Do Not Pass Go 07 - Conclusion

Mom's little outburst had her sitting in jail while Dad took us home. He wasn't gloating, but he probably should have been. Then again, our freedom wasn't really much of his doing, after all.

When Mom got out of jail, she ended up living with Grandma, while Dad stayed with us. We only had him for a week, while he worked to get things arranged for our move to St. Paul. I'll admit, I wasn't all that crazy about that, but at least we'd be a family again. And Aunt Billie was cool.

The weird part was having a stranger live with us for five weeks. She was our new caretaker and a real hardass. She wouldn't take any shit from us. I guess I could have done something about it, but she didn't mean us any harm. I understood that. She was good for Tommy and Jenna, and it was only for a few weeks. Until we got out of school.

Dad visited every weekend, and by the third trip, it was a lot like old times. It was funny how easy it was to fall into our old ways. That didn't mean I wasn't a little worried about how things were going to be in St. Paul.

Then again, if this new girlfriend of Dad's we keep hearing about causes any trouble, I'll deal with it.

~ * ~ * ~

Peter

"I guess you're feeling pretty good about yourself, Peter. You've ruined me and destroyed my family. Congratulations. You must be so proud."

She didn't look good. Her hair was lifeless, her eyes dark and hollow. Maybe her time in jail had something to do with it. She was taking it pretty hard. Good.

"You said you wanted to talk, Jessie. If all you're going to do is attack me, this talk is over."

Then I saw something I never would have expected. Tears. Tears from Jessie.

"Why, Peter? Why? Why did you have to ruin everything? Why couldn't you just let it go? Things weren't that bad between us, were they? Why did you have to break up our family."

"Me? I wasn't the one that was for all purposes an absentee mother for a year. I wasn't the one cheating, sleeping around with who knows how many men. I wasn't the one who filed for divorce, who lied and cheated to steal my children from me for months on end. So don't put this on me."

And just like that, her tears turned to anger.

"Grow up, Peter. So I had a few dates. It never hurt us. It never was going to. I was under a lot of stress, working day and night to earn a living, putting a roof over my family's head, food on the table, clothes on their backs. I let off a little steam, and you had to ratchet it up, and try to take my kids away. I didn't deserve that. All you had to do was come back home, and I would have done anything to make it better, but you never gave me a chance."

God, this was so like her. Revisionist thinking, minimizing her errors, her peccadilloes, while placing the blame on everyone else, anyone else.

"What are we doing, Jess? It's over. You didn't want the kids, you just didn't want me to have them. You had to make a competition out of it, you had to beat me. You did, for a long time. Now it's my turn on top. And it's time to move on. You can go back to your precious work, and spreading your legs for the flavor of the month. I'll take care of the kids and try to repair the damage you did to them. Maybe over time, and with a little effort on your part, we can fix the relationship between you and our kids."

She rolled her eyes. "Like I would want to have anything to do with those evil little traitors. They're monsters."

"They're your children, for God's sake, Jessie."

"You could have fooled me," she said.

I sighed. This wasn't going anywhere. "What do you really want? Why are we really here?"

"Fourteen hundred child support. Eight hundred alimony. Selling the house and giving you sixty percent. Seven hundred and fifty house payment. Twenty-seven thousand, thousand, in legal expenses. I'm supposed to pay you for screwing me over? It's too much, Peter. And now your mad dog is suing the university, my mother, my colleagues, my students, and god knows who else. You have to call them off, and we need to figure out a number that works. Keep this up, and you're going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"I didn't set the numbers. And don't tell me you can't afford it. You and your high-paying, all-important research job."

"Work with me, Peter. Work with me, and we can both move on. You can have your dear little monsters, and I'll stay out of your hair."

~ * ~ * ~

Alright, I'm sure some of you will think I'm a wimp. I know Traci gave me hell. I agreed to twenty-five hundred a month until Jenna went to college, and two thousand until Traci graduated. I gave her forty percent of the house sale, and we put another forty percent into a trust for the kid's college. After talking to Santa lawyer, he agreed to back off about half of the lawsuits, mostly the ones against individuals. They were long shots anyway.

A year later, our lives have settled down. Jenna has adapted to her new school life and is more popular than ever. Traci has taken her PSATs and SATs and is a National Merit Scholar, to no surprise. She also has a steady boyfriend, which honestly scares me more than Jenna's many beaus. Tommy's come out of his shell, much of which I credit to Pia's influence, and that of her kids. Jenna's taking her studies much more seriously and says she wants to study psychology. Traci, lord help us, says she's going to be a lawyer. Santa Lawyer is even encouraging her. I'm not sure the world is ready for that collaboration.

Oh yeah, Pia and I, we do have something special. We're one big happy family. We're not married, not yet. That would wreak havoc with our alimony. Between us, we have fifty-five hundred a month coming in, and no house payment, thanks to Pia's ex. We figure we have six years to sock away as much as we can, and we're doing a bang-up job. With the 60 grand I got out of the house, and the 120 thousand from the miscellaneous lawsuits, plus the 300 or so grand we expect to get when Pia sells her house, we hope to be sitting pretty when the last of the kids are shuffled off to college.

I went through hell for the better part of a year. I guess I could be bitter about it, but in the end, I came out of everything better than I had hoped. I've got my kids back, I have the love of a good woman who actually cares about our family, a job that I enjoy with a boss that I like and respect, and enough money to live pretty damn well.

Life is good, and all it took was a little patience and trust in the system.

Gotta go now, dinner's on the table, and one of Pia's big rules is we all eat together as a family. I wouldn't have it any other way.

~*~*~*~