little sister was in.

I told Bob of all the problems his sister and I had been going through because of Pat Robertson's ongoing attempts to destroy our marriage. I purposely did not tell him the reason why. Bob felt he could not look into it. That was until I let him listen to the conversation that had been recorded.

If you have never seen a police detective listen to a conversation that definitely implies that a scam is being pulled that may or may not be legal you should. It gives one an interesting lesson on how they respond to things.

"How many husbands are caught up by this," Bob asked?

"Sixteen of us, "I respond. "It's been going on for about sixteen months. I found out because I looked after another husband's kids when he wanted to check things out last Thursday night. It's his voice that you hear on the audio clip."

"Dam it, Arlie," He said. "Don't do anything stupid. We have sixteen females whose time is unaccounted for plus their boss for about six hours a week every Thursday night. This has structure, routine, secrecy, and organization to it. Whatever is going on has been deliberately kept from all of you."

"The way it's been done implies that whatever is going on may not be legal," He explained. "Just the fact that what is going on is being covered up is forcing the department to look further into it. Contact those you know. Explain to them that they're not to say anything or do anything to upset the apple cart while this is under investigation."

"Bob do you think it's that serious," I had to ask?

"Don't know yet. It's too early to tell," He said. "But their conduct is suspicious enough for us to investigate to find out what they all have been doing during that time. Send me the file that contains that conversation as there are others who will need to hear it. My gut is telling me your friend stumbled into something big."

I took my cellphone and talked to the person I had babysat for Thursday night. Letting him know what the police detective wanted us to do. I will pass the word he said because no one has said anything because they thought we should all figure it out together before going forth. I asked him to gather a list of all the ladies' names who were part of those who were unaccountable for Thursday nights and email to Detective Robert Parson as soon as possible.

I had to talk to Bob again, so we captured a private moment at a family function a few weeks later. He told me it was being investigated on this end by his department in cooperation with the FBI computer fraud division. He made it clear until it was finished, he couldn't reveal anything. If Jody is involved, she will be treated like all the others. At that point, I knew that what we had accidentally stumbled upon was serious.

The jukebox boomed 'Love is like a flame it burns you when it's hot Love hurts Love hurts.' Those words brought tears to my eyes because it reminded me of what happened next.

It had been eighteen weeks since I had talked to my brother in law Bob about the situation. I was headed over to my mother in law's to pick up my daughters because I was running late because of one of the problem student's parents.

Jody's mother was a saint in my eyes. Since the time Jody had returned to work after maternity leave with the birth of our first. Sharron had stepped up and babysat our daughter. There was no way she was going to allow anyone but her to look after her. We paid her a thousand a month now because she took care of two.

It was my own fault I ran a yellow light, a truck sitting at the intersection jumped the red light and broadsided me on the driver's side. I was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital. As they loaded me up, I asked the officer to call Robert and get him to explain to his mom why I would not be picking up my daughters.

The last thing on my mind was the fact that this was a Thursday. Robert when he heard called first his sister on her cellphone and found that his call went to the answering service. After calling his mom he headed over to Pat Roberson's with a team of police officers.

It had been learned that Pat was operating a skim program on the data system in the office she worked in and once a week the sixteen ladies underneath her had to work Thursday evening helping her shave a few dollars off what the hospitals would be paid in their billings. The basement of her home had been turned into a small computer center set up with the help of her son who had been able to bypass all the security that Blue Cross had installed thanks to the codes she had provided.

The hospitals she was scamming were all on the east coast. On each individual bill, they submitted they lost a dollar or two all it took was adding a processing fee against part of the claim which would end up being paid by the end-user. Over the course of sixteen months with the number of bills submitted it had added up to a very large sum.

Blue cross audit department hadn't caught it until the FBI had come into the corporate office. Pat Robertson had added a processing fee against these hospitals and had that amount transferred daily to a separate account. Once a month the computer would automatically transfer the built up amount to an offshore account.

The problem was in the raid was that my wife was not with them. He asked Pat Roberson where my wife was? Robert learned by questioning others that Jody was with Matt and had been teaching him social skills every Thursday night for over a year.

Once Bob had found out Pat Robertson made it clear that Jody had refused from day one to work overtime. Pat believed that Jody felt something else was going on and had refused to go along.

All the employees actually thought they were doing regular work. Pat had used a special performance raise to cover the extra hours the ladies were putting in. So, all thought they were being paid for the additional hours.

This new processing fee they believed was just a charge the corporation was trying on a trial basis to see if it would be accepted or challenged. Until they decided if they were going to take it nationwide. These were being done quietly as not to draw the general medical field's attention.

Jody had refused to take part, but in order to keep her job had been forced to agree to secrecy and to teach Matt how to become a normal adult who would be able to fit into society's social norms. Tonight, they had gone out for dinner as a couple to the private golf club that Matt was a member of.

Robert left the team to do the cleanup and drove with another officer over to the private club in Jackson to arrest Matt and inform his little sister that I was in the hospital. They were not in the restaurant or in the lounge. They were located in a private area square dancing to some programmed music.

"Robert what are you doing here," Jody asked her brother.

"I'm here to arrest your lover," He said. "He's joining his mother and sixteen of your co-workers in jail for fraud, theft, and a few other charges."