Time is the Ultimate Revenge

I was beyond jubilant, but I wanted to pretend like this was the expected outcome.

Out in the hallway, I gave the kids a hug. Then I went to where Jenny and Brad were berating Mr. Silas about the judge's ruling. Mr. Silas was trying, without much success, to explain that there wasn't anything he could do.

"Excuse me, Jenny," I said with a smirk. "I'm sorry to interrupt your rant, but I wanted to confirm when I can pick up the kids two weeks from Sunday."

"This isn't over, asshole," Brad snarled.

"Whatever, Brad," I said dismissively. "I just want to know when I can pick up the kids. I don't want to be accused of trespassing. If you prefer, we can meet at a neutral site like McDonald's."

"The Judge said 2 pm, asshole, and that's when it will be until our lawyers get it reversed," Jenny snapped. "You really have scraped the bottom of the barrel. I mean marrying Miss Piggy to get joint custody."

That last comment was totally uncalled for, and it angered me. So, I lashed out. "You're one to talk. You're marrying your grandfather."

"You little shit!" Brad yelled. "Step outside, and I'll pound you into the pavement."

I had no intention of fighting Brad. He had three inches and about thirty pounds on me. Still, I was mad about everything, so I piled on. "Don't you have to go to your car for your cane first?"

Brad lunged for me, but I jumped back out of his reach. Jenny must have seen this situation for what it could become as she grabbed Brad's arm. At the same time, Mr. Silas stepped between us.

"Mr. Colson, please," he pleaded. "If you assault Mr. Wilson, the court may give him sole custody of the children."

"Please, Brad," Jenny pleaded.

Suddenly, I realized that my two children were clinging to my leg and yelling at Brad, "Don't hurt our daddy."

Jenny glared at me but then turned her attention to the children. "It's okay, kids. Mr. Colson and daddy were just fooling around. Why don't we go get some ice cream?"

As they walked away, I called to Jenny, "I'll be there at 2 pm two weeks from Sunday."

Jenny just glared back at me, but I didn't say or do anything else.

At the appointed time, I picked up the kids, and we went to a movie and dinner with Miss Darla. Brad's lawyers had not been able to overturn anything.

The kids were thrilled that I was living at the ranch with Miss Darla. They rode all the time, and they loved Darla's cooking. When Jenny and I were married, I did most of the cooking. Jenny had trouble boiling water.

Thirty days after the judge's ruling, Darla and I married at the courthouse, with the kids in attendance. Darla's best friend stood up for her, and Tom stood up for me. After the ceremony, I gave Darla a small kiss on the lips. The look on her face was one of pure joy.

A week after Darla and I were married, Jenny and Brad's wedding was splashed all over the society pages. Jenny looked as happy as one person could be. However, the happiness on my kid's faces struck deep into my heart. It just wasn't fair.

But as the weeks rolled by, it felt as though Tom's prediction that the pain would eventually fade was never going to happen. Even though there were some days when the pain was not as acute, my nights were filled with loneliness and anguish. For the first six months, I continued to try and think of some way to exact revenge. But no matter how hard I tried; I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't get me thrown in jail.

How could I hurt a man who was worth a couple hundred million dollars? And what could I do to Jenny, tell her parents? They already knew and Jenny didn't care. Still, it was very painful because every picture I saw in the paper showed a woman radiant and happy. She had traded up and left me in the dust. In my darkest moments, I toyed with the idea of poisoning my kid's minds about their mother. But I loved them too much to do anything like that.

My pain remained acute. And what made the pain hurt even more was that my kids seemed happy with the new arrangement. And I couldn't blame them because, in truth, they had the best of both worlds. They got to see their mother and father regularly. My kids gushed about how wonderful things were at Brad's place. They raved about Brad's swimming pool, hot tub, game room, tennis court, and the large-screen televisions in each room. He even had a mini-movie studio with a popcorn maker.

About three months after the divorce was final, Jenny changed the peaceful rules we'd been abiding by. She began trying to manipulate Glenda and Mark against me. Jenny would drop subtle suggestions that I wasn't a good father because I didn't spend as much money on them as Brad did. When they told me this, I was filled with sadness and anger. When Darla found out about it, she was livid. She insisted that we sit the kids down and talk to them.

So, when they returned the next time for their two-week stay, I sat them at the kitchen table and asked them, "Do you guys think I'm a bad father because I don't spend as much money on you as Brad and mommy do?"

"That's what mommy says," Mark replied uneasily.

"Mark, son, Mr. Colson is a very, very rich man. That's why your mom decided to marry him. I can't afford to buy you everything they can. You see, compared to Mr. Colson, I'm a very poor man. All I can do is love you guys and tell you that if getting all those presents is what's important to you, I won't make you come to the ranch anymore."

Glenda started to cry. "No, daddy, I don't want to be with mommy all the time. I want to be with you also."

"Me too," Mark said as tears welled up in his eyes.

I don't know what the kids said to Jenny when they returned to her, but it set her off, and she came boiling over to the ranch.

"Why the hell are Mark and Glenda mad at me for picking on their poor daddy?" she blasted me when I opened the door.

I wasn't going to get into it with her, so I simply said, "Fuck off, Jenny." Then I slammed the door in her face.

That was just the beginning. Jenny then started scheduling special trips for the kids during my two weeks. The first was a trip to Disney World. Of course, they wanted to go and pleaded with me until I gave in. Jenny began doing this every third month or so, and it was really upsetting me.

It was Darla who told me how to turn it around on Jenny. The next time they came to me wanting to go to New York City, I said that was fine, we'll just switch weeks. When Jenny refused, the kids were upset with her, not me. Score one for the good guys.

It was a really stressful and depressing time in my life. Fortunately for me, I had some great support. Darla was always there to pick me up when I was beginning to crumble. But I also had two other allies, John and Alma Smith. Yes, Jenny's parents became staunch allies of mine.

When Jenny married Brad, she didn't even invite her own parents to the wedding. She was totally embarrassed by them and didn't want her parents to spoil her special day. When I found that out, I invited them up to the ranch the same day as the wedding for a BBQ.

Darla insisted that John and Alma stay for the weekend. We had a great time with them, and I learned that John had been a soldier in Viet Nam. He had been wounded three times but survived the war. He came home partially disabled, which limited his ability to work. Not that he couldn't do the work, but employers looked at his three missing fingers and the scars on his face and decided he'd be a liability.

I was so impressed when Alma told me he was awarded three purple hearts, a bronze, and a silver star. The man was a true hero, and Jenny was embarrassed by him? I think that was the moment when my feelings for Jenny began to decline.

From then on, we usually invited them up for at least one weekend when the kids were with me. Jenny refused to invite her parents to her new home or to visit them at theirs. It broke my heart the way Jenny treated her parents. At least Mark and Glenda got to know their grandparents because of the visits to the ranch. And that was something else I learned; John was raised on a cattle ranch. He had been a real-life cowboy before Viet Nam. And John even convinced me to start learning how to ride. That opened a whole other world for me to interact with my kids.

As the months passed, I read many books about divorce and co-parenting. One piece of advice I came across that proved to be very valuable. The author suggested that instead of buying things for your children, shower them with experiences. And Darla was fantastic at coming up with ideas of things to do. We visited all the attractions locally, went camping, went bowling, and even played miniature golf numerous times. Darla even worked with the local charity league to put on a mini-rodeo. And to make it extra exciting for the kids, she involved them in the planning. Glenda and Mark were really excited about seeing their first rodeo, especially when they learned they would lead the parade through town.

Still, Jenny tried to sabotage the rodeo by offering to take the kids to Disneyland in California. But Mark and Glenda turned their mother down flat. There was no way they wanted to miss their first ever rodeo. And it was so successful that it has become an annual event since then.

For the first year after the divorce, Jenny continued trying to win over the kid's affection. She never stopped dropping little snide comments about me. Occasionally, she would convince the kids to forego a few days with me to do something with her and Brad. Still, regardless of how badly I felt every time the kids choose to spend extra time with their mother over me, I never let them know. And every night they were with me, I continued reading two books before they went to sleep. Of course, as they got older, I had to read chapter books, and I would read a couple of chapters each night. I would continue doing this all the way up until the fifth grade.

Even though we didn't sleep together, living with Darla was very pleasant. She was fun to be around as her disposition was always cheerful and kind. And working out of her den, I was able to grow my accounting business. At the end of the first year, I was making about seventy percent of what my pay had been working for Brad.

Still, even a year after the divorce, Jenny was still trying to outdo me in the kid's eyes. However, by now, Brad realized I was never going to allow him to adopt my children. Realizing this, he began to lose interest in them. He was still kind and pleasant with them, but they were just someone else's kids. Brad started monopolizing more and more of Jenny's time. Brad wanted Jenny with him when he traveled overseas. If it was her two weeks to have the kids, they traveled with them. At first, I was against letting Glenda and Mark leave the country. I'd heard all the horror stories of spouses kidnapping the kids and fleeing to a country with no extradition.

Jenny kept pushing me to allow the kids to go on their first overseas trip. It was Darla who convinced me that, despite Brad being a prick, he couldn't afford the scandal kidnapping my kids would cause. So, I finally agreed. Glenda and Mark loved the trip and bubbled over about it for days. And a few more trips followed with the kids going overseas with their mother. One time, Brad's trip had to be extended, and I figured Jenny would just keep the kids with her. But, instead, she called me and put the kids on a flight home where I picked them up at the airport.

The first anniversary of my divorce came and went without me realizing it. It wasn't until Tom called me one day to see how I was doing that the realization that my wedding anniversary had passed without me even mentioning it to Darla. And at that moment, I had to admit to Tom that he was right. Almost all the pain, loneliness, and anger were gone. There was a twinge every now and then, but for the most part, Jenny was just a bad memory. I did, however, feel really guilty about not getting Darla anything for our anniversary. I understood that it wasn't a real marriage, but Darla had been so supportive of me, so I got her flowers and took her out to dinner. I didn't think much of it, but Darla beamed for days afterward.

However, as we got closer to the eighteen-month mark, Darla seemed to become moody. She was never unpleasant, but I could see that she was upset. I figured I had worn out my welcome, so I started looking for a new place to live.

Even though custody didn't seem to be much of an issue these days, I wasn't going to take any chances. I hunted high and low until I found a townhouse to rent. It had three bedrooms and two baths. It also had a one-car garage. But most importantly, it was in the Chesterton school district.

I really didn't want to move. I liked living on the ranch, and running my business from the den had been ideal. Plus, I really enjoyed Darla's company. Until the last few weeks, she was always happy and upbeat. With some advice from me, Darla had expanded the ranch. She acquired an additional two hundred acres of mostly rocky hills. The trails in these hills were a special favorite for people who didn't want to just ride around in a corral. And it was a great place for groups to get away for a weekend to ride, sleep, and cook in the open air. It was a favorite of corporations doing team-building weekends.

I then convinced Darla to start offering summer camps for kids. They became immensely popular, and Darla had to hire extra people to run them. Then Darla built a dozen cabins for adults who wanted to experience working on a real horse ranch. I helped arrange the financing for that project.

From a business that barely provided a living for Darla, she now had one that earned her almost two hundred thousand dollars a year after taxes. My business had grown to where I was using the den and a utility room. I had a receptionist/secretary and one accountant working for me. My income was about seventy percent more than I had earned working for Brad.

I had forgotten about it, but finally, Brad's company negotiated a settlement for the wrongful termination lawsuit. Tom thought I should hold out for more, but I wanted to be done with it. They paid me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Even though Tom was entitled to a third, I gave him half. The other half, I put aside to buy a new place to live and set up an office.

The night before the eighteenth month, I announced my intentions while the kids were with their mother.

"Darla, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," I began as sadness descended over me. "You rescued me when I thought I would lose Mark and Glenda. I know this has been a huge imposition, but it was a lifesaver for me. Our agreement runs out tomorrow, so I've found a place to rent temporarily until I can buy a house, and I hope it will be alright if I continue to use the den for another month as I haven't nailed down the lease on my office space. I hope to get that firmed up by next week."

I don't know what reaction I was expecting, perhaps relief, but I didn't expect what I got. Darla burst into tears and fled to her bedroom. I was stunned and didn't know what to do. I tried knocking on her door, but Darla didn't answer.

When I went to bed that night, I was deeply troubled. Even though Darla and I were married, we had never been intimate. There was no doubt that I cared for her and cared for her a lot. She was everything that Jenny was not. But the whole time I had lived in her house, I was afraid of offending her, so I kept my distance. Aside from an occasional hug or a kiss on the cheek, we went our separate ways. I would talk to her in the morning.

However, sometime around midnight, a vicious thunderstorm erupted. The lightning strikes were hitting quite close to the house. One hit especially close, shaking the house and waking me up. A few seconds later, my bedroom door opened, and Darla slipped in.

"Mike, please, I'm terrified of thunderstorms," she whimpered. "Can I sleep with you?"

"Of course," I said as I lifted the blanket.

Shivering, Darla cuddled up next to me. It was then that I realized that she was naked.

"I'm really scared of thunder and lightning," she whispered as she shivered.

I pulled her close to me and hugged her. Before I knew what was happening, I was kissing her, and Darla was kissing me back. Soon I was exploring her body with my hand as we continued kissing. Her breasts were soft, but her nipples were firm and erect. She moaned when I reached between her legs and found her soaking wet.

"Please, Mike, I know you don't love me, but I need you to make love to me at least once before you leave."

At that moment I realized that I had really deep feelings for Darla. It wasn't the hot passionate love that I'd had for Jenny. It was a more mature friendship that had built up over the eighteen months into something much more. Making love to Darla that night was the final piece in the puzzle that healed me.

Our lovemaking wouldn't be considered remarkable by most people's standards. Darla climaxed almost as soon as I entered her. She came once again as I was making love to her. Then Darla came really hard when I sprayed the inside of her vagina. All of this took maybe five minutes, but it drained me. Panting, I collapsed next to the woman I had been married to for eighteen months and hadn't even kissed properly.

"Darla, I don't know if it's love I feel, but I do know that I never want to leave you," I said as I tried to steady my breathing. "I just thought of us as friends at first, but my feelings for you have grown month after month. And the last few months, I wanted more, but I was afraid that you didn't feel the same way. I couldn't take the chance you'd throw me out if I made any advances."

"Oh, Mike, I've loved you almost since the first time I met you. However, you were married to Jenny, and I knew you were crazy in love with her. Then when she dumped you and we came up with the plan to pretend to be married, I thought I might have a chance. But tonight, when you told me you were leaving, I was devastated. I love you so much. I'll make you a good wife. Please, give me a chance."

"The only way I'll leave is if you throw me out," I kissed her softly. "This is my home, and you are my wife now and forever."

Eighteen Months to ten years after DD day

After that night with Darla, we woke up to a sunny day without a cloud in the sky. Suddenly, I felt completely different about my fucked-up life. I had survived a horrible betrayal but had come out of it in a much better situation than I ever thought possible. The pain, anger, and loneliness were banished. I could now think of Jenny without feeling something clamping down on my heart. I had finally reached the opposite of loving my ex-wife; I was now indifferent to her.

What had been a sham marriage was now a very real and loving one. I decided that Darla and I needed to go on a honeymoon. So, I asked her where she wanted to go to celebrate our finally realizing that we cared deeply for each other. I expected her to say something like Paris or Hawaii. I wouldn't have been surprised if she said Las Vegas, but she didn't want to go to any of those. Instead, Darla wanted to go to Montana.

"Why Montana?" I asked her

"My dad always told me stories about the ranch he worked on in Montana. He loved working there, and it was that experience that made him want to own a ranch of his own. So, when he moved to Texas, he bought this place. The land was a lot cheaper back then. Anyway, I've always wanted to see Montana, but I didn't want to go by myself."

"Why didn't he just buy a ranch in Montana?" I asked.

"Because he hated the winters."

So, we spent two weeks in Montana, touring around the state, and even stayed a week at a working ranch. Darla got a bunch of ideas for her ranch. But the best part of the trip was the nights we snuggled and explored each other's bodies.