Separate Vacations: Parallel Lives

Fresh tears erupted. "NO! I..."

I shut her off. "For once in your life, Tiffany, it isn't about what you want. I'll be by tomorrow, to pick up the girls, unless you deny me. That would not be a good idea."

Her mother was standing to the side with the girls, and could see from Tiffnay's expression it was not going well. She started towards us, and I warned her.

"Unless you want a very ugly, very public scene in front of your bosses and coworkers, I suggest you stop your mother. If the bitch says one word to me, I'll go off like a Roman Candle."

To her credit, Tiffnay stepped around me and stopped her. "MOM! This is between Bruce and I, so please, not a word."

It looked like the top of her head was going to blow off, but she stopped. When Tiffany turned I couldn't help it, and stuck my tongue out at her. The girls caught it and giggled. She went so red I thought she might just stroke out, but unfortunately, she didn't.

The girls were tremendously disappointed, not understanding, but cheered up when I told them I'd be by to pick them up tomorrow at eight, staring at Tiff, almost daring her to say something. She just nodded, and I turned and left.

Just before I went out of sight, I turned. Tiffany was in Stephen's arms, sobbing hysterically while her mother was rubbing her back. Guess she was still breaking in the new man.

...

It was more than a little awkward the next morning. The girls came running out, eager to spend time with me. Tiffany appeared at the door, a wistful look in her eye, as she watched the girls climb into the car. I took them to the park, then we got some food to go and drove to my apartment. It was a fairly nice apartment, but I only took it for six months. Lew said I'd be able to afford better, very soon. After we ate, I gently explained their mother and I were getting divorced.

My oldest sort of understood divorce because many of her friends were from broken homes, but my youngest didn't take it very well. I dried her tears and reassured her as best I could that I still loved both of them more than life, and I would always be a part of their lives.

Tiffany started towards me but I pulled away. I avoided her the rest of the weekend but she surprised me at work Monday night, sliding out of a car I didn't recognize. I knew it was coming, but it still hurt. She was dressed simply, in jeans and a top, but designed to entice. There was even a bit of tummy showing, and for her age, she carried the look well.

"Bruce, Bruce, honey please, come home. I hurt you, I know that now. It was probably not the best decision I ever made, but this can make us stronger. Come home to me and the girls, and let me make it up to you."

"I love you Tiffany. I really do. But you love yourself more. You'll never be a full partner to any man, you'll always hold a part of yourself back, ready to run if you get disappointed. I had most of you for a long time, waiting for you to commit fully. But you never will, not to me, not to anyone after me. I blame your mother. Let me ask you something, Tiff. Your father was a terrible man by all accounts, and your mother is justified in hating him. But we're all not him, baby. None of us. And while she seems to hate all men , it never bothered her to sleep with most of the men at that law firm. What was her official title there, Slut In Residence? Most all of them were married. Did she ever once feel guilty for doing to their wives what your father did to her? She's a very twisted woman, and her influence on you will destroy you if you don't come to your senses."

She didn't respond to the comments about her mother even though her face flushed in anger. "It's about my money, isn't it?"

I sighed. "There you go, Tiff. It's your money, it was never ours. I believe if you could have gotten sole custody of the kids you would have left me out of the loop there too. Does the expression 'two shall become as one' ring any bells? In was in our wedding vows. I don't want all of your money. I just wanted all of you. That will never happen, though, will it? Not with me, not anyone you may fall in love with later, not ever. I can't be what you want, and you can't give me what I need. There's really not much left to say, now is there?

And before you ask how I became so cold, I didn't. I love you more right now than I did when we dated, but my love just isn't enough. But I done shedding tears over what will never happen. Let it go, honey. Let us go. Go find someone like your big dick lawyer, talk to him like an equal while you fuck his brains out. Maybe you'll be happy then."

All the remorse, all the heartbreak, disappeared in a second. I wish I had recorded her rant. "You're exactly the way Mom said you were, aren't you? I loved you, gave you babies, and it still comes down to control and money! Well, fuck you! Just so you know, I never fucked Stephen while we were on vacation, but he sure tried hard enough. Maybe I will hook up with him, God knows it had been so long since I got to interact with a real man it'll all seemed brand new again.

Know this, asshole. I WILL NOT allow a divorce, not now, not ever. I've got the best law firm in the state backing me fully, and you can't afford shit! They'll eat you alive, and when you come begging me to take you back I will, after a while. I'm sure it'll take a month or two to shrink back to normal size after Stephen's monster gets done with me. I'll even try to pretend I'm having orgasms when you fuck me, thinking about his big dick just to get me excited. What do you have to say to that?"

She was glaring and crying at the same time, her arms folded over her small breasts. Breasts I always though was just the right size.

I looked at her for a slow count of ten, trying to not explode. "I guess I have to say you just burned your last bridge. Bring on your high dollar law firm. You just cried 'Havoc!', and I'm going to loose the hounds of war. I hope you remember this night for a long time to come."

I got in my beat up old Volkswagen and left, her mouth hanging open.

I got a couple of visitors over the next few days. The first was her mother. She stormed into the video store in full cry. It was a Friday night, and there were a good many customers about.

"You cheating son of a bitch! You reprehensible, low life motherfucker! Who's the bitch you're fucking? Or is it more than one? Answer me, Goddamnit!"

"Madame, I'm afraid I must ask you to leave the premises. You are disturbing my customers. There are children present, so watch your language."

I said it as calmly as I could, knowing it would piss her off even more. She ranted some more, before targeting a woman in her thirties, who was watching openmouthed. I had already signaled my clerk to call the cops, and they came through the door just as she lit into her.

"Is this the bitch? Well, honey, the mother of his WIFE is about to kick you whoring ass for fucking up her marriage. He won't want you when I'm done, hell, you won't want you when I'm done."

The woman, in full panic, ran down an aisle, with Mom in hot pursuit, screaming profanities. The customer turned a corner, and ducked behind the police officers, who had their tasers drawn. Marge tried to stop, but her heels let her down and she ran head on into the woman cop and they went down in a tangle. The large male cop had her in cuffs almost instantly, and they stepped back as she ranted and raged, screaming slurs at the Hispanic woman and the Black male.

The woman leaned over and said something in her ear, and she shut up instantly. She was a customer, and I asked her later what she'd said. She just grinned and said she asked her politely to behave. In the end, Marge was charged with attempted assault, assault on a law enforcement official, and trespassing, because she refused to leave. I got a bonus when I showed Lew the security tape and he had a restraining order invoked. She could not come within five hundred feet of me, my apartment, or my place of employment.

Three days later I was called to the front, to meet with a silver haired, distinguished looking man in an expensive suit. "Let me guess, Martin, Devon, Bailey, and Bartley, right?"

He looked a little uncomfortable and admitted he was, introducing hinself. I gave him no time to speak. "Go back to the office, Mr. Henry. Do not bother me here again or I'll get a restraining order against the whole firm."

He held his hands up. "Please, Mr. Davis. I'm not here to harass you. I'm here as a favor to your wife, to see if I can get you two together to hash out your problems."

"Oddly, Mr. Henry, my problems have diminished considerably since Tiff and I separated. Tell her to just let the divorce run it's course. I'm not asking for anything, but if she keeps up the pressure, I may reconsider. Tell her that if she loves her money as much as I think she does, to back off and let the divorce go through."

"But I understand up until the vacation you both were quite happy. Why would a simple vacation cause such a drastic shift? She understands she made an error in judgement, one she regrets deeply, but she is more than willing to talk it out."

"Tell me, Mr. Henry, were you on that vacation?"

"I was."

"With your wife?"

"Yes."

How many others had their spouses or significant others along?"

"I couldn't tell you exactly, most of them."

"Did Tiffany happen to mention why I wasn't along?"

"Yes, she said you couldn't get that much time off from your job."

"Well, Mr. Henry, she would have been wrong, if she hadn't waited until four days before she was supposed to leave to tell me. Even then, she said I would have to pay my own way if I wanted to come a long. She makes considerably more than I do, and part of our financial agreement was she would pay for all vacations. She said she was trying to teach me a lesson. Did you happen to hear the personal message I sent her when she was served? I know you were close, I have it on film. I make no threats here, but she was under constant surveillance after the first week. Though she was there as a private citizen, the trip was at least partially funded by your companies. Some of the things we filmed would be of great interest to some of the spouses that couldn't make the trip. I also saw how she acted with Mr. Middleton, in public, in the presence of most of the partners, while they all smiled. Free advice, watch him, before he lands your firm in a world of shit. If this gets ugly, I'll make sure most of the footage comes to light. Now, sir, go back to your firm, and tell them what I said. Tell her what I said. You have a good day, sir."

The man was reeling when he left, I could tell. I was guessing ninety per cent of what I told him was new information. I'd had enough, and called Lew. "Do it. Total destruction." I hung up before he could reply.

......................

Tiffany Davis sat at the conference table, her mother on one side, Stephen on the other, listening to Matt relate the gist of the meeting to her. Two of the senior partners were there, just listening.

She gasped when she heard she'd been under surveillance for three weeks, thinking about a few specific instances when her actions would not have passed as married behavior. She hadn't actually had sex with Stephen, but it had been a close thing several times, just managing to stop when she realized what she was doing. She understood now she had done those things out of shock and anger over the way Bruce was behaving, but she still did them. Her plan did not go anywhere near what she'd had in mind. She was still reeling over the fact that he truly wanted a divorce.

"And that's about it. Something here is just not adding up, Tiffany. Your husband has no resources above the 401 loan he'd taken out, and that kind of money isn't a fourth what three weeks worth of constant observation would have cost. So far, he hasn't even filed paperwork, the ones you were presented with on the island were separation papers and not signed, so we are still in the dark as to who represents him or what he really wants.

So far, he's not been demanding. He has to know you're worth millions, and there is no prenuptial. If he has the footage he says he has, if it gets ugly, it could cost you a bundle. I frankly don't know what to advise you to do. If you don't want the divorce, you need to figure a way to get to him without antagonizing him. If it can't be avoided, you need to act quickly to protect your assets."

Marge couldn't contain herself any longer. "Dump the loser, honey! He served his purpose an gave you two beautiful babies, now is the time to cut your losses and save your money."

"Bruce doesn't care about money, Mom. It was never really about that. I forced him into this position, and now I don't know how to fix it. He told me before I left that if I went he wouldn't be there when I got back, and I went anyway. I never once thought he would leave me for real."

No one really knew what to say at that point. Matt Henry secretly thought that success had made her arrogant, and her husband was the quiet, nonaggressive type who'd waited too long to make a stand. Plus, she had gotten very, very bad advice from her mother. He personally loathed Marge. She had made a run at him early in his tenure at the firm, and he'd turned her down flat. Nothing about the middle aged shrew appealed to him. He could see the vestiges of her beauty still, but attitude and lifestyle had sharpened her features into something less, human, for lack of a better word.

They were interrupted when a paralegal came bursting into the meeting, handing the senior partner a sheaf of papers, whispering to him urgently. The man actually started, before grinning.

"Well, well. Now we know who's representing him. Lew Walters. We've been up against him twice, and destroyed him both times. This won't be as hard as we thought."

One of the other partners, Wilson Wilkes, their resident expert in family law, had been listening quietly until now, sat up straight. "That well may be, Mort. But that was a long time ago, when he was first out of law school. I've seen him in action a few times. He's quick, deadly on cross, and he's a lot like us. He'll stop at nothing to win. Let's try negotiation first."

Matt had been reading the papers quietly, looking more distressed as he progressed. "This could be bad. Really bad. All your husband wants is out of the marriage, Tiffany, and ready access to his children, plus Lew's fee. That could easily be north of a hundred grand, depending on how hard you make him work. Fight him, and he won't hold back. He'll ask for half your assets and maintenance so he can, and I quote, 'live in the style he's become accustomed to.' That's about two point two million, and maintenance could run as high as six or eight grand a month, depending."

Marge screamed, and Tiffany fainted.

................

Lew called me a couple of weeks later. "They want a conference."

I was not in the mood. "Tell them no."

Lew sighed. "You should take a meeting, Bruce. Get it all out in the open, tell her once and for all there is no going back. Maybe Matt can talk some sense in her. It's either that, or drag it through the court. That could take months, believe me, I know."

His divorce was still going on, I think it was almost to the year mark, a record in Florida. His ex, Mona, was a pretty sharp lawyer in her own right, and I know it had been ugly. I met with him one day just after he left court, and he looked haunted. I took a chance, calling his best friend, Bill Maitland. He showed up forty minutes later and we got him into the car, going straight to O'Brien's. O'Brien took one look at us, grabbed a dusty bottle off the shelf, and walked us into a quiet corner.

"Here, me boyos, you'll be needing this." Fifty year old scotch, smooth as silk, with a punch that could knock a mule down. We killed the bottle. Bill had just finished up a rough divorce, and was still feeling the pain. God, I hoped I wasn't as wrung out as they were when mine was over. Bill raised his glass in salute as we finished the bottle. "To bitter endings, and sweet beginnings." We all raised our glass. I'd never heard a more apt toast. He told me later it was an old Irish saying.

I semi-stumbled up to the bar to pay, and Pat waved me off. "He's a good lad, Mr. Davis, with a fine wife. They worshipped the ground each walked on for years. Then they found out she couldn't conceive, and things went south. Both were in pain, and when he found solace in work, she had an affair with of all people his business partner. It went on for a year before he discovered them. It's been a very difficult time for both. She realised what she was losing, and is fighting tooth and nail to keep him. He's been hurt too bad, and even though he loves her desperately, he'll never take her back."

"What happened to the partner?"

O'Brien grinned. "Oh, they dissolved the partnership, and he went out on his own, continuing in his philandering ways. He finally seduce a girl almost half his age, which REALLY offended someone, and woke up one day with virtually every bone in his body broken. He was in a full body cast for eight months, and as soon as he could walk he left town. I hear he's in Portland, or somewhere else on the West Coast. Good riddance, that."

I looked at Lew as Maitland helped him to his feet, wondering if he was capable of such violence. I had been in martial arts for twenty years, and fought professionally for two, so I knew how destructive a human could be with a little training. Bill and Lew climbed in to the back of an unmarked cop car, and drove away. I turned to find a cab waiting for me, with a message from Maitland. "Thanks for helping my friend. He needed it badly today. If you ever need a favor, give me a call. The cab is paid for, and he'll take you anywhere you want to go."

I went home, took a semi-cold shower to humanize myself, and crashed. I was just about asleep when the phone rang. I answered groggily, and heard nothing. "Hello? Hello?" Then I heard it, ragged breathing with just a hint of a sob. "Tiffany?"

The line immediately went dead. I thought about calling her, but knew she wouldn't answer. It took me a long time to go to sleep.

I called Lew that afternoon. "Set it up."

................

Lew coached me remorselessly. "Let me do the talking. DO NOT let her drag you into a dialogue, and under NO circumstances speak to or answer a question from her lawyer. Do you understand?"

I did.

Our plan went down the tubes as soon as we entered a large conference room, to find it overflowing with lawyers and associates. Lew raised his eyebrow at Matt and he had the decency to blush.

Mort Bailey started the offensive immediately. "Young man, do you know who I am?"

Of course, I knew who he was, but I wanted to yank his chain. "I'm going out on limb, and this is just a guess. A really old lawyer?"

He went deep red and his partners looked strickened, and one paralegal had to turn to hide a grin. Lew looked shocked before he grinned.

"Good observation, Mr. Davis. This...gentleman...is Mort Bailey, one of the founders of this firm."

"Really? I thought they all died years ago. He's got to be what, a hundred now?"

Mr. Bailey was not amused. In his sternest voice, he started speaking. "You can stop being juvenile now, Mr. Davis. You're making me wonder why Tiffany wants to fight so hard to save the marriage. Now you listen to me, and listen well. You will drop this silly proceding. You will return home to your loving family. You will go through counseling for as long as it takes to reslove your differences, and I will expect a heartfelt thank you when we cross paths again. Our firm is willing to defray all expenses for the counseling, as a gesture of good faith."

Lew was openly smiling. "Jesus, Mort, this isn't some kid who took your car joyriding. And your gesture of good faith is just a blatant attempt to cover your ass if this goes to trial. We have pictures, a lot of pictures, taken by cameras with very good resolution. Think your firm's reputation will be intact if we expose the bacchanal your 'company vacation' turned into? I hope you say no to our proposals, I've been waiting nine years to shove something up that pompous ass of yours, and you gave it to me on a silver platter."