TITLE    : Destroyed
STORYID  : destroyed-3
SUMMARY  : He destroyed the man who stole his family.
AUTHOR   : AnAverageGuy61@lit
DATE     : 2023-07-24
CATEGORY : loving-wives
FLAGS    : 
TAGS     : |cheating|lover|husband|wife|revenge|


<strong><u>Destroyed</u></strong>

British English language and spelling. In some stories the legal process will be different to what readers from the USA are used to, over here we have laws that apply nationally, not state by state. Where possible I try to research facts in the hope I can be accurate in what I write.

I write for my enjoyment, and hopefully that of others. I welcome feedback and constructive criticism, hateful or pointless comments will be deleted.

To those of you who favourite my stories or follow me, thank you, it means a lot.

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<em>He set out to destroy the man who stole his wife.</em>

It had been a year from hell for me for several reasons, I was working for my father and being groomed to take over the family construction business when he retired. He never made it to retirement, a massive heart attack killed him at the beginning of the year, it wasn't long after that I found out my wife of six years was leaving me.

I remember the call from my mother like it was yesterday, she said my father had suffered a heart attack. I was out visiting a client on business. I raced to the hospital but I was too late, Dad was gone before I got there. After the funeral I went from knowing half of the business and leaving the major decisions to my father, to running the place and learning the finer details as I went along.

My home life suffered as I had to be at the office or on the road seeing clients and suppliers, my wife Angela got lonely and I understood this and tried to make her understand it would only be for a few months more. That wasn't good enough for my wife. Angela decided to fill the void in her life, and the void between her legs with Steven Collins.

When she told me she was leaving me, it hit me like a sucker punch. I sat there and stared at her.

"Why? I know it's been tough, but why?" I asked.

"You were never here. I bumped into Steven and we got talking. I'm sorry Dave, but he was here and you weren't, I fell in love with him. I'm really sorry." Angela stood and walked towards the door. "I'll come back when you have packed and left." I watched the woman I loved walk out of my life. Angela was good looking, tall slim with long shiny brown hair.

I sat and thought about the bombshell Angela dropped on me, I noticed the divorce papers on the table. She wanted the house and custody of our daughter, Milly. Thirty percent of our savings and child support. I packed my clothes and personal stuff and left, I spent the weekend in a hotel.

The following week I sorted out somewhere permanent to stay, i rented a small 3 bedroomed house in a quiet street. I didn't tell anyone at work what had happened, they would find out eventually. I wasn't in the mood to discuss it with anyone.

Collins owned a chain of builder's merchants and was our biggest supplier. I don't know who initiated the affair between them, to be honest I didn't care. I had no worries about the company as we had cast iron prenup. My father insisted it was signed as he didn't want me to lose the business, should Angela and I ever get divorced. At the time she signed and we both thought we would be together until the day we died.

My only concern was my daughter Milly, I didn't want to hurt her with the divorce. Angela had the house and she got child support as well, there was spousal support but that would stop if she ever married again. One year after the divorce she married Steven Collins, they moved in together in the house I let her have.

Angela got custody of Milly and I used to see her for two weekends every month, after a while the weekends drifted off to whenever it was convenient for them rather than me. I tried calling but there was always an excuse for me not having Milly at the weekend, she had this activity or we are going away this weekend. Eventually I said I would have Milly when they decided it was okay and I wouldn't pester them anymore. I hadn't realised at the time that Angela had driven a wedge between me and my daughter. What really pissed me off was I kept hearing how Collins was bragging about his family and belittling me at the same time.

Angela's behaviour and not seeing my daughter was hard enough and always on my mind, it was when I realised that her shithead husband was putting me down I felt nothing but hatred for them. That weekend I was due to have Milly and I was looking forward to it. Sometime on Saturday morning she asked me a question and referred to me as Uncle Dave. I explained that I wasn't her uncle but her daddy.

"But Steven is my Daddy, Mummy said you were my uncle." That really pissed me off.

I didn't say anything to Angela when she collected Milly on Sunday, I felt like it was too much to get involved in a screaming match with her in front of Milly. The next time we were alone i would mention it.

It was after a bad day at the office I snapped and realised I had been too soft for too long, I formed a plan of revenge to be put into effect starting tomorrow.

I spent a lot of time that week calling existing and new suppliers, I guaranteed them a lot more business if they in return would guarantee a favourable price. Most agreed as they wanted the increase in business. I called a meeting of the senior managers and the heads of purchasing and accounts departments.

When I entered the room I could see the worried looks on their faces. "Gentlemen, first and foremost the company is not in trouble, this is not a meeting to discuss laying people off." After that they visibly relaxed. "I know the company has a lot of projects ongoing at the moment, what I need to know is how many of them still require building materials."

Don Foster, the head of purchasing was the first to comment. "I have requests from two site managers to place large orders this week."

I slid a sheet of paper across to Don. "This is a revised list of our suppliers, I want to make sure all business goes through them from now on."

Don looked at the sheet. "I don't see Collins Construction Supplies on here Dave?"

"No you don't, and you never will. From this moment forward Harrington Construction no longer does any business with CCS. I mean that, not one order goes to them. If someone so much as buys a single nail or screw from them, they will be fired immediately. Next to the names on the list you will see what those companies can offer us, we can use them all for whatever we want. They have all guaranteed a favourable price and delivery that suits us, we spent the rest of the meeting discussing business in general.

Two weeks after that meeting the company won a contract to build a large number of houses along with some retail outlets close by. The amount of materials needed for this project would be substantial, CCS wasn't going to get a single order out of it. Word soon got around about the company winning the contract, within days I had a visit from a salesman from CCS. He said they could offer us all the materials we needed, at a very good price. I stopped him mid pitch and said that we no longer dealt with CCS as a supplier. He looked visibly shocked as he left my office. I had a smile on my face which didn't go unnoticed by Sandra, my secretary.

"I can see you enjoyed that," she said smiling. "I knew why when you said the other day we were not dealing with CCS in future."

Things were looking good as our new suppliers were keeping their promises, smaller projects came our way throughout the year. I was asked to submit a bid to build a new company headquarters building for a growing tech company, our bid was successful. The only low point of the year was when my mother passed away, her health had been getting worse. The divorce and not seeing so much of Milly didn't help and I know she really missed my father. Angela knew about Mum, she didn't even bother to ask if she could attend the funeral, she never showed up.

Several of our competitors and smaller companies we used on a subcontract basis learned of my decision not to deal with CCS, when asked why I just gave an honest reply.

"The owner stole my family from me so I took my business from him. I know it sounds petty but it's the one way I can get back at him, without going to prison."

It wasn't long before one of my managers asked to see me.

"What's on your mind Bill?"

"I just thought you might like to know that several of our smaller competitors and sub-contractors have stopped dealing with CCS. As you know I am a freemason. At our last lodge meeting I found out that both Baxters and Charlesworth Construction are no longer getting materials from them. It seems the word has gotten around. You might not know this Dave, but a lot of people have a great deal of respect for you. Partly because of your personality and the honest way you do business."

"Thanks Bill. It's nice to know that people think I am a decent guy. As for the way I do business, that's the image my father worked hard to create, and I will do my best to keep it up."

Although business was going well I hadn't seen my daughter for some time, I resolved to give Angela a call later from home and see if I could have Milly for the weekend. I had only been indoors for a few minutes when the doorbell rang, I opened the door and Angela stormed into my house.

"Good evening Angela, please come in, why don't you!" I greeted her sarcastically.

"Don't you give me that fucking smug look Dave, what the hell are you playing at?"

"What the hell are you talking about Angela? We haven't spoken in ages and now you burst in here and start accusing me of god knows what."

"You know what I am talking about!" She screamed. "You are trying to ruin Steven's business! It's bad enough that you won't deal with him anymore, but to bad mouth him to all the other companies is downright fucking nasty."

I knew Angela was seriously pissed off as she had sworn at me twice in less than two minutes.

"I didn't tell anyone anything Angela. Most people know what happened between you, me and Steven. If they have taken their business elsewhere, it has nothing to do with me. Now if you have nothing else to say please leave, I haven't eaten yet and I'm hungry." I slammed the door behind her and smiled to myself. It was nice knowing Collins was feeling the pinch.

I called Angela after I had eaten and asked if I could have Milly for the weekend. She was still angry and hesitated before finally agreeing to drop her off on Saturday morning.

Milly and I spent the day at the zoo, we stopped for hamburgers on the way home. I asked her how she was doing at school.

"It's good daddy, my teacher says I am doing really well. Mummy wanted me to go to another school but I didn't go. I'm glad as all of my friends are at school with me." We watched a movie later at home and Milly went off to bed just after 9pm. I thought about what she had said about going to a different school. When I took Milly home on Sunday Angela asked if she could have a quick word with me, Steven stayed out of the way and Milly went up to her room.

"Look Dave, this isn't easy for me to say. Is there any way you can put some business Steven's way? We wanted Milly to go to a private school for girls, but with the downturn in business we can't afford the fees."

"I'm sorry Angela but we have placed orders for all our current projects, at this time there is nothing new on the horizon." I replied knowing it was a pack of lies. "Besides, Milly seems happy where she is with all of her friends, I got the impression she didn't want to go to a different school."

My short drive home was a happy one, I knew CCS was struggling to stay afloat and without an increase in business would go under very soon. Collins had already closed two depots, all he had left was his main yard with the head office building. When I told Angela we had no new business I struggled to keep a straight face, right now we have more work than ever, I felt good knowing she and Steve were struggling. My only concern was Milly, she was the innocent one in the middle of this mess.

It was a few months later when Don Foster informed me that CCS had ceased trading and filed for bankruptcy, with the school holidays coming up I took the chance to spend time with Milly. Angela seemed relieved to have her off her hands for a few weeks, I took a holiday for the first time in years.

Milly and I spent two weeks in Florida, we visited Disney World and loads of other attractions. I was exhausted but happy at the end of the fortnight. I had no idea what was going on at home, as I had no phone calls, things must have been going smoothly. It was late when we arrived home. Milly went straight to bed, I sorted some things from our cases and went to bed shortly afterwards. We ate breakfast before leaving to go to Angela's house. Angela wasn't in the best of moods, but she listened to Milly ramble on about her holiday and all the places we visited. I casually asked where Steven was?

"I have no idea Dave. He asked me to re-mortgage the house to save his business, when I refused he stormed out and hasn't been back. That was two days ago and I haven't heard a thing from him."

I offered an apology and then left to return home. I had things I needed to do before returning to the office on Monday.

Angela called me midway through Monday morning asking if I could offer her some advice, it appeared with Steven missing some things needed to be attended to for the sale of the business.

I advised that as she wasn't listed as a director and the house wasn't tied to the business she should do nothing. It was Steven's problem not hers. I did offer to have Milly stay with me, if it would help, she declined but thanked me all the same.

I must have had a smile on my face as Sandra commented that I seemed to be enjoying the demise of CCS.

"I am Sandra. I couldn't care less what happens to him and Angela, my concern is for Milly."

Angela did accept my offer of help with Milly and she spent a few weeks with me. I managed to get her to school on time and made sure I collected her as well, one of the advantages of being the boss. I also knew the managers in the office would be okay without me for a few hours each day.

I was relishing spending time with my daughter, Angela was having a tough time with Steven missing. She passed any mail for him to his solicitor leaving him to deal with the problem.

With no income from Steven, Angela had to consider getting a job just to pay the bills. She didn't ask me for employment, I would have turned her down anyway.

EPILOGUE

Steven was never seen again and his business dealings were dealt with by his lawyer. One of the smaller companies I dealt with was looking for somewhere to headquarter their business, they purchased the CCS yard at rock bottom price.

Angela eventually divorced Steven for abandonment. She ended up selling the house and moving into a smaller property, she gave all of Steven's clothes to a homeless charity. Milly liked the new house as she managed to get a bigger bedroom out of the deal. Angela had found work as an admin assistant for a small law firm.

My business grew and I was financially secure for the rest of my life. Angela showed signs of stress and aged very quickly. I suppose dealing with Stevens' business and his disappearance played a part in that. We talk more now than we ever used to, and I get to spend a lot more time with Milly. There is no chance of Angela and I getting back together, I made sure she knew that ship had well and truly sailed. I wasn't dating anyone, although Sandra kept mentioning her niece to me.

I achieved what I set out to do, I destroyed the bastard who took my family from me. I can sleep easy at night, I wonder if Steven Collins can say the same, wherever he may be.

