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damn time.   I was a fool.   I thought our vows meant something.   They did to me, anyway.   But not anymore.”
    He released her so abruptly she almost fell.
    “What does that mean?” she yelled.   “Where are you going?   To see Elaine?”   She spat out the name and Jake clenched his fists.
    Always the same old thing.
    “Maybe,” he said, because he knew it would hurt her.  
    “Fine!”   Nikki yanked off her wedding ring and hurled it at him.  
    Jake didn’t flinch.   It bounced off his chest and skidded across the floor.  
    “You want a divorce, you’ve got it.   But you will never love anyone like you do me, Jake Hawthorne.”
    “Good!” he said, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
    The phone rang, bringing him back to the present.   Jake ignored it.   He grabbed Nikki’s overnight bag and headed out the door.   The real estate brochures still lay in the passenger seat of the BMW, and the sight of them was like a slap.   Some faceless bastard had stolen everything from them because Nikki had let it happen.   On the way to the hospital, Jake’s mood darkened from stormy to fighting mad.
    He opened the door to Nikki’s room, feeling as grim as a man opening the door to the death chamber.   Catherine perched at the end of Nikki’s bed and they were playing checkers.   Both women looked up with a smile when he walked in.   Those smiles faded when they saw the anger on his face.
    “Jake, what’s wrong?”   Catherine looked alarmed.
    “Nothing.”
    That was what he said, but everything was what he felt.  
    He tossed the overnight bag on the floor and sank into the chair furthest from the bed.
    “Jake, I can see that something —”
    “I said nothing’s wrong!” Jake snapped and Catherine fell silent.
    He looked up at Nikki for the first time.   She was staring at him wide-eyed, not with fear, but with sympathy.   That made him even more furious.   She was the last person he wanted sympathy from.
    “I’m going to get a cup of coffee,” he muttered and jumped to his feet.  
    Jerking open the door, he strode down the hall and jabbed the elevator button.   Catherine caught up with him before the doors could open.
    She grabbed his arm and said, “Jake, we need to talk.”
    He gave her an exasperated look.   “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said, but Catherine was not to be deterred.  
    She led him to the waiting room.   With a sigh of resignation, Jake sat in one of the chairs and glared up at the ceiling.   Catherine shut the door behind her.
    “Jake, I want to know what’s wrong.”
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.   “I just found out my wife has been cheating on me for God knows how long with God knows who and you ask me what’s wrong?”
    “Honey, I know that you’re hurting—”
    “It’s crazy,” he interrupted.   “I can’t confront her.   I can’t divorce her.   I can’t even ask her who it was, because she doesn’t know either.”
    “Jake, the girl that’s in that room isn’t the same one who hurt you.   She doesn’t know what she’s done.   Is it fair to punish Nikki for an offense that she doesn’t even remember committing?”
    “ I remember, Mother.   I remember what she did.   Is it fair that I have to look at her and pretend nothing is wrong when I remember everything?”
    Jake paced around the room, his hands balled up into angry fists.   He sat back down and stared at his hands.
    A woman like Nikki wasn’t meant to be married to a man with hands like these.
    His hands were rough and calloused from the work he loved.   Women like Nikki married men with soft hands, lawyers and stockbrokers.   Men like his stepbrother, Eliot or her ex-boyfriend, Derek.
    “I know that you’re in an impossible situation and I scarcely know what to tell you, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her now.   Jake, maybe this accident happened for a reason.   Maybe Nikki’s amnesia will allow you to start over.   If you