What Would You Choose

I would like to thank Harddaysknight for kindly reading this story and the excellent suggestions he made. I would also like to thank Sbrooks103x for taking the time to edit the story and also suggesting that I should finish it. I do agree the story is much better with the ending.

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It was just like any other Thursday night in the Davis household. Jack Davis, 41, lay soundly asleep next to his lovely wife of 15 years, Amanda, 37. They have two bright and loving children, Jack Jr., 9, and Heather 6.

The Great Recession had been hard for the Davis family. Jack had owned a small but successful construction company prior to the recession. However, the good times in the construction business came to a screeching stop in 2008, and Jack lost everything. He tried to hold on as long as he could; hoping that the market would come back. But it didn't. At least not in time to make a difference for Jack and his company. Between 2008 and 2010 the Davises lost everything, including their house and cars. Over time they resorted to selling everything they could just to survive another day, and pay another bill.

Heather was one and Junior was four when the recession hit, and having no choice Amanda went back to work, with her mother watching the preschool children. Now it was 2013 and over the last three years the Davises had clawed back to some financial stability. They were still renting, but at least they had some savings in the bank. Jack was working a job he hated, selling insurance, but he was optimistic because he was seriously thinking about starting his own construction business again. The first time he proposed this idea to Amanda she seemed to lose all the color in her face and went into near panic mode. Over the last few weeks this had been a point of contention for the couple, but he felt that Amanda was finally coming around.

He wanted this both for himself and his family. He was miserable at his current job, and he knew that his most realistic chance to provide well for his family again would be by going back into what he was successful with in the past. There were a lot of indications that the real estate market was starting to come back, so the construction business couldn't be far behind. He wanted his kids raised in a nice size home with a backyard they could play in. He wanted them to have the things their cousins and friends had, that he and Amanda could no longer afford to give them. He would do anything for his family, work as many hours as he needed to. He needed to do this before he got too old.

Jack was sleeping the contented sleep of a husband and father able to provide for his family once again, with a hopeful smile on his face having fallen asleep thinking through once again the business plan he had been putting together to get back into the construction business.

Suddenly a figure of an older man, who reminded Jack of his dead father appeared, imploring Jack to wake up. He told Jack that tonight was a pivotal night in his life, and that before the night was out he would need to make a decision that would have a major impact on his and his family's future.

Jack slowly became more alert and started paying attention to the older man, who started speaking to Jack once again with a comforting smile on his face.

"Jack, think of me as your guardian angel. Tonight, I'm going to lay before you a couple of choices and at the end I'm going to ask you to make a decision about the future of your family. Not a lot of people get to choose their own destiny, but you are being given the privilege to make that choice."

"For several years it was really difficult for Amanda and you financially." Jack thought to himself that was quite an understatement.

"Things have improved for Amanda and you over the last few years, but I'm afraid that's not going to continue much longer. You're going to leave your job, and get back into the construction business, but unfortunately it's not going to work out as you hoped."

Jack interrupted, "Then I'll keep my job and put a 100% effort into the insurance business and make it work. I'll forget about getting back into the construction business again."

"Unfortunately, Jack, it's not that simple. You see tonight you're going to be given a choice to make, but when you wake up tomorrow morning you won't remember any of this conversation. So, in a few months you're going to end up leaving your job and you're going to go full steam ahead into your new venture that's going to lead to financial disaster for your family once again."

"I don't understand. What is the choice then?"

"Let me continue, Jack. So in a few months you're going to leave your job, put your small savings into the new business, get some family members to invest with you as well. Amanda is going to try to talk you out of it for weeks, but you're eventually going to convince her that you did it once and you can do it again. That this was the only chance for you guys to truly get ahead and give your kids the things they need. You're going to be surprised how resistant Amanda is going to be, because she typically follows your lead, but eventually she will grudgingly give you her approval to go ahead."

"Unfortunately, unlike the first time around when you found a great deal of success in your business for many years, this time the business is going to hit one stumbling block after another. You're starting with a lot less money, and now you have a lot more financial obligations. Your finances are going to get tighter and tighter. Amanda is going to be putting in more and more hours at work trying to keep you guys afloat. And you're going to borrow more and more money to try not to get too far behind."

Jack's peaceful sleep now long gone, he felt like he could barely breathe. He felt the pressures of the worst times when he and his family had to move into his mother's cramped little house, losing everything along the way. They were barely able to survive. He had just recently started to feel somewhat assured that those days were in his past, to never reappear again. Now this stranger was telling him he was on track to that disaster with no way to avoid it.

Jack finally blurted out, "So what do I need to choose to not have this happen?"

"It's not that simple, Jack. All this is going to happen either way. The next 12 to 18 months or so are going to be one of the hardest times of your life. It's actually going to be even harder than the last time around because you don't have the savings to burn through and the things to sell to live on. Your mother's also sold her house and is living in a nursing home so that back up is no longer there either. The friends and family that invested in you will want their money back and no one is going to extend any more money to you, Jack. Your credit cards and all your credit is going to be maxed out as well."

"Then I don't get it, what's the choice?"

"The choice, Jack, is what you choose to happen at the 13 month or at the 18 month mark."

"Once Amanda finally agrees to back your dream of owning your own business again, she is going to be very weary, but she is going to be supportive. She's always wanted you to be head of the family, and once again she is going to follow your lead and take a supportive role. But as more and more things go wrong, the emotional distance between you is going to get larger and larger. At the same time that your relationship with her is going downhill, her boss is going to make a play for her."

That hit Jack as a second sledgehammer. That elephant that had been sitting on his chest since almost the beginning of this conversation seemed to have gotten a lot heavier.

Jack with unsure resolve blurted out, "Brent was after Amanda before, and even when times were tough she never went for his bullshit. He won't get anywhere this time either!"

"The temptation is going to be harder the second time around, Jack. You're right the first time around Amanda didn't give in to his charms. She had a lot more resolve back then. You two were younger and more optimistic. You guys were young and had a lot more time to recover from bad times and mistakes. This time around this financial setback is going to hit Amanda a lot harder. As the pressures increase, and as the bills pile up, you guys are going to be at each other's throats pretty much all the time. I have to tell you, Jack, she's going to start doubting your role as the head of this family. Like I said, a very trying time for Amanda."

"On the one hand you have Brent, handsome, rich, well-educated, in good spirits, seemingly having the world by its tail, able to make Amanda laugh and forget her troubles. You, on the other hand, poor, beat down, troubled, over-worked, unsure of yourself, with the world seeming to have YOU by the tail. I have to tell you, Jack, at the time when your wife is most vulnerable to her boss's charms and advances you're going to be distant, brooding, and oblivious to what's going on in your wife's life."

Jack looked at this stranger telling him of the unstoppable disaster ahead of him. Was he enjoying recounting his impending doom? Was that the constant smile of empathy on his face, or the smirk of a "man" enjoying his misfortune?

"What's the choice? I'll do anything for my wife and my kids."

"It's interesting how you put that, Jack." Now that definitely looked like a smirk to Jack.

"I'm afraid you're not going to like the choices I'm going to offer you. But I assure you that these are your only choices. You're lucky in that most people don't even get to make a choice. Life just happens to them."

"Choice number one: Amanda will be seduced by her boss, they will be having an affair for several months where they will get closer and closer, then one day you will come home to find that she has taken the kids, moved out, and moved in with him. Brent, as you know, is quite well-off and he is going to be able to provide very well for her and the kids. He is going to be good to them, Jack. I don't mean just Amanda, the kids, too. He has really been wanting a family of his own for quite a while now, and he is going to really take to your kids. They are going to become quite fond of him as well. It's not going to take too long before they start thinking of him as dad, and calling him that."

"Unfortunately, he is also very possessive and he's going to want them all to himself. He is going to sic his very expensive lawyers on you, and with no money to afford lawyers yourself, he is going to be able to get his way, including Amanda getting full custody. Also, let's just say you're going to do some unfortunate things that will add ammunition to you being kept away from the kids. For their own good! Amanda isn't going to be fully aware of everything that he will end up doing, but by then she will be pretty much under his control, Jack. Brent's going to be her man, and she is pretty much going to go along with his decisions, just like she has been with yours all these years."

Jack was now anxious, almost hyperventilating. "Fuck, definitely not choice number one. What the fuck is choice number two?"

"Choice number two, Jack, is what happens about 13 months from now. Before she gives in to Brent's seduction. While Amanda is driving back home late one of the evenings from work, like I said she is going to be putting a lot of overtime in to pay for the mounting bills, she is going to be hit by a city bus. The driver is going to have taken some medication that he wasn't supposed to before driving. She is going to survive for a few days with burns over 90% of her body from the accident, but she is finally going to succumb to her injuries and pass away. There is going to be a large financial settlement from the city and you and the kids are not going to have financial worries ever again."

All Jack could say was, "Fuck, are you saying my only other choice is sentencing my wife to a horrible death? A, she and the kids leave me, are well-off and happy and I'm replaced and miserable. B, I kill off my wife and get her blood money because I couldn't provide for them myself? What the fuck?"

"I'm afraid there are a couple more caveats, Jack. I'm sure you've heard of the concept of free will. That is taken pretty seriously where I come from. So all the players involved have free will, so neither choice is absolutely certain. There are a lot of moving parts. I can tell you that you're pretty much resolved in getting your construction business off the ground, Jack, you're a pretty determined guy, and you're miserable at your current job."

Jack was pretty sure that was a smirk now.

"Pretty high chance that Brent is going to use the troubles between you and your wife to make a play for Amanda. You've known he's wanted her for a long time, but you guys know he's been paying her above market rate, so you've put up with her working there. The job market is still not that great, he's never been particularly inappropriate, and she's always assured you that she can handle him. I'm not going to say what we have up to this point is a 100% certainty, but not that much lower, Jack. What you have going for you is that your wife truly loves you, and you know she is a pretty honest and straightforward person. I can assure you that she's never cheated on you YET, and even in your worst times she's never seriously considered leaving you. But I have to tell you, the next year or so is going to be really trying for you guys. It's not going to be pretty. And I have to tell you, for her it's not just a matter of what's going on between you and her, and between her and her boss. The kids are definitely going to play a major role in her thinking too."

"Maybe you'll be able to recognize in time what's going on and save the day. Maybe your wife will remain faithful and steadfast against the temptation," the stranger said dismissively.

"But I have to tell you too, on the other side there is a chance that the court will find that your wife was coming home from work overtired and she was mostly at fault and your settlement may end up being a small amount. You know how lawyers are, and it will come down to which side is able to convince the jury."

"The choices I gave you are pretty solid, but within them, let's just say there is some wiggle room. Like I said, destiny is not fully preordained, and there is free will, but we have a pretty good idea how most people will likely react if we add or take away, to put it in terms you'd understand, certain stimuli or incentives."

Jack couldn't help but feel that his and his family's happiness or demise was nothing but an experiment to this being who called himself HIS guardian angel.

"Now is the time for you to make your choice, Jack. Which do you choose?"

"And if I don't choose?"

"That's completely up to you. As I said, this was merely a courtesy. The choice will then be made for you. IF you do choose to choose, you must also explain your choice as the reasons why you do what you do is as important as the decision itself."

Jack stood there for a few minutes in deep contemplation. Then suddenly his demeanor changed as if the weight of the world had left his shoulders.

"I've made my choice."

"When you first laid out choice number one my immediate reaction was anything but that. I can't imagine losing everyone I love, especially in that way."

"I have always thought of myself as completely selfless when it comes to my family. That I would do anything for them; including laying down my life for them. But I now realize there are limits to that idea of how I've regarded myself. These last three years I've gone through the motions at work, in a job that I hate. Since my job is 100% commission, that half effort has gotten us by, but hasn't gotten us ahead. It also meant I had to compromise letting my wife work for Brent, knowing he was after her, and allowing that to be used as a tool for her to get a higher pay than she could have gotten elsewhere.

"And now you ask me to make a choice. The devil's choice! A choice between two evils.

"You're right, Amanda has looked on me as the head of the family; the leader of the family! Not sure the last few years I've been that leader though. If I have to be even more honest with myself, it was her strength that kept us together these last several years. When things went to shit there were many times I wanted to quit, and she would never let me. I don't mean quit my job, I mean quit trying. Maybe it's the Mama Bear in her making sure her cubs were taken care of. Maybe it was her love for me. But she never quit on me, on us.

"So no, I'm not going to shirk my responsibility, and play a passive role in my future. I will decide my fate and my family's fate.

"I will not have Amanda bear the brunt of my decisions. I couldn't do anything about losing my business the last time around. Nobody in the construction business survived that recession. But I could have chosen to put full effort into the insurance business. As tough as the job market has been I could have moved to another job. I could have started a side business part time. But I didn't. Instead, I felt sorry for myself and the lifestyle and business I had lost."

Jack looked away and smiled to himself. "I have to tell you stranger, looking in the mirror and being honest with yourself ain't easy.

"No, I'm not going to shirk my responsibilities any longer. It's choice number one."

The stranger looked a little surprised and asked, "Are you sure, Jack? Remember Amanda and the kids won't ever know what you chose. No one will know, not even you. Plus it's not just you who will make mistakes. Amanda will as well. She won't be innocent in all of this. She will make plenty of choices herself."

Jack with a distant thoughtful look answered back, "When Amanda and I first got together, I think it was even before we got married, but we were serious, you know? She was doing something, not paying attention to me, but I was watching her. She is so feminine, so soft. The simplest tasks she does with such simple grace. I was thinking how much I loved and adored this woman. Then all of a sudden I got this shiver down my spine and felt a panic because I thought to myself, my god this woman I love so much is going to be dead one day. She's no longer going to exist.

"So no! I may not have been the best husband, but one thing I'm certain of is that I love that woman. I love her for herself, not just for what she does for me. So no! When you first told me choice number one, I thought anything but that. But when you laid out choice number two I realized that there was actually a much worse choice.

"Plus, if you add it all up for my family, choice number one adds up much higher than number two. Maybe not for me, but if you add it up for the four of us, then choice number one definitely gets the higher score. My kids get to have their mother around. They will have financial stability and the opportunities that brings. My wife, if nothing else, will have her life and can see her kids grow. And I'll be around, and I've always been an optimistic guy, I'm hoping this won't be the end of me. But even if it is, I'm still going to choose my wife over me.

"And yes I realize Amanda will make many choices in the future I'm not going to fond of." Jack smiled to himself, "Well, maybe will hate is a better word.

"But I will own up to my own part for my marriage falling apart. Plus, this isn't about blame. I didn't choose choice number one as some kind of punishment for myself for failing my family. I made that choice because it's the best choice for my family. And if I say I truly love my wife and my family and that I would do anything for them, is choice number two even a real choice?"

Jack said this with an accepted sadness as he pictured his wife and kids happy. But he pictured them happy in somebody else's house, in somebody else's life.