The Next One Ch. 05

"Move."

She got an annoyed look on her face, but then she took notice of the look on mine and she got up and moved. I sat down and looked at the two of them and then said:

"Okay. Let's hear it."

"First" Amos said, "I want to..."

"Save it! It wouldn't matter to me any way. What is this about?"

The two of them looked at each other and then Allison said, "We are asking you not to sue Amos and the company, but there is more. We want you to stay married to me until after the baby is born and to allow your name to be put on the baby's birth certificate as the father."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!!"

"Please Frank; hear me out on this. Amos's wife wants another child. Because of complications when she had her last one she can't have another. She and Amos have been looking at adoption, but there are so many hoops to jump through and long waiting lists they aren't making much progress. I want to have the baby and then let Amos and his wife have it. For obvious reasons we can't put Amos's name on the birth certificate without his wife finding out about it. If I put down 'father unknown' it will create problems when I go to give the baby up. We would have to pretend to be making an attempt to find the baby's father to get his permission. It could take up to a year before they would accept that the father wasn't going to show up. If we stay married and then you sign off on the adoption things will go much quicker."

"Give me one good reason why I should go along with what you want."

"Because we can make it worth while for you."

"How do you plan to do that?"

"We did some checking on our own and we found that alienation of affection suits rarely succeed in this state unless there are some really bad aspects to the case. At best you might get ten thousand out of it and typically a third of that will go to your attorney. Secondly, to be successful in a suit against our company you would have to prove that management knew about the affair and did nothing about it and I can assure you that Amos and I kept what we did very quiet. All your suit would do is cost us our jobs. If you do what we have just proposed we will divorce after the baby comes and has been given up for adoption. In the divorce I will voluntarily give up my share of the proceeds from the sale of the house. Given the current market you should be able to get two hundred and fifty thousand for the house and our current equity is about sixty thousand and that's almost forty thousand more than you would be likely to get if you filed suit. Also, if I lost my job you would end up paying me alimony.

"You aren't a stupid man Frank. You can see that this is a winning situation for you. What do you say Frank?"

"I don't know. When I talked to the attorney all we talked about was the divorce. I think I'm going to want to check out what you've told me with my own lawyer. I'll get back to you on it."

I got up and walked out of the restaurant.

++++++++++++++++++

I was right. When I walked into my parent's house I found both sets of parents waiting for me. My dad started it out.

"How about bringing us up to speed on what is going on. Your phone call to Martha upset a lot of people."

"Not much to tell. Allison had an affair with her boss and he got her pregnant. I found out."

"What are you going to do?" Mr. Ames asked

"Divorce her."

"What about the baby?" Mrs. Ames asked.

"Not my concern. You need to discuss that with Allison."

"Is there any way you can work things out with Allison and avoid a divorce?

"There might have been a chance if it was only the affair, but not a chance with her being pregnant. She made it absolutely clear before we were married that she didn't want kids -- not ever! She even encouraged me to get a vasectomy so she wouldn't have to mess with birth control pills, diaphragms, spermicides and the like. I did it and then she goes and gets knocked up by her boss. So no, not a chance. Not even a smidgen of a chance."

"Maybe you should take a little time to think about it" my mother said. "Not rush into it. Okay, she made a mistake, but you two are young and you have been together for so long. It would be a shame to see it end now over a simple little mistake -- an error in judgment -- that I'm sure that she regrets. Maybe you should think about giving things a chance."

"I don't believe you people. My wife is walking around carrying another man's child -- a child she denied me -- and you are all acting like what she did is no more serious that putting a ding in the car door in the grocery store parking lot. Well it is a hell of a lot more serious than that to me. As far as I'm concerned a divorce is going to happen"

I got up and headed for the door. "Where are you going" my mother asked, "We haven't eaten yet."

"I'm not hungry. I've lost my appetite. Goodnight."

I left the house and as I climbed into my truck I was thinking that they would never give up trying to tie Allison and me together. "Can you work it out?" God but I had to laugh at that.

+++++++++++++++

First thing in the morning I called and made another appointment with my attorney. He gave me the same information that Allison had gotten from whoever it was she talked to only my attorney said that Allison's pregnancy would work in our favor as a special circumstance in an alienation of affection suit and the fact that Amos was Allison's direct supervisor would be a major factor in a suit against Cutter and Sons. He said that either one would be a gamble, but we probably had a better than even chance to prevail in both suits. O f course he would say that I thought. It would increase his fees by handling the suits. As for the offer Allison made concerning the house it was not legally enforceable. She could renege on it and I'd have no recourse. I told him to put the divorce on hold until I could think things out.

I went back to work and around two in the afternoon I called Vangie and arranged for her to meet me that evening.

"Tell me about being single again" she said when she walked into the motel room. I filled her in on what was happening and she said:

"You poor baby. Let mommy cheer you up."

After two hours of being cheered up Vangie started to dress and as she was dressing she said:

"What is your situation going to mean for us?"

"It means that we can see each other whenever you want."

"Are we going to use your place?"

"No. Too great a chance that Allison would find out about you. I don't want to give her anything to use against me. I want to keep her on the defensive until the divorce is over."

"Then I'll see you Monday?"

"Absolutely."

+++++++++++++++++

Friday at lunch I called Lou Marks. Lou had been in the Guard with me and he worked in real estate. I got him to agree to meet me at the house on Saturday and give me some idea of what the house was worth and what it would be likely to go for if I put it up for sale.

Allison was a bit off on her idea of what the house was worth. Lou told me that I could probably put it up for sale for three hundred thousand and move it quickly. I told him to start the mechanics of putting it on the market.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on the house getting it ready for sale and Monday I called Allison on her cell.

"My attorney doesn't agree with your attorney, but I have decided not to take the chance that your lawyer might be better than mine or that the jury, should it go to trail, might be full of dumb shits. But what my attorney did tell me was that the deal you offered me would not be legally enforceable and come time to do it you could say you changed your mind and I would be hosed so here is what I have come up with.

"I'm going to hold off on the divorce until your baby problem is solved, but I'm putting the house up for sale now and I'm going to price it to sell. At closing they will give us a check for our equity and we will take it to the bank where you will endorse it and I will deposit it into an account that is in my name only. After that the money will disappear. Gambling debts most likely. A couple weekend trips to Vegas should see to that. That way there won't be any bullshit at divorce time about me hiding assets from you."

"You don't trust me Frank?"

"Of course I don't trust you. You are walking around carrying another man's kid, right? Anyway, the sale goes off, you endorse the check and I hold off on the divorce and forget about the lawsuits. You give me any problems at sale time and all bets are off."

"Thank you Frank."

I hung up without saying anything else.

At eleven I got a call from Vangie. "Looking forward to seeing mommy tonight?"

"You know I am."

"Tonight I want you to meet me at 402 Wilcox."

"Why? What's up?"

"It's a surprise."

I pulled up in front of 402 Wilcox at six and found Vangie sitting in her Porsche waiting for me. 402 was an apartment house and I wondered what was up as Vangie got out of her car to walk over to me as I got out of my truck.

"Not a word" she said, "Just follow me."

She used a key on the front door and led me down the first floor hallway and stopped in front of Apartment 1 D. She handed me a key and told me to unlock the door. I did it and we walked inside.

"What are we doing here Vangie?"

"It's our love nest. I rented it furnished. Now that I can have you whenever I want I decided that since we can't use your place and motel rooms would bankrupt you I got us a place to play. You would like to play with Mommy wouldn't you?"

"You know the answer to that."

"I took a one year lease on it and I can renew. It should do for us until you can get your divorce out of the way."

"How can you hide the expense from Russ?"

"You forget what I once told you lover. I have the money in the family. My father left me oodles and oodles and I don't have to account for any of it except to myself. Want a new truck lover? Treat mommy right and who knows."

"My truck might be eight years old, but it runs great and best of all I don't have any payments to make."

"What? You think I'd give you a truck and then make you pay for it? Well, maybe, but I'll bet you would like making the payments I have in mind. Maybe I'll put one under the Christmas tree for you."

"All I want under my tree is you."

"And what would you do with me lover? You only see me three times a week as it is and I leave you a wreck. If you had to keep up with me full time I'd put you in an early grave."

"But what a great way to go."

"You know why I keep you baby? It is because you say the sweetest things. But enough talk. We need to test the bed."

The bed held up under a very rigorous test.

Resting between bouts Vangie surprised the hell out of me when she said:

"Would you still like for me to be your mother-in-law?"

"What?"

"Sarah's marriage is over. She and Melvin finally decided to call it quits. She should be available by the time your divorce is over."

"Why is their marriage ending?"

"Melvin is a jealous, possessive and suspicious man and he is constantly accusing Sarah of cheating on him and she finally got tired of it and told him she was done with him."

"Has she?"

"Has she what?"

"Has she been cheating on him?"

"Of course she has. She is still doing her dad, John and Larry only by now it has been going on so long that I'm sure she doesn't think of it as cheating. It is just something that she does that he doesn't need to know about."

"Given that why would I want to marry her?"

"Why wouldn't you? I seem to remember your being just a little upset with me after I told you about what she and Russ were doing. If I remember correctly your exact words were:

"I was all set to spend the rest of my life fucking the two sexiest women I've ever met."

"I guess I did say that didn't I."

"So what has changed? Remember what Russ said in the video? About you having something on the side and her having something on the side?"

"You're serious about this?"

"Best way I can think of to keep us close. What would happen to us if you met someone else and got married and we couldn't find a way to get together? Think about it while mommy sucks your dick."

To be continued...