Surprise Party

The first time I suspected my wife of being unfaithful was after my son Matt's 13th birthday. I picked up the pictures from the drug store on my way home from work. Julie wasn't home yet so I sat and looked through the pictures.

What a great day that had been. Matt had been so surprised when we got home and found a surprise party with all of his friends waiting for him.

As I looked through the pictures I found a very good one of Matt and my friend Steve. It was a close-up of both of their faces.

Steve has been my best friend all my life, my kids call him Uncle Steve, his kids call me Uncle John, we're that close.

As I looked at the picture of their two faces side by side I noticed things that I hadn't before.

They had the same color hair, black. They had the same eye color green; they had the same narrow nose. They had similar skin tone and facial features.

If I didn't know better I'd have sworn they were father and son.

A few pictures later was a picture of the kids at the party, but something in the background caught my eye.

In the back of the picture were Julie and Steve, they were in what I would consider a very intimate position, in fact it looked as if they were just about to kiss or had just kissed.

I carefully examined the other pictures for anything else that might show the two of them together, but couldn't find anything. I pulled those two pictures from the packet and put them in a desk drawer in my home office.

The fact that my son looked like Steve and that I had a picture of Steve and Julie in an intimate looking pose didn't prove anything, but I immediately began to think back to see if I could think of any other evidence that Julie might be cheating on me.

I didn't have much time to think though as a few minutes later Julie came through the front door, gave me a kiss, and headed upstairs to change.

That's what she did every day when she got home from work, and I'd never had any reason to be suspicious of it before then. With suspicion running through my head I headed up stairs to see if I could catch her at anything.

When I walked into the bedroom Julie was surprised to see me, but she didn't act like my presence was unwelcome.

"Hey sweetie, how was your day?" Julie asked as she changed out of her work clothes.

"Not too bad, I stopped and picked up the pictures from Matt's party, they turned out great. We sure took a lot of them though, five rolls for a birthday party?" I asked.

"After all the trouble we went through to make him think he wasn't getting a party only to throw him a surprise party like that I'm damn sure gonna make sure he has plenty of pictures to remember it by." Julie said.

"It was great to have all of his friends, family, and even Steve, Mary, and the kids over for the party." I said.

Was that a flinch when I mentioned Steve's name? It was a movement of some kind, but was it natural or was it a reaction to the name?

"Yeah, it was a great party." Julie said.

Other than the possible flinch I couldn't get anything out of her yet. I decided I'd keep an eye on her and Steve as much as possible to see if they were up to anything. I didn't go all hi-tech with tracking devices, recording devices, video cameras, and phone taps, at least not right away, I merely started keeping track of where Julie said she was going to be and then finding reasons to call to see if she was there or not.

A few weeks later the body of a missing little girl was found in a lake and by sheer luck her family had done DNA profiles on her so that if something happened she could be identified.

Julie gave me a perfect opportunity to find out what I was wondering.

"John, I think we should have those DNA profiles done on the kids, if something ever happened and a body or part of a body was found I'd want to know if it was our child or not wouldn't you?" Julie asked.

"You're absolutely right, that girl's teeth were missing and the body was pretty decayed so normal methods wouldn't work, I think having the kids' DNA on file would be a wise thing to do." I said.

I said that I would take our four kids Matt, Ashley, Hannah, and Sara in to have the tests done to put them on file with the county.

When I was alone in the office with the family doctor I made a request.

"So John, what's up?" Dr. Smith asked.

"I'd like copies of the tests. It's not that I don't trust the county to have the information if something should happen and it is needed, I'd just feel better if I have copies of them at home in my safe too." I said.

"Sure John, no problem, lots of parents have made the same request." Dr. Smith said.

Two weeks later I was out of town for a week on business. With the DNA tests in hand I went to a doctor's office to have myself tested.

"Dr., a woman that I was living with for 8 years claims that I am the father of her 4 children; now she's coming after me for child support. I have reason to believe I might not be the father of one or more of them. I got her to give me DNA profiles of the kids; I want you to tell me how many of them I'll be financially responsible for." I said.

"Of course, it's an unfortunate situation when someone tells you that a child is yours when it isn't. I've seen several marriages destroyed by this. You say that you aren't married to this woman?" The doctor asks.

"No ma'am, we broke up 3 years ago, I'm married to another woman and this whole child support thing is really pissing me off." I said.

Before I returned home I had an envelope in hand with the results in it. I hadn't read them yet, the closer I got to knowing, the more I wasn't sure that I wanted to know.

When I got home Friday night there was a note from Julie on the table that said she and the kids had gone to her mother's for the weekend.

With the whole weekend to figure out what to do if things were as bad as I feared I decided to open the envelope, but only after I'd calmed my nerves with a tall Scotch.

I immediately poured another one and drank it quickly when I saw the results.

None of my four children were actually mine, but it was quite clear that they had the same father.

After getting good and drunk I passed out. At about 4:00 in the morning I woke up and started thinking about what I was going to do.

I suspected that Steve was the man that had fathered my children, but I had to be sure. It was at that point that I decided to go hi-tech. There's a shop specializing in surveillance equipment not far from the house so Saturday morning I went over there and bought the whole package.

I put tiny motion activated cameras covering every room in the house, sound activated recording devices, I got tracking devices to put on Julie's car and Steve's truck so I'd know where they both were at all times. I set it all up to dump the information to a computer in the basement that I could access with my laptop from anywhere.

I got the tracking device onto Steve's truck Saturday afternoon when he dropped by and took me out to eat since I'd called and told him that Julie was out of town for the weekend. At least I could be sure that he wasn't with her during the weekend.

I spent most of the morning Sunday looking through Julie's stuff for anything that would give it away. To my knowledge she didn't keep a journal or diary, and her computer came up as clean. There was some sexy lingerie that I hadn't seen before in the back of her closet, which was just another piece of potential evidence.

When Julie and the kids got home Sunday night I welcomed them all home with big hugs. That night in bed Julie knocked me for a loop.

"John, don't get too excited yet, but I think I'm pregnant." Julie said.

"Pregnant?" I asked.

"I think so. I think I'm going to go to the doctor tomorrow to see what he says, but I've got that feeling." Julie said.

It was at that moment that I decided I'd be going to a doctor too, for a fertility test.

Julie and I had tried and tried before she got pregnant with Matt. I was using vacation days from work to be able to service her as many times as possible. It was like that with all of the kids.

I know it isn't easy to get pregnant, but we'd gone through all that for the first 4 and now she gets pregnant without even trying? It seemed suspicious to me.

On Monday I drove to a nearby town and went to a clinic where nobody would recognize me. I gave them my sample, and waited.

I had an above average sperm count

That was just another thing to add to the pile. I had a high sperm count, my wife and I had tried and tried to get pregnant and still it was Steve that got her pregnant. I hurried back to work and accessed the information that had been collected to that point.

The tracking devices showed that Steve had gone to work and then driven to a hotel on the East side of town. Julie's car had been to the doctor's office and then went to the same hotel.

I'd seen enough for right then so I went back to work.

That night Julie was so happy about being pregnant, about how we were being blessed with another baby. It was all I could do to stop myself from pulling out all of the information I had and confronting her with it.

Over the next few weeks I collected more information and determined that they kept a pretty good routine. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they met for a long lunch at the hotel, they always had the same room. I took photos of them entering and leaving the room, there was no need to see what was going on inside. That was because on Tuesday and Thursday they met at our house and had sex in our guest bedroom.

The more I saw the harder it was for me to keep from going off.

Finally after monitoring them for two months I recorded a phone conversation that put me over the edge.

"Hey, is this a good time to talk?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, John's playing golf and the kids are off with their friends." Julie said.

"I've been worried about John lately. He's been acting funny. Do you think he might know?" Steve asked.

"He hasn't figured it out in 16 years, how would he figure it out now?" Julie asked.

"What about Matt, he looks more and more like me every day." Steve said.

"So what? John thinks I'm the perfect wife, he'd never suspect that I'd cheat on him, and he'd never believe that I've been taking steps to ensure that I only have your kids and not his for 15 years." Julie said.

"I'm still not sure I approve of that." Steve said.

"You take that back now or you'll never get to touch me again." Julie said.

"Okay, I take it back. I can't wait until Monday." Steve said.

"Oh baby, I can't Monday, I have a lunch meeting, it's a really big deal, so we'll just have to take an extra long lunch on Tuesday." Julie said.

"Okay, what time should I come over?" Steve asked.

"Around 11:00." Julie said.

"See you then." Steve said.

I listened to that conversation on Sunday. On Monday, I took enough information with me to start filing for divorce based on marital infidelity and went to see a lawyer.

"Okay John, what reason do you want to use for the divorce?" Dave asked.

"Marital infidelity." I said.

"Are you sure, it's really hard to prove in this state." Dave said.

"Well, maybe you can tell me if this is enough to prove it. Pictures of my wife and her lover in the act, I have video as well, several of them actually. Phone conversations talking about their affair including one in which my wife confesses to intentionally taking steps so that she could have her lover's children instead of mine. And last but not least, DNA tests that show that none of the 4 children that I have been raising are mine. Is that enough?" I asked.

"Yes, that should be more than sufficient. I'll have your wife served with divorce papers immediately." Dave said.

"Could I pick the time and place that she's served with the papers?" I asked.

"I suppose, what do you have in mind?" Dave asked.

"Tomorrow at 11:00 she is supposed to be meeting her lover at our house. Could we have her served at say 11:30 or 11:45 at the house?" I asked.

"Serving her while in the midst of committing adultery would provide a witness that could swear to it, yes, that's an acceptable idea." Dave said.

"Would it be illegal for me to invite my wife's parents and sisters, a few of her friends, the wife of her lover, and maybe their bosses to be present?" I asked.

"I see, seeking a little revenge. Well, as long as you tell them that it's a surprise baby shower for the new baby and they don't know ahead of time what they're going to see it should be okay." Dave said.

"Excellent." I said.

After leaving the lawyer's office I made several phone calls and invited everyone but Mary to a surprise baby shower for Julie. Mary would of course have told Steve and then he would have known something was up and wouldn't have gone.

Tuesday at 10:45 a.m.; I called Mary and asked her to meet me at our house for a little talk.

I had everyone wait quietly in the yard until everybody was gathered for the party. I told them that Julie was inside sleeping so we would sneak in and surprise her.

Dave was there with the divorce papers ready. We crept into the house quietly and made our way to the guest bedroom.

I threw open the door and we all yelled 'Surprise!', and there were a lot of surprised people both in the room and in the hallway. Mary immediately began screaming at Steve; Julie's family began screaming at her. Julie began screaming at me. Steve tried to gather up his clothes and rush out of the house, but his boss blocked the door and fired him.

Amidst all of the chaos Dave calmly walked up to Julie who was cowering on the bed under a sheet crying uncontrollably.

"Julie Davis, you are hereby served with these divorce papers filed by your husband John Davis. He is seeking divorce on the grounds of marital infidelity. Mr. Davis does not seek any form of custody of the 4 children already born or the child in your womb as DNA tests have shown that Mr. Davis is not the biological father of any of the children, and a recorded phone conversation between yourself and one Steve Wilson states that you have been intentionally preventing Mr. Davis from getting you pregnant so that you could have your lover's children. Mr. Davis is seeking 90% of all share assets. A court date will be set to hear this case should you not accept the terms of these papers. Good day." Dave said.

Dave had given his speech in a loud emotionless voice, almost robotic. He hands the papers to Julie and walks out.

Both Julie and Steve lost their jobs, Steve was divorced by Mary, Julie's family, who had always liked me, disowned her.

I didn't get 90% in the final divorce, I had to settle for 75%, but in a separate suit I was awarded damages from Steve for child support.

I had loved Julie with all my heart, and if I had taken things quickly and confronted her from the first moment of suspicion it would have no doubt broken my heart. By knowing the full depth of her infidelity and betrayal it made things easier for me to cut her out of my life.

I still see her around town from time to time and every time she tries to apologize to me, but I don't want to hear it. She cheated on me for years, she deliberately kept me from being able to give her a baby so she could have Steve's baby and then led me to believe that I was the father. If not for the fact that I had loved her so deeply I would welcome seeing her dead, but no matter how much she hurt me, I will always have the memories of the good times.

The kids were pretty messed up by finding out that Uncle Steve was really their father and that their "cousins" were really their half siblings. They all spent a lot of time in counseling about it, and I feel really bad to have done that to them, but it was another measure of revenge against Julie. She wanted Steve's children instead of mine so now she must live with them hating her for what she did. They still call me dad when I see them.