The Exact Moment...

"Honey, I want you to calm down. I am not going to hurt you. I mean I am not going to hurt you anymore. I am sorry about punching you in the face. The drugged up wine was my first choice but you didn't drink it. I needed you here to see something and just asking you to come wouldn't have worked. You will see why in a few minutes. I am going to take off the ball gag. Please don't scream. We are at my Dad's old warehouse so no one is going to hear you at this hour and all it will do is give me a headache."

I leaned over and undid the ball gag. She stretched her mouth and jaw out.

"Jimmy, please don't kill me." She started to sob again.

"Honey, If I wanted you dead you would have been dead hours ago. Like I said I need you to see and hear something for yourself. Look over there" I said, motioning to the laptop on the desk. "That is a live feed of what is happening in the other room. Donny is in the same situation you are in. He is tied up just like you are. He's still out cold but otherwise ok. I am going to go in there and have a chat with Donny. I need to put the ball gag back in your mouth so you don't scream while I talk to him. Is there anything you need before I go in there?"

She asked for some water which I gave her. There was still fear in her eyes as I put the ball gag back but I think it was more fearful of what I had become rather than fear for her own safety. I left her in the office as I went down to the workshop. Donny was still slumped in the chair. He was tied up like my wife but one difference. He was tied down at the wrist but his hands were fastened flat face down on the arm of the chair as well. There were three spotlights shining right into his face. I didn't want him to see the camera facing him and I didn't want him to see too much of where he was. I waited about a half hour for him to start to stir. As he started to grumble out of his sleep, I slapped him as hard as I could across the face.

"WAKE UP DONNY BOY!" I shouted as the cobwebs started to clear. The "I fucked up" look plastered on his face was priceless.

"Donny, you and I, we need to have another one of those man to man talks like we had before. Oh wait. You are still gagged. It's kind of hard to talk while you are still gagged. Let me get that for you." I reached over and undid his gag.

"What did you do to Mary?" was the first thing out of his mouth. I am not going to lie. It shocked me so much it stopped me in my tracks. He knew he was in a bad spot and he first thought was of her. I kind of respected that. That lasted for a split second when the thought hit me that he was asking what happened to her so he knew what he was in for.

"Donny, let's just say that Mary...well Mary is gone."

"G-g-gone. What do you mean gone?" Donny asked.

"Donny, you're a smart boy. I don't think I need to spell it out for you, do I? But Mary is the past. Let's talk about the present. Let's talk about you and me and how this is going to play out."

"Jimmy, please don't hurt me man. You don't have to do this. I thought we had an understanding. You know I never loved her. I told you I was just fucking her. I told you I was going to move on soon enough. I know I kind of pushed it when I moved in and we threw that shit in your face but she was your wife Jimmy. She was the one who broke vows with you. She was the one who took your trust and threw it away for some strange dick. Now I admit I knew she was married but I was never going to come between you two. She was the one who said we should tell you and that you would accept me moving in. Jesus, Jimmy, It's her you should be mad at. I am just a horny guy who saw an opportunity and took it. You can't kill me for that, can you?"

I turned and looked at the camera before turning back and looking at Donny.

"Donny, I know all that. I told you Mary was the past. I dealt with her betrayal already. You are in that chair because you threatened my daughter."

"Come on man. That was a joke. Ok not really a joke but just a threat. I knew you weren't playing ball with the sharing wife thing. You wife had gone on and on about how much you loved your daughter and how she loved that you always looked out for you daughter and that there wasn't anything you wouldn't do for her. I figured a little threat would get you in line for the little time I had left staying at your place. I was never going to touch her. I promise."

I stood up and pretended to be mulling over what he had said. I walked behind the spot lights where he couldn't see me. I took one last look at the camera before turning it off. My wife didn't need to see what came next.

"Donny, the problem is I don't believe you. I think your slimy little macho ass would have tried to take my daughter from me. You would have...how did you say it?...buried your cock in my little girl's ass. I need to make sure you never think about touching her again."

He started to protest as I put the gag back in his mouth. After it was firmly back in place, I walked over to the table and picked it up. With dad's hammer in my hand I walked back over to Donny who had tears in his eyes. I brought the hammer up over my shoulder and slammed it down on Donny's wrist. His muffled yell almost drowned out the sound of the bone snapping. I quickly brought the hammer back up and slammed it back down in the same spot causing what I could only imagine was immense pain. My next blow came down on his forearm so hard it cracked the arm of the wooden chair underneath his arm. By this time Donny was in shock and had stopped squirming. His left kneecap took two shots to destroy. I threw the hammer back on the table and took a seat across from Donny. Coming down from the adrenaline took a lot out of me and I was suddenly winded. I caught my breath while I waited for Donny to become coherent again. When he started to come around he was moaning and crying. I slapped him again to get his attention.

"Donny? Nod your head if you can hear me and understand me. Good. As far as I am concerned your debt has been paid. But you so much as think about my little girl and my hammer and me are gonna pay you a visit my friend. Nod again if you understand. Good. Now I am going to dump your sorry ass in the middle of nowhere. If I were you I would have a good story ready when you finally get to an ER. Tell them you got mugged or it was a hit and run. Some shit like that. You might get up the balls to do something stupid, like call the cops or go get yourself a gun and come looking for me or my daughter. That would be a bad Idea. You see I left $20,000 of the money I took from the bank as sort of an insurance policy. Should I get picked up by the police, get killed, have an accident or disappear, the money goes from an insurance policy to a contract on your head. Same thing goes is anything happens to Cindy. Cut your losses and walk away. Do you understand?"

He again nodded his head. I reached over and undid the gag.

"Say it."

"I understand."

"Good. Now let's get you the fuck out of my sight before I decide your life isn't worth the gas to drop you off."

I gagged him and blindfolded him again. I shoved him into the trunk of my car and left the warehouse with my wife still tied up and gagged in the office. I drove around, mostly in circles, for about a half hour before stopping someplace deserted. I yanked him out the trunk and throwing him to the ground. I cut the twist ties around his hands and told him to wait until her couldn't hear my car anymore before he took off the gag and blindfold.

"This is Goodbye Donny. I think it goes without saying that if I ever see you again, it's going to end with me digging a hole."

With Donny taken care of, I headed back to the warehouse to deal with my wife.

I went back to the warehouse and left my wife tied up, and gagged while I loaded up all the lights, cameras, laptop and anything else I brought. I went up and got my wife. I undid her left hand, brought it over to her right and zip tied them together. Then I undid her right hand from the chair followed by her legs. I brought her down the car, put her in the backseat and drove home in silence. When we got home I told her to stay put while I took everything out of the car and put it away. When I was done with all that, I poured myself a drink, put it on the coffee table in the living room and then went back into the garage. I used a pair of pruning shears and cut her hands loose. I tossed the shears on the backseat next to her and went inside.

I took a nice long sip of my drink as I sat in the living room. I wondered if she was going to run out and call the cops. That thought quickly left my head when I heard her come in and close the door to the garage. I could hear her breathing as she stood behind me at the doorway to the living room. I wondered if she was thinking about burying those shears into my back. I decided not to take the chance.

"Don't you want to know where the money went?" I asked without turning around.

She walked around me and sat on the chair opposite from me. Her hands were empty so I guess she wasn't going to stab me in the back literally.

"I am not really sure how you feel about what has happened over these last 12 hours. I guess I never really made it clear about how I have felt over the last few months. I know you are probably a little angry with me. But we will get into that later. As for the money, I sent Cindy 5 grand to take a little trip. I didn't want her around for the next few days. The rest of the money went into an insurance policy you could say. You might be feeling angry enough to try to take me out in my sleep or call the cops for what I did. Should anything like that happen to me, some of my friends are going to come pay you a visit. And they are not going to be as nice as I have been. You are the only loose end on this now that Donny is disposed of. I am sure you have questions, or stuff that you want to say. I want you to take a few days and really think out what you are going to say cause one wrong word and even I don't know how I am going to react. Now why don't you clean up and get to bed."

She sat there for a few minutes, staring at me like I was a stranger before she went upstairs, showered and went to bed. I guess to her I was. To myself also. This was unchartered territory for me. We would both see how this would play out.

It had been a quiet 3 days. We had both co-existed in the house without saying one word to another. She had been doing the cooking and the cleaning, but we didn't eat any meals together or sleep together. She was waiting for me when I got home. Sitting in the same spot in the kitchen she was that fateful day. She asked if we could talk. I told her we should move to the living room. We sat opposite from one another and she began.

"I have thought a lot about us and everything over the past few days. You must think horribly of me and you wouldn't be wrong. Like I told you that day, my love for you has never wavered, although my mind had. I had convinced myself that this thing with Donny would never come between us but it did. It was nice having someone new tell me I was beautiful and I was smart. I know you told me those things too but somehow it was different. I started to think that you told me those things because you had to since you were my husband. Recently I never thought you told me those things because it was actually true. That you did think I looked beautiful and that I was smart. I took you for granted and convinced myself that if you left me, I would get over it. I never knew what I had until you stopped talking to me, and touching me and basically left me without leaving me, if that makes any sense. I fucked up. I fucked up big. I just hope I didn't fuck up big enough where we can't work this out. I love you and will do anything I can to make this work between us Jimmy."

I stood up from my chair and walked over to where my wife was sitting. I bent down and kissed her forehead.

"Do you know I have been waiting for 3 days to hear you say those words? Now pack your shit and get the fuck out!"

"What?" she said in almost a whisper.

"You heard me. I won't continue to live with a cheating whore. Pack your shit and leave. I'll give you 30 minutes" I told her as I started to set the timer on my iPhone.

"But honey..." she started to plead.

"30 minutes and you are out of here. By cab or by ambulance but 31 minutes from now you will be out that door."

She again looked at me as if I was a stranger or as if she was seeing me for the first time. She wasn't quite sure what to do. She just sat there and stared as her heart broke. After 4 minutes she got up, with a tear in her eye and started to head upstairs. I could hear movement around up there but wasn't sure what she was doing. Would I really hurt my wife? The woman I had loved for so many years? The mother of my child? Honestly, I am not sure myself. Luckily it didn't come to that.

She came down the stairs and put her suitcases by the front door. She turned and looked at me with sadness in her eyes. She had taken about 3 steps toward me, but stopped abruptly as the alarm signaling the end of the 30 minutes started going off. I turned off the alarm. She marched right over to me and kneeled down in front of me.

"I love you Jimmy. I have since the moment I laid eyes on you. I will till I close my eyes for the last time."

She leaned into me and gave me a kiss on the lips. She stood up and tried to get away before the tears started to fall. She failed miserably. She grabbed her suitcases and walked out the door and out of my life. Almost as soon as the door closed I broke down into uncontrollable sobs. I hated myself for it but I couldn't control it. Truth of the matter was, even after all she did to me, I still loved my wife and it broke my heart as well to throw her out.

Epilogue

To say my daughter was pissed would be an understatement. She accused me of sending her the money to get her out of the way so I could throw out her mother. She was absolutely right and I had no defense against her accusations. I wasn't about to tell her what a whore her mother had been. She was going to live with her boyfriend. While my daughter was packing, I pulled her boyfriend off to the side. I explained to him I was having an issue with some guy who might use my daughter against me. I told him not to tell Cindy because I didn't want to scare her unnecessarily. I told him to keep his eyes open. I gave him Donny's name and description and told him to call me if he sat anyone hanging around that matched my description. He asked me if it had anything to do with Mary and me splitting. I just told him I was holding him responsible for taking care of my little girl. As he shook my hand, my daughter yelled at him to stay away from me.

Turns out I didn't have to worry about Donny too long. I picked up the newspaper two months later to find out that he was killed. I did some digging and found out Donny couldn't help himself. He was in a restaurant telling some woman that he loved her and that if sharing her was the only way he could have her then he would. Apparently her husband had a better idea than I did that his wife was cheating because he was in the restaurant. He walked over to their table, grabbed a steak knife off the table, yelled "I won't share her" and plunged the knife into Donny's chest. His arm and leg were still casted so he had no way of defending himself from the pissed off husband. Donny died instantly. I would have preferred a little more suffering but we don't always get what we want.

As for me, I divorced my wife. We let the lawyers work it all out. We were never both in the same room at the same time so I didn't have to look at her. She tried talking to me numerous times. I just couldn't do it. I don't know if I would have felt love or hate and was afraid of feeling either one of those. The house was sold and I moved out of state. I now live in a one bedroom apartment. Work is ok. My company let me transfer to a different office but I had to be low man on the totem pole. My dating life is horrible as well. I have been out of the game for so long I am awkward and unsure. Most of my dates are one and done. So I have a lousy job, crappy one bedroom and almost no love life. These are the sacrifices I made for my daughter.

I did see my wife one more time. Three and a half years after the whole Donny situation, I had heard through the grapevine that my daughter was getting married. I knew no invite would be coming. I had found out where my wife was living. She had recently moved in with her new boyfriend. I went to go see her. They were coming out of the house and going to his car when I walked up.

"Hello Mary."

"Oh my god! Jimmy? Is that you? I can't believe it. UH...Scott this is Jimmy, my ex-husband. Jimmy this is Scott, my boyfriend."

Scott and I shook hands; while he shot me a look that said don't start any trouble. I didn't know what she told him and what she didn't but it looks like she let me be the bad one to everyone. I was ok with that.

"Mary, can you and I talk for a second?" I asked.

Scott looked at her as if to ask if she would be alright.

"Sure. Scott can you wait for me by the car?" she asked, satisfying his concern. Scott walked towards his car.

"Jimmy, it's been almost 4 years. How have you been?"

"Listen Mary, I would take up too much of your time" I said starting to walk her to Scott's car. "I heard that Cindy was getting married. I know she hates me. I don't blame her."

"I am so sorry Jimmy. I never told her what really happened. I was so ashamed of myself and what I had done. I let her hate you so she wouldn't hate me."

"Mary, it's in the past. I just want you to give her this from me. I know it's not much. But I had it lying around. She could use it to give her and her hubby a good start."

I handed her a manila envelope.

"God Jimmy, there has to be $15,000 in here."

"Actually" I said as I opened up the passenger side door and helped her in, "There is $20,000 in there. Turns out I never needed it. Tell Cindy I love her. I will let you two get to whatever exciting thing you two are off to."

With a tear in her eye, Mary mouthed a Thank you at me while Scott said "Ha, nothing that exciting. We're just doing some food shopping."

"You always go food shopping with her Scott?" I asked.

"All the time" he replied.

"You're a smarter man that me Scott" I said as I closed her door and walked away.