This particular afternoon disrupted their silence when Joan arrived home. A message on the answering machine from Boyd resulted in a broken vase and table stand, a snapped off heel on her only red pumps, and a hole in the wall. After pulling her other red shoe off, and taking a moment to think a bit more clearly, her cell phone was out and dialing Boyd's work number.

"Mr. Wolfram's office," a woman's voice answered.

"Put Boyd on," Joan demanded.

The secretary recognized Joan's voice immediately. "I'm sorry Mrs. Wolfram but Mr. Wolfram is busy with a client right now, would you like to leave him a message?"

Joan let out an aggravated sigh. "Listen to me, you over paid whore," she barked, quickly tiring of playing nice. "Get off of your lazy fucking ass, go into his office, and tell him to get onto the god damned phone this instant!"

"Yes Mrs. Wolfram," she responded with hesitance.

Joan took a breath, tried to compose herself, and waited on the line for him to answer. Her fury was burning inside of her as the message he'd left replayed in her head again and again.

"Darling, so nice to her from you," Boyd answered.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" she replied. "Darling? Cut the fucking bull shit, Boyd. If you think you can just call me up and tell me to just drop my life at a moment's notice then you're out of your damn mind."

"Ah good, you got my message," he responded. "Isn't it just wonderful that the partners decided I deserve a vacation? And on a cruise!" he gushed. "We've never been on one before. I do hope you started packing, I know how long it takes you to get all your things together."

Joan gritted her teeth. It became obvious by his tone that Boyd wasn't alone in his office. "Yeah Boyd, I did start packing actually. I packed all of your fucking things and was just about to throw it out onto the curb." She let out an antagonizing laugh, "the homeless of Manhattan will have a field day with your things. How generous of you."

"Oh Joan," Boyd replied, "I'm glad you're as excited as I am about this. A car will be picking you up on Friday morning and I'll meet you at the docks."

"Boyd," she growled, "I am not going anywhere with you, you little manipulative bitch."

Boyd's voice was low, almost hard to hear, when he replied. "If you don't go with me you'll never see a dime of my money again." Silence fell on Joan's end as Boyd made his threats, "I've got your attention now, don't I? That's right, you know without me you'd lose everything and your frivolous, pathetic life would be over."

"Fuck you," she replied coolly.

"See you on Friday then," he said cheerfully, his tone normal again. "Oh, I almost forgot, I've got a surprise for you!" he added.

"A new husband?" she patronized.

"Your sister is going to come with us so you'll have someone to spend time with when I'm on business," he said excitedly.

Joan rolled her eyes, "vacation on a cruise ship and you'll be working. And you say I'm pathetic."

"See you in a few days, honey. Love you," he said before hanging up.

Joan chucked her cell phone. "That son of a bitch," she said to herself before leaning her back onto a wall. There was no getting out of this one and Joan knew it as she closed her eyes and slide down onto the floor.