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, 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 cracking, 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.
published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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