Just Unload

Just Unload

Copyright © 2026 Literary Ranger

Veronica came home from work smiling. She had been like this for almost a month. Ever since Don Singletary had started working at her law firm, she came home smiling. I was about to be subjected to another evening of "Don did this, and Don did that, and isn't Don just fucking amazing." And I had enough. I had tried to talk to her, but that only led to dismissal and gaslighting. I began to think about trying out for Ingrid Bergman's part in the local playhouse production of 'Gaslight'. Why not a little role reversal in the classic movie/play.

"Hey, how are you, honey? What's for dinner?" Veronica asked. I guess she was expecting me to weather her emotional affair with another man and still cook for her at night. Fat chance, I was done.

"I hadn't planned anything. I was thinking about going out to eat," I commented without emotion. The abruptness of my words let her know she wasn't going to be invited.

"Oh," she replied without further comment. She watched me as I cleaned the kitchen of the debris we had left from breakfast earlier that day.

"What's wrong, Rick?" She finally asked. She hadn't asked as my wife. She asked like she was interviewing a client who was involved in an accident, and her firm was trying to decide if it was worth their time to represent them. Basically, is your pain and suffering going to benefit me financially? That is how little she appeared to be invested in this conversation about my emotional well-being. She had poured herself a glass of wine and gotten comfortable, like she was going to watch a floor show.

Attorney Veronica Palance was about to get a hostile witness she was unprepared to question.

I looked her dead in the eyes for a moment before answering.

"What's wrong?" I repeated her question back to her and smiled. I know my smile was not kind. It wasn't meant to be. I wasn't feeling particularly kind at the moment.

"Do you really want to know what's bothering me?" I asked. I'm sure she wasn't prepared for the question at all.

"Uh, yeah, I'd like to know," she said apprehensively.

I took a deep breath.

"No, Veronica. I'm not fine. I have a wife who is having an emotional affair with a coworker," I started.

She tried to interrupt.

"Shut the fuck up! I've had to put up with Don's so great, Don's so awesome! Don's just the most wonderful man on the planet. For almost a fucking month now," I started loudly, not quite yelling. "You obviously have an emotional attachment to the man and are probably fucking him, so if you want to know what my problem is, it's that my wife is in love with another man and is probably fucking him."

Veronica looked at me, speechless. I think she was a bit in shock from my tirade.

"It's not what you think," she said after taking a sip of wine.

I started laughing.

"That's just pathetic. Couldn't even come up with something original. You know, based on your lame response, you should just go ahead and fuck Don if you aren't already. Pack a bag, give him a call, and just go fuck him. I don't care," I said. In listening to her, I had concluded that if she wasn't already fucking Don, she was at least thinking about it, and I really didn't care anymore. She had already moved on emotionally from our marriage, so there was no reason for me to stay.

I'm the kind of man who doesn't put up with bullshit like this at all. Veronica may be a lawyer, but I built my own business from nothing. The house we lived in, I designed and had my company build to the highest standards in the housing industry. It was a showcase home often featured in local media. We lived very well because of my wealth, not hers. I started with nothing. I came from nothing. I could start all over again, and I sure as shit didn't need her.

"You want me to leave?" Veronica asked. She sounded emotional, but she was not tearing up. It sounded more like she was just confirming my request.

"Why would I want you to stay? All you've done since Don started working at your firm is tell me how great he is. Obviously, you've developed an emotional attachment to him, so you don't give a shit about being my wife anymore, so, yeah, get the fuck out," I explained.

"Why are you acting like this?" She asked, a little more emotion in her voice.

"Uh, seriously? How would you act if I came home talking about a woman I worked with nonstop all evening, every day after you got home from work, for a month? Imagine I got a new secretary who looked like Sophia Vergara and talked about her all day, every day, and pretty much ignored you. Any time you voiced a concern about her or how I was reacting, I just blew it off and didn't care how you felt about me going on and on about my hot new secretary. How would you react?" I asked. I didn't expect an honest answer.

"Jesus," she exclaimed, rubbing her face. Not sure if the gravity of the situation had hit her, or she was just exasperated with how I was acting.

"Yeah, pack a bag. Go fuck Don. Move on with your life. I'll send you divorce papers," I stated.

Hey, she had asked what was wrong.

"You're not even going to try to work on our relationship?" Veronica asked after a moment.

"What relationship? You checked out of it almost a month ago," I reasoned.

"Jesus, Rick, Don is just a friend," she began to explain.

"Well, okay, friend with benefits then. Go, fuck, him. I don't care. You have obviously created an emotional attachment to him. You don't care about our marriage. I'm telling you, go ahead and fuck him. I, don't, care. Just move out before you do," I was pretty emphatic as I spoke.

Veronica sat there at the table, blinking at me. I think she was in some kind of shock, or her brain just could not understand what was happening.

"Why didn't you talk to me?" Veronica asked.

"Oh, fuck me," I said, rubbing my face. "You have been gaslighting me about Don the entire time. I asked you numerous times, and you just kept saying he was just a work friend, a new guy at work, a new guy who's really good at his job. Fuck, you blew so much smoke up my ass this last month, I am surprised I didn't pop!" I said, tossing my hands in the air.

"Please, Rick, I promise I will tone it down," Veronica begged.

"No, fuck you. I'm not dealing with your disrespect anymore. You just leave, and you can go fuck Don to your heart's content." I stated.

"Why won't you work on this?" She pleaded.

"I did, you dumb bitch. I have been trying for the last month. It's only when I give you a fucking attitude that you notice something is wrong, and you finally ask why your husband is pissed. Can you remember the last time you kissed me? The last time we had sex?" I asked.

"I kiss you all the time. And we had sex last week," she countered.

"You may have had sex last week, but I haven't had sex with you in over three weeks. I think you would have felt you were cheating on Don if you did have sex with me, and the emotional stress was too much for you," I argued.

"Oh god," Veronica said, turning away. The realization that the reasoning behind my argument may be correct must have really hit her.

"Yeah, you haven't kissed me on the lips in almost a month. I don't want to know if you have kissed Don," I continued. "Still want to continue with the argument that it isn't what I think?" I asked.

"You don't have any proof," she countered after a moment.

"So you admit that something occurred," I snapped back.

The look of shock on her face confirmed my suspicions.

"Not what you think!" She blurted out.

"Again, I really don't care. Just leave so I can get on with my life," I restated.

"Why are you giving up?" Veronica whined.

"Why are you trying to stay when you obviously are infatuated with this other man? You don't want to be here. You have been going on and on about this guy for almost a month now. You have obviously done something that doesn't pass the husband test and would count as evidence in a divorce, so just pack a bag and leave. I will be more than fair in the divorce," I announced.

"Husband test?" She asked.

"You did something with him that you would not be willing to do in front of your husband. The husband test," I explained.

"Oh," she commented and remained quiet as she thought.

I was getting hungry and annoyed that this was taking so long. She wasn't acting like she had fucked Don, yet. But she probably had a few heavy make-out sessions with him and probably some acts of mutual masturbation. Maybe gave him a blowjob. Cheating, as far as I was concerned, but not from a legal aspect, and irrelevant in our no-fault divorce State.

"Hey, I'm going to go out to eat. I would appreciate it if you would move out. Find yourself an apartment or condo to move into. I will buy you out of the house because I want to keep it for my business, so it only seems fair. I'm just really sick of being around you and don't want to live with you anymore," I explained.

"Really?" She asked. Veronica was looking at me with a pouty face, letting me know I had hurt her feelings, but I really didn't care.

"Gee, Veronica, the woman I loved has spent the last month talking nonstop about how great some other asshole she works with is. Easy to fall out of love with a person like that," I announced.

"You don't love me anymore?" She asked. Her look of shock surprised me.

"Why would I? You obviously don't love me anymore. You haven't for some time. Your complete lack of respect for me and my feelings showed me weeks ago that you no longer loved me, so I had to protect myself emotionally. Your continued disregard for my concerns over the past few weeks only confirmed the fact that you didn't love me anymore, and I continued to withdraw emotionally. You just finally noticed this evening," I explained.

"You know I will kill you in a divorce. My firm is one of the best in the State," Veronica threatened.

"They aren't going to represent you," I countered.

"Why not?" She asked.

"I talked to Bert last week about your relationship with Don, and he said if feathers started to fly, the firm would have nothing to do with it. He said to do things quietly because if it exposes the firm, both you and Don will lose your jobs," I explained.

"You went to one of the Senior Partners about our marriage issues?" Veronica yelled her question at me.

"Well, it made sense because you are fucking one of the other lawyers at the firm," I said, shrugging. I don't think she appreciated my smirk.

"We're not fucking!" She yelled.

"Not what he said," I commented.

"What?" She exclaimed in indignation.

"Yeah, he was pretty sure you two were fucking, from what I gathered. He said that is what the rumors around the office are saying," I explained.

"Rick, we're not fucking. We kissed a few times, and he touched me through my clothes, but nothing more. I promise," Veronica pleaded.

"Again, I don't care. Look, I'm leaving to get something to eat. I would appreciate it if you were gone when I get back because I am sick of living with you," I stated. I grabbed my coat off the rack by the door and headed out.

"Rick, I really do love you," she yelled after me.

"Actions speak louder than words," I yelled back.

We have this great little bar not too far from my house, just as you get into town. It has the best hamburgers. You know, the greasy ones that are cooked on a grill, with a toasted bun. The other amazing thing about the bar is that they have four different types of fries available. Steak fries, crisp fries, spicy curly fries, and battered fries. You could make a meal out of the fries.

This place's burgers had become a comfort food for me, and boy, did I need it.

I was apprehensive on the drive home because I was afraid Veronica was going to be there, which she was, but she was kind enough to have moved herself into one of the guest rooms.

Veronica avoided me for two days until I had her served with divorce papers at her work.

"You're not even going to try?" She asked when she entered the house that evening, holding the divorce papers.

"Did you try? Did you try when you realized you were starting to have feelings for Don? Did you try when you started fantasizing about fucking Don? Did you try when you were trying to figure out how you could lie to me, fuck Don, and still remain married to me? Did you try when I asked you if you weren't spending too much time with Don? Did you try when..."

"Alright, alright, alright," she interrupted me, waving her arms in surrender.

"I can keep going, I have a whole bunch more," I offered.

"No, you've made your point," she said, looking at the divorce papers in her hand.

"You're really done?" Veronica asked after a moment.

"Yeah, told you that a few days ago, when I asked you to move out," I reminded her.

"Uh, yeah. You know we got pulled off the Jaaffer Merger," she said.

"Jaaffer Merger? And who's we?" I asked. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Yesterday, Don and I got called into one of the other partners' offices and told to stay away from each other during work hours because rumors about us were getting out of hand. We had been working on the Jaaffer Merger for a while and were going to get a pretty big bonus when it was done, but now we're not because we got removed, thanks to you," she complained.

"Well, that's what happens with affairs. There's always collateral damage," I reasoned.

"It wasn't an affair," she protested.

"Oh, then what was it? I'm dying to hear your explanation of your relationship with Don," I said sarcastically.

Veronica was quiet for a long time.

"Fuck you," she muttered as she walked away towards the guest room where she had been staying.

I was surprised to find her copy of the divorce papers on the kitchen table the next morning, signed. Of course, they would have to be signed in front of a notary later, but hell yeah!

I leafed through them, and she hadn't made any notes or changes. I was surprised that she was going to keep my last name.

Two days later, Friday, I came home to find Veronica sitting at the kitchen table crying. I didn't want to ask because I really didn't care, but she was another human being in distress.

"Veronica, what's wrong?" I asked, remembering that her asking me this same question had been the beginning of the end of our relationship on Monday.

"Jesus, Rick, I can't believe it. Don was a spy for the other side in the Jaaffer Merger. It all came out earlier. He was working for the Harrisburg Corporation and feeding them information as we were working through the vulnerabilities and legal wranglings that go into any merger. We were wondering why things were progressing so slowly with Harrisburg and how they seemed to keep asking questions at the most inopportune times, but it never occurred to anyone that they had a spy in our office." Veronica stopped talking and just stared out the window.

"How did they catch him?" I asked the obvious question.

"He, uh, he, tried to get back on the merger team yesterday. Like was arguing with one of the partners about it. It struck Hugh, the partner he was arguing with, as odd. So, he has our investigator pull Don's phone records off his work phone and his computer email history from his work computer. This morning, the investigator showed Hugh what he found, and it was Don sending Harrisburg everything on the merger and calling them numerous times every day with information." Veronica's hand was shaking as she took a drink of wine. "They called him into the office and started questioning him. The evidence was overwhelming, and there was stuff about me in there, Rick," she cried. "His whole thing with me was just to distract me because I was the lead on the merger. He didn't give a shit about me. He just wanted me all flustered so he could steal information about our side of the merger. I'm such a fucking idiot," she exclaimed. She dropped her head into her arms on the table and began to sob.

Veronica had been honey-trapped by a corporate spy.

"I'm sorry you got caught up in that, but it doesn't change anything," I commented.

Veronica looked at me in shock.

"Why not? It was all fake," she argued.

"But your actions and reactions to it were real. We're getting a divorce, and I wish you would hurry up and move out," I stated. I left the kitchen.

Veronica was gone the next day.

That Saturday and Sunday, I started wandering around the house, thinking about how I was going to redo the interior.

Sunday evening, Veronica called to coordinate movers to get her stuff. There were a few pieces of furniture she wanted that I let her have, along with the bed out of the guest room she had been using.

I heard that the Jaaffer Merger collapsed when Veronica's firm advised Jaaffer to withdraw because Harrisburg had been acting in bad faith. Harrisburg Stocks began to plummet as word that the merger was not going through became public knowledge. I knew Harrisburg had lots of physical assets but little working capital, so I grabbed a bunch of their floundering stocks myself. Mr. Jaaffer and company saw an opportunity, and the merger became a hostile takeover because the volume of available stock was too great for Harrisburg and their confederates to maintain a majority interest in the company.

I was happy for Veronica because she did end up with her day in the sun when she walked into the boardroom at Harrisburg Corporation as a member of the acquisition team. I smiled at her when she walked past me. I had managed to secure almost 5% of the stock in Harrisburg by leveraging almost all the properties I controlled.

Veronica broke stride with the other lawyers when she saw me. Shocked to see me doesn't even come close to describing her expression. Her jaw would have hit the floor if it wasn't attached to her face.

After only a quick pause, she caught up and was soon seated with the other lawyers from her firm.

The partners from her firm saw me, smiled, and nodded. They did a good job of hiding the fact that they had no idea why I was there.

Don Singletary was there. I assume acting as legal counsel for Harrisburg. His days as a lawyer were numbered because he had misrepresented himself during the merger, acting in bad faith with Veronica's firm, falsifying employment records, and corporate espionage. Losing his license to practice law was actually the least of his worries as Veronica's firm was pressing criminal charges. All that and he was about to be fired.

Any day I'm party to making lawyers sad is a good day.

The board meeting went quickly. Jaaffer had a controlling interest with the proxies and my added shares.

The partners nodded their understanding when my contribution to the vote was announced, and Mr. Jaaffer acknowledged my presence.

Mr. Harrisburg was removed as CEO. The company voted to become a subsidiary of Jaaffer Enterprises and cease to function as Harrisburg Corporation.

Mr. Harrisburg had had enough at this point and left the boardroom.

Mr. Jaaffer asked if I wanted to sit on the board after the meeting. Apparently, the partners had told Mr. Jaaffer how I had contributed to the current situation, and he thought an appointment to the board of directors was a just reward. I laughed when I shook his hand in agreement with his offer.

"I do have to tell you, I have no idea what this appointment entails," I admitted.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of you," he assured me. He walked off to receive the congratulations of others.

Veronica waited until everyone had left to talk to me.

"Hey, Rick," she said, trying to sound casual.

"That's Director Palance to you," I said, laughing. "I see you're back on the winning team," I commented, referring to her being part of the acquisitions team.

"Oh, yeah, I'll get my bonus, but at a reduced rate for being an idiot," she admitted.