(from her first book "My Short Stories (Book One)", published in March 2011)
Todd and Cheryl was a young married couple I met in the summer of 1995. He was a worldly, handsome man of 35 and she was a lovely 19 year old nymphet. Still, in every way, they seemed ideally suited to each other. He was a professional engineer and she was a natural-born homemaker and they got along very well. After two years of marriage, Cheryl discovered she was pregnant for the first time and, in due course, they welcomed the arrival of their first-born, a baby girl they named Janie.
After Janie's birth, Todd continued to work very hard to support his newly-expanded family. He was a dedicated husband and father who never missed a day of work, paid all his bills on time, and was devoted to his wife, Cheryl. For her part, Cheryl was equally dedicated to her family, raising their adorable little girl, cleaning their large and modern home in the suburbs until it sparkled, and faithfully going to the gym three times a week. She knew what pregnancy could do to women's bodies and she wanted to keep her body trim because she loved Todd and wanted to please him. They were, indeed, a happy family.
Todd, Cheryl and Janie lived near the city of Boston, Massachusetts, since Cheryl's immediate family lived in downtown Boston and she was very close to them. Her mother, father and two brothers all thought Todd was the perfect husband. Cheryl regularly took Janie with her to visit them, partly to show Janie off and partly to convince them that she had been right to marry at such a young age. If they were concerned about her, it was only because they thought that Todd might be too old for her, but their concerns seemed unfounded. It was obvious that Todd and Cheryl had a solid, loving marriage and that they considered themselves fortunate to have found each other.
Todd's immediate family, on the other hand, was not nearly as close to him, either geographically or emotionally. They lived in Seattle, Washington. They liked Cheryl, however, and admired her devotion to her husband and baby but, somehow, they were not as convinced as her family about the solidity of the marriage. After all, sixteen years separated them in age and Todd's family felt that this was no small gap. However, none of their surmising made any difference to either Todd or Cheryl and the marriage continued on, as strong as it had ever been. When Janie turned three, the couple decided to expand their family even further. About a year later, Trisha was born to them and they felt that their family unit was now complete.
As before, Cheryl stayed at home raising the girls and making a comfortable home for Todd. But, this time, she found it more difficult to get out to the gym as often as before. She found she was just too busy and tired to look after herself as she would have liked. There was just no extra time to do this kind of thing for herself – not with her husband absent from home so much, working so hard.
Todd was more ambitious than ever; in fact, his career was becoming a major focal point of his life. Consequently, Cheryl was rapidly becoming the primary caregiver for their two daughters, a task which was very demanding on Cheryl's time and energy. Unfortunately, though, Todd couldn't always be at home to give his wife a much-needed break from her demanding daily routine.
However, life continued on for another year in this way. Every day, Cheryl would look at herself in the mirror only to see a woman whose dull-looking hair was becoming quite brittle and falling out, whose nails were chipping and breaking, and, whose body was filling out at an alarming rate. As a result, she became quite depressed and wondered if Todd had noticed what was happening to her, or if he even cared. She finally decided she needed to get out of the house for a while on her own, so she phoned a babysitter who was a good friend of hers to come over one day, as she felt she just might go crazy if she stayed "cooped up" there any longer. In fact, she considered asking Todd to hire a regular babysitter (a nanny) for that very purpose.
Meanwhile, Todd's career was growing at an accelerated rate. He had recently gotten a hefty raise and a promotion to plant manager in just the last six months. Despite the fact that he was now much busier as a result and spent even longer days away from home, he enjoyed his work because of its challenges and the increased status he now enjoyed among his colleagues. It had never once occurred to him that a large part of his present success was, no doubt, due to Cheryl's efforts at home. Ironically, Todd did not think that he should be paying more attention to his family. In fact, he acted as if they were becoming a relatively insignificant part of his daily life. In addition, he was getting a lot of flirtatious attention from other women. These developments caused him to become even more immersed in his work and less interested in his family life. It was such a gradual process that he hardly knew how it had all happened.
One day, while Todd was at work, Cheryl got the phone call that would change her life forever. The woman at the other end identified herself only as Sheila. Sheila told Cheryl that she knew Todd very well indeed, and that she felt that Todd's life and career would benefit immensely if she, Sheila, were to become a major part of it. Cheryl innocently asked Sheila what she meant by that exactly, and Sheila said, very matter of factly, that she and Todd had been "seeing each other" for the last year, that they had a relationship.
Cheryl was afraid to ask her to elaborate, but the damage had already been done. Sheila said that "it only happened once", referring to a one-time physical intimacy between them. Apparently, it had never meant more than that to Todd. She said that she might have willingly overlooked this fact and forgiven Todd for his callousness, except that she "accidently" became pregnant with his child. She now had a year-old baby girl to show for her one-night stand and her so-called “innocent” involvement with him. Todd had been partly supporting them and even staying overnight on occasion when he was supposed to be out of town on business. He knew all about what had happened and had agreed with her decision to have and raise their child.
Cheryl, out of a morbid curiosity and a wish to know exactly what motivated this woman, asked Sheila why she wanted to break up a happy marriage that had produced two beautiful babies. Sheila, without apology, said that she was there for Todd when he really needed someone and that their affair was “meant to be”. According to Cheryl, this kind of comment was the product of a sick mind. It had become obvious to Cheryl that her husband had given in to a moment of weakness, as men often do, and that Sheila hadn’t given a second thought to the devastation that she and Todd had caused his family. Todd’s deception and betrayal of all the hopes and dreams that Cheryl had had for her family would have rivalled any affair anywhere. And, she knew she was never going to forgive him for the deep wounds he had caused to their love and life together.
After Cheryl heard this horrifying story from Sheila, she became so overwrought with grief, anguish and rage that all she could think about was packing up and moving herself and the girls out of the house as soon as possible. Though she felt betrayal, she was especially angry with herself for being such a fool as to believe that hers was "a marriage made in heaven". Now, all she wanted was for Todd to experience the kind of loneliness that she'd been experiencing herself for the past year or more because of his self-indulgence. At this moment, she didn't know when their divorce would occur, only that their so-called "perfect marriage" was in permanent ruins. Cheryl left Todd that very day, never telling him why and never once looking back.
That night, Todd came home to an empty, dark house. The moment he stepped through the door, he sensed a change for the worst. When he discovered that Cheryl's, Janie's and Trisha's clothes and belongings were all gone, he knew she knew. He didn't know whether to feel relief or horror. On one hand, he felt relief that his double life was no longer a secret to be kept, yet, on the other hand, horror that Sheila had actually had the nerve to tell Cheryl about them merely to get Todd all to herself. Unfortunately, he never once blamed himself for the situation; he was too busy blaming Cheryl for deserting him without so much as demanding an explanation. And, he even blamed Sheila for having the gall to interfere with his first family. Todd could not find it in himself to take any responsibility for what had happened because, in his mind, Cheryl had driven him to be attracted to other women by allowing herself to become less attractive to him than she had once been.
Later that evening, he sat alone in the dark living room, chain-smoking, and contemplating how different life would have been if only Sheila hadn't "ruined" his life and caused Cheryl to abdicate her role as his wife. He only knew that life without Cheryl and his beautiful girls was going to be intolerable and he wondered how he had ever let it get this far. Todd just could not accept his own role in this scenario. Wasn’t it an accepted fact that men who were “work-a-holics” simply had to have outlets other than a loving home, devoted wife and lovely children? Now, he was going to have to face an ugly legal battle with Cheryl in an extremely ugly divorce proceeding and, at the same time, also deal with Sheila and the increasing demands she was about to make on him. All Todd could think about was that he was the one who’d been deserted by Cheryl. Yet, he would also be forced to deal with Sheila – a new challenge that might very well prove his final undoing.
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