I will Save You

When we stopped to change Alia, I noticed I finally had a response from Jeremy regarding my text from last night. He assured me I would have the reports first thing Monday morning. I knew he was more than likely lying, but my response was a simple "They had better be there". I sent a quick text to Megan to let her know that I was on my way back home and that we would be having guests. I hadn't spent much time talking to Megan about my past with Alyssa, so I knew I would need to catch her up when I got home. I hoped Megan would understand why I couldn't leave Alyssa in this situation, but there was no way I could just leave her there without trying to help.

As we approached Philadelphia, I explained to Alyssa that I haven't mentioned her to Megan since at the time I didn't know anything. Looking back on it, I should have mentioned where I was going and why, but I am not going to play Monday morning quarterback. I will deal with the ramifications with Megan when I arrived. As we pulled into the driveway, I could tell that Alyssa was impressed with the size of our house. I lived in a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom two story house that had over 7000 square feet of space, plenty of room to accommodate Alyssa and Alia. We parked in the garage and I started to unload all of Alyssa's bags and items we had packed from her house.

"Megan, are you home?" Seeing her car in the garage, I anticipated she was here. Megan came down the steps and paused as she saw Alyssa and Alia. I could see the questions on her face as she waited for me to provide introductions.

"Megan, this is Alyssa and her daughter Alia. They will be staying with us for a little while."

Megan greeted Alyssa hesitantly.

"Alyssa, let me show you to your room and feel free to settle in. I will bring up the rest of your bags in a little while. Megan and I need to talk."

I showed Alyssa to her room with an on-suite bathroom. I closed the door and proceeded down the steps to find Megan. Megan was sitting in the kitchen. I grabbed a water from the fridge and sat at the table opposite of Megan.

"I bet you are wondering why I am bringing a woman you don't know and her daughter into our house. Let me explain and then I will answer any questions you might have. First, Alyssa and I are not romantically involved and Alia is not my daughter. I don't know if that was a question you had, but I want to get that out of the way right now. I have never been unfaithful to you and have no plans to do so now."

I went on to explain about my childhood and how Alyssa and I were neighbors. I explained my last encounter with her father and my promise to keep her safe. I explained how I hired a firm to find her and what I encountered when I found her in Youngstown. I also explained that the abuse she had received left it impossible for me to leave her in that situation.

"So Megan, what questions do you have for me?"

"Luke, why do you feel it is our obligation to support her after all these years? I could see setting her up with protective services or a women's shelter, but we don't know this woman at all. What if her husband finds her here and comes to get her? That is putting my life at risk as well."

"I recognize the risk and I will have to think about how to keep everyone safe. As for the why, I can only explain it that I feel an obligation to keep her safe. Mentally I made that commitment to her back when I was a kid and it hasn't changed for me after all these years. I have the same feeling to keep you safe as well. The only difference is that I love you with all my heart. I think of Alyssa more as my younger sister. She is family to me and I need to keep her safe. I hope you can understand that as this is the best that I can explain it."

Megan seemed to accept that explanation, somewhat.

"Megan, this is a temporary accommodation to have her live with us. I plan to help her find a place of her own, assist her in finding a job that will allow her to support herself and Alia. Just give me a few weeks to get this all put together."

"I see that your mind is set to pursue this, so I will try to accommodate her. Please try to understand the impact on our lives. Let's try to keep this accommodation to a minimum as much as possible. Let's make Alyssa feel at home. I would like to get to know our new roommate a bit more."

"Thanks baby. I appreciate your understanding." I gave Megan a hug and a quick kiss.

I hauled the rest of Alyssa's bags up to her room. "Alyssa, why don't you take a bath or shower. I will watch Alia while you are bathing. Come down when you are done and we will get something for us to eat and you can get to know Megan." I took Alia down to the living room and Megan and I played with her while Alyssa cleaned up.

Over the next week, we slipped into a better routine. I told Alyssa to use the SUV if she needed to go anywhere and left her one of my credit cards to purchase anything she needed for herself and Alia. I had Megan take her shopping for some new cloths and got rid of the worn-out items she was wearing. Megan had her buy some new things for Alia as well. Alyssa really likes to cook so she took over the primary duties in the kitchen. Each night I came home to a dinner that was fixed by Alyssa. Megan isn't much of a cook, so she was more than happy to leave those efforts to Alyssa.

A couple of days after arriving in Philadelphia, I tried to contact Gabe. He obviously knew that Alyssa had left with Alia, but I wanted to offer him an explanation and help if he wanted it. When we finally spoke, Gabe had been drinking and was belligerent over the phone. I explained that if he ever wanted a relationship with either of them in the future, he needed to get himself some help and control his anger and drinking. I ended up hanging up on him as the yelling was getting us no where fast. I relayed my attempt to Alyssa to see what she wanted to do from here. Divorce was an option and I told her that if she wanted to pursue that course of action, I would help her with the costs.

Keeping my promise to Megan, I started to look for permanent living arrangements for Alyssa. I found a two-bedroom apartment that wasn't too far from Megan and I with somewhat affordable rent. It would take some time before Alyssa would be able to pay the full rent on her own, but something that she could work towards. Our company was in the need of a new receptionist which I thought could match Alyssa's skill set. I didn't pull any strings to get her the job and she was offered the position after a couple of interviews. Alyssa was excited to have her first real job as she put it. There was a daycare facility not too far from our work that Alia would go to when Alyssa was at work. Within a couple more weeks, we would move the two of them into her new apartment and they could start their own lives, with some assistance from me to meet her financial obligations. I thought things were starting to get a little better for Alyssa, but unknown to me at the time, my life was going to go through a major change.

A few days before Alyssa was set to move into her new apartment, I noticed her looking at me differently than what I was used to. Nothing too obvious, but I thought there could be something bothering her. I followed her into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Alyssa, is there something bothering you?"

Alyssa looked at me and placed a finger to her mouth to shush me from saying anything further. She mouthed the word "later" before replying "No, nothing's wrong."

I walked back into the living room and made small talk with Megan as we waited for dinner to be completed. I volunteered to help Alyssa with the dishes while Megan went into our bedroom to watch some TV and read.

"Okay, now that we are alone, what did you want to say to me?"

"Luke, I don't know how to say this without hurting your feelings, so I am just going to say it. Rip the band-aid, right?"

"Alyssa, just tell me what is going on. I can't address the issue until I know what 'it' is."

"I think Megan is cheating on you."

For the life of me, I didn't expect that to come out of Alyssa's mouth. It took me a moment to catch my breath.

"Why do you think that?"

"I overheard a phone conversation she was having with some guy named Jeremy. Luke, I could be wrong, but it sure sounded like they were talking about getting together. Megan was saying that she needed to see him since it had been a few weeks since they were together. It sounded like they were together the weekend you came to get me from Ohio."

"Damn, I know which Jeremy that is too. He works for me at MKT. That could also explain why his report was late again. He was spending time with Megan instead of finishing the reports. FUCK!"

"Shhhhh. You don't want her to hear you. I don't have proof, but I know what I heard and it sounded like they were planning to get together this weekend. Were you planning on being out of town?"

"Not out of town, but I have a board meeting that we had to move to Saturday due to some travel issues for one of the members. I would be in the board meeting pretty much the entire day. Plenty of time for them to get together. Jeremy isn't part of the meeting as I cover all of his reporting requirements."

"I'm sorry Luke. I thought about not telling you, but I couldn't do that to you. Especially after everything you have done for me. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you."

"Thanks for telling me. As painful as this is, I appreciate you telling me. At least I can make some plans."

I went to my bedroom and told Megan I needed to take a walk. This isn't unusual for me as I often do this to work through problems or issues at work. It also got me out of the house. I knew I needed to compose myself until I had concrete evidence of her cheating or not. The one thing that I had going for me was that Megan and I signed a prenup agreement. With my fast rise at MKT, I was advised by our internal legal team to have a prenup in place as a precautionary step. Our agreement was setup so that if divorce came within the first 5 years of marriage, the cheating spouse essentially walked away with minimal monetary assets. There were escalators for years 5 -- 7 and then any divorce due to infidelity after 7 years was a 50 -50 split. If there were children involved, there were clauses to deal with those situations, but since we didn't have any children yet, I didn't need to be concerned with those issues.

As I walked around the neighborhood, I decided to call the investigation service I used to find Alyssa and have them follow Megan, especially on Saturday. They were able to put the process together and would have multiple people ready for Saturday in case they needed to switch off to prevent anyone from noticing. I also had them follow Jeremy as well just in case. I thought through a couple of other things that I would have in place in case Alyssa was right and Megan was cheating on me. Now I only had to wait a couple more days until I would know for sure.

To keep up appearances, I contacted a moving company to help move some items into the apartment for Alyssa and Alia. They didn't have much at my place, but we had started to accumulate enough items over the past few weeks that I had to put them into storage. I would have the truck pickup the items from storage and move them into the apartment on Monday. Alyssa could then move into the apartment anytime the remainder of the week.

As a precaution, I contacted a friend of mine who was a divorce lawyer. We met for lunch on Thursday and I laid out my plan in case Megan was cheating on me. I wanted him to have the paperwork ready for Monday morning if everything played out as I expected them to based upon my conversation with Alyssa. I would have been more than happy to have wasted my money if this turned out to be a waste of time, but somehow I didn't think that was the case.

As I wound down my day on Friday, I was reviewing the final presentation and reports for tomorrow's board meeting. I called Jeremy into my office to fuck with him a little to see his reaction.

"Jeremy, have a seat. I want to go over the final reports before tomorrow's board meeting. Did you verify all of the numbers on your reports and they are 100% accurate? You haven't been performing very well the last few months and I can't afford any screw-ups."

"They are 100% accurate. I checked them 3 times just this past week alone."

"Okay. Are you going to be around tomorrow in case I need to contact you with any questions or do you think you want to join me for the financial presentation instead? I can get you into the meeting."

Jeremy balked just slightly at my offer to have him included. He immediately looked down at the floor before responding.

"Luke, I have plans, but I will have my phone ready if you have any questions. The board isn't used to me sitting in on the meeting, so I would hate for that to be any type of issue, especially at the last minute. If they were expecting me then I would say no problem. Adding me to the meeting now would appear that we have something going on or there are issues. No need to cause any concern, especially with how we are performing this quarter. Let's keep the good financial news as the main attraction."

"Great point. Okay, you can sit this one out, but have your phone ready just in case. I'll try to have everything financial related covered first thing in the morning so you don't have to wait around all day for my call."

Jeremy left and I smiled to myself. This was part of my plan. I wanted him and Megan to meet and possibly start on their recreational activities, but part of me wanted to fuck it up for them as well.

After dinner, I pulled Alyssa aside and asked her to text me when Megan left the house. I also asked the detective service to text me once Megan and Jeremy were wherever they planned to play their games. That night I initiated sex with Megan for what could be the last time. After finding out for sure if she was with Jeremy, I wouldn't touch her again. I was a little overly aggressive in bed with Megan. This wasn't our traditional tender love making. Nope, I was simply fucking her this time. Megan noticed, but I didn't care at that moment.

I woke up early on Saturday and went into the office. I wanted to make sure everything was ready for my presentation. The boardroom was ready and the staff did a great job making sure the final touches were complete for all of the reports. I took my place in my usual spot and waited for the board members to arrive. The meeting kicked off promptly at 9:00 AM. At 10:45 Alyssa sent me a text letting me know that Megan had just left the house. At 11:15 the detective service let me know that both Jeremy and Megan had arrived at a small hotel that had an outside entrance. They were in room 114 which backed up to the parking lot. As we were breaking for lunch at 11:45, I stepped out of the boardroom and placed a call to Jeremy. His phone rang and went to voicemail, so I hung up and called again. Jeremy picked up this time.

"Luke, sorry I missed the first call. I was outside and didn't get back inside in time."

Jeremy was out of breath, but it wasn't from running in from outside. "Jeremy, I told you to have your phone on you at all times today. There was a question concerning the amount of taxes we were paying on the last acquisition. Were those numbers prorated or actual amounts?" It was a bullshit question, but I wanted to interrupt them.

"Those are prorated. We won't see the actuals until later in the year. I probably over estimated a little so there weren't any surprises going into next quarter's reports. I will true them up then."

"Okay, keep your phone handy in case I need to reach out again."

As I hung up, I sent a text to the detective service and have them start the second phase. Acting as the manager of the hotel, I had him knock on the door of Megan's room telling them there was a reported gas leak in the building and everyone needed to evacuate the building. The service had another member waiting in their car with a long range lens to take pictures of the interaction to see if they could catch any damning evidence. The first guy was pretty enthusiastic while knocking expressing the urgency of the gas leak. Jeremy answered in just his boxers. The "manager" grabbed him and pulled him out of the room. Megan was quickly ushered out as well. She had more clothes on than Jeremy, but the PI taking pictures captured the situation pretty well. I now had my evidence and would proceed to file for divorce.

I finished with my board meeting and sat in my office finalizing how I wanted the rest of my life to proceed. The office was vacant and I have to admit I cried for the first time since learning that Megan wasn't the wife I had thought she was. I questioned how this could have happened and where I had failed. I couldn't even come up with any signs that Megan had been unfaithful to our marriage. Of course she had plenty of opportunity. She didn't work, I traveled for work and I trusted her completely. I really had to question how she came to cheat with Jeremy whom I felt was inferior to me in almost every way, shape or form.

I called my lawyer friend to get things started on Monday. I planned on having lunch with her and I would give her the papers then. If there was any type of confrontation, I wanted to handle that face to face and not have it linger. I sent a message to our HR director to have them proceed with firing Jeremy as well. I could cover his duties for now, but there were some talented individuals that could be ready for the position. Otherwise a national search could be conducted to find his replacement. CFO for MKT is a very prominent position that could lead to many other lucrative positions for someone in the future so replacing Jeremy wouldn't be too difficult. I would have him fired shortly after I returned from my lunch with Megan.

I called Alyssa to let her know as well. I told her that I wouldn't be around the house much this weekend as I didn't want to spend any more time with Megan. On an impulse, I asked Alyssa to come by the office and to bring Alia. I wanted to ask her a very important question that I couldn't over the phone. Alyssa asked if I could give her an hour since Alia was still taking her nap. Of course I agreed. I told her to text me when she was close and I would make sure she had access to the office. Alyssa arrived about an hour and a half later.

"Thanks for stopping by Alyssa. Was Megan back by the time you left the house?"

"Yea, she looked a little upset, but went upstairs immediately. I didn't see her before I left to come over here. I'm really sorry Luke. I know this has to hurt, but I couldn't ignore what I had overheard."

"Alyssa, I want to thank you for telling me. That took a lot of courage. I can say that I never saw any sign that Megan was cheating on me. She seemed to be the same person that I have known and loved for all of these years. I never saw this coming. I guess I had a blind spot as it relates to Megan."

"We all have blind spots. I guess that is why we need good friends to help us see those spots and help to fill them." Alyssa walked over and gave me a hug. It was quite comforting and unexpected.

After breaking our hug, I was composed enough to discuss the reason I asked Alyssa to join me at the office.

"Well, I have an important question to ask you in the wake of what has happened. I would like for you to consider staying with me at the house. There is plenty of room for you and Alia. I would love to have you there. I would offer the apartment to Megan, but she would be responsible for paying the rent. I am only going to offer her the apartment if you agree to the revised living arrangements. This would be two friends sharing our living space. If that seems too weird, just let me know. If you wanted to stay home and watch Alia instead of working and taking her to daycare, that would be fine with me. I would happily pay you for all of the work around the house, but that is up to you. If you would prefer to keep working here, I would support that as well. That house is too big to live in by myself."