Chapter 1
Dana was late getting home from work on Wednesday evening. Troy, her husband, waited on her for dinner, but by 7 PM, when she wasn't there, he gave up and ate some warmed up leftovers. He was getting worried. Troy had called her cell phone a few times and texted her, but she didn't answer. He tried to call her office, but since it was past five o'clock, the call went straight to their after-hours answering service. This behavior was not like Dana. If she ever had to be late, she always let him know in advance, and she never failed to respond to calls or text messages.
Something must be wrong.
By 8 PM, he was really growing concerned, so he climbed into his pickup and drove the ten minutes to her office. Dana was the HR manager for a small consulting firm and worked at their corporate headquarter's in a small office park in Plano, Texas. The parking lot was practically empty. There were almost always one or two cars in the lot, but Dana's car was not in her assigned spot.
He tried calling her again, just in case she had gotten home while he was looking for her, but the call went directly to voice mail. That usually indicated that either her battery was dead or she had turned the phone off. He started to head back home, but on a wild hunch decided to drive down the street to a nearby dining and entertainment complex. It was not uncommon for her co-workers to head over to one of the numerous bars for drinks after work.
It was now almost 9 PM as he drove around inside the parking garage. There were hundreds of places to park, so he wasn't very optimistic that he would find her, but as Troy reached the third floor, he saw Dana's car with its distinctive custom plate that read BMWgirlz. He pulled into an empty spot nearby and checked her car out. Nothing seemed out of place. She had taken her purse and cell phone, so that was at least a little reassuring. He looked around, wondering where she might be.
Troy walked to the nearest staircase and went down to the ground floor. Surveying the area, he realized Dana could be in any of the twenty or thirty restaurants or bars in the massive complex. However, the fact that she was parked this far to one end of the garage hinted that she might be at one of two places that were down at this end, away from the main section. He noted mentally, with growing unease, that this was also adjacent to the Mariott hotel.
He checked the little Italian bistro first, but Dana was not there. He cut through an alleyway and turned down the side street where he remembered there was a dimly-lit Irish pub. In fact, it was Dana who had pointed the pub out to him a few months ago when they were in the area for dinner. He crossed the street to approach the bar from the side to avoid being seen.
The entire front of the pub was open to the street, with a couple of tables on the sidewalk. Loud music and laughter filled the air. It sounded like a party was going on inside. Troy knew the place got rowdy when the Premier League was active and during NFL games, but nothing was going on sports-wise to justify a crowd, so something else had to be happening.
As he peered inside, he could see a large party taking place. Balloons and streamers decorated the interior in festive colors. A large banner hung across that bar that proclaimed, "Happy Retirement!" There had to be forty or fifty people there, all laughing, joking and drinking heavily. It would seem that someone from Dana's company was retiring.
Troy wondered why Dana hadn't mentioned the party to him. It was a simple thing. He assumed she must have been busy planning and organizing it, and it slipped her mind to let him know. He felt relief, knowing she was safe and was about to head back home when the crowd inside began chanting "Speech! Speech! Speech!". He was curious to see who the party was for, so he hesitated and watched.
That's when he first saw his wife. She looked happy, blissfully so, and drunk. She was standing near the front of the bar, facing the crowd and waving at them. Everyone quieted down, and Dana began to speak.
"Thank you all so much for this party," she said, appearing to fight back tears. "I will miss you all terribly."
What the fuck is she talking about, Troy wondered.
"The last eight years working with you all have been wonderful," Dana continued. "But, now it is time for me to enjoy my life for a change. I'll send you postcards from Southern France once I get settled. You're all welcome to join us there any time."
Southern France? Us? Troy was dumbfounded. He felt a sickness in the pit of his stomach. He and Dana had always talked of one day retiring to the South of France, and here she was going there with someone else!
"One last thing," Dana said, pausing to make sure everyone was paying close attention. She grabbed the hem of her sweater and jerked her arms up, pulling the cloth up to her neck, exposing her bare 36-D breasts to the room. Everyone cheered wildly. She covered them again, blushing beet red, then added, "Christ! I've wanted to do that for eight years. I'm no longer the HR manager, so I can do what I want!" She turned to the man standing beside her, grabbed him by the face and pulled in into a lingering, wet kiss that went on for more than a minute as her co-workers cheered.
The man was Dana's boss, Mitchell Fields, CEO, President, and recently divorced millionaire.
It all came crystal clear to Troy at that moment. He turned and walked away, retrieved his car, and drove home. On the way, he called their twenty-year-old daughter, Michelle, who was a junior at SMU. She answered right away.
"Hi Daddy!" she said, "How are you?"
"Did you know?" he asked.
There was a pause. Michelle and Dana were closer than mother and daughter. They were best friends who spent much of their spare time together, shopping, going on spa retreats, and being each other's closest confidante.
"Did I know what?" came Michelle's nervous response.
"That your mother is a cheating slut, has been fucking her boss behind my back, and is leaving me for the asshole."
There was another, longer pause. That was all the answer Troy needed.
"Daddy!" Michelle began, looking for the right words.
"That's what I thought," Troy replied. "What have I done to deserve this?"
"Daddy, it's not like that, really," Michelle stated. "You should talk to Mom."
"Don't fucking call me Daddy," Troy fired back bitterly, "I'm no longer your father. You betrayed me and chose her side in this. You're dead to me."
Michelle cried out, "No! Daddy! Please, listen!"
"Listen? What can you possibly say to make me understand?" Troy demanded. "You're mother retired from her job without telling me! She's moving to Southern France with her asshole boss, without saying a fucking word to me!"
"What?" Michelle asked incredulously. "What are you talking about? Mom didn't tell me anything about this!"
"You didn't know she was cheating on me with her boss?"
"No, I swear! I thought you were talking about something else! I don't know anything about this. Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm fucking sure! I saw her with him! I saw her at her retirement party five minutes ago! She told everyone she's moving to Southern France, then kissed that asshole the way you kiss a lover, not a boss!"
"Dad," Michelle cried, "I swear, I didn't know! I thought you found out about Darryl and Mom."
"What? Darryl? Darryl who? What are you talking about?"
"Oh shit, Dad, I'm sorry! I thought you knew!"
"Knew what?"
"Remember the pool party we had back in June, right after school got out?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Remember the guy I brought with me, Darryl?"
"Yeah, the guy from the SMU football team," Troy replied. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"Remember how you got really drunk and fell asleep by the fireplace on the back porch?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Darryl and I went skinny dipping, and he convinced Mom to join us. She was drunk and got too carried away. He was flirting with Mom, and she was responding. I got mad and made the mistake of going inside and leaving them alone for a few minutes. When I came back, I could tell that while I was gone, Darryl fucked Mom. I was furious, but she was drunk and swore she regretted it. She begged me not to tell you because she knew you would leave her. I didn't want you guys to get divorced, so I forgave her and never told you. That's why I stopped seeing Darryl and why Mom and I haven't been as close as we used to be."
Troy struggled to process what his daughter had told him. Not only was Dana sleeping with her boss, but she'd also been fucking at least one other person. He felt sick. He was overcome with the feeling that everything he thought he knew about his wife was a lie.
"Dad?" Michelle called out. "Are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here," Troy replied. "I don't know what to believe anymore."
"Daddy, I swear I didn't know anything about her fucking her boss," Michelle said. "If I had known about it, I would not have kept it from you. The thing with Darryl was bad, but she convinced me it was a mistake and the only time she'd ever cheated on you. I believed her. But, if what you say is true, she was lying to both of us!"
"It's true."
"Do you have any proof?"
"No."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Troy answered. "I have no fucking idea. If she divorces me, she'll ruin me! I'll have to sell the house and all our property! She'll get half of everything. The worst part is I started my business after we got married, so she's entitled to half of that, too! Hell, I'll probably have to pay her support on top of everything!"
"But, why should you be punished for her being a slut?" Michelle asked.
"That's just the way divorces go, Michelle," Troy explained. "Unless I can prove she is cheating on me. But, to do that, I would have to have clear and undeniable proof and be able to convince a judge to allow me to file for divorce on the grounds of adultery."
"Can't you sue her boss or his company for alienation of affection or sexual harassment or something?" She asked.
"I don't think Texas allows alienation of affection suits, honey," Troy explained. "And, he didn't sexually harass me, so I can't sue them for that. Anyway, I don't think anybody harassed your Mom. She seemed perfectly happy with how things turned out."
"So, Mom hasn't told you anything yet?"
"Not a word! I only found out because she was so late getting home and she didn't tell me she would be. I got worried, so I went to look for her and found her at Paddy's Pub, having a retirement party in her honor."
"I wonder when she is planning to tell you," Michelle pondered.
"I don't know," Troy replied. "She'll probably wait until the last possible minute so that I won't have a chance to do anything to interfere."
"What kind of proof would you need?" Michelle asked.
"I don't know, pictures, video, witnesses, maybe a confession," Troy replied.
"Daddy," Michelle said softly.
"Yes, baby?"
"I have an idea."
