There was a knock at the door. Marsha had just awakened from a bad dream and could not picture who was visiting her so early in the morning.
At first, she thought it was her husband, but he would have his keys and was not due back from his trip for at least another month. She went to the door; it was the mail carrier. He handed her a certified package that required her signature.
When she opened the envelope, a petition for the dissolution of marriage was enclosed.
She knew the marriage was on shaky grounds but never imagined it would end like this, in such a cold and an impersonal manner. She wondered how Ted, her husband of five years, could have ended their marriage in such a sneaky way.
The ideal wife is how Marsha saw herself, the one who always stood by her husband no matter how bad things got. She supported him financially and emotionally, helped him finance a couple of business ventures and took care of his sisters who gave an entirely new meaning to the word moochers. She had put her needs on hold to help her husband fulfill his, and for all of her sacrifices, this is how he repaid her.
But if she thought getting those divorce papers was a slap in the face, she was about to be blindsided by events that would place her into financial ruins and leave her parents, friends, and neighbors saying, "We saw it coming."
Marsha met Ted at a singles' dance. She was 24; he was 28. It was definitely love at first sight on her part, but it was never quite clear if he had those same feelings.
She had just graduated from college with a Degree in Accounting. Her goal was to work in her father's firm for a couple of years and then take the New York State Licensing Exam to become a Certified Public Accountant. Those plans never materialized once she got involved with Ted.
Three months later, they eloped to Delaware and tied the knot; it would be several more months before anyone knew they were husband and wife.
Those who knew Ted were wondering how he landed such a classy woman and were starting to question Marsha's state of mind when she married him. After all, she came from a well-to-do family.
Her father had started his own advertising business five years before she was born, and her mother was the publisher and editor of a popular weekly society newspaper.
Marsha went to the finest schools that money could buy. She maintained an A average throughout high school and college and was valedictorian at her college commencement. She and her parents lived in a picturesque mansion in the Stuyvesant Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. Marsha was a beautiful and refined young woman. She was tall, had the air of a monarch and wore designer clothes.