Shit Happens Again

On 11/25/19 KingBandor© wrote a story called 'Shit Happens'. The story as pointed out by more than a few comments, said that he didn't finish it or that he had too many holes in it. With King's permission I have tried to somewhat finish it. Thanks Steve for the edit and King for the Beta read.

*****

"Oh, about the retirement and France thing?" Troy asked rhetorically. "Yeah, yeah, I understand. I believe you."

"Then why are you divorcing me?" Dana asked, tears running down her cheeks.

Troy stood up. "I'm divorcing you for fucking Darryl, you cheating bitch!"

"Darryl?" Dana gasped, then turned to Michelle and screamed, "You told him?"

Michelle was shocked. "Oh shit!"

Troy snickered, "Yeah, shit... shit happens."

********

Troy stood up and walked towards the door. As he prepared to open it he turned and said, "Dana, you were right about two things, yes I can work remotely and 'Shit Happens'. When you figure out what you did wrong, you might start to feel like I have for the last few days."

As he walked out the door he could hear her wailing. Where she got the idea that Darryl fucking her right in front of him even if he was passed out, or keeping this so-called move to France a secret were good things was a mystery. He would be reevaluating everything on Monday.

Troy had already set up a place to stay for the next week while they were at the spa. When he got to the Extended Stay he fired up his laptop and started his searches. Whatever he couldn't find he was sure his PI would. He turned his phone off so he wouldn't be bothered by Dana or Michelle.

Monday morning he met with the PI and he gave him everything he had collected so far. Troy thanked him and told him what he wanted next. It's amazing what you can get if you are willing to spend a little money.

After getting the PI's final report on Thursday Troy called Michelle.

"Dad, we've been trying to get ahold of you all week, where have you been?"

"Taking care of some business Michelle, I need you to do me a favor, get ahold of your mom and tell her I will be at the house at 10am on Saturday. It would be a good idea if you are there also."

"Dad, what's going on? Why won't you tell me anything?"

"Like I said, just be there at 10am."

Troy disconnected the line and turned his phone off. Michelle dialed her mom just that fast.

"Mom, dad just called and he scared me. He said to tell you he will be at the house at 10am Saturday and I'm supposed to be there also. What do you think this is about?"

"I don't know Michelle, he accuses me of cheating, serves me with divorce papers and leaves. I don't know what's going on in his head. You had better get here earlier, why don't you spend the night and we can get ready for Saturday together."

"OK, mom, do you want me to bring anything?"

"Until we know what he is up to, no."

They both hung up and Dana sat down and started running over everything in her head. What was it that Troy wanted? Why was he being this way? What did he want?

Troy spent Friday getting everything ready for his Q and A the next day. When he looked at everything he had, he had to laugh. He had gone down and bought an easel, poster boards and magic markers. He had drawn his graphs made his signs and put them all in order as he wanted to present them.

The ones that needed pictures he had taped them to it. He put them all in a valise and was ready to go. He had a sudden flash of one of his political hero's Ross Perot. He ran for President in 1992 and it was the first election he ever voted in. Everyone had laughed at him and would ask him why, he always said the same thing, 'We have the Congress to make laws and the Supreme Court to enforce them, but we need a businessman to run the country.

He had just turned 18 and was proud for the chance to vote. Now at 46 he was finally getting to see if his beliefs were true. He had married Dana just after they both had graduated from SMU. Being alumni it made it easier to get Michelle in.

They both had gotten good paying jobs and were on the fast track to becoming young and rich. Four years after they married Michelle came along and Dana decided to be a stay at home mom. It stayed that way until Michelle turned 12 and Dana got back into the work force.

Troy had wanted to go into business for himself around the time she started school but the owner of the company where he worked had been prepping him to take over, so in order not to lose him he offered him 49% of the business for to him to stay.

A corporate lawyer and a tax lawyer helped them write up the paperwork and had them each take out a two million dollar life insurance policy. The new letters of corporation gave the surviving partner full control. Two years after the signing John was killed in an airplane crash. John's widow was set for life, but Troy still insisted on giving her half of the double indemnity.

Troy put the two million dollars he got in gold reserves; he bought 3500oz. at $571.00 and today it was worth $5million. To keep things running smooth he hired a manager so no one ever knew who the new owner was. Troy's business was now worth $95million.

He took off at 8pm for his clandestine meeting in Dallas. Just as he had been informed Darryl came out of his dorm and headed off to the bar. He knew he wasn't allowed to go out the night before a game but he was a pompous ass and he only planned to be there long enough to get some tail and then he would return and be a good boy.

As Darryl got to the parking lot, he never saw the man in black walk up behind him. A quick shot with the taser and he was down. While he was down he felt the prick at his neck and that was the last thing he remembered.

Saturday morning at exactly 10am, the doorbell rang. Dana ran to answer it only to find Troy with a scowl on his face. She opened the door asking him why he didn't just come in.

"When we are done here today I may not be living here anymore, so I was just getting used to it."

He picked up his easel and valise and headed for the dinning room. Setting the small easel on the table he went around and positioned two chairs just where he wanted them. Dana and Michelle watched, getting more nervous as he went.

"I would like you two to sit here please, so we can get started."

They both sat down and held each others hand, shaking as they went.

"What we are going to do today is a truth or no truth questioning. I am going to ask you two some questions and you will have to answer or I will just walk out. So you know I may or may not already know the answers. If you lie its game over, if you answer all the questions truthfully I might just call off the divorce.

"First question is to Michelle, when was the last time you saw Darryl?"

"Well, I told you it was on June just after he came with me to visit, but actually it was three weeks ago."

"Dana, was the time in June the only time you fucked Darryl?"

"Yes, Troy, and I'm so sorry for letting it happen."

As he asked the questions he made notations on the questionnaire.

"Michelle, do you plan on seeing Darryl ever again?"

"If you don't want me to Daddy I won't."

"What I want or don't want has no bearing on this, if being with him is what you want then, that is what you want."

"Dana, when did you cook up this plan about France?"

"Mr. Fields wanted to reduce his work force going into the next year and was offering early retirement to some of us and I took it."

"OK Dana, just how was this early retirement supposed to work?"

It was now or never for her, "A cash payout."

"Now don't get me wrong here but at 46 you can't touch your 401k until you are 591/2. What were you going to do for money till then?"

"Well if we sold the house and moved to France,if you worked from there we should be just fine."

"Have you looked at housing prices in France?"

"No, that was what the trip was for."

"Well just for an FYI, I did a little comparing of Plano vs. Nice. Our house here is worth about $800,000.00 to buy something comparable in Nice is $3,120,000.00 US dollars. How did you figure we could afford that?"

"I, I, I don't know. I didn't realize it cost so much."

"Dana you worked for Fields for eight years, just how much of a payout were you to get?"

Should she tell him the truth or was it still too soon. She looked at Michelle for an answer that wasn't forthcoming.

"We can cross that bridge later. Dana, who all was with you in the hotel room?"

"I told you, Angie."

"Who paid for it?"

"Angie."

"Was it a king-sized bed or two doubles?"

"Two doubles." Dana was starting to sweat, what kind of questions were these.

"Michelle, if your mom and I divorce, how do you plan to pay for the rest of this year and next at SMU?"

"I don't understand daddy, why wouldn't you?"

"Do you remember what I told you and your mom when we first started, 'I am going to ask you two some questions and you will have to answer or I will just walk out.' So you know I may or may not already know the answers, if you lie, it's game over'. You both have lied to me so I guess I'm out of here."

"Nooo, Troy, we haven't lied, please don't leave."

"Dana, I told you that I might or might not know the answers to these questions. Do you really think I would ask a question I didn't know the answer to?"

"Troy, please give us a chance I haven't lied."

"Dana, a failure to answer a question is the same as a lie. I tell you what; I'm going to give you a presentation just like I would if I was doing it for a client. This is a breakdown of Wednesday a week ago. Before I start would either of you like to say something?"

Neither of them said anything.

Troy pulled out his first placard. "I got home at 5pm. Because I was first home I did as we always do I started dinner." He pulled out another placard, "At 7pm you still weren't home so I ate and then started calling your phone.

Another placard. "At 8pm I went looking for you, I started at your work. I drove through the parking lot but didn't find your car. I remembered about once before you had said your workers sometimes went to the bar down the street, so I drove down there.

"I pulled into the parking garage and drove up and down the isle's but couldn't find your car until I got to the third floor." Another placard with a picture of her car parked there showing her personalized plate. I figured you guys must be somewhere at that end of the complex as I didn't think you would want to walk that far. I did notice how close you were parked to the Marriot.

"I checked out one restaurant but you weren't there. I remembered that Irish Pub you pointed out me to once. I went in from the side to look for you. There was a party going on." He pulled out another placard with a picture of the 'Happy Retirement' banner. I can't tell you how shocked I was when you got up in front of everyone to thank them for coming to see you off.

"I left and called Michelle while I was sitting in the car. I went back home getting here about 9:45pm. Sitting in the dark I waited until you called at 10:30."

All during his talk the retirement banner was still on the easel.

"As an FYI, I was just pulling into the parking garage as you drove out. I didn't try to catch up as I had a good idea of where you were going. When I got back here, well you know what happened. I still wasn't happy about what had transpired so I called my lawyer early on Thursday and went in to see what my options were.

"Dana, Michelle, I will once again state that at the beginning of this I said I wouldn't put up with lying. Dana, a half truth is not a half lie, it's a whole lie. Good old Mr. Fields should have told you that with money you can get things done that you can't when you don't have it.

"I set my PI on to everything on Thursday afternoon. You would be amazed what you can find out when you ask the right questions and have enough money to ask them. Before I go on any farther, Dana, do you know what kind of business I work for?"

"You are a designer or something."

"You're close, but no prize. True I am a designer of security systems. As a matter of fact I designed the security system for Fields' building twelve years ago. After the first year he decided to go with a cheaper firm to do the maintenance work for the last eleven years.

"Did you know all designers put in backdoors incase something goes wrong and they need to go in and fix it? When I checked, my password still worked. You'll never guess what I found."

Troy looked at her and she just started to shake.

"Yes, Dana, I found the transference of five million dollars to a real-estate firm in France. I talked to my PI on Sunday and he gave me a copy of the surveillance tapes from the Marriott."

He pulled out the next placard.

"This is the footage of you and Angie arriving at 5pm." He pulled out the next one, "This is you going into room 520, a double room, cost $199.00 a night, you said Angie paid for it, you also said that you didn't get it until you figured you were to drunk to drive home. Do you think Angie's husband knew about all of this?"

Dana was starting to weep as he went on. He pulled out another card.

"This picture is you and Angie leaving the room at 6pm, you are both changed and heading out." Another card. "This is you two going into the pub and setting everything up. So you know I have a copy of the entire tape from the pub.

"I'm going to pass over all the stuff from the pub and show you and Angie getting back to the room at 10:15pm. There is no video from inside the room but I can guess that was when you finally looked at your phone and saw all the messages from me, and the one from Michelle."

He looked at his daughter and she too started to cry.

"The next card is one of real interest; it takes place at 11:30pm."

He put it on the easel and an audible gasp came from Michelle, it showed Angie returning to the room with Darryl and Mitch Fields.

"The next one takes place at 7am Thursday." It showed all three exiting the room together.

"Imagine my surprise when I found out that Darryl was the male lover of Mitch. Dana, either you were planning on a lesbian night with Angie or it was to be a four way.

"Now let's talk about this trip to France. My PI found the travel agent easy enough thanks to the backdoor in Fields' computers. I was totally surprised that a ticket in my name wasn't purchased until last Friday. I thought you said it was all set up long ago?"

Dana was all out crying now.

"I'm going to do a little assuming (I hate that word) that Fields met Darryl last year when we all went to that party at his mansion. They started their affair shortly after. Good old Darryl liked to play both sides and your mom found out and wanted in on it. As I thought back to June, I can't see how I got drunk so easy when I was just drinking my usual.

"That was when you decided to put the horns on me wasn't it ,Dana?"

She had her hands to her face and could do nothing but shake her head. She wanted to tell him no but the words wouldn't come out.

"When the PI interviewed the travel agent, she told him that she had to redo the seating after the addition of my name so that we sat in one section and they sat in another. Yesterday Angie was easy for me to crack as she doesn't want her husband to find out about that night.

"The camera from the pub showed me when Darryl showed up and the disappointment when he found out that they would only be sharing Angie. Dana, you haven't just ruined one marriage but you could be part responsible for the ruin of three.

"I have always tried to be up front with you, but I too have had my secrets. When you called Bill on Friday about me working remotely and he said sure, that was because he has always been told that anything concerning me he was to go along with it.

"I know, why would I have such pull right, well it's because I own the company and have had for ten years. You're running off with Mitch and Darryl would have actually made me better off as I wouldn't have to share my net worth which is double Mitch's with you.

"Before I leave I just wanted you to know that the conversation between the two of you at the Spa was also taped. I never thought that you would stab me in the back like that, Michelle.

"Monday morning I will be going after Mitch Fields in a leverage buy out. When the day is over he will no longer own his company but his ex will. Because the château in France was bought with company assets and will belong to the company so he will lose it too.

"Dana, I loved you for 24 years, I was devoted to you for those same years. You lied about your affairs, you denied me my share of sex since June and you planned to leave me without even a kiss.

"I have changed my mind about the divorce, why should I give you anything extra. The house is paid for and in your name only now. If you sell it you should make about $700.000.00."

He turned to leave again when Dana finally found her voice, "Wait, Troy, why if you are worth so much didn't we live better?"

"Tell me Dana, what did you ever lack for? From the time Michelle was born until she turned 12, what didn't you ever get that you wanted? Don't say my time because through our 24 years I was only away from you a handful times.

"We bought and paid for a house that you said was your dream home. Every two or three years you got a new car. From the time Michelle could drive she has had new cars. Your clothes changed after you started working but you bought those.

"You kept ¾ of your paycheck each payday for your own consumption. We went on vacations each year. So until you decided to get greedy and spread yourself around just what were you missing out on?"

She couldn't answer his questions.

"Michelle, what were you missing that you would agree to go along with her move to France with her boss and your ex-boyfriend? If you had wanted to move to France all you would have had to do was ask. In this last year, I lost my wife and my daughter for no other reason than stupidity."

"Daddy, I don't want to lose you."

"Michelle, what did you think would happen when I found out that not only you knew, but that you helped facilitate it? That makes you just as bad as her. As an FYI, my lawyer has on hold enough for you to finish off this year and next. If you decide not to go to either, he will give it all to you, but that is all you will get.

As he approached the door he heard Dana cry out, "Nooo, it wasn't supposed to happen this way."

He turned once more and asked, "Just how was it supposed to happen?"

"They told me that you would give in after I was in France for a month or so and come over to be with me. You would find the lifestyle over there more open and would agree to let me have my fun on the side and we would all live happily ever after."

"Dana, just because a restaurant is said to be great, doesn't mean it serves great food. What makes a Cadillac better than a Chevy, a few bells and whistles that you don't need. What's the difference between your BMW and a Cooper Mini, they're made by the same company. They are all lifestyle choices, none make you a better person but they may make you a better asshole.

"Until a year ago we could talk about anything and then you closed off. Next time you see them ask if they would have liked to be treated like you all treated me. Then tonight when you are all alone ask yourself how you would have felt if I had done to you what you did to me.

"One last thing, I told Angie yesterday and she nearly passed out and I will leave you the same parting message, I went down on Friday last week and found out I have Trichomoniasis. She had sex with her husband a couple of time last week so he more than likely has it now to.

"The treatment isn't bad but if untreated it can lead to HIV. Tell them all thanks for me." He turned and left.