I seemed to come back from a deep, dark hole to find myself in a room that I'd seen somewhere before, but in my dazed condition I couldn't remember where or when. A tube was stuck up my nose, which I found uncomfortable and the noise of voices brought my mind more into focus. I recognized that of my wife demanding something from someone in a white coat.
"How is he? What happened to him?" she was asking. I felt a moment of hostility toward her but couldn't recall why I was mad at her.
The white coated figure responded, "At the present time, we aren't sure what his problem is. We'll be doing a series of tests in the morning to determine if there is any damage to his heart, but we'll keep him in the ICU tonight and monitor his condition. Right now we're getting ready to sedate him so he rests comfortably tonight. We'll continue him on oxygen."
I felt a prick in my arm, which felt constrained somehow, and in a few minutes I seemed to slide back into my comfortable dark hole.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
When I woke again it was morning and a nurse was adjusting an IV connected to my arm. I looked around the room and the instrumentation connected to my body told me I was in ICU. My wife was curled up in a chair by the window sleeping and again I felt a mild annoyance but couldn't remember momentarily why I was annoyed at her. The nurse suddenly noticed I was awake and spoke.
"Good morning Mr. Carter. How are you feeling this morning?"
"Groggy." I managed to rasp out. My throat felt dry.
"Well, take a drink of this and you'll feel better." she told me as she held a straw to my lips and I took a swallow of water.
The noise of our talking must have wakened my wife.
"Jack, are you all right, sweetheart. I'm so sorry for what happened."
What had happened? I wondered in my fuzzy mental state. I tried to recollect anything from my memory that would explain what had happened and why I was here.
Suddenly, I remembered the previous evening and what had instigated a rage that I couldn't control. It was like a light bulb had been turned on in a darkened room.
"You bitch!" I suddenly screamed at my wife."Get the hell out of my sight." My wife looked at me with horror on her face.
Alarm bells were going off around me and the nurse was suddenly in a panic trying to get me to calm down. "Mr. Carter, please calm down. Mrs. Carter, you're going to have to leave immediately." the nurse said to my wife as she adjusted a valve on the IV and within a few seconds I slid back into my comfortable dark hole. The last thing I remembered was my wife sobbing and leaving the ICU.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
When I awoke again it must have been about mid day as the room was filled with sunlight and I heard my older son, David's voice.
"When can we find out how he is physically? The family is really concerned about his mental condition too."
"He should be waking soon, the doctor responded, "and as soon as that happens we'll get him started on some tests to determine the condition of his heart and his other vital signs. We should have a feel for his physical condition later this afternoon." As far as his mental condition, I would suggest you or some member of the family, except Mrs Carter, sit down and talk with him. From what I'm told he's had a severe reaction to your mother so we're asking her to stay away until this problem in their marriage can be resolved.. It might require a psychiatrist or marriage counselor to resolve the marital issues that seem to be bothering your father, but we need to determine his physical state first."
"All right, doctor. Thanks a lot. I'll be the spokesperson for the family in place of my mother."
"I understand." the doctor said as he turned toward my bed.
"Oh, good, Mr. Carter. I see you're awake. We'll start the testing right away."
"Dad, how are you doing?" Can I get you anything?"
"Yes, you can keep your mother to hell and gone away from me and tell John Masters I want to see him as soon as possible."
"John Masters, your lawyer? Okay dad, if that's what you want. I'll try to get him to see you tomorrow, but you need to explain this to us. Mom is almost having a nervous breakdown."
"I know son and I'll try to talk with you later about it."
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Chapter 2
How did this all start? Why am I so angry at my wife of twenty five years? I have to go back twelve years when I discovered that my wife was having an affair. It just about destroyed me that the person I loved most in the world would betray me and our children. At the time I thought we were happily married with three wonderful kids, David age 12, Sandra age 10 and Michael age 7. I had a good job and my very beautiful wife Ginger, age 35, worked part time at a bank as a teller.
Prior to my discovery of her infidelity I had sensed something was wrong in our marriage and then I noted the odd clues that made me suspicious. Our sex life had dropped off to near zero and then looking in her purse for our check book I discovered a motel receipt dated the previous Tuesday while I was out of town on business. Looking further in her purse I found a pack of condoms with two missing hidden in a secret compartment, which I found by feeling around the purse lining. This prompted me to look into our household finances, while she was at work one Saturday morning. She normally looked after the finances and paid the bills so I would not have a reason to look into our records. I found that billings on one of our credit cards showed charges two times the previous month for the same motel out near the airport. Dates coincided with times I was out of town on business. If she was meeting a lover I wondered why the hell she was paying for the room? Was her lover another woman? I also found her cell phone billings and found a number that had been consistently called that I didn't recognize.
This was more than suspicion now and I felt my chest begin to tighten and I felt nauseous so I went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat to see if the feelings would pass. While I waited I thought, is she really cheating on me? Why would she do it? Don't I give her enough of my love? Our sex life was good, I thought. I was tormenting myself with unknowns. I had to find the truth. After awhile the feelings of nausea and stress passed and I determined I would have to be careful in the future or I'd have a heart attack.
I made an appointment to see our lawyer, John Masters, the following Tuesday. I didn't say any thing to Ginger, but tried to act normal. However, when she indicated she wanted sex I couldn't respond to her and blamed it on the pressure of a new project at work. She seemed to accept that and appeared happy just to snuggle against me.
On Tuesday I took off from work and went to see John. He was surprised that Ginger might be involved in an affair but he did recommend that to be sure and have sufficient evidence of adultery, I should hire a licenced private investigator to collect the necessary information and pictures to support my assertions. He also advised me off my limited rights regarding custody of the children and recommended that it might be cheaper and better for the kids if I confronted her and got her to stop the affair to hold the marriage and family together. I agreed to take all he told me into consideration but would go ahead and have a private investigator document the affair. He thought that it would probably be prudent to do it and gave me the address and phone number of a private investigator he would vouch for. As soon as I got back to my office I called and made an appointment to see the investigator, Sam Davis, the next day.
Sam proved to be a sharp individual and when I told him about the evidence I found he indicated that I might have need for my suspicions. Noting that the supposed trysts with a lover happened on days I was out of town he asked when my next trip was scheduled. I told him that I was scheduled to be in Denver for a meeting on the following Tuesday and would be leaving Monday morning and. returning on Wednesday. Seeing as only one motel was involved in the previous supposed trysts he would concentrate his attention there but have an associate follow her to make sure starting from the time I left on Monday. He also wanted permission to tap our home phone and to place sound activated audio recorders in her car and in the house. Then he asked if my wife knew about my upcoming trip and I told him I'd just found out about it that morning and hadn't had an opportunity to tell Ginger yet. In that case he told me he wanted immediate access to her car and her house to install the recording devices and I was not to tell her until he had them planted. I knew she was at work and her car would be in the bank parking lot so we headed over there right away. He placed the sound activated recorder under the drivers seat. Then we headed for our house where he tapped our phone and hid several wireless mini mikes around the house with a receiver and recording device in an unlocked shed behind our house. This way, he told me, he could have an associate pick up the recordings daily while my wife was away from the house. I gave him a spare key to Ginger's car, when he asked, and said an associate would replace the tapes there periodically. When he was done he took down the number I'd discovered in Ginger's cell phone log and said he'd check out who had the number. I then returned to work after he told me he'd be in touch. That night after dinner I told Ginger about my planned business trip and she acted sad that I'd be away again. I noticed that the tight feeling in my chest and my feeling of nausea was with me constantly now.
I proceeded on with my life as normal while waiting to hear from Sam. If she was acting the loving wife, I would have to act the loving husband. That weekend I had sex with Ginger to keep her from becoming suspicious. I put a lot of effort into our love making and gave her three orgasms before I had mine and she was quite pleased with my performance as we lay exhausted afterward.
"What brought that on sweetheart? We haven't had sex like that since before the kids were born."
"I thought I'd let you know how much I love you and recognize how much you mean to me and the kids."
