Chapter 7

SPOV

It's Monday morning and it was hard to make it through the weekend with Joe in the house. Luckily Saturday night he got a call from work and was gone most of the night. I spent most of Sunday going to mass with my Mom and spending the afternoon watching sports with my Dad. I told Grandma Mazur about what was going on, and she said that once I filed the paperwork that she would spread the truth around the beauty shops about the situation. I figured once I got everything taken care of I would tell Mom, I really didn't need the "Why me?" speech right now. I've finally gotten the push that I need to get out of this marriage, and I don't need a guilt trip now.

Monday mornings are pretty slow down at the courthouse, so I went into the Clerk's office and got a copy of the paperwork and went to the car and filled it out. I paid for the filing fees out of my personal checking account that Joe doesn't have access to. Then I took the copy of the paperwork signed by the clerk to my cousin for service. After paying him almost double I assured that he would have Joe served at the police station during the day today. While I was doing all of that, Ranger sent some of the guys out to my house to retrieve my personal things from the house and place them in the apartment on the 4th floor.

The last stop on my list was Sandy's office. I explained to her what was going on, about me taking a new job, and how I would not be able to show up in the office. Being an attorney she understood completely what I was doing, and told me that she wished me well. I told her I would be more than happy to do work from my apartment at Rangeman while she looked for a new assistant, and she seemed pleased with that for now. Everything seemed to be going so well that it was starting to scare me. Nothing I did was ever this easy. Maybe things are working out like this because I'm meant to get out of this marriage and move on with my life. Let's hope so.

JPOV

Cupcake was acting weird this weekend. When I woke up Saturday morning she was downstairs asleep on the couch, and claimed she was just not feeling well and didn't want to wake me by getting up and down during the night. I really didn't spend much time with her the rest of the weekend because of a work call on Saturday afternoon. When I finally made it home on Sunday morning she was at Mass with her Mom and I went to sleep. When I got up this morning Steph was already gone, which for her is unusual. I was pulled out of my thoughts by the phone.

"Morelli"

"Morelli, it's Robin. Steph's cousin Steve is here to see you. Can I send him in?" Robin said.

"Yeah send him back." I said as I hung up the phone.

Steve knocked on the door and I told him to come in. I've never really gotten along with Steve, I think he's a total jerk and our personalities has just never meshed.

"Hey Steve, what's up?" I said as he entered my office.

"Joseph Morelli, you are being serve with paperwork," He said as he handed me a manila envelope full of paperwork, "On a personal note, I really believe you fucked up this time. Not to say I didn't see it coming but I'm glad that you finally got caught." And he turned on his heel and left my office before I could even respond.

I opened the package of paperwork and started thumbing through it. Divorce paperwork? Stephanie went and filed for divorce! I can't believe it, what in the hell was she thinking? I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my coat and car keys and headed for my vehicle. I drove home in a blind rage, trying to figure out why Steph wanted a divorce. It's not like I wasn't a good husband, not like I didn't take care of her. When I entered the house, all of cupcake's things were gone. Not a trace of her was left in the house except a letter sitting on her pillow in the bedroom. When I removed the letter from her pillow, an empty birth control container fell to the floor. I sat down on the bed and opened the letter.

Joe,

When you receive this letter I will have moved everything out of the house. You also know that I have filed for divorce. I gave you 5 years of my life and all you have done is continually screwed me over. You tried to push me to become something that I didn't want to be, a Burg housewife, a stay at home wife, etc. You even tried to push me into being a mother before I was ready. You tried to take away my choice in the matter when you started replacing my birth control pills with candy. I caught on very quickly and have been getting depo shots every three months.

It's amazing what type of information you can find out when you really start digging. Like the fact that even though I didn't realize it, we have an open marriage. Or let me rephrase that, you have had an open marriage while I have been faithful for the past 5 years.

Do not make this difficult on any of us, just sign the paperwork, let us get a divorce or I will make your life a living hell. I will make you out to be a bigger disappointment than your father ever was when I'm finished with you. Also, next time you go in for a check-up you might want to have the doctor give you a prescription for some antibiotics, because it turns out that when I got my labs run guess what…..I had an STD! You really don't want all of this spread around the Burg, and you damn sure don't want Terri's family to find out that you gave her an STD. I will give you 72 hours to sign the paperwork and file it with the courthouse, otherwise I will be making sure everyone in the town of Trenton knows what you have been up to lately. Is what you really want?

Stephanie

Oh fuck! What do I do now?