BURN THIS WHOLE TOWN DOWN

From the mountain top of contentment, actually being married to the town princess, having two wonderful kids, my own business that was going good, and living in my home town, where I had always wanted to live, to the depths of hell in a few weeks is my story.

I live in Culverson, a small town in a Midwest state. The population of our small community is only a thousand souls. Our nearest urban area, a small city of twenty thousand people, is located about sixty miles away. There are other smaller villages between. We have a couple of convenience stores, a precursor to Wal-Mart, you know the small find everything store that primarily sold groceries but had a toy section, clothing, office supplies, camera department, and various sundries and even had patterns and cloth for those who thought themselves seamstresses. We also had a small pharmacy, a local True Value franchise, a farm store, a couple of cafes (no fast food restaurants), a large locally owned bank and a small credit union as well as my computer services business.

My company was mostly an IT consulting service. I sold hardware such as computers, servers, and monitors but mostly to those that were interested in the whole package including networks. Some of my clients included the bank, the local hospital and the school system.

My nearest competitor was in the more urban city but I even had clients there and had to frequently trouble shoot my competitor's networks.

Oh, I guess I should actually introduce myself. My name is Tim Meheron. I am thirty years old. For any who care I am six foot tall and weigh one hundred and eighty pounds soaking wet. Up until recently I was married to a girl I knew all through middle and high school, Becky Mains-Meheron, now soon to remarry as our divorce is final.

We were married for seven years. I thought they were good years but, I guess, she didn't think them so good as she blindsided me with the divorce petition.

Now, I do have to state, that we were not high school sweethearts. We barely talked to each other at any time since we ran with different crowds. We attended the same university but didn't hang out with the same crowd there, either. As a matter of fact I really didn't like her in school as she was the local princess. Her daddy, Ronald Mains, owned the only bank in town. Mains Federal Bank loans money to the local farmers, the feed store, the locally owned convenience stores, Ned's Superstore, and most of the rest of the businesses locally as well as most everyone in town has auto loans and home loans through that bank. I guess we all like to see our banker face-to-face and so online banking has not really caught on here. I even have a small operating loan with my daddy-in-law.

Well, anyway, back to Becky. It wasn't until after we graduated with our bachelors' degrees that suddenly she was interested in me. Now, I had fanaticized a little about her when we were in high school. She was the lovely blonde of decent height, weight, nice bust and ass and head cheerleader. I was a starting defensive end during football season, a forward playing basketball, ran the 1000 meter and 2000 meter races in track and played center field during baseball.

Now Becky was not exactly stuck up, she would refute that little generalization if you threw it at her but she did project that attitude of entitlement. She dated the quarterback who also played point guard and pitched baseball. Josh was a good guy and a good athlete. He went to a different university on a full ride scholarship to play football and that was when they broke up.

Like I said, I didn't run in the same circles as Becky did during our college days. She was a high ranking member of her sorority, the largest on campus, and their corresponding fraternity was the largest on campus. There were always fraternity or sorority sponsored events to take up time outside of class.

On the other hand, I was a nerd. I spent a lot of time outside of class learning hardware and software as well as various systems and the difficulty computerizing them. My choice of study required at least as much time studying as I put in the classroom. I also had to have a job to help pay what the small scholarship didn't.

My dad was the manager of Ned's Superstore so he didn't make a huge salary, just enough to keep me from grants. Just to give an example of scale you could multiply the square footage of my parents' house by four and still not be as large as Ronald Mains' primary domicile.

During the summer Dad and I would go camping almost every other weekend. Fishing was a cheap but enjoyable pastime. Becky and her parents would jet off to Aspen, the Ozarks, Miami, occasionally to Hawaii, and then up to Maine just for shits and giggles.

Get the idea? We were very different people who just happened to grow up in the same small town. When I came home from school suddenly Becky wanted to date me. She was almost stalking me. I really never understood her interest. Yes, I had started my business but, at the time, I was a one-man operation. I had applied for a small business grant for my startup money and I was showing a small profit after the first year.

Becky finally bit the bullet and asked me to dance one night when we both seemed to be at the same bar with a live band. We fit together pretty well. Mom had insisted that I learn to dance various different steps so I didn't acquit myself too badly. We parted as the bar shut down for the night with a kiss by her car and a promise by me to call the next day for a "real date".

I was an only child, something about mom's uterus that didn't allow normal development of the fetus. I guess I was a miracle baby. Becky had a brother who left home at age eighteen and fell off the face of the earth. I guess he didn't like Ronald much.

During the year after I graduated my dad died of a sudden heart attack. Mom said he was talking about mowing the yard and sometime later she noticed something sticking out of the small shed door at the back of the lot. My dad had collapsed there and by the time mom noticed it was far too late. The ambulance guys didn't even try to revive him. He had been gone too long.

Becky attended Dad's funeral even though we had only been on a few dates. It pleased me to see her there and she migrated to my side at the cemetery and held my hand as the tears coursed down my face. She was also very gracious to Mom and some of the small contingent of family that had traveled quite a ways to support us.

Mom's house was fully paid off before Dad passed and he had a pretty good life insurance policy that assured her a living income the rest of her life if she was careful. Thank god for that as the recent events unfolded. I'll get to that in a bit.

The old joke is about the guy that chased a girl until she caught him. Well, that wasn't the way Becky and I proceeded. She chased me. She asked me out. She initiated our sex life. I won't go into specifics except to say that we fit together, sexually, pretty well. We started to date exclusively, at least from my standpoint and I didn't hear any rumors of her dating others, and we engaged in sexual congress two or three times a week.

There were days I had to travel to some of the outlying communities. Some of the larger farms wanted to integrate all their computers, from the tractors, to the planters, the milking parlors and then the household computers. All had to have wi-fi access. With the buildings sometimes quite a ways apart there were logistical obstacles to overcome. So, I don't know if Becky sat at home, in her parents' house, on nights I had to be too busy to see her.

Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you about Becky's job. Since her major was "Women's Studies" she couldn't find an appropriate job in Culverson so she went to work for her daddy. She started as a teller and worked her way up, quite rapidly, to vice president of the loan department. Of course it was nepotism but she threw herself into the work and got educated, the way her father wanted, in how banking works.

Years later I can look back and see how I was played into marriage. One night, just before Christmas that year, Becky informed me that she was pregnant and asked what I was going to do about it. With the values that were instilled by my parents, I immediately asked her to marry me.

I should have immediately realized my love's actual pregnancy status when she and her mother chose a date seven months after the announcement of our engagement that Christmastime. By the time I finally figured out that she had lied about being pregnant the plans were set and https://xfaap.com the massive amount of invitations had been sent out. I confronted Becky and she just shrugged her shoulders. Her explanation? "If I left it up to you we would never get married, let alone engaged. I love you and you love me. This will work."

As for me, I was in love with the town princess. The sex was awesome and I really wanted to sleep with and next to Becky so I went along and didn't kick the traces after realizing she had lied about her pregnancy.

The wedding was the largest hosted in our town in anyone's memory. Everyone was invited. We even held it on a Sunday afternoon so all the businesses could close down. The feast was extraordinary, catered by a firm from our urban community.

We honeymooned in Barbados where Becky found a clothing optional beach and was nude almost every day we were there. The sex was alternately loving and gentle and then rough and tumble. We did it all. We explored the island via motor scooter and even snorkeled in the clear Caribbean Sea.

After our two weeks of hedonism it was back to work. I now had one person working for me and before our marriage imploded had expanded to three technicians and a secretary/bookkeeper to keep us all organized and in line.

About a year after we married Becky announced that she was pregnant. This time it was not a false alarm. Constance, my little Connie, was born with all ten toes and fingers and was destined to be spoiled rotten. She is my little girl though. Two years after that we welcomed Thaddeus, or Tad for short. He also came fully formed. My life was complete and I was as happy as a pig in a mudhole.

Our seventh year was when things seemed to change. Becky suddenly was needed to work a lot of evenings and some weekends. I could understand the occasional banking conference but it was a slow year and there couldn't have been any new influx of loan applications that would merit all these evening meetings and weekend hours.

Becky always answered her cell phone if I called but I tried to not bother unless it was important. There was never any missed calls or any time she answered all out of breath but I was still a little concerned.

Our sex life also suffered since Becky was seldom home before I went to bed. A lot of nights I would need to hit the hay just after the kids because of my travel time to service my customers. Yes, I had more help but that was just to keep me from running around chasing my own tail. We were all very busy but I planned my days so I could be home in the evenings, especially if Becky couldn't be counted on to care for the kids.

I remember the last time I made love to my wife. I came home on a Friday night and, lo and behold, she had actually arrived before me and had supper ready for us. The kids were beside themselves talking to their mother throughout the meal. So much so we had to actually ask them to eat. We all then cleaned up the table and got the pots, pans and dishes into the dishwasher before sitting together and watching Shrek for the umpteenth time.

The kids were so happy to see Becky that she had to put them down for the night. I wasn't allowed anywhere near their bedroom that night. After they were settled Becky came back to the living room carrying a couple of glasses of wine and wearing high heels and some little bit of fluff called a baby doll that accentuated her beauty and made my cock hard as a rock.

We settled on the couch and sipped our wine while Becky whispered what she wanted me to do that night. She didn't want nice and loving, no, she wanted hard fucking in all her holes. I didn't know if I could step up to the mark as it had been quite a while since our last encounter and I was certain I would shoot before I even got my cock lined up with her little bald pussy.

I gave it everything I could and I collapsed into a dreamless sleep. When I woke on that Saturday morning Becky was already dressed and had an envelope in her hands. "Time to wake up, Dummy."

Where was the loving woman of last night? Why the term Dummy? "The kids are all dressed and ready to go to Mom and Dad's. That is where I will be staying this weekend. That will allow you about forty-eight hours to get your shit out of my house. Monday morning there will be a protection order entered against you citing mental cruelty and a tendency to violence if you are upset. The divorce papers in the envelope will also be filed at the same time."

I was flabbergasted. I finally found my voice and asked, "What is going on and why are you doing this?"

"Simple, Stupid, Josh has come to work in the bank as Dad's right hand man and we are going to get married as soon as the ink is dry on my divorce papers. We have been getting reacquainted for months and now is the time to pull the trigger."

As she was leaving she paused to toss the last grenade on my life. "By the way, Josh can't have kids so he wants to adopt Constance and Thaddeus. They will now always be referred to by their given names, not the hillbilly nicknames you came up with."

She slammed the door on her way out.

I spent the first twelve hours of that weekend just reading and rereading the contents of the envelope. Rebecca, not Becky anymore, not only wanted the house but my business also. The terms said I could still run the business but I would only make minimum wage, less than even the rest of the crew. She wanted full custody. The requested child support would be more a month that I would actually make under her demands. She also wanted alimony even though she would be making many times what I could make. She had her car titled in her name but mine was owned by the company. As long as I was employed by the business I could still drive it.

We had some savings, not a lot since we were still young, but some. She had already pulled all but a few dollars out of the account. I didn't even get half.

Finally decided to quit reading and stewing and do something. I called around and found someone to loan me a pickup and a trailer. I had no friends of my own, just "our" friends and knew that they would not be at helpful. Finally I called a couple of guys I used to hang out with in high school and they immediately came and we packed the trailer with things that Becky would not quibble about. I had no where else to go so I went into work. I had purchased the whole building a year before so we could have more expansion space. The second floor had a small apartment in the back that was dingy and dirty. I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned all day Sunday. An airbed was my bed. My friends loaned me some old furniture and some pots and pans so I could eat and sit on something. A small microwave would have to suffice as my cooking appliance for a bit until I could find a stove. I also needed a refrigerator but made do with a cooler full of ice for my beer.

On Monday I woke stiff and sore. I do not recommend an airbed except as an emergency bed. The shower was cold as there was no hot water on the second floor, only a small tank for the bathroom in the office downstairs.

I managed to shave and look somewhat presentable. I called some of the local attorneys and was soon made to be aware that I was being perceived on the same level as a mass murderer. My father-in-law had put out the word. There would be no help provided to me or loans would be called in.

I had no time to get a lawyer from farther away so I went to court that morning representing myself. Judge Gavin presided. I had a real bad feeling. The judge was always at any event hosted by the Mains family and I would bet his car and home loans were through the Mains Federal Bank.

He directed his first comments to me. "Mr. Meheron, why aren't you represented by Counsel?"

"Judge, I beg your pardon but I was served my papers on Saturday morning by my wife and so could only look for an attorney this morning before court. No local attorney will take my case. I ask for a continuance to seek counsel from farther away."

"Denied. I don't understand this. According to the file these papers were filed three weeks ago and this court date was scheduled then. The file also shows you were served at your place of business that same day by a deputy. You had plenty of time to seek representation and file the required papers showing your financial status. I should hold you in contempt at your blatant attempt to delay these proceedings."

"Your honor, I wish to protest and hope this is put into the official court record that I find that I am being railroaded into a settlement that is totally in my wife's favor and this is just to destroy me, not help my children in any way. Since all of my earnings records are filed jointly my wife should have been able to produce and present my financial standing and thus make mute the whole request for unreasonable child support and also, she has announced that she is remarrying as soon as our divorce is final so alimony should be a non-issue."

He slammed his gavel down. "Silence! You, Sir, are out of order! You have had plenty of time to respond to the summons. I find for the plaintiff." He slammed his gavel down again and stood and left the chamber. I was aghast. In a matter of minutes I was divorced, I may find it very difficult to see my children ever again, and my business had been taken away.

I looked over at my ex-wife. Rebecca at least looked a little guilty for what she had just done. She sucked it up and gave me a haughty stare. "You had better get to work. I don't pay you to sit and look like someone just pissed in your Cheerio's."

Hate was becoming a more dominant emotion over the confusion of the past few days. I had to control myself as I could see the bailiff watching me very closely. He didn't seem too friendly.

Joshua and the bitch got up and followed their attorney out the door. I sat and waited. I needed to give them no ammunition to get me thrown in jail. Somehow I was coming to the conclusion that was one of their goals. If I was in jail for losing my temper then her accusations would be given credence. The bailiff came over and quietly talked to me. "They should be out of the building by now. The other bailiffs are watching but you know how much pull the Mains have in this town, hell, in this whole county. Get yourself a lawyer from the state capital. That should be far enough away. We support you and feel for you but can't risk being found out."

I nodded and thanked him. When I went out there were multiple people in uniform lined up to watch me leave.

I went to the office. Surprisingly Rebecca and Joshua weren't there ahead of me. I figured they would beat feet to tell the staff who was now the new owners. Their arrogance cost them a little.

First I made sure that all the staff members were busy with assignments. I then wrote out a check for cash and sent our secretary/bookkeeper to the bank to cash it. I directed her to tell anyone who might question it that I was going to be out of town for a few days servicing distant clients and would need cash.

I assumed that if I went to the bank myself then there would be orders to thwart me. Unless the judge had signed a court order detailing who was now the owner of the business then the bank shouldn't deny the business the funds. This was not an unusual occurrence as a lot of the small towns preferred cash over debit or credit cards as the bank and credit companies charge a percentage of every transaction against the businesses themselves.