Broken Promises

"For the last two years Gregg has not allowed me to program as part of my job preferring to have me do system maintenance projects and all customer service/relations issues. Because of that I have been writing code in my personal time and I have it almost finished. Had I not gotten fired I was going to lease it to Gregg after he had a chance to see the improvements over his current program but now I will be free to market it on my own."

Adam said, "I would have to check with dad before my answer could be final but I am quite certain we would be willing to give you a few months to finalize it and then based upon our evaluation of course we could implement it here."

I was able to move out of the hotel in four days into a very nice apartment and though the monthly rent was rather high I had the reserves to make it work for a few months. After the move I spent ten to twelve hours a day writing and testing code. I knew that I could have it ready for market soon but I was driven to finish it and move on with my life.

During that time Julia was served divorce papers. She called me numerous times wanting to talk it through. I listened to all of her voice messages but there was nothing that I felt the necessity to talk to her about.

She told me, "Johnny, I admit I probably would have slept with Douglas if you hadn't stepped in but I never did. I don't know what I was thinking but I love you. Will you please call me?"

She said, "Johnny, I love you, I don't want a divorce, please call me."

She said, "Johnny, can't you find a way to forgive me and stay married to me?"

She said, "Johnny, I miss you!"

I was sick of it so I called Jacob and asked him to please contact Julia's attorney and tell him I would be seeking a restraining order if she didn't stop.

Soon thereafter I got a message from Julia, "Johnny, I love you and want with all my heart to put an end to this and spend the rest of my life loving you. I can't believe you want a restraining order against me but if you need to do it go ahead. This will be my last message to you. I want you more than life itself but the ball is now in your court. I am sorry I hurt you so bad that you wouldn't even talk to me. I love you honey, call me anytime you want."

True to her word I got not further voicemails or texts or anything. The effect wasn't quite what I expected because it kind of put a final stroke to our marriage even if we weren't divorced yet. It really did make me sad.

Three weeks flew by as I was working on my programs for many hours in each day. On a Friday afternoon shortly after lunchtime I got a call from Jacob informing me that we had a court hearing scheduled for the following Wednesday morning with Judge Janice Caldwell. He said that was not good news because she had the reputation of being totally against divorce and put everyone through the hoops before ever granting one, if she granted it at all.

When we arrived at the courtroom Julia and her attorney were already there and our case was called within a couple of minutes. Once seated the bailiff called the courtroom to order, "All rise" and we did. Judge Caldwell entered and sat down and welcomed us to her courtroom. She turned to me and asked, "As the petitioner in this divorce case I am asking if you would drop this action and go home and work on your marriage?"

I replied that, "No your honor, I want to continue the action."

I knew that trouble was probably coming when she had a look of disapproval on her face but said, "Well okay then."

She turned to Julia and asked, "Mrs. Burton are you in agreement with this divorce action or do you want to work on saving your marriage?"

Julia didn't hesitate, "Your honor I absolutely do not want a divorce, I love my husband and I want nothing more than to save my marriage."

"Mr. Burton, I have reviewed the petition carefully, recognizing that you are filing on the basis of irreconcilable differences and I note that your proposed settlement is extremely fair and I see no indication of the usual vindictiveness from the normal petitioner. Do you have any explanation why that is?"

"Your honor, I don't hate her, I don't want to hurt her and I have no reason to not be fair in a settlement. I just don't want to be married to her anymore because I don't love her anymore."

Julia gasped when I said that and there was a hint of a sob.

The judge continued, "I think there is a really good chance that you two can work out your issues given the proper opportunity. I am going to order marriage counseling with a very qualified counselor. I am going to order three joint sessions, one initially then three individual sessions for each of you and then two additional joint sessions. The only exception to this ruling is if the counselor informs that court that there is no hope of saving this marriage. So ordered." She struck her gavel,'bam' and called, "Next case."

I wanted to protest but Jacob held my arm and said, "John, just go to the first session and see if you change your mind. If not make it perfectly clear to the counselor that you want out and see where it goes from there."

Counseling was a disaster. Julia cried, apologized and begged for me to stop the divorce and work out our marriage. The counselor listened to me but didn't seem too sympathetic to my desire to end the marriage. He asked, "John, why don't you tell me why you won't consider working on your marriage."

"Dr. Graham, let me tell you a story. Not fiction but it would read like a fairy tale to many. I was attended my company Christmas party and saw a girl across the room. Ever hear of love at first sight? It was love at first sight for me. My boss introduced me to his goddaughter Julia and I knew she was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."

I glanced over at Julia and she was smiling, not the sad and tearful woman of a few moments ago.

"She was perfect for me and apparently I was perfect for her because it wasn't long before we were hotly involved and three months later I asked her to marry me and after that we didn't look back. I thought we were perfect."

This time it was me that let out a small sigh. It was close to a sob but it didn't quite get there. I went on, "It was love at first sight Mr. Graham, I didn't grow into it. It wasn't something that happened over time, it was instantaneous. Love at first sight.

"Does that give you any hints as to my psychological makeup? I would think it would. So, if one can fall in love 'at first sight' it wouldn't be much of a stretch to have one fall out of love in an instant would it?

"Julia was on a date with another man, she claims she never had sex with him and I actually believe her but there is a very good chance she would have had sex with him if I hadn't stepped in. She cheated on our marriage any way you want to look at it. A date with another man is cheating.

"And to add insult to injury the man she was with was Douglas "Dog Shit" Simon my worst enemy. It wasn't just any man. She knew of my hatred of Douglas, she knew the whole story about how Douglas hurt my sister Barbara yet here was the man she chose to do her cheating with.

"Add further insult to injury she went with him to the most special place in our relationship, the place we met, the place where I asked her to marry me, the place where we spent many happy times together, and the place where I hoped we would celebrate her first pregnancy if that happened, the place where we would have celebrated the birth of our first child and so on and so on.

"When I saw her sit down with Douglas, saw him touch her face, saw them raise their glasses to each other in a toast and saw the smile on her face the love of my life cheating on me with my worst enemy my heart tore open and that love I had started leaking out. By the time I got to their table my heart was half empty and by the time I walked out the door of the restaurant it was dead. No more love for this woman who had been my life. All the love had leaked out.

"So now you see Doc why I don't want to be married to her anymore. There is no love left and I don't want to be in a marriage when I don't love her. I cannot be any more plain than that can I?"

Julia was openly crying by this time and I felt bad for her but it didn't change my resolve. I didn't love her anymore and I wanted out of the marriage. I turned to her and said, "Julia, I am sorry. I don't want to hurt you but can't you see my point? You wouldn't want to be married to me if I don't love you, and I don't."

Dr. Graham said, "Well our time is up for today but I think we have gotten everything out on the table at this time and I feel confident that we can make some further strides with the individual counseling and I have high hopes that we will be able to reconnect you two. I am going to recommend to the judge that these sessions should continue."

About this time I was livid, "After everything I just told you there is no chance in hell that I am attending further counseling sessions. You must be ignorant if you still feel there is a chance for this marriage to survive. Have your counseling sessions with Julia if you must, but I will not be attending any more sessions."

I got up and walked out of the office. I thought, "Damn, how can anyone be so dense."

Two days late I got a letter from the court with three dates scheduled for my individual counseling sessions. Needless to say when the first date had come and gone without me attending I was escorted to the courthouse and put befoe the judge and ultimately held in contempt of court. Judge Caldwell fined me $500.00 and informed me that if I missed my next counseling session I would be jailed. I told her, "You will have to jail me then because I am not going to any more counseling sessions."

That is exactly what happened. I skipped the next session and two hours after my scheduled appointment a police officer knocked on my door and escorted me to the Cook County jail. What a lovely place that is. Yikes.

My attorney visited me each day and tried to get me to agree to go to the counseling but I refused. On the third day I had another visitor. My old boss Gregg had come to see me and was allowed a 15 minute visit.

He said, "John, I am sorry you are going through this and I am sorry with the way I treated you. I should have seen how things were with you and been more supportive. I think I have a way out of this whole thing for you if you will just give me a chance to work through it with you. If you agree to the individual counseling Judge Caldwell will let you out of jail. Then you and I can sit down and go over what I feel will be helpful in resolving your situation. All I ask is that you consider coming back to work for me afterwards. No promises necessary, but just consider it."

For the first time in quite a while I actually felt good about something. Gregg had always been my friend and had always been fair to me before the Julia thing blew up. I agreed to do as he asked and promised to think about going back to work for Grace Systems Solutions.

The judge scheduled my first individual session for the next day and I was escorted home by an officer who waited while I showered, shaved and dressed for my appointment. He then escorted me to the session and waited for it to be completed. The session was what you would expect with all the psychological digging and probing, you know how it is. I did everything I could to be as cooperative as possible.

When the session was over Dr. Graham escorted me out and informed the officer, "Mr. Burton was very cooperative and has agreed to attend the next session a week from today."

The officer said, "Very well then Mr. Burton, you are free to go home but let me caution you that if you miss next week's session you will be taken before Judge Caldwell again and man I wouldn't want to be in your shoes then. She is one tough mean woman when she gets pissed, so my advice is to not skip that session."

I called Gregg and agreed to meet with him at my apartment the next day. He and I spent the whole morning talking through his proposed plan. We made all of the necessary arrangements to obtain what we wanted and then went to lunch. After lunch we sat down again to discuss my future involvement with Grace Systems Solutions.

I said, "Gregg, I have always thought well of you and you have been a good friend but I need to do what is best for me. I don't know if you remember back when I got my last promotion you ordered me to not do any programming. You informed me that I was too valuable as a system maintenance manager and customer service/relations manager to get up to my elbows in programming.

"I love to write code though Gregg so I have been working on a new security program that is four generations above anything on the market today. Trust me when I tell you that it would blow your socks off and revolutionize the system security of this country. You know all the trouble retailers have been having with being hacked. With my new program that will be totally impossible, totally. I am a couple of months away from testing on real company data and I would guess the program would be ready to roll out in three or four months."

Gregg nodded, "You have Ben and Adam lined up for the test right?"

I smiled and said, "Gregg, I never could pull much wool over your eyes. Yes, they have agreed to give it a trial. You know they are with you because of my personal friendship with Adam and truthfully if my program is successful they would be leaving you."

Gregg said, "I know you are right but how did you intend to get around the non-compete clause in your contract?"

"Gregg, the non-compete clause only applied if I quit or was fired for cause. Neither of those is the case though, you fired me because I wouldn't try to work out my marriage. Because of that there is no non-compete clause issue."

He got a devious smile on his face and said, "Not to be contentious because I want you to come back to work for me but I could have always trumped up some work related issues to fall back on."

I laughed at him and he kind of got a pissed off look on his face that I would laugh at him. "Gregg," I said, "I recorded our conversation when you fired me and I clearly asked you if there were any work issues responsible for my firing and you said 'no'. My firing had everything to do with Julia and nothing to do with my work. I have you on tape."

"Why did you feel it necessary to tape that conversation John?"

"Because Gregg I know you, I know how much you love Julia and I was pretty certain that you would go all out to get me to not divorce her."

"Okay, fair enough."

So I continued, "I expect to make a fortune on new software and I am willing to share that good fortune with you Gregg under certain circumstances. I will come back to work for you full time.

"My duties can remain the same with regard to customer service/relations but I will not go back to the system maintenance aspects. You will have to hire a manager to take that over and that manager should report to me because it is going to be so closely aligned to the new program assuming you get on board with it and I have every reason to believe you will be ecstatic with it. The remainder of my time say about forty percent will be spent on program development.

"Even though I will be working full time for you and getting paid to develop my program and future programs the exclusive ownership of said programs will rest with me. In exchange for those conditions I will grant you an exclusive license to market my programs with a fixed royalty percentage payable to me.

"I know this is pretty brassy of me Gregg, but after you see what I am working on you will be happy with this deal. We are going to make a killing."

Gregg a true businessman said, "I agree to all the terms of this proposal and will have our corporate attorney contact you to write up the deal. You understand though that if I feel it isn't working as expected I would still have the option of letting you go. I would like you to modify the royalty percentage to a reasonable higher number in the event that would happen."

My next scheduled counseling session came and went without me attending. True to his warning the officer knocked on my door and dragged me to the courthouse, this time in cuffs. He smirked, "I warned you buddy, this time your ass is grass."

When Judge Judy, I mean Judge Caldwell came into the courtroom I detected two or three shades of bright red in her face and smoke coming out of her nostrils and fire shooting out of her eyes. Yeah, as predicted she was pissed.

"Well Mr. Burton, it seems you have done it again. I find you in contempt of court and hereby sentence you to 30 days in jail."

Julia was present though I don't know why and with an outburst said, "No Your Honor, please don't do that to John. I withdraw my objections to his request for divorce. Please grant it and don't send him to jail again."

I think spit flew out of her mouth when Judge Caldwell said, "It's too late for that honey, he is spending time in jail period."

At that time I jumped up and yelled, "Your Honor, I would like to approach the bench."

She glared at me and spat again, "You are not allowed to address me directly, that is what you have an attorney for."

I turned to Jacob and said, "Jacob Easterman, you are fired. Now, Your Honor I will be representing myself and wish to approach the bench."

I approached and so did Julia's attorney. "What is it Mr. Burton?"

"Your Honor, I would like to request a short meeting in your chambers to put this whole case to rest. I believe if we have that meeting everything will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction."

"Very well, counselors will meet with me in my chambers in ten minutes. I declare a short recess." Again the gavel, 'bam'.

When we gathered in her office I requested that the meeting be off the record. She shook her head and was about to speak when I said, "Your Honor, I have reason to believe that there are issues that neither you or Julia's attorney would like on public record so I once again ask that it be off the record." She looked at me long and hard and then nodded and asked the court recorder to leave the room.

"Very well Mr. Burton it is your show. Let's hear it."

"First of all Your Honor, I have no desire for anyone to get hurt further in these proceedings. Please believe me. I have reason to believe that there has been judicial impropriety here. I don't want you hurt, I don't want your marriage destroyed, I don't want Julia's parents marriage destroyed either and I certainly don't want Julia hurt. I don't love her anymore and I don't want to be married to her anymore but I don't want her world to fall apart either.

"As you already might have already surmised I have evidence of you having an affair with Julia's father. That would dictate that you recuse yourself from this case. The evidence is irrefutable and rather explicit I might add. I would present that evidence here to you and opposing counsel if necessary but I don't want to do that. Further if forced to do so I would provide it for the judicial review board but I don't want to do that either.

"As I said, I don't want anyone hurt further. Julia would be devastated and I don't know if your two marriages would survive. I just don't want to hurt anyone, I just want my divorce." I looked over at Julia's attorney to see if he would acknowledge his thoughts on the matter. "What do you think?", I asked.

He looked at Judge Caldwell and said, "Your Honor, I have always respected you because you refused to give up on marriages that had a chance to survive. You have been a real hard ass in some cases, excuse my bluntness, but I have always seen why you did it.

"Assuming that Mr. Burton's evidence indeed exists I would be disappointed in you having an affair and further disappointed that you would not have recused yourself from this case but like him I wouldn't want you hurt. I believe you should grant him his divorce."