Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to screw married women during work hours. You're destroying our careers over a personal matter. Personal matter? Chris, you made it a professional matter when you started using company time to conduct your affair. You made it my business when you started doing it in my house.
Lydia's devastated. Good. She should be devastated. She should be ashamed and humiliated and sorry for what she's done. We never meant for this to happen.
Bees, you meant for every bit of it to happen. You just didn't mean to get caught. He hung up on me. An hour later, Lydia called. Dave, please.
You have to call Patricia Walsh and tell her you made a mistake. I didn't make a mistake. You did. They're going to fire us both. Is that what you want?
For me to lose my job? Lydia, I don't care what happens to your job. I don't care what happens to Chris's job. I care about the fact that you destroyed our marriage and humiliated our daughter. I'll do anything.
I'll go to counseling. I'll cut off all contact with Chris. I'll It's too late. It's not too late. We can fix this.
No, we can't. And even if we could, I wouldn't want to. You showed me who you really are, Lydia. You're not the woman I married. You're not the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
She was crying now. Please, Dave. I love you. No, you don't. If you loved me, you wouldn't have done this.
I hung up and turned off my phone. That evening, Maya called me from her grandparents house. Dad, mom came over here crying and begging Grandma and Grandpa to talk to you. What did they say? Grandpa told her she made her bed and now she has to lie in it.
Grandma wouldn't even let her in the house. How are you doing, sweetheart? I'm angry. I'm sad, but I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself. Thanks, kiddo.
That means a lot. Dad, are you going to be okay? Yeah, Maya. I'm going to be fine. We both are.
Two days later, Jim Patterson called with an update. Dave, I've got good news and bad news. Give me the bad news first. Lydia's hired a lawyer. She's going to fight the divorce.
And the good news, her lawyer is an idiot. He's trying to claim that your security cameras were installed illegally and that the footage is inadmissible. Is he right? Not even close. You have every right to install security cameras in your own home.
The footage is absolutely admissible and it's damning. What about the work situation? I heard through the grapevine that both Lydia and Chris were terminated yesterday for violating company policy. I felt a surge of satisfaction. Really?
Really? Apparently, your video presentation was very thorough. Their company has a strict policy against fraternization between employees and conducting personal relationships during work hours is grounds for immediate termination. So, they're both unemployed. Both unemployed.
Both facing a messy divorce proceeding and both dealing with the social consequences of their actions. Good. The final piece of my revenge came together the following weekend. Eddie called me Saturday morning. Dave, you need to get down to the bar now.
Why? What's happening? Chris is here. He's drunk out of his mind and running his mouth about you. I was there in 10 minutes.
Chris was at the bar, three sheets to the wind, telling anyone who would listen that I was a psychotic control freak who had ruined his life over nothing. "Nothing?" I said, walking up behind him. "You call 6 months of screwing my wife nothing?" He turned around, swaying slightly. Dave, there's the man of the hour. Chris, you're drunk.
Go home. I don't have a home anymore. Thanks to you, I can't afford my apartment. Thanks to you, I don't have a job. Thanks to you, my girlfriend left me.
Thanks to me, Chris. I didn't make you cheat. I didn't make you lie. I didn't make you destroy two families. That was all you.
You set us up. You knew we were coming over that night. I knew because you've been coming over for 6 months. I knew because you're both terrible liars. The bar had gone quiet.
Everyone was watching our confrontation. You want to know the truth? Chris said loudly. Your wife came to me. She said you were boring in bed, boring in life, boring in every way that matters.
That was it. I grabbed Chris by his shirt and slammed him against the bar. You want to talk about boring? Let's talk about how you're a 34 year old man who peaked in high school. Let's talk about how you have to seduce married women because no single woman will put up with your BS for more than a month.
Get your hands off me. Let's talk about how you're unemployed, homeless, and universally despised by everyone who knows what you did. I released him and stepped back. You're pathetic, Chris. You were pathetic when you were sneaking around with my wife, and you're pathetic now.
He took a swing at me. I ducked easily and watched him stumble past me, crashing into a table. Eddie, call him a cab, I said. He's done here. As Chris was dragged out of the bar, still mumbling threats and insults, I realized that my revenge was complete.
Lydia had lost her job, her family, her reputation, and her future. Chris had lost everything, too. Their affair had cost them more than they could have possibly imagined. I walked out of Murphy's Tavern into the cool night air, feeling lighter than I had in months. Tomorrow, I would start rebuilding my life.
Tonight, I was finally free. Maya moved back home the following week. We ordered pizza and watched movies, just the two of us, like we used to when she was little. "Dad," she said during a commercial break.
"Yeah, I'm glad you fought back. I'm glad you didn't just let them get away with it." "Me, too, kiddo. Me, too." 6 months later, the divorce was final. I got the house, majority custody of Maya, and most of our assets.
Lydia got a small settlement and weekend visitation rights. She moved to another state with what was left of her savings. Chris moved back in with his parents. I kept the security cameras.