Family is Not Blood Ch. 01

This story was just going to be a BTB story, but sorry, I am a romantic and I sincerely believe in people making changes and growing. The characters were slices of different people that I met in real life over my 60+ years, from different generations and cities, but were the approximate age in the story when I met them. I put 'them' in this made up situation. The type of people they were at that time I met them really wrote the story themselves. That amazed me, all I had to do is keep up with them.

By the way, 1984 is here today. Anyone can buy all the equipment needed to do this at Fry's and get cheap older laptops on ebay for a couple of hundred.

Don't do anything in life that you are not willing to explain to your spouse, children or grandchildren in 15 seconds if you were caught on a hidden video cam.

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I was getting dressed to go to work. I've been pretty busy lately. Been married for two years, working full time at an office and going to night school to get a masters in Accounting. Being a little behind my normal schedule, I was rushing and picked up my pants the wrong way and dumped my change all over the carpet. Bending over, I picked up some of the coins, but half were still missing.

I got on my knees and started collecting what rolled under the bed. Under the bed, I found a top strip of a condom packet. Cathy and I use condoms for birth control. In fact I just bought a dozen last week and we used two of them. I never rip the top off, but leave it connected to the rest of the wrapper. It makes it easier to pick up. It's the same color as the carpet. Looking at the condom box, I found that there are two less than there should be.

I know that my face immediately went pale. Something was really wrong, but Cathy? With whom? Why? Have I caused this? I know the pain and shock was totally on my face. I needed to talk about this with someone I trust, and now that is not my wife. But the first thing I did was to clear the feelings from my face and get out. I rushed past Cathy saying that I forgot about an 8 AM presentation and that I'll have to eat on the run. She says "Bye Mike" and with a peck on my cheek, I'm out.

My father died 3 years ago. I was very close to him, and it was a real loss. My mother passed away when I was 14. The people who stepped up were my Uncle Stan and my father's sister Iwona (Yvonne in English). She was named after her Polish grandmother, my great grandmother that never left German occupied Poland. They both treated my sister Carol and me with love over the years. Carol started Med School in California last fall. Now would be a bad time to take any of her energies away from her. Knowing his work schedule, I called Uncle Stan on his own way to work and asked to meet with him Tuesday. That is when I should have been in my evening class.

I made it a point of working late on Monday, calling Cathy and giving her the excuse about work deadlines. I knew that I really could not face her now. I needed to talk with someone, I was bursting inside. On Tuesday after work I went directly to Uncle Stan's home. When my Uncle Stan first saw my face, he knew that there was trouble and invited me into the kitchen for a beer before dinner. We never got to dinner. We did get into a lot of beers.

Uncle Stan and Aunt Iwona listened to my story, about what I saw, about what I felt. I spoke about what I was afraid of, if I was wrong, or worse, if I was right. After the initial outpouring of emotions and facts, Uncle Stan and Aunt Iwona started to ask for some clarifications and made some observations. They validated the feelings that I had, but counseled patience right now. They were helping me make sense of what I saw and felt, as much as can be when betrayal was staring you in the face.

As the evening and the Zywiec beers went on, I was able to understand that more information was needed. I really could not confirm that it really happened.

Stan said, "Cathy is a person, and that people make mistakes. If it did happen, was it a once off or was this a long term affair? ALL People make mistakes, sometimes even good people. We are all human, and you need to go forward with that. You have to remember who you are and where you came from. This will be the hardest thing to do right now, but you have to keep your humanity. That really is most important, no matter what else the outcome is. This is about you and your being. When this is all said and done, you will still have to look at your self in the mirror for the rest of your life."

"Remember, you are part of a family, a large extended family. You are not alone. You are not a mean and nasty person, you are honest and caring. Do not do anything right now that may not be able to be undone. Hurting now is not hurting forever. You need to understand, life is sometimes messy."

Then Stan brought forward his ideas on how to handle this. He reminded me that I acted a little in highschool and college. I now have to act as if nothing has happened while more information is collected. Stan told me that his good friend Bill can help and without even a nod from me, Uncle Stan dialed him up. Bill came over right on over. Stan said that Bill is in IT and has been working with webcams for a while as a hobby.

Bill is a man in his late 50's who works in the computer dept for a small manufacturer. His wife passed away from breast cancer five years ago, and has not really connected with anyone in particular since. He and my Uncle Stan and my Aunt Iwona and Bills late wife Irena were all friends growing up on the north side of Chicago. Stan introduced him to me and asked me to explain what was going on.

After he heard my story, Bill asked a few questions, not about the relationship, but technical and legal ownership questions. He then suggested course of action on what can be done. "To be blunt, you need to know what is happening in your bedroom. Since this is your own apartment, there are no legal hurdles involved if you approve the installation of recording equipment. You personally own that phone, and you said that you have had that phone account years before you were married. That home computer had to be yours before your marriage because it is that ancient. Let me guess, it is damn slow?" I nodded yes.

"We can monitor all of these things with out much legal or technical concern. But we always have to be careful about the legal aspects. There are things that you find out that may never be able to go anywhere. As a hobby, I have created several webcams that have been disguised as something else. I'm not a voyeur, just a tinkerer. To me it was a challenge to keep me busy. The recording's activation is motion detected. I never thought my creations would get any use outside of catching the kids who were knocking over my trash in the summer."

"I also have several older laptops to wirelessly collect the data. We'll use large usb drives, fast and easy to use. I don't want to stream it over your network to a remote server. You said that you have broadband internet access and I guess that you have the administrator password. I will need that information. The laptops will need to be hidden in or near the apt. The web cam should be plugged in as batteries are a pain in the ass."

"I am also suggesting a keystroke logger on the PC and changing some settings on the home computer to leave an electronic trail. On your home computer, my guess is that you have not cleaned up that baby for years. I will do a cleaning and several virus checks and make sure it will be able to handle what I need from it. The other thing, I suspect from what you have said, Cathy is not a technically proficient individual?"

"Cathy just got a new android. I bought it for her and she has had a heck of a time making it work. I do not know if I have her password, but I can guess and let you know."

I paused a minute and started saying "I want to talk about the cost because...." when I was rudely interrupted by Uncle Stan. "You are family and this is something that shakes us all to our core. We had had divorces in our family before, there has been one night stands, but there was no betrayal, at least not locally. That was not always true with your cousins that away. There has been alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling and other sicknesses. There were people that grew apart, and there have also been reconciliation. There even has been redemption. We have to be there for one another. We are all human and therefore weak."

"I also know who this family is. Do you remember how you went out of your way when your Aunt Iwona was hospitalized? Over five years ago I saw you verbally take down and refuse any compromise for help from an older charge nurse that was not doing her job. Your Aunt needed serious help then and there, and you stepped up to the plate. You are just like your father, and this is paying it forward for who you are."

Bill broke in. "Besides, most of the hardware and software is old technology that was retired and I got for just hauling it away. There are little out-of-pocket costs beside time and mileage. This may be able to save your marriage, and it will all be worth it. For us, think that you have given us a new hobby that will keep us occupied and out of your Aunts hair." I saw my Aunt nod yes. "If things really become costly in time or money, we can talk about it later."

My uncle said "There is a family gathering next Sunday at Uncle Zugmunt's house. This creates a 4 hour window of opportunity for us to clean, install and test the equipment. Mike, make two sets of auto and home keys for us. Get us the admin password and anything else you can. If you get her phone password, figure out a way to get the phone left at home."

Bill added, "By the way, buy this model of alarm clock. They sell it at Target. Figure out how to break the old one first. It will give you a good reason to replace it."

We were home Sunday night after being at Uncle Ziggys. While Cathy was watching Downton Abby, I looked around for the equipment. They did a great job. The laptop was fully concealed under my dresser, totally unseen except for the wire to the outlet, also hidden by the dresser. The webcam was hidden in the 'new' alarm clock. Before we had left for the family gathering, I was able to knock her purse over and her phone 'accidentally' fell out. She never realized it was gone until she found it when we came back.

Now was the hard part. I needed to give her time for a tryst in our bedroom. Just thinking that froze the blood in my veins. I could not believe it, but I had to know. I was still taking classes on Tuesday and was able to get my boss to send me out of town to Boston to do some training from Wednesday morning to return on Friday afternoon. She was going to have an evening and two whole days to herself. I was beside myself, but I knew that this had to be done.

On Wednesday evening, I gave her a call at home from Boston, hoping against hope that she was there alone. We talked for a few minutes and then she came up with a reason to get off the phone. I thought I heard something moving in the background before the final click.

As planned, I took her out to dinner on Friday night to give Uncle Stan and Bill an opening to remove the data from the computer and her phone. On Monday, Uncle Stan left a message on my work phone for meeting with him, Aunt Iwona and Bill on Tuesday. Instead of school, I went to Bill's house and the three of them were waiting.

Since finding that piece of a wrapper, I was more observant. I've noticed fewer beers than I should have had and the empties in the trash. Cathy drinks wine. Don't fully know why, but I saved them for fingerprints - just in case. The bed linen has been changed ahead of schedule and the number of condoms decreased.

I knew that the marriage, my marriage, was really over. It's all over, but for the shouting. My heart was breaking and my world was collapsing. And I've now seen this outwardly calm person in the mirror at home, that I have begun to begun to despise him, because he cannot be his honest self anymore.

Uncle Stan sat me down and told me that it was bad news. Before anything else happened, I spoke to the three of them of what I started to see in just the past week, just because I started looking. Then I asked who was it? My 'friend' Corey.

Uncle Stan summarized what was on the video files from the web cam, but did not show any of it to me. He said that there would be time for that later. Bill summarized what was in the computer monitoring files, what was in her regular email accounts and then her secret email account. The earliest email in her secret account from Corey was from three years ago, after we were engaged and before my father died. Her phone calls and texts also left a trail too. Bill said that he heard me talk to Cathy while she was in bed with her lover on one of the video sessions.

There was silence until I spoke. "It is all about trust, the rest is dust. They appear to have been having an affair for a while, and no plans to stop. "Uncle Stan grabbed my shoulder and said "Where are you are? What do you feel? Talk about it. We are family, we support one another."

"I've been thinking about it all week, realized that without trust, it does not matter. I am in my mid 20s, and even if there was reconciliation, I do not think that it would be worth it, the trust is gone. I've been married to her for 2 years, not an easy 2 years. I was more than willing to do what it took to make my marriage work and be whole, but now, I do not think so."

"Let me sleep on it, but keep the monitoring running. I need to see her electronic paper trail and see what she has been sending, and receiving. I am not rash. I will keep up appearances until I really know what to do. Let me see what the next week brings. I need to find out who else knew about this. I will not do anything to alert her or anyone else to what I know. I need to know who I can trust."

Bill gave me a list of her e-mail and face book accounts and their passwords. Over the next week, I looked into those accounts to find out who was involved. I needed to know who else knew about this. Who could I trust? Cathy and I are part of a community that all know one another.

After several days of closely reading her all her emails, I had an initial sigh of relief. My search did not find anyone of our group involved. No record, no implication in any way of anyone else who knows about this, no one but her lover. Those poisoned e-mails in her secret account were a different matter. I could not look at more than a few of those e-mails, the betrayal was still too much to bear.

I took Cathy out for long dinner a week later. This allowed Uncle Stan and Bill time to retrieve the data from the computer and phone. I've been able to keep a lid on my feelings, to bottle up my emotions and present a calm and warm and welcoming persona to Cathy. It was taking its toll on me. I was dying inside. It was still difficult, but somehow, it was getting slightly easier with each new item of betrayal uncovered. Later in the week I met with Uncle Stan, Aunt Iwona and Bill for the latest discoveries.

I started off asking a question. "Has there been any change at all in her attitude or actions? Is she any different?" There was no forth-coming answer, the three of them just shook their heads no. "OK, I know that I have to end this marriage. It was a decision I never really wanted to make. What else have you uncovered these two weeks?"

Conversations and emails confirmed they have been going at it strong at least for 3 years. It looked like she stopped the trysts when Cathy and I were first married, but started again when I went back to night classes to finish my masters. Like me, according to Corey, his wife Mary appeared to be clueless about it.

All of this finally hit me and I started to tear up. Uncle Stan and Aunt Iwona just hugged me till I stopped sobbing. Aunt Iwona said, "People make their own choices, they live the way that they know how. That is not how we live in our family. I know that you will not be the kind of person to throw out revenge fuck on someone else just to get back at her. You are better than that. You will live after this pain. You will also show the world who you are during it."

I was actually starting to feel better about it now. There was no second guessing that this marriage could or should be saved. As much as they hated to say it, Uncle Stan, Bill and Aunt Iwona agreed. Now the question, what to do?

I started. "Walking away quietly was not something I want to do. I want her to face the results of her actions. Cathy goes through life with the attitude that things just do not apply to her. I want to have the world see who she is and what she had done. Her pattern has always been to say she is sorry and say that she really loves me, and cry a river full of tears. I am not going to accept it or allow it."

"What if Cathy got pregnant by Corey? Isn't that what happens when people fuck? Since Cathy and I use my condoms to not get pregnant, I could do anything to my condoms that I wanted to. I could use a needle and compromise every condom in my apartment that I bought, except any ones that I would use. She wants to have fun, and then she can pay the consequences. If a child is born, a DNA test for parentage cannot be argued with. Can it?" Aunt Iwona was not thrilled with that idea, but only urged caution and thinking it through.

A big part of a divorce concerns money. As a couple, we had about $10k in CDs as an emergency fund. I am also carrying $15K of student loans. Her father was paying off her $20K in her student loans. I was thinking that I could drain the CD and payoff my loans. The only other resources are her three year old car and my 8 year old beater.

Bill brought up something I did not know. Cathy keeps $20,000 in a bank account. Then he provided me with the account number and the simple password. He added that she tends to use this password everywhere. This was really something to think about. The apartment lease is up next month and Iwona suggested that I be very busy with work, and have her sign it. That way, when I leave, she is responsible for those costs.

We talked for another hour. I wanted this to be very public, to the point that Cathy and Corey would not be able to show their faces around here ever again.

Uncle Stan then brought up about who else would be harmed by this. To start off, Corey's wife Mary and Cathy's parents Fred and Rita. Both Mary and Fred are wonderful, long suffering people, all because of their spouses. To be brutally honest, Rita was a card-carrying bitch that commanded the world to revolve around her. We all have seen Mary and Fred grit their teeth while their spouses treated others poorly or acted poorly. Unfortunately, sometimes Cathy acted the same way with me. 'Collateral Damage' was going to be on my mind while I thought about what I should do.

At this point I asked Bill for the web cam footage. All of them said that it was going to be rough for me, but said that I needed to see what tore my marriage apart. Bill gave me the laptop and said that it was mine now. I stored it in my car and away from home I was able to watch it.

There was so much more work to be done, but the decision was made and I was going forward. Funny, by ending my marriage, it gave me hope for the future. Within two days, Cathy was going off to see her parents for the afternoon, and I was going to have the apartment alone to myself.

It was D-Day. I pulled out the condoms and began working. I purchased another dozen and experimented on several until I was convinced that my technique worked. I compromised all 10 of the condoms and returned them back to where they were stored. I collected the trash and put into a neighbors dumpster. That is when I realized that her period had just ended. She was going to be fertile soon. Then I started watching the web cam files.