My Third Marriage ~ Part Two

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So you've read up to the phone call. I could not believe my ears. He and his one brother were laughing with this old friend of his. His friend asked how the wager between them was going -- who's winning? What? It seems that our marriage had been a complete farce. He had made a wager with his brother as to how the makeover would come out. Could he make it happen? Turn the dull attractive woman into a show piece. They were enjoying a laugh and getting such a kick out of the fact that RK had only married me on a lark. It had all been one big joke. I put the phone back in the cradle and went for a long walk. Deep breaths, anger, hurt feelings, disbelief. But when I came back from that walk, I had resigned myself to the situation and had made a plan. I put on a fake smile and swore to myself not to let him know that I knew. I told my daughter what the plan was. I paid off my bills and got myself into as best a financial situation as I could. I didn't think I owed him much and decided I would take the car, and he could have the house. (He had an old car) I went to another part of town and found us a small, cheap place to live and started moving our things careful not to take things right away that he would notice. When we were ready my daughter and I left. I left him a note mapping out what was happening, what I took and what I left for him. I think this was so easy because looking back I think he was seeing someone else and had been for a while. Months went by. I visited his parents and was friendly with his oldest sister. He found out and gave them an ultimatum. If they continued to see me, he would disown them. I didn't want to make trouble for them, so I quit going to visit them. His dad met me a couple of times for lunch to catch up. RK tried to get friends to stop seeing me too and started rumors and told a lot of lies. But with time the friends who stood by me I felt were really my friends, the others weren't. I never saw him again.