With Ann on the trip, Sid spent the evenings with his wife. Even when the three of them were together, the couple virtually ignored Victoria. For the first time ever on a business trip with Sid, Victoria had to go to dinner alone every evening of the trip.
Depressed and lonely, Victoria sat in her hotel room for yet another long night. With nothing else to do, she spent her time thinking about her situation.
Things seemed so clear to her. She worked to support her family. It wasn't that she wanted to be away from her family so much, but that was the price she had to pay for her salary. She knew it was hard on everyone, but they benefited from her hard work. They lived in a four bedroom house in a good safe neighborhood with excellent schools.
The house had been first argument between her and John. She wanted the large house even though John's earnings could barely cover the bills. He took a much more conservative position arguing for a smaller place in a slightly worse neighborhood. She had brought the parents into the discussion and he lost that battle.
Two months after moving into the house she regreted having won the argument. Money was tight. To save money, John moved out of his office in an office building. He converted the garage to a home office and worked from there on his programming contracts. The move had initially hurt his ability to earn. Working from a garage had made him look like an amateur, but his excellent reputation for delivering quality code had salvaged his earnings from a spiral downwards.
John had never complained about the hardship of working in the garage or the money pressures of owning a house too large for his budget. She appreciated that fact, but it didn't prevent her from feeling guilty. The strapped budget bothered her far more than him. They couldn't afford a babysitter for an occasional evening out. John didn't even have time for an evening out since he was struggling to make enough money to cover the bills.
She began to make plans on how to correct the situation. She would be a stay at home mom until Rose entered school. She would get a job to earn enough money to ease the situation. It was all so clear to her.
When the kids were in bed and John was working in the garage, she would spend hours on an old computer. She learned to use the business software that would allow her to command a better salary. It was time well spent.
Getting the job as a Personal Assistant to Sid Buchwald had been one of the happiest days she experienced since moving into the large house. The salary was huge. The one negative was the requirement that she had to travel frequently. Still, the salary was nearly as large or larger than what John was earning.
Upon getting the job, the first thing she did was go out and buy some business clothes. That had cost over five hundred dollars from an already overstrained budget. Anticipating that John would be furious, she had gone on the offensive arguing that her first paycheck would make up for the expenditure. John had been upset, but he didn't make a big deal out of it. He had told her that his income had taken a slight upturn and they could afford the clothes but she would have to be careful in how much she spent. She didn't believe him.
Her first trip out of town had been an eye opener for her. The business clothes she had purchased looked cheap in comparison to the suits worn by the businessmen at the various meetings. She was Wally Mart and they were Brooks Brothers. She had even had to wear the same outfit twice during the week. It embarrassed her to sit in a meeting looking like a poor man's secretary when the men were discussing contracts involving millions of dollars.
Upon her return from that first trip, she had spent the weekend at the mall buying clothes. Short of cash, she had opened several charge accounts. She had spent over two thousand dollars. When John had learned of that, he had gotten very upset. He wanted to stash some money aside in order to grow his business and to provide a cushion in case the business faltered.
This was the beginning of what she called the finances war. He questioned her expenditures on clothes, beauty products, and travel necessities. She questioned his increased expenditures on computer equipment and office furniture. She had been incensed when she learned that he was spending time writing games for the kids rather than searching for more programming contracts.
The arguments increased in volume until they separated their finances. Every month they each deposited three thousand dollars into a joint account. She paid the bills online while traveling. He used the debit card to purchase food and clothes for the children. The first few months were tight, but a slush fund slowly built up. After six years, the balance in the joint account was large enough that they could pay cash when getting the house re-shingled.
Her private accounts had grown to where she had over a hundred thousand dollars in an investment account. She wanted to have that money in reserve in case John's business folded. Every time she returned home she expected to find out that he was out of business.
It wasn't that she believed John wasn't a capable programmer, but she seriously doubted his business acumen. She had watched very successful businessmen discuss huge amounts of money. In comparison to the business smarts of those men, John acted like he was running a lemonade stand. They had hundreds of people working for them and John was the only employee.
As time passed, her business trips increased in frequency. She was away from the house more days than she was at home. This left John stuck at home serving as a house husband. It was fortunate he worked from home and they didn't have to pay for childcare. She didn't think she would have been able to acquire such a large nest egg if she had to pay childcare costs in addition to her business expenses.
Although she didn't want to admit it, her relationship with the children had suffered. When they complained about how much she was gone, she would explain to them that she was doing it for their benefit. The kids would argue that their father could support the family. She marveled at their confidence in their father. She tried to convince them that his company would probably suffer significantly if there was the slightest bump in the economy. They had looked at her as if she was crazy.
John's insistence that she didn't need to work had begun to grate on her nerves. She was sacrificing so that the family would have a financial cushion. It bothered her that he didn't appreciate her efforts.
The outright antagonism by the children on her last visit home had been shocking. She had never imagined her children would tell her to leave the house and never come back. To learn they wanted to trade up in mothers had hit her like a knife through the back. John taking the children's side had been the final blow. She couldn't comprehend why they didn't understand how much she was doing for them.
Dwelling on her problems was just giving her a headache. She went over to her laptop and logged into the bank account. It was time to pay the bills. She wondered if it would be the last time she did so.
Wondering if John was using the debit card to drain the joint account, she immediately went to review the last month's transactions. It didn't make sense to her. He hadn't charged anything against the account. She went to the records for the previous month. Again, he hadn't charged anything against the account. She stared at the screen wondering how he was paying for groceries, clothes, and gasoline.
She thought back to that horrible night. Based on the dinner David had prepared food wasn't an issue. They even had wine with the dinner and according to the kids it was a common event. She wasn't sure how much the wine had cost, but it had been very good. The clothes the kids were wearing looked new. As far as she could tell, John wasn't being stingy with money for the kids.
She paid the mortgage, the electric bill, and the cable bill. It was while paying the cable bill that she noticed they now had the HD package. She didn't recall seeing any charges for an HD capable television in the past.
Sitting back, she wondered what kind of games John was playing. She went back to the checking account summary to make sure he was making the full three thousand dollar deposit. Much to her surprise, she saw that he was depositing five thousand a month. She stared at the entry wondering how he could afford to put sixty thousand dollars a year into the joint account. It didn't make any sense at all.
She was still trying to figure out what was going on when there was a knock on her hotel room door. She went over to it and looked through the spyhole. Ann was at the door.
Upon opening the door, she said, "Hello, Ann. I didn't expect to see you tonight."
"There's been a slight change of plans," Ann said without taking time for a friendly greeting.
"What?" Victoria asked.
"We need you to fly to Atlanta to work with the SSID proposal team tomorrow. You'll have to stay there the whole weekend. Monday morning you'll have to fly back to the office and hand deliver the proposal to the red team," Ann said.
She brusquely handed Victoria an envelop with papers.
Victoria glanced inside taking note of the airline ticket, hotel reservation, and directions on how to get to SSID. It seemed to her that Ann had taken to being a PA like a duck to water. She even had the brusque business attitude down pat.
"What will I be doing with the SSID proposal team?" Victoria asked.
"You're going to be providing them with the proposal cost estimates. Sid will be developing them over the weekend, but he wants you there to make sure that they get added to the proposal exactly like he provides them," Ann answered.
"Okay," Victoria said.
This was a very different kind of task than what she had done in the past. She felt uncomfortable suddenly taking orders from someone other than Sid.
Ann said, "After the red team finishes with the proposal, you'll have to hand carry it to Washington."
"Okay," Victoria said feeling like she had just become some sort of glorified go-fer.
"I've already called your husband and informed him that you'd be gone over the weekend," Ann said.
"Thanks," Victoria said.
Ann waved and said, "We'll talk later. Sid is waiting for me."
Victoria was left staring through an empty doorway. She slowly closed the door and returned to the hotel room desk. The screen saver on the computer had kicked in. She watched photographs of the family appear and disappear on the screen. It dawned on her that the newest photograph was two years old and none of them included her.
She broke down in tears.
Tuesday afternoon, Victoria was driving home after a disastrous flight from Washington. Not only had the flight left late, but the turbulence was so strong that even she had nearly thrown up. She had a pounding headache, her stomach was upset from the trip, and she was tired. Out of habit, more than planning, she was headed home. She wondered what kind of reception she would receive upon arriving there. She didn't expect it to be very friendly. No one had been answering her calls home.
When she pulled into the driveway she noticed the large black pickup truck parked next to a new SUV. She didn't recognize either vehicle. She parked behind the truck wondering what John was doing with a truck. She did see that the licence plates said 'GM MKR 1' and 'GM MKR 2.'
She sighed and asked, "Oh John. What are you doing wasting money on personalized license plates?"
Getting out of her car, she grabbed her travel bag. Stepping over to the truck, she examined it. The truck was dusty and needed washing. The truck bed had scratches and a coating of dirt. It looked to her like the truck was used to haul stuff, but she had no idea what he would be hauling with it.
She reached the front door surprised that John hadn't opened it. He usually offered to take care of her luggage. Normally she snapped at him, but today she would have welcomed the help. She opened the door and entered the house. She could hear sounds from the kitchen. She closed the door quietly and listened to the conversation in the kitchen.
"That's the second batch."
"Do we need a third batch?"
"I don't think so. We've got thirty six jars."
"That's enough applesauce for a year."
"We've still got some left over from last year."
"Maybe we should make some pie filling."
Victoria was puzzled. It sounded like they were making applesauce. She wondered why they would make their own when there was more than enough money in the checking account to buy it.
"That's a good idea."
"We'll need more cinnamon if we're going to make pie filling."
"I'll take the motorcycle and get some."
Victoria gasped. It sounded to her like David has just said that he had a motorcycle. She wondered why John would let David ride a motorcycle. Didn't the man know that motorcycles were dangerous?
"Would you pick up another ten pounds of sugar while you're there?"
"No problem."
"My back is killing me."
"I didn't realize four trees could produce that many apples."
"Next year we'll have more."
"Next year we'll hire someone to pick them."
"We've still got four bushels of apples left."
Victoria wondered where they would get four bushels of apples. It sounded like they had visited a pick your own farm, but their comments weren't entirely consistent with that hypothesis. You didn't hire people to pick fruits for you at a pick your own place. Besides, why did they have to pick the apples from four trees?
"How about we try making juice out of the rest of the apples?"
"I have no idea how to do that."
"I could look it up on the internet."
"Maybe we should do that before I go to the store."
"We are going to need more Ball jars."
"Let's stop now and finish up tomorrow."
"Where will we store all of this food?"
"I figure we can put it in the pantry at John's Farm."
"When are we going to move out there?"
"Why don't we move today?"
"We'll move as soon as I sell the business."
Victoria stood there in shock. They were talking about moving out of this house. They were going to do that without talking about it with her. This was a direct blow to her stomach.
"When will that be?"
"We're getting close to closing the deal. I figure we'll be done in a couple of weeks. The only sticking point is the non-compete clause. There's no way they can keep me from developing software outside of the game market."
"I thought you were going to retire."
"I am, but I just want to leave my options open in case I get bored."
John was planning on retiring? Victoria couldn't believe her ears. He wasn't even forty years old.
"What will be our share?"
"A couple million each."
Victoria was convinced that her family was reading from some sort of script intending to screw with her mind. The entire discussion bordered on the surreal. John was talking about each of the children getting a couple million dollars? That would be the day.
"We're going to be rich!"
"Don't start getting any ideas. It is all going into a trust until you turn twenty-one."
"What about our salaries?"
Salaries? The kids were getting salaries? Victoria couldn't believe her ears. Rose was only twelve. Kids got allowances, not salaries.
"Don't worry about that. You'll be getting an allowance out of the trust fund."
"What about college?"
"You each have a college fund."
Victoria was puzzled by the assertion that John had set up college funds for the kids. She wondered when he had done that. She wondered why he didn't talk to her about it. She would have contributed money to it.
"What about Mother?"
"It wouldn't be fair if she got half of your money when you get divorced."
"We are not getting a divorce."
"She abandoned us"
"She doesn't deserve a dime."
"She left us."
"I hate that bitch!"
"Rose, don't be that way. She's your mother."
"She doesn't love me."
"Yes she does."
Victoria nearly collapsed on hearing that exchange. The venom in Rose's voice was unmistakable. That wasn't acting. Her daughter really hated her and believed that she didn't love her.
"If she cares so much about us, then where is she?"
"Your mother is confused at the moment. Sid and Ann are keeping her isolated so that she can get her thoughts together."
That little announcement took Victoria by surprise. Her evenings alone suddenly made sense. She had wondered why they didn't invite her to dinner. Instead of socializing with her boss and his wife, she had been stuck alone in the hotel room every night.
"I couldn't believe how pissed Sid was at her."
"I'll tell you that my opinion of him really changed."
"The fact that she isn't bonking Mr. Buchwald just proves that she doesn't love us."
"Rose, don't talk about your mother that way."
"Daddy, give it up. I know the truth. She ran away as soon as she could get me out of the way."
"That's not true."
"Yes it is."
Victoria's legs wouldn't support her any more. She sat down on the floor hyperventilating. Her baby girl really hated her.
"She left because she wanted to help with money."
"You had already sold the first game. There was no need for her to go to work."
"She didn't know that."
"That's because the bitch was so self involved that she wouldn't listen to you."
"Rose!"
"I'm sorry. It's true. I heard you arguing at night."
The room was spinning. Victoria had to shut her eyes to keep from throwing up. It was news to her that Rose had heard them arguing. She tried to remember what she had said in the middle of those arguments, but her mind drew a blank.
"You misunderstood what you were hearing."
"I know what I heard. She was going to get a job come hell or high water."
"She was trying to help."
"Really? Why did she insist on separate checking accounts?"
"It was a compromise to end the arguments."
"She really lords her ninety thousand dollar a year salary over you."
"She's proud of her salary."
"She uses it like a weapon."
"It is a good salary and she should be proud of it."
"She doesn't respect you."
"Dad, Rose is right about that. She doesn't believe that you are capable of making money. She doesn't respect you."
"She doesn't know that you make that much every month."
"How do you know that?"
"We're not stupid. You've got your finances on the server. We can all look at it."
"That file is password protected."
"Dad, your password is Victoria. You could have picked a better one than that."
"It was the second one we tried."
"I'll be changing it."
"Right. You'll change it to your anniversary."
"Be quiet."
"Just divorce the bitch. There's a dozen women around here that would jump at the chance to be with you."
"Rose!"
Unconscious, Victoria slumped to the floor. The noise attracted the attention of the occupants in the kitchen.
Victoria was just recovering consciousness when she heard Rose say, "You can just leave her on the floor."
"David, get over here and help me get her over to the couch."
"Just grab her by the heels and drag her out to the front porch."
"Rose!" John said.
Victoria opened her eyes. The first sight she saw was Rose standing there with her arms crossed and an expression on her face that would curdle milk. Upon seeing that her mother was looking at her, Rose humphed and stomped down the hallway. Lisa followed her.
Victoria said, "I'll be alright."
"When did you get here?" John asked.
"I don't know," Victoria replied wanting to avoid answering the question.
She struggled to sit up. With some help from the wall she managed to stand. She said, "I'd like to go somewhere quiet to talk with you. Can we get a babysitter to watch the kids?"
John grimaced.
David snorted in disgust and then said, "Babysitter? I'm out of here."
"What's the matter?" Victoria asked while watching him leave.
"He's sixteen years old. We haven't used a babysitter in two years," John answered.
"I didn't know that," Victoria said feeling about two inches tall.
"I'm afraid you insulted him," John said.
Victoria didn't know what to say. It seemed to her that everything that came out of her mouth lately was wrong. Her attention was grabbed by Rose dragging a huge piece of luggage down the hallway.
"She can leave now. I packed up her clothes, so there's no need for her to ever come back," Rose said.
Victoria asked, "Do you hate me that much?"
"Yes."
"She doesn't mean that," John said.
"Yes, I do."