Years Lost

© 2024 JoshFrom53

Disclaimer.

All likeness to persons, institutions and companies in my stories are completely incidental. Actually: nothing in this story has any relation to reality.

Oh, and of course everything and everybody engaged in any sexual activity is 18 years or older.

Turning502019, was willing to edit this figment of my imagination. Many thanks Will for being so kind.

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After five years he thought he was finally and properly back on his feet.

Five years ago his ex-wife blindsided him by taking a lover for the weekend and in the ensuing divorce he was left impoverished and without means of income.

Still loving the woman, but not wanting to be confronted with her and her friends in the future, he left his country and just wanted to move somewhere where nobody knew who he was..

He did so as a second engineer at a container ship. He didn't care that he had more knowledge of the ship and its twin engines than his supervisor. He had found a job and, with that, the ability to disappear without leaving a trace for his ex to follow.

He was able to make this comeback because one of the first container ships he sailed on had an engine failure in the middle of the ocean. The shipping company had promised a generous award to the engineer who could solve the problem.

After twelve hours of frantic searching he found out why the engine malfunctioned and solved the problem before they needed assistance from an ocean going tug. That would have been a very expensive affair.

The award he received was enough to start all over again. The company, though, had other thoughts about him leaving. They offered him a contract as chief engineer for two years on one of their flagships. He took it.

He was paid very well and he had no expenses to speak of, so almost all of his money went into his 'offshore' bank account.

After fulfilling that contract he decided to make his hobby his profession. He fought his way up by designing bespoke ships. Ships for people who liked to sail in extremely heavy weather conditions, or ships with a very specific purpose in mind.

He was rather successful and soon had a reputation as an aimable man, a good listener and very good at interpreting his clients wishes.

Other than that, he just wanted to be left alone. By both his ex-wife and his family full of prejudices.

Just when he started to let his guard down he had to run again.

====

He was enjoying a proper hamburger with all the trimmings and while he took a sip of his brew when he heard the voice from hell.

"William Alexander Moore, I finally found you. You and I need to have a serious conversation."

His ex-wife Sarah, standing before him, said it out loud for the whole restaurant to hear.

When she entered, Sarah Anderson was a little dazed. She hardly recognized the lone man sitting at a table eating a hamburger with fork and knife. It took her more than a few moments before that realization hit her that it was her ex-husband.

She noticed him because she thought it funny that the man ate a hamburger with a knife and fork. She took a good look at his face and the recognition shocked her.

Had he changed! His body, lean and wiry. He was sitting straight in his chair instead of slumping.

The face changed the most. She barely recognized it. His dark brown eyes were sunken into his skull. An angry scar ran from the side of his broken nose to his jaw and his skin looked like a tanned hide.

His callused hands were covered with the little burns and scars like a man doing heavy manual labor.

Will looked up from his plate. His face contorted with hate.

With his voice filled with venom he said, "Goddammit. You just ruined my appetite and no, we're divorced. I don't need and I don't want to talk to you ever again. So please do something useful like electrocuting yourself. I'm done with you."

He wanted to stand up and leave when he felt a hand on his shoulder pushing him back down and a rough voice admonished Will, "The lady wants to talk to you. You'd better sit and listen to what she has to say."

Will turned around and looked into the pockmarked face of a bodyguard of sorts. He replied, still with the same venom in his voice, "I want the lady to eat a bowl of rat poison but we can't always get what we want can we? Now if you want to keep the use of that hand, I suggest you let go of me."

Sarah, expecting a certain amount of animosity, was taken aback by the raw animosity her ex-husband radiated, and saw William trying to stand up while her driver was still holding him down.

She looked around to see whether there were many people watching when suddenly she heard a scream and a thud. She whipped her head around and saw her driver crumble to the floor holding his hand. From the angle of his wrist it was obvious that he wouldn't drive her for a while.

Will was already halfway through to the register to pay for his, now forgotten, meal when he heard Sarah call, "Now I know you're back, I will find you again and we will have that conversation."

"Shadie, eat shit and die!" And he walked away.

Hearing the nickname he gave her so long ago in one sentence with a deathwish had Sarah Anderson stunned again. She indeed did him a terrible injustice and tore his soul to shreds.

When she came to her senses he was nowhere to be found again.

Five years ago.

William had a good running transport company that filled the niche between the big 'movers' and the bicycle couriers. William's Transport, as it was unimaginatively called, provided extra services such as on-site packaging.

Before they married Will graduated cum laude as a marine engineer but there was that banking crisis going on. No work for him to be found for him in his niche. That's why he started his company. A few years later he had 50 men and women in his employ and a small fleet of trucks and vans.

They were both 26 when William announced that the house was paid for and now they could start to look to their future and become parents.

====

Sarah's friends had been pushing her for months. Half a year ago she announced that in the near future she and Will wanted to start a family and ever since they were working on her to have at least one last splurge before she became a nun, uhm mum and now that moment came, she had given in.

That faithless Friday morning she came out of the bedroom with a small suitcase. William looked surprised and asked jokingly, "Are you going to leave me?"

Sarah replied blushing, "Only for the weekend."

"I'm confused, only for the weekend? Why didn't you tell me before? What are you planning to do for Pete's sake that you're confronting me with it at the last moment?"

"Because, otherwise you would try to talk me out of it. I want one wild weekend with my friends before we start a family. We booked three rooms for the six of us in a hotel."

I'm still confused. Am I included?"

Sarah looked at the floor, not able to look her husband in the eyes when she said, "No. My friends arranged company for the weekend. It's the last time I can go wild before I have to be in mommy-mode."

William was absolutely stunned into silence.

Sarah misinterpreted this completely and said hopefully, "You don't mind it do you?

"No, The girls arranged a friend to accompany me the whole weekend. It's only one weekend.

"I'll be back Sunday afternoon and you can claim me as yours again and we will start making babies."

William snapped back into reality. "I do mind. I mind it so much that if you go on with this plan, we stop being married shortly after."

Sarah was a little shocked at the vehement reaction from William and asked, "Surely you love me enough to let me have one binge this weekend?"

"If there are other men involved in sexual activities it seems that you don't love me enough!

"When we married we vowed to forsake all others and stay faithful until death us part. Now that we have agreed to begin a new phase in our lives, I stress our lives, you want to take a weekend vacation from that vow? I can't condone that!

"What about the next time something life-changing happens? Will you go on a vacation for a week, or a month? Really? This plan alone is enough to bring this marriage to the brink of destruction. If you go through with this unholy plan I will divorce you. Do you understand that?"

Sarah took a deep breath and thought to herself,

shit, he doesn't buy it.

After a few moments a new thought arised.

Time to put on the pressure!

.

Her girlfriends and her weekend lover coached her in this part of the conversation, should the occasion arise.

"Oh no, you won't. If you do that I will take everything you have and more. The house, your company and I'll bleed you dead on alimony. My friends know a very good lawyer and already promised that if you are going to be difficult about it, he will help me protect myself during a divorce."

"This is blackmail of the worst kind. You don't have any consideration for my feelings. You are just trying to bully me in submission.

"I promise you this. When you come back Sunday afternoon and indeed fucked that man our marriage is over whatever the cost to me.

"I'd rather sleep in a cardboard box than to be married to a bullying, blackmailing, cheating, conniving bitch. Now I'm going to work. When you are not home tonight I take it that you are destroying our marriage."

With those words William left for work.

Sunday afternoon

Sarah stumbled out of her friend's car. Carefully she made her way to the front door while her friend cowardly pulled off in a hurry.

Sarah, still quite under influence of alcohol and some other substances, had reported extensively on Friday morning's confrontation and none of her so-called friends wanted to be around when Sarah confronted William with the results of the weekend. Their mission was accomplished and Sarah was on her own this afternoon.

She felt painfully sore, was hung over and her backdoor was still bleeding from the unlubricated treatment her weekend lover gave it.

It wasn't the exciting weekend she had anticipated, by far. There was a lot of booze, designer drugs, some dancing and much horizontal gymnastics involved. But the sex was only one-way.

She felt violated. In the whole weekend she had one less than mediocre orgasm and she brought it on herself while the man was pumping her from behind. It was also the moment that after she got off, he suddenly pulled out and rammed his cock in her backchannel. She screamed in pain and the only thing he said was, "Oh my, you do like that, don't you.' and kept on plowing.

She opened the door and called out. No answer. She called again, "Will, honey, I'm home and totally yours from now on!"

The only answer was some stumbling in the bedroom. William was there? Packing?

"What on earth do you think you are doing?" She shouted. Then she had a good look at him. He was white as a sheet, blue bags under his dull expressionless eyes.

"Leaving! You went on with your plan, I made you a promise and I plan to keep to it.

"Having seen you walking to the door I reckon you have, more than once been fucked by your intended lover even after I told you very clearly what the consequences would be if you went through with your plan.

"I hope it was worth it. I found another place to live. I don't want to spend another night under one roof with a cheating whore of a wife. Now if you excuse me?"

Sarah was speechless. She tried to say something but the words refused to come out of her mouth. William used that moment to slip past his soon to be ex-wife and walked out of the door.

Sarah let herself fall on the couch and sat still until dark. She was confused and sad and thought,

he left, he actually left, against all odds, against everyone's expectations, he actually left me.

They were so convinced that threats to strip him financially would hold him back from a divorce and that would give me a chance to make it up to him and reconcile.

Now, the pain, together with frustration over an unsatisfactory weekend, the hang-over and the fear that her marriage actually was exploding came to full fruition.

Sarah became angry. Her emotions combined with the frustration over an unsatisfactory weekend boiled over and all her anger focused on William.

He begrudged me one weekend to experience my youth for the last time? Well, if he isn't back by tomorrow and apologize I'll let him have it!

The next morning.

After a bad night, several times interrupted by a bout of vomiting, Sarah woke up late for work. It got her angry all over again. She still felt sick and normally William was alway up early and woke her with coffee, some breakfast and if needed, some Tylenol.

She never was a morning person and abhorred hurrying in the morning. She grabbed her phone to give him a piece of her mind.

"What do you want, Sarah? I don't think we have much to say to each other anymore. I have an appointment with a lawyer this morning and I would suggest you find one yourself too, but you already have one. Was he the one that had you this weekend?"

Sarah almost spit in her phone shouting, "I'm going to rape you if you try to divorce me. I'll take you for everything you have, just because you don't want me to have one weekend of fun."

William sighed, "Really Sarah, I don't care. Whatever you do, I've already hit rock bottom. The betrayal and disrespect you showed me tore my soul from me and shredded it.

"Did you really think that you could fuck around without consequences for your marriage? Your disrespect for me is staggering and I just can't live with that. You carved my heart out and ripped it to pieces.

"So do your worst. When the divorce is final I'll disappear from your life." and disconnected leaving Sarah badly frustrated behind.

That afternoon Sarah was talking to her friends again. One said giggling, "So you soon will be free to party again girl. Welcome back. That idiot will never know what hit him. He wasn't worthy of you baby. You must have a lawyer, or a doctor. Not some parcel delivery boy."

Sarah went to contact her weekend lover. He was very willing to handle the divorce for her and told her not to worry about anything. He would take her 'nearly' ex-husband to the grindstone and there wouldn't be anything left of him after he was done.

Some time later.

William sat at the table in the kitchen from his parents and looked at the faces of his parents and brother and sister. "Something is going on. Out with it. What is the matter?"

His father replied, "As if you don't know. We are very disappointed in you. We didn't raise you like that."

"Like what? The divorce? I don't know what you are talking about."

"It's not the divorce. It's why she divorces you. Poor girl. We had no inkling that you abused her for such a long time and that abortion you forced her to take..

"But we're here together to tell you that because of that you are, for the time being, no longer welcome in this house. We are too ashamed that you are our son."

William sat back, looking incredulously at his family and stammered, "What? But I never have."

Any further words were impossible. His father cut him off saying, "We heard from her friends how badly you treated Sarah. Don't deny it. You don't have a place in this house anymore."

Completely destroyed William left the house he grew-up in. Realizing that somebody had initiated a smear campaign to destroy his character and was succeeding very well.

Another few weeks later.

A cold, gray morning, just like the mood he was in, found William waiting for the judge handling the divorce. His lawyer already warned him that she had a very dim view on men in general and specifically men who were accused of abuse, whether proved or otherwise. She always sided with the women.

He also explained that it was the way his opponent did his business. Low and dirty.

To the left sat Sarah and her entourage and he felt Sarah looking at him. By now he lost his parents and brother and sister, and all his friends to the character assassination Sarah and her friends had initiated. William's love for Sarah had turned into a burning hatred.

When the judge started to list his misdemeanors William faded out.

When his lawyer told him about the methods his 'colleague' used to ruin his opponent William lost all hope of an honest divide of goods.

He had a good talk with his secretary and logistics planner about what was to expect.

On a whim he emptied his safe. Everything from the safe went into his desk and he changed the combination from the safe. Everything personal on his computer was transferred to a flash-drive and here he also changed the password into something Sarah wouldn't think of easily.

He would honor what the judge doled him out but some sabotage would be in order. Childish maybe? His life as it was, had exploded in his face.

He already had arranged his seamans book and found a job, as 2nd ships-engineer aboard a container ship sailing under the Marshall Islands flag.

When this ordeal in court was over he was going to use his one-way ticket to South Louisiana and step on board.

Suddenly his lawyer nudged him. "Huh, what?" William said.

The judge repeated, "Do you have something to add?"

"Does it matter? Just get on with it."

Sarah looked up sharply when she heard the voice of William. It had a hard edge, was flat, dull and devoid of whatever emotion at all. She briefly wondered if they had 'overdone' it.

When the judge finished the only thing William had left were his savings from before they were married. He had to pay maintenance but because Sarah had a job herself that paid not much less than William earned. It wasn't as much as her lawyer had wanted but the judge had to follow the rules in this.

William walked out of the room followed by his lawyer. He wrote a check for the total amount of alimony and told the man to hand it over to Sarah and to make sure that there were witnesses.

=====

Sarah, still at the restaurant, remembered that day, actually that whole disastrous week, painfully well.

It started Monday morning early and she felt sick, nauseous and she had a painful burning sensation between her legs. She was bothered by it for quite a while and at last she had made an appointment with a doctor, for later that afternoon.

When she walked out of the room the judge called her back. Next to the judge was William's lawyer. She walked back. The lawyer handed her the check saying, "This is the total amount of alimony my client is due. I have one last message from him if you are interested?"

Eager, thinking, hoping;

Maybe he changed his mind

Sarah said, "Yes."

The lawyer took a breath and said, "I quote: 'I hope you will never have to go through such a charade yourself. Congratulations on your win. I hope you're happy now.'"

"That's all? I wanted to speak to him personally."

That's not possible as my client has already left and on his way to another life. Anyway, that's what he told me."

It shook Sarah out of her comfort zone. She didn't expect William to walk away from everything. Surely he didn't want to abandon his company he worked so hard for, nor his family? She asked the lawyer, "But who is running William's Transport now?"

The lawyer looked at the judge and back to Sarah, thinking

is she that stupid? She took the man for everything and everyone and she asks who is running her company?

Suddenly he had enough. He felt for the man. A burned out husk. Not a shadow of what he was. One didn't build a company worth over fifteen million bucks in these times, without being a tough character.