61 comments/ 90692 views/ 20 favorites Lessons in Honesty Squared By: curious2c I watched quietly as he came to. He was obviously disoriented, and his mind wasn't functioning quite up to par. He grimaced in pain as he discovered his condition. He couldn't move well enough to see how bad it was, but he could definitely feel some pains and aches where there shouldn't be any. He tried to speak but discovered now that he couldn't. The ball gag in his mouth prevented that from happening. His eyes began to focus on me. Finally. He'd been out a bit longer than I'd anticipated and by now someone else would be getting quite uncomfortable as well. She'd have to wait a bit in any case. "Well, that was one hell of a partly last night wasn't it?" I spoke quietly, knowing that he probably had one hell of a headache. I didn't want to torture him too much... yet. His look was confused. He obviously hadn't connected me with anyone important in his past yet. He'd soon know. I'd remind him. Leaning in I unbuckled the strap holding the ball gag in place and yanked said ball out of his mouth. I noticed his lips were bleeding. I hoped it was due to the ball gag and not the 'medicine' he'd been given the night before. "What the hell are you doing and where am I?" He looked panicky, but he wasn't going anywhere unless I allowed him. "Right now you have no need to know anything. You do, however need to work on your memory skills." "Fuck you asshole. Let me go. I demand that you let me go NOW!" His voice grew to a shout at the end. "Asshole am I? Fuck me you say? No. No, right now it's FUCK YOU DIP SHIT! You are in no position to demand a single fucking thing. The only position you're in the position to do right now is to do as I ask. If you don't your suffering will be quite painful and enduring. So... shall we start again?" I stopped speaking in order to calm down. My anger had risen at his demands, much more than I cared to admit. He shut his mouth and stared at me, trying to figure out who I was and what was going on. He would know soon enough. Oh yeah... he'd definitely know soon enough. "As I asked a bit ago," I calmly spoke, "That was one hell of a party last night wasn't it? Oh wait... you didn't make it to the party completely did you... you became tied up, so-to-speak." His eyes focused harder on me once I spoke to him again. His eyes gave away that he suddenly knew me. I could see him thinking franticly about who I was and just how much danger he was in. He had no clue, really, none whatsoever what I had planned for him and he knew me from the past. In that past he'd just escaped death with me. "Let me refresh your memory shall I? You came to my home last night to attend a party my wife threw. She'd invited you especially I guess. Her mistake. Anyway, once you got to the door it happened I was the greeter of the moment. I invited you in and then on the way through the house to the back yard where the party was being held you kind of got side tracked and ended up in the basement. Sorry about your eye by the way... it's going to be a shiner." He frowned as he tried to remember anything he could. I saw that he wasn't going to remember much for a bit yet. Evidently the horse tranquilizers I'd given him were a bit much, even though he is a big man. I may have gone a bit overboard, but with me standing at 5' 11'' and weighing around 160 pounds I just couldn't see taking any chances with a Neanderthal that stood 6'5'' and weighed in at just under 300 pounds... all muscle too. Nope... my momma didn't raise no dumb ass idiot. Well... maybe I was a dumb ass for marrying the woman I'd fallen in love with... but that's a whole other kettle of fish. "Well, let's get on with this then... I have some other things to attend to shortly, and my time is kind of high value at the moment. Here's the short story Joe. I need to put on your thinking and memory cap and think back real hard and real long. I want you to remember back to the very first time you hooked up with Theresa again two years ago and then I want you to think of every single meeting you've ever had with her business or pleasure, since. I'll need time of day, dates, and how long you were in her presence. I'm going to come back in an hour or so and start asking you some questions. I'll need to hear your brutally honest thoughts from that very first meeting up until last night. I know I'm asking a lot of you, but I have some very serious questions that I need answered and I need you to answer them fully and honestly. Brutally honestly. If you can be quiet I'll let you sit and think without the ball gag. If you start to make noise... well, I'll be forced to re-insert the gag in your mouth." "I don't know what kind of game you're playing here asshole, but once I get loose I'm going to kill you." His angry voice carried even though he spoke quietly. "Oh my... that's too bad; I'd so hoped you'd be a bit more intelligent about this whole thing. I guess you have a rather large learning curve ahead of you now." I moved up close and started to shove the ball back into his mouth. He was fighting, as much as he could anyway, but it didn't take me long to have it strapped in place nice and tight once again. As I turned to leave for the moment I paused. "You know, you may think that with your size and all that I'd be afraid of you. You have to realize by now that I'm not. Not at all. Matter of fact, it's you that should be afraid now. Be very afraid. Theresa is my wife, the woman I love... and if you could see her now... and what I'm capable of doing to someone I love... well let me remind you that I have no love for you. No love, no respect and no care at all about you. You should be very, very afraid. You have no idea of what I will do with you or to you and you've given me lots of reasons to not be very nice." I left him in the stone walled room. His naked body was secured in a multitude of ways so I knew he wasn't going anywhere. As I closed the door behind me I could hear him screaming into the ball gag. He really wasn't making much noise at all. With the door closed I heard nothing. Moving down and across the hallway I entered another very similar room. The woman was in a seated position, but her legs and arms were stretched wide. She too was naked and the ball gag in her mouth kept her silent. Her eyes were on me as I approached. I could see her pleading with me through them, and while deep inside I wanted to comfort her, I knew that this wasn't the right time. "Theresa, listen closely to me. I'm going to ask you some questions. How you answer them is everything. I can't instill in you enough that how you answer them is truly everything. First I'm going to give you time to stroll down memory lane and remember back to when you first met him. I know far more than you think I do. I know everything about you and Joe. I'm going to ask you questions that I already know answers to, and there may be some that I don't have the answers to, but I have a very good assumption about." I paused to catch my breath as my feelings were coming on strong. I continued: "I'm doing this because it's the only way I can impress on you that honesty, from this time on is critical. You need to think back and carefully answer my questions when I come back to ask them of you. You need to know that I love you, but you've disappointed me greatly, you've let me down tremendously, and you've hurt me nearly to death. Death being the word to focus on Theresa, I'm very, very serious. I know everything about you and him. There are no secrets from me, but it is important that you are honest and open with me. I need you to be brutally honest and open with me Theresa. It's the only way. I know how you truly feel about me so please don't try to confuse the issues by telling me that you love me or it wasn't anything, or that you didn't mean to hurt me or the other usual bullshit the cheaters spout off when caught. I caught you, I know everything and you can't hide one single fucking thing from me." I stared into her eyes seeing fear and shame. It was almost enough to make me take her in my arms and hold her, but what was done was done and there was no going back now. I was committed. "What I'm doing is giving you the most important lesson you'll ever have in your life. How to be honest. You'll get three chances to be brutally honest with me. No more than that. Please know that I'm far more capable of being something you don't expect of me. Please know that I'm deadly serious about all of this too. Have at least enough respect for me to know that everything hangs in the balance for you, him and for myself as well." I turned and left her sitting uncomfortably nude on the stone bench. This old place was deep in the woods on the old family farm. I was the only family left on it, and had been for several years. Some of the buildings on this land were hundreds of years old and still in quite good condition. I loved this particular building the most due to the stone walls, flagstone floors and the way it was situated on the low hill surrounded by trees. You may be wondering how I'd come to be in this situation. It is at once the oldest or among the oldest reasons and yet painfully a very hard and new reason for me. We've been married for ten years now. Theresa is a quite lovely and charming lady that happened to fall in love with me, and I in love with her around eleven years ago just out of college. We'd dated and then married. No kids because we'd found that Theresa has some issues that prevent her from becoming pregnant. Short of artificial fertilization, there wasn't going to be any kids in our lives unless we adopted. After long and hard talks and thoughts we'd decided to be a childless couple, at least for the foreseeable future. She was no virgin when we met, neither was I. We were in love though. About a year and a half ago I began to notice that she was withdrawing from me. At first it was just little things like no snuggling on the couch in the evening. Soon it became apparent the little morning kisses were no longer there from her. Later I noted lack of hugs at all. Slowly things began to sour between her and I. It wasn't from my side until just recently. She pulled away and kept away after a while. If I tried to mention the coolness it would start a fight that would always escalate into her sleeping in the other bedroom behind a locked door. Eventually sarcasm and cutting comments began to be thrust at me. Time and time again I was accused of being wimpy, a wuss, and numerous other very negative things by the one person I loved most in my life. It confused me to say the least. Troubled I began to look for reasons. Soon I was aware of some things that went beyond troubling and so I finally went to a professional for a deeper background investigation on my wife. The person I went to was the best. I paid his expenses, the equivalent of a small fortune, to find out things I wish I hadn't known. Frank was quite upset to show and tell the day it came due. He wasn't happy with either my wife or her lover. Frank, being Frank wanted to take action, but I let him know that it was a personal issue with me and I'd have to be the one to solve it. He reluctantly agreed, but warned me to be careful of the big lummox lover of my wife. The things Frank recorded and dug up surprised and sickened me. I wanted to kill, for the first time in my life. What worried me is that I wanted to kill someone I loved with all my heart, my entire being. Frank wanted to help me bury the bodies. You see, Frank is family. Everyone has one you know... that one relative that isn't quite all there or not quite what most people would call normal. That was my uncle Frank. I am his favorite nephew. Hell, I'm his only nephew and family anymore, so of course he was upset for me and about me. I went through all sorts of stages. Anger, hate, hurt, tears, loss, and back to anger, starting a cycle over again. I took action during the fourth cycle. I wasn't sure how far I was going to take this, but I knew that I was capable of taking it all the way to a very dark and lonely ending for all involved in the end. That's what scared me more than anything. I was willing to go all the way to a very dark place for the first time in my life. My, what love can do to you. Joe was a former boyfriend from college. Theresa had dated him for about three years, pretty seriously. She'd caught him in bed with another co-ed one day and that had been the end of her and Joe. We'd met about six months later and soon we were certain of our love and we became engaged, later married. He had looked her up about two years ago. He located where she worked and then met up with her at her workplace. He'd talked her into a lunch date to catch up on old times, and within six months she'd forgotten her wedding vows to me and she'd forgotten about our love for each other as well. She had also forgotten the main reason for their breaking up way back when as well. Funny how things can be sometimes. A year later she'd become disrespectful of me to the point that I'd taken the steps to find out what I could. Frank was very thorough and accurate. His connections were not only the best, but discrete as well. Frank had ways of digging up things that would have made him one of the best kinds of cop or detective except that his leanings were towards the other side. My uncle was the go to guy for lots of very serious players and he knew the worst of them on a first name basis. He had the respect of all of those kinds of people. Now I was treading on the fine line between good and evil. I was on that edge that was so easy to fall over into total darkness. What worried Frank is that I seemed to not care one little bit about that edge suddenly. Radical change made Frank nervous. Radical change in a family member made him overly cautious. Radical change in me scared the hell out of him. You see, everyone in my family had always known that I was the one true black sheep or the one capable of being the blackest sheep ever. Now it appeared that I had chosen to cross that line. At least to Frank it appeared that way, and he didn't like it one bit. It even worried me at times when I lay in bed alone. You see, my Father and Mother had worried about me while I grew up. At times I would do some things that indicated I could be very bad. Perhaps even evil. I knew that I was at times cold blooded far beyond a point most people around me could be. My size didn't let me be afraid of those bigger than me. My mind was the greatest equalizer. Many of the jocks found that out in High School and college...they learned to leave me well alone always. Cross me and extremely bad things could happen. I never forget good things done for me or bad things done towards me or to me. I plan for everything in my life and my plans for good things were always spectacular, while my plans for the bad just as spectacular in a less positive way. I had a reputation for that. Theresa knew about that reputation. She'd joked about it in the past. Now I'm certain she was thinking back on that reputation of mine and wondering where she was going to fit into my planning process now. Perhaps I'm not a nice person, I don't know. I try to be. To most, 'bad' is maybe yelling or maybe even threatening someone. To me, its plan, plan and plan, the 'bad' becomes a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue sky, unexpected and usually overly done. Oh well, that's me in a nutshell. Joe knew this about me and I'm surprised he worked on Theresa like he did knowing my history as personally as he surely did. You see, once Theresa and I became an item he'd tried to block me. His buddies had shown up at my front door as I left to go on a date one night. They'd warned me off with a few punches to the gut and some threats. I made the date and later let them see Theresa on my arm in a local bar. The next night, they were waiting for me, Joe leading the pack, when they caught me by my car at a local mall. Joe started it by threatening me and talking it up. I ended it by pulling the sawed off 12 gauge shotgun out from behind my back and sticking it in his face. "I don't fight big guys Joe. I don't run and I don't threaten. I just kill them." That stopped any interference from all of them from that night on. Matter of fact they gave me a very wide berth around town after that. I thought he'd learned back then that I took things to extremes with little fuss. It surprised me that he'd intentionally go hunting for Theresa like he had. Well, he knew he was up to his neck in deep shit now that was for sure. You see, that extremist attitude is what always worried my mom and dad and now my uncle Frank. They all knew where I could head off to with little provocation. It had shown up before. I let them sweat it out for an hour more before I visited Joe again. As I walked into the room I could see he'd been crying. He was scared. He knew me from that past where I'd put the shotgun to his head and he'd had time to think about his position right now. He had very good reasons to be scared and I was happy he'd come to understand things a bit...better, a little more focused. "Well Joe...are you ready to talk to me now? I don't think I need to remind you your position at the moment. You might want to think real hard about just how pissed off I am right now and remember back to the night you threatened me in college. I won't use that gun now...but then I won't have to now either. You can take that as a serious threat by the way...since I'm seriously pissed off." Pulling the ball gag out of his mouth none to gently I waited for his first words. I was curious. Would he have wised up or not? "What do you want?" His voice was raspy from the ball gag I supposed. "I told you that an hour ago. You may start with your history now." I smiled. It wasn't a nice smile since he went a bit pale as he looked at me. "If I tell you everything you'll kill me." He was almost crying as he spit those words out. He'd wised up obviously. "How about this...If you don't tell me everything...your death will be very, very slow and very, very painful. If you tell me everything I may just let you go. I know that you worked on her but that she did what she did means that you may not have worked on her all that hard. Especially since she's been bad mouthing me for some time now...I have to guess that she could have not fought very hard to stay away from you either. That could be your out...perhaps." "What guarantee to I have that you'll let me go?" He was going to talk; I could see it in his eyes. "You have the same guarantee that my wife gave me when we spoke our vows on our wedding day." Tears started to fall down his cheeks. He knew that I'd just as much as told him he was a dead man either way. I was curious how he'd handle that? Would he grow some balls and refuse to talk? I should have known that his kind of man wouldn't change much. He started spilling his guts like there was no tomorrow...which he probably believed that there wasn't for him if he didn't talk. It surprised me that he didn't place the blame on Theresa like I'd expected. Matter of fact he was pretty much telling me how hard he'd worked to get to her, and then how long it took to get her into his bed that first time. He also told me how she'd tell him that she loved me regardless and she'd never leave me to be with him. He insisted on that so much that it made me wonder. He couldn't know that she'd been bad mouthing me or what she'd been telling me to my face, so I was guessing that he felt enough for her to lie and cover up things in order to please me and keep me from hurting her. I had the tape recorder running the full time he confessed. It took him about forty minutes to get it all out. His memory was good with dates and times for the most part. At least the dates and times I was certain of anyway. When he finished I went over to the bag I'd set at the doorway as I walked in. Retrieving a bottle of water and a straw and placed it on the bench in front of him so he could get his mouth on the straw and drink. Lessons in Honesty Squared "I'll leave the gag off for now. You can drink some water and pray that Theresa's story matches yours closely. If it doesn't there may be complications. We'll cover those if the need arises. By the way, shouting for help won't help you. You're in the middle of private property and behind two fences that keep people out. You won't be heard except by me. If you really start to bother me I'll just shut you up. Think about that while you drink your water." "I'm sorry...for what it's worth. I never thought..." "You're right...you didn't think very far down the road did you? This took me months to set this all up you know. It wasn't a spur of the moment thing. I have numerous plans to follow no matter what. Most of those plans are not in your favor at all. You might want to think about your past and what will happen when you meet your maker." "You're going to kill me anyway? I should have known. You bastard!" "I'm the bastard? You plotted and planned to get my wife to cheat on me with you. You worked your ass off, your own words I might add, to get her in your bed and I'm the bastard? You'll see your punishment soon enough. As I said, you need to think and pray for now." He slumped down in defeat. He nearly knocked the water off the bench but I caught it and held it away until he settled down. "Drink up. I'll be back later." Walking into the other room I noted that Theresa was sitting in defeat. She'd even quit crying. Looking up into my eyes I'm sure she saw my pain since she drew a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. "Well 'sweetheart', you have some talking to do now. I hope you realize I only want to hear the truth and nothing else." "Why? How could you treat me this way, Will? I'm your wife." Her response struck me as funny. Not sure why, but it struck me as humorous. "How could I treat YOU this way? Is that your question to me 'honey'?" I was being sarcastic when I called her sweetheart and honey. Each time I used those words in the tone of voice I did, she'd cringe. I could see that she was afraid of me and uncertain about everything. "Talk now. Joe, your magnificent lover spilled all his guts. It took him forty minutes to get it all out. For such a big man he sure wimped out. Much like you two thought of me come to think of it. Strange, isn't it?" "Okay...I hurt you I know. It all started a few months ago..." "STOP RIGHT THERE THERESA! You know you're lying right now. It has been a hell of a lot longer than a few months ago. Hell, you started to call me names about eight months ago, so I know it's been longer than that. A lot longer. I told you that you had to tell me the truth. I can see you won't. You know, I have Joe all tied up in the room across the way and he's in no position to help you at all. Matter of fact, so far his story and your story are way different. That's strike one for you 'dear'. I'll give you another chance to convince me of your truth." She stared at me wondering, I'm sure, of what I did know and how much or how long my knowledge went back. I gave her a hint. "Why don't you start about two years ago...what was going on in your life then, that you weren't sharing with me?" The look of shock hit her like a sledgehammer. She had no idea what I knew and I'd just hit her with my knowledge of how long it had been going on. Defeated she slumped and woodenly told me everything. She knew me fairly well and since she was in the position she was in at the moment she was realizing that the part of me I'd kept buried for so long had reached out and grabbed the limelight. She began to remember some of the stories that Frank had talked about in the past. He'd never really told the whole story or stories of some of the ways I'd been pretty bad, but enough was talked about in her presence that she had to be aware of my dark streak. Her story matched dumb-asses almost verbatim. It was enough different that I knew the hadn't collaborated on it, but the dates and times were fairly accurate between them. She ended her story with a plea. "So yes...I cheated on you with Joe. I know what he's like and that he has other women on a string, yet I fell for him again. You, I've hurt beyond anything and I'm sure you hate me. I'm sorry...so sorry. I would promise that I'd never cheat again and that I truly do love you, but I know that my actions speak louder than anything I could tell you. I do love you and I am sorry and if I had it to do over I'd never have cheated on you to begin with. I now know how much I've hurt you and I hope, for my sake that you make it quick and as painless for me as you can." "You should have been an actress Theresa. You've tugged at my heart strings with your little confession at the end. I do love you still, but I'm sure I'll get over it eventually. You know that Frank has been worried about me? He's afraid that I've decided to embrace my darker self. He dislikes changes, especially sudden changes in family. He found the evidence for me and he was upset since he knows me so well. I'd have thought you would have understood me at least half as well, yet you managed to forgo that knowledge and do what you did...to me...to us. You speak of loving me yet how can you rectify those words with your actions and words over the last six months. Those times you called me a wimp or an asshole, or those other things. Your actions towards me surely were showing me your disregard for my feelings and love for you too. Yet you can sit there and speak of your love for me and how bad you feel that you did what you did...afterward. After getting caught that is. Tell me Theresa, what am I supposed to do with you now? You lied to me, you cheated on me, you broke your wedding vows to me, you vocally ran me into the gutter not only to my face but behind my back with him and other people too, like your coworkers. What am I supposed to do with you now...wife?" She was crying again, her body shaking as she learned how upset I truly was. She'd had inklings before, but now she knew...and she was afraid of me. OF ME! Her loving husband. I stepped over to her and began to undo the straps and ropes from her body. In the bag I'd set by the door were some clothes of hers and shoes. I'd changed my mind on what I was going to do with them. I knew that I'd probably end up in jail for this kidnapping and torture, but I could no longer go forward with any of my plans. The pain I was feeling was too much for me to continue. I finally realized that my quest for vengeance was something that was illusory. I would never be able to 'do' something and make it better. Leaving her in the room still locked up but free to move about, I went over to the other room. Joe was sitting still, no movement and eyes open, staring at the wall. As I came in front of him he turned his head up towards me and looked at me. I could see the resignation in his eyes. He was certain I was going to kill him right then. I pulled the syringe out of my pocket and stuck him in the arm. As the drug flowed into his veins he spoke, obviously thinking I was killing him with some kind of poison. "I'm going to where ever I belong now. For what it's worth I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did to you and for what I led Theresa into. It was never her fault and I had no plans for anything but having her sexually. I never planned on you two splitting up and my marrying her. I just wanted her and used her. I guess I'm getting what I deserved. You, I feel sorry for too. You're becoming a murderer because of me. I hope God forgives you. I'm sorry for what I did to you. I'm...so...sooooohhhh" He went out thinking I'd killed him. I wondered how he'd react to waking up in his car in front of his house in the morning. He'd still be naked, but he'd be alive. I wondered how long it would take him to call the cops and report me. I left him in his car that night, still out cold. I was pretty sure the drug wouldn't wear off until about five in the morning, judging from how it had worked on him before. I expected the cops to show up sometime in the morning, maybe around ten a.m. or so. This was not going to be any kind of a happy ending...or even a revenge done well ending. I took Theresa home with me and laid her on our marriage bed. I'd given her a light shot. She was sleeping soundly and I was sad as I left the house. All for what? Time in jail for me and a lonely life for her. I left the final recording of her lovers' words about how he'd just used her for sexual gratification. If anything she'd probably feel like a whore or slut now...but then that was the life she consciously chose when she took up with him. I left her confession recording with her lover, sitting on the car seat beside him. His confession was beside her on the nightstand with a note. I drove over to Frank's house just as he was waking up. I sat and talked to him, waiting for the cops. He was worried for me. I think he was trying to figure out if I'd killed them or not. I finally told him what I'd done with them. "Boy, you've done it now. The cops will be here to bust you. You'll go to jail for quite some time. Why? Why would you do that for them?" "I guess I'm not as bad as I thought Uncle Frank. I guess I'm just a softy in the end." "Well I expect the cops will be here as soon as they come around and call for help. What do you want to do? If you want I can help you disappear somewhere safe." "Naw...I think I'll just take what's coming to me. I'll call a lawyer and set up a divorce while I'm at it I think." "I already done that for you boy. They'll be by tomorrow to see you. I suppose they'll have to go to the jail now though." "Whatever happens Uncle Frank, I want you to know that I appreciate your help on this whole mess. I love you and hope I didn't let you down." "Let me down? No, you didn't let me down boy. You've been like a son to me all these years, and you've never let me down. You have caused me some concern of late, but let me down? Never." I waited...rather we waited for the cops to show up. They never did. The next day the lawyer showed up and I began the divorce proceedings against Theresa. With the information Uncle Frank had obtained I was probably going to get a simple fifty-fifty split everything down the middle divorce, and that's all I wanted. Well, to tell the truth I never wanted the divorce...just like I never expected my wife to cheat on me either. Life changes people at times it seems and this was my changed path to follow for now. In the end, Theresa wanted to have a sit down discussion with me before signing the papers for final dissolution of our marriage. I agreed only with trepidation. What was there to talk about at this point? She'd cheated on me, I caught her and we split. Pretty simple. What I'd almost done besides what I had done should have been enough for her to hate me and never want to speak to me again. The meeting took place at her lawyers' office. We were alone in the room, which surprised me a bit. I mean, after what I'd done to her and her lover, how could she feel safe with me? "I know that I hurt you Will. I know this is my entire fault. I wish I'd never cheated on you to begin with. I hope you'll be able to forgive me someday. I also wanted you to know that I'll always love you. You treated me so well for the time we were married, right up until...that day. Why you let us go I'll never understand, but you did. I never told anyone what you'd done to me or to...him. You know he left town within a couple of weeks of that day, don't you? You scared him so bad he had to run. I listened to his confession and that last bit when he was sure you had killed him...I was a fool. A very foolish woman." "Well, you'll be able to move on and find someone else now Theresa. I hope you can figure out what it is you really desire in life and I hope you get what you want too." "That will never be Will. What I wanted and what I still want is something I threw away. I know I lost sight of what was important to me two and a half years ago now. I now know what I gave up was never worth the cost." "I have to go Theresa. You take care." I got up and walked out of that office nearly ready to cry. Frank was waiting for me in his pickup. As I climbed in he looked over at the lawyers' office door and nodded his head. Theresa was standing there watching me as we drove off. She was crying. That wasn't the last time I saw her, but it was the last time I ever talked to her. We both moved on. I met a woman a few years later that pretty much grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go. She locked onto me and actually pursued me until I caught her, even though she claims it was the other way around and that I chased her until she caught me. In either case we've been working towards that big M and slowly and surely I'm coming around to her way of thinking. Theresa moved to another city and started over again. Eventually she met and married a guy that was nothing like me or like Joe. I hoped she would stay faithful to him, but history has a way of repeating itself. Of course, she did have a scary and harsh lesson the first time she cheated on a husband.