Suddenly awakened by a worrisome nightmare, he jumps out of bed. “This cannot be possible,” he mutters, as his stomach rumbles with the thought of his beautiful wife having an extra marital affair. His forty-nine-year-old hands trembled as cold sweat poured down his chest soaking his plaid pajamas. He has only managed to catch two hours of sleep after a long, late-night meeting with a few quirky Chinese investors in Beijing. Sickened by this daunting dream, he drags his feet on the marble floor in his hotel room and staggers to the bathroom—props his elbow on the sink—and weeps uncontrollably. His two-year-old marriage has been mired with rumors about his wife’s promiscuity. Last summer, he almost buried a bullet in her head when he caught her in bed with a man in their downtown Connecticut home. But he had immediately thought through the repercussions: a death sentence, or a lifetime of dodging blows and sex-starved prisoners.
His flight did not leave for Connecticut until 1 p.m. the next day. At least, that gave him ample time to rehearse his confrontation, maybe a divorce speech. As an astute businessman, you go where the money is—even if it means pursing highly lucrative business deals across the Atlantic and leaving your wife behind to warm the beds of random men.
Touchdown did not happen until 14 hours later. The chandelier in the dining room peered through the window of his home. A gentle squeeze on the doorknob was all it took to enter the house. His wife was probably upstairs—in the room where they both shared as couples. “But why did she leave the door unlocked?” he thought, as he makes his way through the lavishly furnished living room and unto the staircase. As he approaches the bedroom where he presumed his wife might be, he heard intermittent sounds of what seemed like a chatter between two people. Puzzled, he quickly pushes the door open and fell on the floor in his picturesque bedroom. His jet-lagged eyes did not close for the rest of that morning. When the doctors said he was lucky to be alive, he could not help but wonder why his beloved wife shot him and fled with a stranger, leaving him to die in the pool of his own blood. Rumor has it that she married him for his money. She had once hinted on leaving him if things went the other way financially.