I'm a Bastard

I just stood there completely stunned. My parents were actually taking her side. They were really telling me that I should overlook her cheating on me. I simply couldn't take any more of this. I turned and walked out of the room and went to my bedroom. Kayla tried to follow me, but I shut the door in her face. 10-minutes later, I had changed into jeans, a casual shirt, and my boots. I never said a word as I walked right through the livingroom and out the front door. They were still all sitting there trying to talk to me as I walked past. I never even acknowledged them. I simply walked out the door, got in my truck, and went to the Sports Bar for dinner and a few beers. Thankfully, the house was quiet and dark when I returned about 4-hours later.

Thursday, and Friday were just more of the same. I completely ignored Kayla, and my kids remained mad at me. I was kind of surprised that Kayla had not yet noticed that the credit cards were no longer working. I'm pretty sure that when she went to do her Saturday shopping that she would figure it out.

It was Friday evening. I had been home for about an hour. I was in my office going through a few things and deciding exactly what I would be taking tomorrow, and what I would get later. Kayla opened the door and walked in. She was wearing a transparent nighty, stockings, garter belt, and heels. I have to say, she looked fantastic.

"The kids are spending the night elsewhere tonight. It's time for you to get over this foolishness and come to bed with me. I want you to make love to me all night. I really need you to take me back."

I looked at her for a minute.

"No thanks. Besides, I have yet to see a report from the clinic verifying that you don't have any diseases."

"Stop being ridiculous. I need you back in my bed. Your temper tantrum is not accomplishing anything. Now come on. I'm horney, and I need sex."

"Not the slightest bit interested."

"Look. If you don't, then I'm going to have to call Clarence again."

"So much for that being a onetime thing then."

"Damnit! It was a onetime thing, but if you are going to keep rejecting me, it's you that is pushing me back to someone else."

"Have fun. Let me know if you are bringing him here so I can leave."

The smoke coming out of her ears and nose as she stormed out of the room took a few minutes to clear. About a half an hour later, I heard the front door slam. She practically burned her tires off as she sped down the street. I took the opportunity of an empty house to pack up a few things. I took the bed apart and loaded it in the truck along with most of my clothes. I would sleep on the sofa in my office tonight. Having everything I wanted to take first loaded in my truck, I fixed a Jim Beam on the rocks and relaxed. The sofa wasn't the most comfortable thing I've slept on, but it was OK.

Early the next morning, I was at the leasing office and got the key to the apartment. It took me a bit. But I managed to get everything out of the truck and into the apartment. Thankfully, a couple of friendly neighbors assisted. No one was home yet when I returned, so I had a neighbor's teenage son help me load up my desk and office furniture. My computer, printer, and accessories went into the cab. I looked back into the living room and thought 'Fuck it. I'm taking the recliner too.'

I guess that either no one got home until that evening, or no one bothered to look into my office or the spare bedroom. I'm surprised that they didn't notice the missing recliner, though. It was early evening before my phone rang. Seeing that it was my daughter, I answered it.

"Daddy? Where are you?"

"I'm at home, sweetheart."

"No, you aren't. Your office is cleaned out, the bed and dresser in the spare bedroom are gone, and your recliner isn't in the livingroom. Besides, I looked everywhere, and you aren't here. Plus, your truck is gone."

"You are right. I'm not there. I am at home. I don't live there anymore. I moved into an apartment for now. Maybe after the divorce is final, I'll get another house, but this will do for now."

"God, dad. I can't believe that you are being such an asshole about this. I thought you loved us."

"I do love you, sweetie. I always have and always will."

"Just not enough to not abandon us."

"I'm not abandoning you. You will still be able to see me all you want. I'll still take care of you and your brother."

"You are abandoning us. You left us and are breaking up the family."

"Your mother is the one that broke up the family. I told her this is what would happen if she went out on that date. She did it anyway."

"But she thought you loved her enough to get past that."

"And I thought she loved me enough to not do it."

"Fine. Whatever." Then she hung up.

Yeah, the divorce was a nightmare. She fought it all the way. Counseling. She wanted me to pay. I refused. I argued that if she wanted it, she should pay for it. That was one of the few arguments I won. What a waste of time. The counselor didn't like me very much. I think it had something to do with me telling him that I was ordered to attend, but the judge said nothing about me actually participating. I suffered through all 12 sessions before the counselor finally gave up. She fought over literally everything. That worthless funny poster that was in the garage that she absolutely despised? Suddenly, she simply couldn't live without it. The Bud Light lamp that I accidentally left behind in the office? She hated it, but I had that on my desk since college. It became the centerpiece that she was going to redecorate the office around. Yeah, it was all bullshit. She was only doing that to make the divorce as hard on me as possible. All the time making it as difficult on me to see the kids as she could.

Finally, the judge granted the divorce. I had to continue to pay half the mortgage. She, of course kept the house. $2,000 a month child support, but I did get every Wednesday evening and every other weekend visitation. What really pissed me off was the $1,000 a month for five years 'Spousal Maintenance'. It would be voided if she got remarried within that time. I wasn't going to hold my breath. I found out that she had moved Clarence in with her before the divorce was even final.

So yeah. Half my paycheck was going to her. I cashed in some of my investments and bought a small house that was in serious need of repairs. At least I got it cheap. It even on a 1/4 acre lot. Thankfully, I managed to sneak all my tools out of the garage the week after I moved out. I refused to even discuss them. Most of them I had before we even met. When she pushed, I started talking about all her jewelry and expensive clothes and shoes. The house had electricity, gas, and running water. The roof was on it, and the walls were standing. That was good enough for me. I moved in and began working on it in the evenings and weekends.

Visitation. Yeah, I was supposed to have visitation. I actually did a few times too. It was a fucking disaster. Kayla did everything possible to interfere with it. The kids were busy. They went for a weekend thing with their friends. Funny how that was always on my weekends and not hers. Oh, Kayla has dance practice on Wednesday. Oh, Josh has a huge test on Thursday and needs to study. The few times that I was actually able to have my Wednesday evening visitation, the kids were hostile to me. They still blamed me for everything, even though I explained my point of view. When the opposition has them as a captive audience literally all the time, and I only have an hour or two occasionally, it's a losing battle. After the third time, they flat out told me that they didn't want to see me anymore. Yeah, I could have forced it, but what would be the point? Forcing them to see me would have only caused more resentment.

I sent them gifts, cards, and letters for their birthdays and Christmas. They were all returned unopened. I continued to send my monthly checks. I saw they were cashed, but never heard a word. Graduation? I assume they graduated, but I never heard anything about it. I sent a registered letter letting them know about the college funds I set up for them. I did hear back on that -- "No Thanks!" Kayla had effectively poisoned my kids against me, just like she said she would. I just concentrated on work, the house, and that's about it. I didn't go out or do anything. It's amazing how much money you can save by doing that.

As if all that wasn't bad enough.

"Hey, mom." I said when she answered the phone.

"Tom. How are you doing?" She responded cheerfully.

"Doing as well as can be expected. Anyway, I haven't heard anything about Thanksgiving. Are you hosting it again this year?"

There was silence on the other end. "Mom? You still there?" I asked.

"Oh. Uuummm. Well. This is a bit awkward. Uuummmm. Yes, we are, but Kayla, her parents, and the kids are coming over for it. She's also bringing the new man in her life with her. We all just felt that having you here as well would be too awkward for everyone. After all, the kids are still angry at you for abandoning them, and you being here with Kayla and her new man would just make everyone too tense."

"Seriously, mom? You're abandoning your own son on Thanksgiving and inviting MY EX-WIFE AND HER BOYFRIEND INSTEAD?"

"Well, we want to keep our close relationship with our grandchildren. Besides, this is your fault. You should have worked to keep your family together instead of tearing it apart. How about coming over for Christmas Eve? Your father and I will be spending Christmas Day at Kayla's house, but we can celebrate it with you the day before."

"Whatever." I mumbled as I ended the call.

I spent Christmas Eve at home watching Die Hard and ignoring the multiple calls and text messages from my mom wondering where I was. I was not in the holiday spirit. I just stared at the packages that I had sent to my kids a week ago. They had been returned to my doorstep yesterday.

I did get a wedding announcement after five years. Kayla ended up marrying Clarence -- the weekend after my last maintenance payment was made. Bitch. Josh's 18^th birthday was a year earlier, so I was already done with my child support. Now, I was completely free and clear of my former family and my commitments to them. I celebrated by getting drunk. Yeah, not real proud of that, but fuck it. I had worked my ass off and given them all the love I could, only to be rejected and treated like shit. Fuck them. Now that all my obligations to the bitch and her two ungrateful offspring were completed, I decided to just put them out of my mind as much as possible. They obviously didn't want any sort of a relationship with me, so I would just forget about them as much as possible and move on.

Well, except for one thing that had always bugged me. I had to keep paying half the mortgage on the house. Sure, that ended when Josh graduated from high school, but my name was still on the deed. I think Kayla was under the mistaken impression that the house was hers free and clear. The divorce only said that she got to live there until the children graduated from high school. Now, all bets were off. I had a right to half of the assets, and that was a pretty big asset. I contacted my lawyer.

To start off with, when we divorced, the house was appraised at around $300,000 with about $200,000 in equity. That was 5-years ago. Since then, we had been faithfully paying on the mortgage, and property values had gone up significantly in our area. By doing a bit of research online, I estimated that the appraised value was now around $500,000, and the equity was more along the line of $450,000. Yes, we only had $50,000 left on the note.

Why was I doing this? Well, obviously for the money, of course. Who couldn't use an extra quarter million dollars? Besides that, there was the fact that it would totally piss Kayla off. She loved that house and having to give me a penny for anything would cause her to go through the roof, and I was looking for whatever payback I could get for what she did. This would also reimburse me for all the maintenance and mortgage payments I had to make for her. The call came about a week later.

"Tom. What the hell is going on?"

"Well, Kayla. There isn't much going on here. Just working and fixing up the house I bought. What's going on with you? I do have to admit my surprise at you calling to see how I'm doing. After all, this is the first time you have talked to me since the divorce."

"You asshole! I'm not calling to see how you are doing. I'm calling to see why a realtor just came to my house to look at it and get my signature on the listing contract."

"Oh that. Well, it should be pretty self-explanatory. Since both of our names are on the title, she would obviously need your signature for the sale."

"What sale? I love this house, and I am not about to sell it."

"Then when can I expect you to get me the check for my half of the equity?"

"Nice try. I got the house in the divorce."

"Nope. You only got the use of the house until Josh graduated from high school. That happened last month. Now, we can either sell it and split the proceeds, or you buy out my half."

"If you think that I am going to give you $100,000 for a house that is rightfully mine, you are crazy."

"Well, that proves that I'm not crazy. I'm not asking for $100,000. You could have done that 5-years ago. Now, since the equity in the house is more like $450,000, my half comes to $225,000. Factoring in all the expensive furniture that you just had to have, let's just round that to an even $250,000."

"You're insane. I'm not giving you a dime." She screamed as she hung up the phone.

Yes, I was laughing after she hung up on me. Yes, my lawyer did take his cut, but it was worth it a couple months later to see her face as the judge ruled in my favor. I even managed to convince the judge to make her pay the court fees, as well as my lawyer for having me take her to court over something that should have been handled out of court.

The house appraised for more than I estimated. With the value of the furniture, I ended up with $275,000. They ended up buying me out instead of selling. I was to find out later that it was mostly Clarence's money that they used. That would end up coming back and biting him in the ass, but that's for later.

I had managed to get the house in pretty nice shape. I even put up a nice sized shop behind the house. I had picked up an old 1972 Chevy pickup that was in bad shape. All I was really interested in was the rolling chassis. The rest would be replaced anyway. Over the last year, I stripped it down, cleaned it up, and completely repainted the whole thing. Once the paint and body work were done, it was time to start on the running gear. The rear differential was still good, but I went through it anyway. It would need to be able to handle the power I was going to be putting through it. The transmission was a Borg-Warner T-10 manual 4-speed. That was the quick stuff. I decided to have fun with the engine. This was just going to be a toy, not for everyday driving. 427 big block. I managed to find one online from a salvage yard. I bought it and had it shipped. Once it got here, I put it on the stand and began pulling it apart. I had to send it to a machine shop to get it the cylinders, crank, and cam bored. New forged crankshaft. 10/1 pistons. Nice heavy cam. I had the heads ported and polished, then had the valves done with double springs. Then, a blower to top it all off. Yeah, I would probably be passing more gas stations than tire shops, and I would pass very few gas stations. I chromed the valve covers, polished the aluminum on the blower, and used all steel braided hoses. Popping the hood almost required sunglasses.

The first time I took it out on the road, I almost wrecked it. I was on the freeway and decided to punch it. Big mistake. The back tires broke loose instantly. I barely managed to hold it straight before I was able to let up off the gas. Note to self: press down slowly on the accelerator pedal. I drove a bit more carefully after that.

It was a few weeks later that I saw an advertisement for a car show that was open to the public. Thinking that would be fun, I filled out the form and paid my entry fee. When the day came, I loaded up the 72 Chevy and drove over to the park. I checked in and was assigned my spot. As I was setting up, I noticed a really nice 1968 GTO parked beside me. I set up my shade structure in my area behind my truck. A couple chairs and my cooler finished my setup. That's when I noticed the attractive redheads setting chairs up behind the GOAT. Yes, I said redheads, as in plural. There were two of them. One looked about my age, and the other looked to be in her mid to late teens. Probably still in high school. There were two very significant things that I did not see. I did not see a guy with them, and I did not see anything on the third finger of the older woman's left hand. Of course, I looked.

"Good morning. I like your car." I said cheerfully.

They both looked up from what they were doing.

"Hi. Thanks. I like your truck too." The older one said.

"Thanks. Have you been to many of these? This is my first one. I mean, I've been to car shows before, but only as a spectator. This is the first one that I've ever entered anything in. My name's Tom, by the way."

"Well, this is the third time my daughter and I have been in one. My ex took it to a few before though. I'm Marie, and this is my daughter Jenny."

"In that case, when you are done, why don't you two come join me in the shade. I have a cooler full of drinks, and I could use any information on these shows I can get."

We ended up hanging out most of the day. We would occasionally get up and talk to someone about our vehicles, but it was a very pleasant day. No, I didn't win any awards, but I still had fun. I learned that she had divorced her husband three years ago, because she caught him cheating on her. He was cheating with his boss's wife. She made a deal with him; She would give him all the videos as long as he signed the GTO over to her. She told me that would really hurt him, and she wanted him to keep his job so he could keep paying his child support and maintenance to her. It was a double win for her. Besides, his boss was an asshole, and she didn't really care if his wife was hanging the horns on him. Jenny was also friendly and got into the conversation. She told me that she was really pissed at her dad for his cheating. She didn't have anything to do with him anymore.

We were having such a nice time that I didn't want it to end. When the show was wrapping up, I offered to take them to dinner at the Red Lobster a couple blocks away. They accepted, and we drove over. I didn't really want to be a downer, but they asked and had told me their story. I hit the highlights. I did tell them that my kids took my wife's side and had nothing to do with me anymore.

"You mean that she cheated, and your kids blame you for divorcing her?" Jenny was astonished.

"Yeah. I tried to explain things to them, but she had already poisoned them against my by that point."

Marie put her hand on my arm. "I'm so sorry for you, Tom. You seem like such a nice guy, and you didn't deserve any of that." She said sincerely.

I decided to change the subject to something more pleasant. We ended up talking and laughing for another hour. We seemed to have a real connection. We exchanged numbers, and Marie seemed acceptable to meet up with me again. As they were leaving, I saw Jenny give me a big smile, a wink, and a double thumbs up. I took that to mean that she was also really acceptable to me meeting up with her mom again.

So, Marie and I did get together again. It was the next weekend. I had called and asked. She had enthusiastically agreed. Dinner and dancing. I got a kiss on the cheek when I walked her to the door. As I was turning to leave, I spied a teenage redhead in a window smiling and giving me the double thumbs up.