Revenge Ch. 01

Brad got up and left the restaurant before his wife returned from the refreshing room. He had seen the exchange of looks and knew they would be soon making way for the hotel room for a fucking session. He sat down in the lounge and picked up a newspaper to cover his face.

A few minutes later the two came out of the restaurant hand in hand and walked over to the elevator. Brad watched the indicator till it stopped at his wife's floor. Then he got up and took the escalator to his floor. His marriage was over.

Just like in the case of a sick and dying man, the relatives had to wait for the last final moments before burying the mortal remains of the lost one, similarly in the case of his marriage only the final formal phases had to be perforce gone thru. He had lost his wife to an arrogant but rich bastard who had no scruples in stealing another man's wife.

He picked up the intercom and called up Harold's room number. The phone rang but went unattended. He waited another good fifteen minutes before repeating the process and ended up with same results. He put the phone down and went out of his room. It was showdown time.

A few minutes late he was standing in front of his wife's room. He looked down the corridor. It was empty. He punched his wife's cell number. It rang for some good minutes before she responded

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked in a breathless tone.

"Just missing you, so I rung up to say I love you," he replied, trying his utmost not to let his voice betray him.

"I love you too baby," she gushed. Her voice sounded hurried as though she wanted to get over with the call.

A few seconds late he shut off his cell and turned back to the closed door and knocked.

There was no immediate response. Then he could hear some voices. No doubt the lovers were surprised at being disturbed during their tryst.

"Whose that?" said a voice from behind the door. He recognised it. It was him.

"Room Service," he called out gruffly so as to disguise his voice a bit.

The door finally opened and Harold stuck his face out. His eyes showed their surprise when he saw who was out there. But before he could react, Brad's right fist smashed into his face. He had swung with all his might and he herd the sound of something snapping as Harold flew backwards into the room.

Nancy screamed as she saw Harold come down. Then her voice turned to a surprise gasp as she saw her husband step inside and shut the door.

"Oh no ... oh my God ... nooo!" she wailed and desperately tried to cover up her nakedness with the bed sheet. She pushed herself as far away as possible from her approaching husband, her hands holding the bed sheet over her breasts.

"Nooo ... nooo ..." she kept repeating without even perhaps comprehending what she was saying. Her eyes refused to meet her husband's angry, accusing glare.

For a few moments there was complete silence in the room broken only by the painful groans emanating from the man on the floor. Harold was clutching his face, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his broken nose.

Finally Brad broke the silence.

"You don't have to be afraid of me. Like I had just said over the cell, I love you and I could never hurt you. Yes, I did expect some more honesty, trust and truthfulness from you in our now dead relationship. I have always loved you and I don't think it is within me to have stopped you from leaving me had you mentioned it even once. But this insult that you have heaved upon me by warming the bed of another man while continuing to wear my wedding ring was very harsh, very harsh and cruel of you."

Nancy continued to sob into the bed sheet for some time before replying.

"I ... we were planning to tell you ... tell you about us once you got a job. I never thought it would be like this."

"Job!" shouted Brad, "You were waiting for me to get a job? What's my getting a job got to do with your slutty behaviour?"

Suddenly it struck him.

"How long has this being going on?" he asked in a much quieter voice.

"Almost a year," she whispered back. She made an attempt to cover up herself further as though it would protect her from his ensuing invectives. The bed sheet moved up and exposed her thighs to Brad's glare. He could clearly make out red rashes running down her creamy thighs, a clear indicator of their wild coupling.

Then there was nothing more to be added. He could have screamed. He could have ranted. But the damage had been done to their marriage. And like she just said, they were waiting for him to find a steady job before cocking their nose at him. Nothing could turn the clock back. Nothing could make things right again. With one final contemptuous look at the figure cowering under the bed sheets, Brad turned on his heels and walked out of his wife's room without a glance at the figure withering in pain on the floor.

He checked out and decided to take the Greyhound in the night rather than waiting for the morning flight. He just couldn't stand being in the same place as his adulterous wife. Her deceit and betrayal had shocked him.

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Back home he spent a lonely morning all by himself. He requested Nancy's parents to keep Lisa with them for another day. He just didn't feel energetic enough to be around an eight year bundle of energy. They were perturbed but did not ask any embarrassing questions. He sat on the patio for several hours looking far away into the distance while his shell-shocked brain tried to conjure up some logical explanation for his wife's adultery.

The image of his naked wife huddled under the bed sheets in her hotel room with her clothes and those of her lover strewn all over came back to him again and again. At least she should have thought about their child and the effect it would have on her if they were to separate.

Try as he could, he just couldn't understand how she had turned into such a cold and self centred woman. Did he fail to satisfy her? Well, he couldn't remember them ever having any discussion on that. And the way she responded to him in the bed certainly did not indicate her dissatisfaction in any way. Then what was it that drove them apart?

His mind wandered back in time to the wonderful years they had had together when they could afford just a one room apartment, the coming of Lisa in their lives, the pains and joys associated with the rearing up of a toddler. He had always wished they had had another child. But she preferred to wait and he gave in to her wish. She had always loved to dress up smartly, and he had always loved to see her dressed up smartly in the latest fashion. And why not? After all, she was the light of his life and the mother of his only child.

That was till his company cut back on the jobs and he had just managed to hang on with a temporary assignment every now and then. But they knew it was going to be a temporary phase. Such phases did come in a couple's life. They had discussed it on a number of occasions, right here on this very patio. Then what was it?

But as he tried to recollect, he realised that this was the very period when she began to distancing herself from him. She would time and again argue with him about not getting a proper job; that the job market was really not that bad and companies were still eager to take guys with a good track record. And her out of town trips seemed to have also increased in their frequency. Perhaps this was the time her affair with Harold began while he stayed back at home writing short stories for e-publishers and taking care of their baby girl.

His reverie was broken by the sound of the ringing of the door bell. He glanced at his watch. It was late in the afternoon. Guess it's time to face my cheating wife again he thought bitterly as he made for the main door, thinking that she had taken an early flight home. He opened the door to find a forty something rotund man standing on the doorsteps, dressed in a pin stripe suit.

He introduced himself as Mark Sayer, a lawyer. He didn't waste much time and quickly got down to the purpose of his visit. He had been hired by his wife and she wanted a quite amicable divorce, and yes he was being served. He placed a manila envelope on the glass top side table and then continued. He had been also hired by Harold Witherspoon and was contemplating filing of a case of assault.

He had sat stunned listening to the lawyer as he rambled on and on. The deal he was here about soon became clear to him. If he were to agree for an amicable divorce, then even though this was a no fault state with provisions in law for a 50/50 split of assets, his wife was willing to forego her share of assets because she realised that Brad was not gainfully employed and almost penniless.

If not, then Harold would bring in charges of assault and battery. They had witnesses; he explained who would testify in their favour. And then there was this clipping from the security camera at the hotel corridor that clearly showed him pushing in forcefully into his wife's room with his fist swinging at the same time. Of course, it would be also be proved that his wife and Harold had been fully dressed and going thru their day's report before calling it a day over a cup of coffee.

All in all a simple case of a jealous husband ... an unemployed jealous husband who was making it harder and harder for his wife who was the sole bread earner to properly undertake all her responsibilities as a working woman and a mother of a small child. Of course, his wife would get to keep their daughter; after all he was jobless and penniless.

She had killed him. She had robbed him of his honour and dignity. And she had taken away his daughter.

He felt the hollow, empty feeling inside him building up again. It was always there ever since that shark had left his house, with the divorce papers he had signed neatly tucked into his slim leather briefcase, his mission fully accomplished. The shark had known this would be a successful mission. After all, the stupid ignorant husband was also jobless and penniless and there's very little you can buy without money. Even lawyer's and extended court room proceedings require money. Yes it had been a win/win case from the very first instance.

To be continued.

alex_lover