When you are going to fight for your life, be prepared. Check your emotions at the county line, you don't want them sneaking up on you without notice. Dress to kill, because today, someone is going down and it won't be you.
Mr. King had called to confirm the date and time of the mediation. As if he had to remind me to be there on time! I ended the conversation as the Cindy Marie he had never met, "Don't be late this time. I paid you upfront to represent me and I expect you to be there for court on time, no excuses. I will see you tomorrow."
I arrived early. I didn't want to take a chance of running into traffic or unable to find a parking place, scurrying to the building appearing to be frazzled, no I was in complete control of every thing today. When you are presenting in front of a Judge, you want to appear to be professional, dark suits are common in the court room. I wanted to stand out. I wore a beautiful red suit. The skirt fitted to every curve on my body, three quarter length. The jacket, cut to enhance my trim waist and snug enough to allow the eye to see that I was all woman underneath. Black patent leather heels, red and black print blouse, cut low enough to make the eye wander, but not to low, with the finest of jewelry displayed. Gifts of past from Chappy. Thought he might want to see them one more time. My Coach purse, another gift from Chappy when we moved the first time to Indiana and a little addition to my collection, thank you to the monthly stipend I had been receiving from Mr. Schafer, a new Coach briefcase. I'd have worn my fur, but it was a beautiful day in the South for December.
I met Mr. King on the third floor of the Fulton County Courthouse. I had no problem finding it this time. I stood in the hallway waiting for his arrival, leaning against the wall, staring out onto the city. The elevator opened and Mr. Schafer exited. There would be no common courtesty offered to him, a glance of recognition was all he was worth today. He knew the rules, no closer than five hundred feet. It wouldn't have mattered though if he did come closer, Cindy Marie was standing there today, not the emotional heartbroken wife he had left for another woman. I continued to look out the window, I could see his reflection in the glass, watching me from a distance. What do you think of me now? Who has the upper hand today, Mr. Schafer?
Mr. King arrived first. He greeted me and ushered me into a private room so that we could review the events that were about to unfold. He opened his file and started to inform me of how he was going to present the case. I reached across the table and closed his folder. "You need to be in that courtroom as a representative of me. You are merely there as window dressing. You will speak if his attorney gets out of line, otherwise, I will present this case, by myself."
"Cindy, I don't recommend that. You have a lot riding on this mediation today and emotions can cloud judgement. Remember the last time you were here?"
"Mr. King, I HAVE NEVER BEEN HERE. That woman that was here a couple weeks ago is long gone. I am the Cindy Marie Schafer that Chappy married eight years ago, that other woman, that was Cindy Schafer, she died shortly after leaving your office September 28. You will never see her again. Who will present first?"
He looked at me in amazement. "I can't believe the transformation! From the woman who came into my office four months ago, not wanting to serve her husband for fear of embarrassing him, to the woman that sat here six weeks ago, in tears. Are you sure you are up to this?"
"I have been waiting for this day since January 18, 2000 when he invited a woman to this marriage that was not at the alter. I am better prepared than you would ever be, you see, I lived this horror story and that man out there that is my husband, he fueled the fire that will feed my anger today and when I am done, that fire? Well, let's just say, his nuts will be roasted when I am done."
He tilted his head, a grin spread across his face, "Mrs. Schafer, I fully believe you are more than capable of roasting nuts, shall we begin?"
We walked into the courtroom. Chappy and his attorney were already seated. The mediator was an attractive woman, probably in her mid to late fifties. She introduced herself and our attorneys introduced their clients to her.
Mr. King spoke first, "I was fully prepared to present Mrs. Schafer's case this afternoon, but we have just had a conference and she has informed me that she lived this night and day and she is fully prepared to present this matter in front of you today."
"Mrs. Schafer, do you understand the magnitude of issues that will be presented today? Are you sure you do not want Mr. King to present for you?"
"I am well aware of what lies ahead of me. I have lived it for the past year. No one knows this better than I do. I am the only person in this room, that fully understands the impact of the actions that lead to this hearing. I will present my side. Thank you for your consideration."
Chappy and his attorney were leaning in close to one another, whispering in each other's ears. He sat upright in his chair, that smirk washing across his face. He had no clue what he had just stepped into.
"My client has informed me that since Mrs. Schafer wishes to present her case, he will present his own case as well."
Oh this should be good. I wish I could sell tickets to this side show. He is going to present his case? What does he have prepared? He just told his attorney he'd do this, so I am betting he'll be flying by the seat of his pants.
This is when I was happy that I didn't file first. He who filed, had to present their case first. I was in the best seat of the house, I got to respond. Let the games begin, Chappy!
I think you may have read this before, simple, simple little man. He had no idea of the pit bull who sat across from him, foaming at the mouth, was preparing for her feast as he so kindly laid out his case.
"We grew apart. We were married eight years ago and my career had offered us many opportunities to move. The first move was shortly after we were married and within months after the move, Cindy experienced depression. It was very difficult for her to move away. " Blah, blah, blah. " I was transferred again within nine months of moving and she didn't want to move because she feared the depression would set in again. Her mother has depression. (Where did this come from?) So I agreed to commute between Illinois and Indiana for four years. She had taken a job in management and wanted to get some experience. I travel a lot for my work so it wasn't a problem if it were short term, but four years is a long time." Blah, blah, blah.
"I finally convinced her to move and she had to have this big house that again required me to drive quite a ways to the office. She wasn't working. We had not lived together under the same roof for close to five years and it was difficult so I started traveling more and staying at the office late as I didn't want to come home. She was so busy making this house "our home" that she neglected me and we grew apart. We were no longer intimate and she had no desire to be. We weren't there very long and I was promoted to Atlanta. She moved down there and made sure when we bought this house that only my wages were used to apply for the mortgage. I knew then that she had no intention of returning to work and I was working pretty much 24/7. I became angry that she had no desire to work. She spent her days making this house a home and taking the dog for walks, vacationing, visiting friends and family all the while, I stayed at home and took care of every thing. It was just a matter of time, I still love her, but we just grew apart and I don't think we can make it work any longer."
That was it. He delivered it as if we had reached a point of two ships passing in the dark, unaware the other existed. Grew apart? Not intimate? Never wanted to work? I had to work these into my presentation, I was not expecting any of this to surface. Loved how he threw the depression card out there, yeah, make sure they know I'm crazy, it will help my case, as you drove me there.
"Mrs. Schafer, do you have a response? I had been taking notes as he spoke. I wanted to be sure I got everything down from crazy to not being intimate.
"Yes." I reached in my briefcase and produced several folders. I provided one to the mediator, one to my attorney and the other to Chappy's attorney.
"If you will open the file I have just presented you, I would like you to follow along. I have provided each of you a time line dating back to the summer of 1992, weeks before Chappy and I were to get married. Please bear with me, you need a glimpse of our history to fully appreciate the road we have traveled to get us here."
"I will accept responsibility for all our moves as I was the one who encouraged Chappy to move from a dead end job to Crawford and Company. Had I not endorsed him, the manager who was a friend of mine, would not have known he existed. While he has worked very hard to get where he is today as Vice President of National Marketing, oh excuse me, you were demoted, I forgot, you are now a National Account Representative with Crawford? Those promotions came with a hefty price tag. Chappy was never home as he entertained clients a lot after hours." I was very calm as I presented this.
"Prior to our wedding, we had "dated" for close to two years and all along I had this gut feeling that something was not right. I discovered a few weeks before we were to get married, this gut feeling had a name, her name was Vicki. My gut told me to not marry him but my heart overruled. I promised him that if he ever were unfaithful to me, I would take him for all he is worth. And here we are today."
I was the bread winner when we were married and continued to be for several years. Chappy came home in 1994 to inform me, not discuss with me, that we were moving to Indianapolis as he had been promoted. He expected me to quit my career with the State and move, start over while he continued the same path he was on. He left me in Michigan to take care of business and he came home on weekends. One would think our weekends would be celebrated as newly weds since we had not been married long and we'd been apart all week, but Chappy was married to me on paper, and in real life he was married to his job and his mother. Every chance she had, she was there, butting in and he allowed it."
I had the Mediator's attention now. Her eyes were fixated on me as I spoke. Mr. King sat back in his chair, listening to my presentation as if I were weaving the web to a fine novel. Chappy though, he knew where this was going and the look on his face, priceless. He'd had his turn up at the podium, it was now my turn and with each sentence the nails were being tapped into the coffin.
"I sold the house that I owned before we were married and the money I had invested in that house is what we used as a down payment on the house we bought in Indiana. Chappy had nothing when I married him. When we moved to Indiana, he was never home as he continued to entertain clients. If he had a Saturday that his mom wasn't going to be there, he was golfing with his female boss, they were close, so close they referred to him as "her boy toy." What woman wouldn't fall into depression? I gave up everything to follow him and he could not cut the apron strings from his mother nor give up friendships with other women." Threw out the bait, I had them now.
"I found a job and started within weeks of the move. I took a significant pay cut and while I was learning that job, Chappy was traveling, leaving me to unpack and get us settled in our house. I continued to look for employment to return me to the salary I was making prior to our move. I took a job as a supervisor, but still had not attained the level I had when we moved. It took me some time. I needed to gain experience in management if I wanted to stay in that field and job hopping as I had been doing since we moved, would not look favorable to future employers."
"You have to understand that Chappy chose to not be home. He could have worked from home, but he chose to live out of a hotel for close to four years. This may have been because he had a woman in Chicago. I came across this innocently one evening as I was emptying his pockets and found the key to her apartment." I elaborated on the "friendship" and his explanation for having the key that he never returned. The mediator now had an expression on her face similar to Chappy, pissed! Her once relaxed face had stiffened.
"Chappy had always expressed a goal to reach a position that I no longer had to work in insurance and could do what I wanted to, whether that was work or some thing else. Another reason I did not want to move to Illinois is I knew we would be headed to Atlanta. He was on the fast track. Moving to Illinois was not financially wise for us. The cost of living was thirty three percent higher and Chappy failed to inform you, with the first two promotions, he was either not given a salary increase or when he was promoted to Illinois, not significant to cover the cost of living."
"He won a trip to Bermuda for being in the top twenty salesman for the company and after spending a week with the President and his mistress, Chappy was disgusted by his lack of morals and promised me that he'd never move to Atlanta, so we chose to move to Illinois."
"I had made it clear since once again I was left behind to sell, pack and move us, that I did not want to hit the ground working and unpacking again. We agreed to this, but as I unpacked that last box, he was promoted to Atlanta. Again, with each promotion he never opened it up to discussion, he accepted it without considering my future."
The mediator was taking copious notes as I spoke. The tension on Chappy's face could have cracked walnuts. The attorneys sat and listened as I continued to walk them through my time line.
"I sold the house in Naperville for a profit after living there just five months. Chappy had only lived there for two. When I moved to Atlanta, every thing we owned was in storage. We lived in a one bedroom apartment and Chappy omitted this, I did work. I am not a morning person, but I was up before the sun rose and I racked magazines and paperbacks at Publix and then I took off and managed the construction of our home. It should be noted that at this point, Chappy had informed me that he was earning enough that I did not have to return to work, he encouraged me to find some thing I enjoyed."
"I enjoyed making our house a home. For the first time in seven years we were living in the same State under the same roof and it appeared this was where we would stay. But, he is wrong again, I had a job. I was bored. Chappy was never home, so I worked nights. Again, if I didn't want to work, early mornings and the night shift would not have been the path I chose. I could have just stayed home."
"Earlier this year, I noticed a significant change in his behavior and I started tracking these changes in a diary. By my fortieth birthday, I had lost significant weight in the few weeks prior as well as experiencing tremendous jaw pain. The doctors suggested it was stress, but I did not want to believe them when they suggested my husband might be having an affair. Chappy came home on my birthday to announce that he was unhappy and not sure if he wanted to be married. I had always joked with him that he would do this to me and it came true. He swore there was not another woman. He refused to seek counseling."
Grabbed the bait, time to reel it in, everyone with the exception of Chappy was on full alert. I pulled out the big guns. "If you will, please turn the page and you will find the documents to support the relationship Chappy was having with a woman who reported to him. I refer you to exhibit one, the first clue that I found, that supported another woman was involved.." and I pulled out the hotel receipt. I explained the room service charge for two dinners, a glass of wine, a diet coke and two pieces of chocolate cake." If Chappy's blood pressure was high now, hang on, cause it was going to sky rocket.
I covered every thing. The missed planes noted in my diary that corresponded with rendezvous in Lutz, Florida where his mistress lived. "It would appear to me that Mr. Schafer is quite tanned today, I'm betting he probably just returned from a week in the sun with Courtney, that is her name now, isn't it Chappy?"
I touched on the last minute trip as I was leaving for Indiana, noting he did not want me to call, because he was spending the week with his mistress. I spoke of the "trial separation" only to discover within the week, he had me served papers with no intent of working on this marriage.
I left no stone unturned when I presented our story. But now, I had to present the rest of the story. The story that presented itself after the discovery had been presented.
"I want to touch briefly on some things that Mr. Schafer brought to the table, before I proceed, if that is OK with everyone here?" All heads nodded, except Chappy. His face was tanned, but it was turning red from the anger that lurked within. He presented his case, he would not have the option to respond again.
"While I wanted to remain professional and present the facts as to why we are here, Chappy has opened the door to a private matter that needs to be responded to. I leaned in toward the table, I was going to make a point and I wanted him to look me in the eye when I made it.
"It does not surprise me that Chappy would use the "intimacy' card as a means to seek pity, but you are very wrong! We were very intimate. Had I known you were going to stoop this low, I'd have had witness statements to support how intimate we were. To include your own mother who thought we were just a little to touchy feely for her. Friends who upon learning of our separation found it difficult to believe "the happy" couple who could not keep their hands to themselves were divorcing. We were very intimate to the last time we were here, walking to the hearing hand in hand, hugging and kissing, what we were not, was sexual! It is pretty damn hard to have sex with your husband when he is never under the same roof, let alone the same state."
"And if you haven't figured it out by now, you don't just fly in for a day for me to do your laundry, iron your shirts, fuck your brains out and watch you fly back out to where ever the hell you were going! And let's not forget the number of women I competed with for your attention. No, Chappy, you are way off base on that one, we were very intimate, we just didn't fuck."
You could have heard a pin drop the room was so quiet. He pushed his chair back from the table and dropped his head. I must have made my point. He was ashamed of what I just threw out on the table. He tried to sugar coat it, I sucked that sugar off of it and spit it in his face! "Now, let's move on to the documentation you have failed to present to the court today. You were served interrogatories that you and your attorney were to respond to and I am missing some documents. There are three stock options that were not included in the packet you provided to me to me. Are you trying to hide assets?"
His attorney perked up on that little morsel. "The records I was able to uncover show stock option certificates dated, blah, blah and blah were not included in the package. From my research these are not payable yet and so they would be subject to the asset search outlined in the interrogatories, that is correct, isn't it Mr. King?"
This high priced attorney who is supposed to be representing me, sleeping on the job, "Yes, if they have not been cashed prior to the filing, he would have to present you with the documents."
He and his attorney whispering among themselves. Chappy clueless as he had no idea what we had, I took care of all of that.
"My client stated that he is not aware of any stock options with those dates. He is confident that he has responded to the interrogatories and is not hiding any assets that he is aware of."
I had the certificates. They had been in the safe. I had made copies as I didn't want them to know I held the originals. "These are copies that I discovered while researching the documents you provided. Apparently he has omitted them with hopes of keeping them from the division of property. While they hold no value today and Crawford's stock has taken a nose dive in the last year, they do hold some value in the future. You are sure you over looked these and just didn't hide them from me? I wouldn't put it past you since you closed our Visa and bank accounts without my knowledge as well."
The mediator's ears perked up on that one, "Excuse me, you closed the bank account without her knowledge? What happened to the money that was in these accounts?"
Chappy was being dragged across the coals and he knew it. He sat upright as he looked at the mediator, "I was informed to close the accounts before she did. I gave her half of what was in there, she has not gone hungry nor is she broke, I've taken care of her."
The mediator looked at him, no sympathy for him, "Mr. Schafer, who told you to close the bank account? Your attorney?" She turned to the attorney, ready to take issue with her if that is where the directive came from.
"I did not inform him to close any bank accounts."
Cat must have had Chappy's tongue as he still had not responded. "Mr. Schafer, who told you to close the accounts?"
"I don't remember, it was some time ago."
"Chappy, it wasn't that long ago, July 15, I came home and you handed me a check for what you said was half, but I don't really know if it was actually half of what was in there."
The mediator, making more notations on her legal pad. She was scribbling like a mad woman the whole time we were in there. He glared at me. I had set him up and he was none too happy with how he was being portrayed in this room.
I finished my presentation with a few more facts about his relationship with Courtney. "I am concerned that Chappy will not have the means to continue paying the monies I require to live each month as I fear he has placed himself in a position that may result in his termination with the company, it has already cost him a significant demotion." I hit the nail that he had no idea I knew about. It pays off eventually to be nice to the administrative assistants that report directly to your husband. The air became thick as I carefully laid the ground work to expose the real reason Chappy had been removed from his position of power.
The thoughts that wander through my mind. Some have suggested I write a book. I think I'll blog first
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