Standing at The Cliff

The only question that I had to answer was this: was my marriage worth fighting for?

Yes, it was. I loved Tabby. Unlike my parents' marriage, Tabby and I loved each other. We chose each other with no conditions, no hidden agendas.

So, I took a deep breath, put one foot in front of the other, and stepped off the ledge.

When I walked into my house I found her sitting on the couch, reading a book. She looked up to acknowledge me coming in, and then she continued reading. Instead of going to another room like I'd done in the past, I came in and sat next to her. She looked up at me again, this time with surprise on her face.

"Tabby, we need to talk."

Instantly, she tensed up and her eyes started welling up with tears. I was confused about that, but I pushed through and kept talking.

"I want us to go to counseling. We've been in this cold war for too long now, and we need to do something before we end up like my parents."

She exhaled in jagged breaths and sucked a large amount of air. "You mean, you're not...Oh my God, Andre! I thought..." With that she fell into my arms and wrapped herself around me. I felt her shaking as she cried into my shoulder.

Suddenly, the reason for her odd reaction became clear. "You thought I was leaving you? No, Tabby. No."

That made her cry even harder. "Please, Dre. I'm so sorry. I should never have lied to you."

I stroked her back. "I know. But we have a lot more to get over than the lying. I have to trust you for us to make this work, but right now I don't. I want to. I really do. But I can't. It's not just about the lying. It's more about the reason that you did it."

She let go of me and backed up so that she could look at me. "I don't understand."

"You lied to me to help my mother cheat. To me, that says a couple of things. Number one, you don't have a problem with cheating, as long as it's the woman who gets to do it. You've told me plenty of times that if I ever cheated on you, that you would cut my balls off. Yet you had no problem with my mother cheating on my father. Number two, it shows me that you don't respect me or my feelings. You cared more about helping my mother cover up her tracks than you did about how it would affect me. Those are two big hurdles to get over."

She nodded sadly. "I get it. I wasn't consciously doing it for those reason, but I can see how you can think that. I would never, ever cheat on you though. No matter what you think about me, I really need you to know that."

I thought about that. I didn't like what she had done, in fact I detested it. But I finally admitted to myself that it had to be hard for her. She was in a tough situation. Yes, she should have told me, but I get that it wasn't easy. And I did not really think that she had cheated. I know that I told her that it's logical that only somebody who approves of cheating would cover up for a cheater, but I also realized that maybe somebody who didn't know how to handle a difficult situation and was afraid to be the catalyst for blowing up a family might do what she did.

"Well, we'll talk about it in counseling. Like I said, we have a lot to get over. But I'm willing to work on it if you are."

She hugged me once more. "I'm so willing to work on it, baby. I love you so much, Andre. You're the best man I know."

*******************************************

EPILOGUE -- ONE YEAR LATER

I tried to hold it in. I really did. But I couldn't. Anger overwhelmed me.

There he was, not even twenty feet from me. Laughing. Smiling. Taunting me with every breath that he drew.

Why did he get to walk away unscathed? After he caused so much pain, why should he get a free pass from karma's sting.

I know my dad would want me to walk away. I know that he would tell me to just let it go. I practically heard his voice, playing in my head like a mantra.

But I couldn't let it go. I just couldn't.

So, I walked up to him. I thought I did it pretty calmly, but some who witnessed it said that I looked like I was itching for a fight. Others said they didn't see that.

I only meant to scare him a little. You know, make him feel the need to look over his shoulder at night. What I didn't expect was for him to say the one thing that would make me lose it on him and go full Hulk.

"Hey, I know you. You're my son, aren't you?"

I don't remember hitting him the first time. I don't even remember the second time. All I remember is getting pulled off him by three guys while he groaned on the floor.

I hoped that a judge would be lenient on me. I'd never been in trouble with the law before. I was a hard worker. I was a married man with a baby on the way (yes, Tabby was pregnant). I thought that I would get slap on the wrist. After all, I was only guilty of taking out the trash.

I got lucky. First, it seems like my mom and dad finally did something together. They paid a visit to Charles in the hospital. My dad asked my mom to go get him some coffee and when she was gone, he had a talk with Charles. Dad "suggested" that he drop the charges against me. He told him that he turned the other cheek when Charles fucked his wife, but he wouldn't be able to do that with his son on the line.

Then, my dad leaned over until his mouth was right next to Charles' ear, and he whispered something that made his eyes grow large and put a look of fear on his face. When my mother returned with the coffee, my dad patted Charles on the chest, like they were two buddies. But there was something very unfriendly in his eyes. They were stone cold; practically evil.

As luck would have it, Charles decided not to press charges against me. He said that he couldn't do that to his own son. His benevolence knew no bounds.

The district attorney decided to press charges anyway, even without his cooperation. It didn't really go well. With the varying stories from different witnesses, it was hard to prove that it wasn't just a fight between two men. In the end, the case wasn't strong enough for him to pursue. He barely had enough time to put real criminals away; it wasn't worth it for him to become involved in a squabble between a father and his son.

Sometimes Karma works both ways.

My parents never got back together, but they left most of the pain in the past. My dad stopped hating my mom after a while, and my mom was able to forgive herself. They could even be in the same room by the time their granddaughter arrived.

Neither one of them ever remarried. I think both were pretty burned out on relationships. They each married the other to make up for past mistakes, and now they didn't feel the need to go down that road again.

Tabby and I did go to counseling. We found a wonderful woman by the name of Bethany Carter, and she helped us immensely. It took a while for me to get over the mistrust that I had in Tabby. Also, I had to fight the urge to misdirect the anger and disappointment that I felt toward my mom on to her.

No matter how hard it got, we never stopped fighting for our marriage. There were good days, and bad days. After a while, there became fewer bad days. What we realized was that everything that we went through resulted in better communications between us.

It turns out that when you jump off a figurative cliff, everything changes. Some things get destroyed, while other things just get damaged. However, the things that are truly unbreakable survive the fall.

********************************

Author's final notes:

First and foremost, I have to thank my editor, Nonethewiser. He came through big time on this one. His suggestions made the story much better than the first draft I sent to him.

Secondly, I wanted to thank you all for reading. Please feel free to comment.