And just to add insult to injury, my efforts to divorce Ginny were going nowhere. I’d planned to file using “irreconcilable differences,” but my attorney informed me that Maryland wasn’t a “no fault” state. “Adultery, desertion, conviction of certain crimes, insanity, cruelty, and vicious conduct – those are the grounds for divorce in Maryland,” he said.
How frustrating! I had legal grounds to divorce Ginny, but I couldn’t prove adultery without bringing up classified information, and that would get me into a world of hurt. “Isn’t there any way to get divorced without having to go through all that?” I asked.
“Actually, you can get a no-fault divorce in Maryland. But to do that you two have to have been living separately for at least a year,” he told me blithely. “In the meantime you can file for a ‘limited divorce,’ which gets you into the queue for an absolute divorce after a year’s separation.”
So that’s what I did, but it galled me no end to have to wait so long to be free of her. I also wasn’t happy about having to pay Ginny temporary spousal support. After what she’d done it didn’t seem fair, but my hands were tied.
As winter turned into spring, my mood did not improve; if anything, it worsened. I found myself increasingly isolated, both at work and at home. My job no longer provided any satisfaction. The one really good thing I’d accomplished had become a secret that nobody could talk about. It quickly became apparent that management was down on me, and my co-workers began avoiding me.
Outside the office it was a similar situation, but for different reasons. All the friends we’d cultivated were couples who were used to socializing in pairs. I was the odd man out. And since no one really knew the story about why Ginny and I had broken up, I think a lot of them thought it was my fault.
The end result was that I spent a lot of time brooding about my life. It seemed to me that every time I had tried to do the right thing I had been punished. I had tried to protect Ginny and take care of her. I didn’t expect her to worship me for that, but a little marital fidelity would have been nice. Likewise I hadn’t wanted to be thrown into the middle of a terrorist plot, but when it happened I thought I had responded pretty well. I didn’t want the Medal of Honor, but some acknowledgement would have been appreciated.
Increasingly I began to feel that I had been used. Ginny had certainly done so. All she’d wanted from me was to support her while she got her laser treatments. Well, maybe that was a bit exaggerated – I guess she really had loved me at one time. But that sure did evaporate fast when her birthmark was gone and other men started to notice her. The same thing was true about my work. After humiliating me with the news that Ginny was cheating, my boss had proceeded to use me as bait for terrorists. And now he was the one getting rewarded.
For that matter, hadn’t Esther used me as well? All she really wanted was for me to try to solve the Al Andalus puzzle. When she got what she needed, she jumped on a plane and flew home before I could even say goodbye. I’d never heard a word from her since.
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