280 comments/ 163457 views/ 22 favorites Suspicion Ch. 02 By: whiteone_redone First a "mea culpa" to those readers who think that I have "weaseled out" by not submitting this chapter immediately after Chapter 1. I am new at this game of writing fictional stories and submitting them for public consumption. I take this as a lesson learned. Thank you dear readers. It would be in the best interest of the reader to have read Suspicion - Chapter 1 first. Paul and Kathy are husband and wife. Married for 16 years, Paul was secure in his belief of his wife's fidelity until several suspicious incidents brought forth the fact Kathy was not faithful to her wedding vows. Again, this chapter is not filled with explicit sex. It is concerned more with the feelings and interaction between the principle parties in the story. The infidelity in the story is like the iceberg was to the Titanic. It was there, it was responsible for the events which took place, yet it played no further part in the disaster which followed. ************************* "What's wrong, Paul? Are you sick or something?" Her words were full of concern, but they did not convey the dread she was feeling inside. "Yes, you could say I'm sick. But it's not a physical illness. I am sick in my soul." At that moment, Kathy's stoic demeanor crumbled before my eyes. There was no doubt in her mind I knew her secret. She slowly sank down on one of the kitchen chairs. "What's his name? Are you in love with him?" My voice was calm. No anger or accusations in my voice. Kathy looked up at me as tears welled up in her eyes. "His name is Karl Gerring. And yes, I am in love with him." ********************** I just sat there looking at my sobbing wife. Her brief confession did not stun me. It did not make me sick to my stomach. The suspicions I had about her infidelity had just been confirmed. Now, the angst I'd been living with since I found her stash of sexy lingerie in the trunk of her car washed out of me, leaving me an empty emotional shell. "If you are in love with him, I guess that it means the end of our marriage." My voice was still calm. "Oh god no, Paul!" Kathy cried out as a terrified look spread across her face. "I still love you, Paul! My love for Karl does not diminish the love I have for you." Kathy's voice cracked and her body shook as if she had just gotten a blast of cold air. "Well, you're sadly mistaken if you think I will ever accept the role of a cuckold. And I do not wish to live with a woman who professes her love for another man. I can see no other recourse for us except divorce." I moved out of the kitchen area and into the den where I slumped down in my favorite recliner. I did not want to look at my unfaithful wife any longer. To me, the decision for a divorce was now a foregone conclusion. It took several minutes for Kathy to regain her composure enough to speak to me. She sat on the sofa across from me. She sat there quietly for a moment before she spoke. "I know this must be a terrible shock to you, Paul. Finding out I have been unfaithful to you. But, I really think you should listen to my explanation before you end our marriage." She tried to speak in a soft loving voice but I just turned my face away from hers. "Tell me one thing, Kathy. Do you still want to have a sexual relationship with this Karl guy?" She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and simply answered, "Yes." "Then there is nothing left of our marriage. Since you are the adulterous partner, I will file the divorce papers in the morning. I will seek primary custody of the children. I do not wish to expose my young, impressionable children to an adulterous environment. If you want Karl as your lover, then it will have to be without having custody of the children." My voice had taken on an aggressive tone. It was time to exert my position as the head of the family and the aggrieved husband. Kathy's infidelity may have wounded my ego, but I was not about to roll over and let her have the children. "Please Paul! Don't do this! I told you I still love you. I don't want a divorce and I especially do not want to have my children taken away from me." Kathy was sobbing and trembling again as the reality of my decision was setting into her mind. "Your 'I love you' statement is a farce when you also profess your love for another man. Your actions speak louder than any of your words. Your actions tell me I am not the man who can completely satisfy you as a woman. I cannot and will not accept a cuckold position." I hung my head and in a softer voice said. "I want you to pack a suitcase and leave this house immediately. I no longer want to be in the same house with you. You have lost your right to be a resident in this house." "No, Paul! You can't just throw me out like an old shoe! This is my home. My children and I live here." Kathy was nearly in hysterics as I rose to my feet. "I live here! I live here with my children! You are an adulterous slut and I won't have you living in same house with us!" I shouted at her as my anger rose inside me. "Now get your clothes packed and leave this house. I'm going to get the kids at Evelyn's and when I get back I don't want to find you in this house." I walked to the door, turned and said. "I'll be back in a hour. Don't be here. Tell Evelyn where you will be staying and I'll see that you get the rest of your belongings." I closed the door behind me as Kathy continued to beg me to reconsider. As soon as I walked into the Hunters' house, Todd could see there was something terribly wrong. He had never seen me looking so distraught. "What the hell has happened to you?" Todd asked as he walked over to me. "Bad shit, Todd. Very bad shit." I said as I leaned against the wall. I rolled my head from side to side slowly as I spoke. "Kathy has gotten herself a lover and she doesn't want to end the affair. It's over for the two of us. I told her to pack some clothes and leave the house. I'll be filing for divorce in the morning." Todd stood there stunned at the words I had just spoken. There was never any sign that our marriage was in trouble. Just the opposite. Kathy and I appeared to be the ideal married couple with two lovely children. Just then, Evelyn came around the corner and saw us standing there is shocked silence. "What's going on here?" Her eyes moved rapidly back and forth from her husband's face to my face. "Paul just found out that Kathy has been cheating on him." Todd said sadly as he looked hard at his wife. "Do you know anything about this? Kathy tells you everything doesn't she?" Evelyn's face could not hide the fact that she knew about Kathy's secret. "She didn't tell me everything. Only that she had met her long lost high school sweetheart. She didn't tell me she was sleeping with him." Her voice wasn't that convincing. "So you knew something was not right with this, didn't you Evelyn?" I barked at her in an accusing voice. "I tried to tell her not to get involved with Karl. Their relationship in high school was in the past and she should not jeopardize her marriage trying to relive some teenage fantasy." Her eyes were now focused on a spot on the floor. She couldn't look me directly in the eyes. "How long ago was this, Evelyn?" I snapped at her. "About eight weeks ago." Evelyn said in a small voice. "What else do you know?" My anger was still very building. " Kathy told me Karl owns a small construction company. He didn't know Kathy worked for Cablenex when he applied for subcontracting work. Kathy was shocked when she first saw his name on the application form." Evelyn moved out of the hallway and sat down on the sofa. Her head was bowed as if in embarrassment. "After she told me she met Karl for lunch, she no longer talked to me about him. I tried to find out if anything was going on between them. She refused to talk to me about Karl." Evelyn let out a deep sigh. "I had a dark suspicion that she was beginning an affair with Karl." Todd had not said anything as his wife confessed her knowledge of the contact between Kathy and Karl. He had no idea of what to do or say at this time. "Goddamn women!!!" I shouted at my sister. "Even though she is your sister you should have told Todd or me that something might be happening with Kathy. Now it's too late. Our marriage is over. I told Kathy to pack her bags and get out of my house." The veins in my neck were very pronounced as my anger was getting out of control. Terror flashed in her eyes as Evelyn looked up at me. "You're not throwing Kathy out into the street! She's your wife and I know she loves you, Paul!" Evelyn was now beginning to cry out loud. "She also told me she loves Karl and that she wants to continue her affair with him!" I shouted back at her. "That goddamn tramp deserves to be out on the street!" I knew I had to get away from Evelyn before my rage exploded out of control. "Where's Jason and Christi?" I turned to Todd. "They're in the back yard playing." Todd said as I turned and walked to the back door. The phone was ringing on the end table as I walked out to get the children. The two youngsters ran over to me as soon as they saw me. "Come on gang. Let's go and get some burgers at Mickey D's." I said with a forced smile on my face. "Can the three A's come with us, Dad?" Christi asked with a girlish smile on her face. "Sure they can. If their mother and father say it's OK." I replied. "Let's go in and ask them!" Christi called out to the others as she raced inside the house. Evelyn was on the phone talking to Kathy. "Why was Aunt Evelyn crying when I went into the house?" Christi asked from the back seat of the car. "She's having a bad day. I think she got some bad news that disturbed her." I replied to his daughter. "Is that why she said she wanted Allan, Alexis and Alyssa to stay home tonight. Dad?" Jason interrupted the conversation. "I guess so, Jason. There's a lot of things going on right now that will upset a lot of people. We can talk more about this when we get home." Jason and Christi were finishing up their French fries when I turned away from them and push the speed dial button on my cell phone. The phone rang several times then a female voice answered. "Hello." It was Evelyn's voice. In a quiet voice I said to her. "We're going to be leaving here shortly and when we get home Kathy better not be there." The children were more interested in the things going on around them to pay any attention to my phone conversation. "Paul, be reasonable. Kathy is having a major emotional crisis over this. She has no place to go and she doesn't want to be without her children." Evelyn was trying to be the mediator for her sister. "I don't give a damn where she goes. She can go live with her new lover for all I give a damn!" My rage was building again. "She better not be there when we get home or the children will find out the hard way what a cheating slut their mother really is." I pressed the off button and took a deep breath as I tried to suppress my anger. "What's wrong. Daddy?" Christi asked as she saw the strange look on my face. I tried my best to smile and acted nonchalant. "Nothing really, Sweetie. We'll talk more when we get home." The house was empty when the three of us arrived home. "Where's Mommy?" They both asked as they saw the empty house. "She had something she needs to do. Mommy will be away for awhile while things get straightened out." I side-stepped the serious answer to the children's question. I knew very soon I would have to have a very hard talk with both of them. "Now get upstairs to your rooms. I want that homework done in the next hour. I'll be up to tuck you in and say good night." When I walked into the bedroom, I noticed there were a lot of Kathy's clothes missing on her side of the master closet. Her cosmetics were also missing from the vanity in the bathroom. Even though my anger was still paramount, I felt a strong sense of loss as the reality of Kathy's absence set in. Still, I knew there would be more anguishing moments lying ahead of me. I lay back in the dark bedroom looking up at the ceiling. There were so many details I would have to address in the immediate future. Most important would be the emotional health and well being of my two children. How do you tell your children that their mother will no longer be living with them? That she will not be there to love and comfort them every night? That she will no be there to be Doctor Mom when they are sick? In my own mind, I was struggling with my decision to fight for custody of the children. I wanted them to grow up happy and healthy. Would they be better off living with their mother and her new lover? Maybe it was my wounded ego, maybe it truly was my devotion to my children, but I soon rejected the idea I could give up the children to my adulterous wife. I would fight tooth and nail to have them continue to live here with me. The next several days were traumatic and heart wrenching for me. I immediately began the divorce process. Through my attorney, I was able to get a restraining order against Kathy from coming in contact with me or the children. Kathy hired a lawyer and was fighting the restraining order, but the results would take a week or more in the courts. Jason and Christi were now confused and upset with the events which were happening in their once happy and loving home. I had sat down with them and tried to explain that their mommy and daddy were having some serious problems remaining married to each other. The children could not understand what was happening and why their parents could not just kiss and make up. I told them there were issues which were too serious to just forget about. I did not specifically tell them about their mother's new lover. As gut wrenching as these episodes were with the children, I was determined to stick to my position. When I finally talked to Kathy on the phone, a week after I made her move out of the house, I issued my first threats to her. I told her there are laws in our state against alienation of affection by a third party. I told Kathy if she insisted on fighting the issue of my custody of the children I would file charges against Karl and sue him for alienation of affection and destruction of our marriage. I also told her I would report her affair to the senior executives at Cablenex as a conflict-of-interest on her part. She would probably be fired from her job and Karl's company would be prohibited from doing business with Cablenex. Kathy's continued to plea with me to cancel the divorce actions and let her return home. These pleas were met with my sarcastic remarks about her having made her choice. I made it quite clear I would not be a cuckold or live in an open marriage arrangement. The phone call ended with Kathy still pleading with me to reconsider. Next, I had a long talk with my sister about Jason and Christi visiting with their cousins. I told her in no uncertain terms would not I permit Kathy to be at Evelyn's house if the children were there. I set down the rules of conduct that would govern my relationship with the Hunter family. Evelyn finally capitulated to my demands for the sake of the five children. She knew if I would restrict or cancel the visiting between the cousins, both families would suffer. The divorce papers were drawn up with me as the primary care giver and having custody of the children. Kathy took my threats seriously and withdrew her objections to that part of the arrangement. She would have visitation rights on every other weekend provided her lover was not present during those visitations. She would pick up and drop off the children at her sister's house so I would not have to be present when she came to their house. This mutual agreement permitted the divorce process to continue. A month after Kathy moved out of the house I looked into the bathroom mirror and saw a man who had aged 10 years in the space of four weeks. Every evening the children pressed me about making up with their mother so she could move back in with us. These confrontations were having their toll on the three of us. In addition to losing my wife, I now felt I was on the verge of losing the love of my children. I took an early vacation from work to spend more time bonding with the children. Slowly the tension between the children and me improved. But, I could still see they missed their mother and their once happy family life. Being a single parent was becoming very stressful for me. I finally hired a housekeeper to maintain the household and be a live-in maid. I also did this to ensure that an adult would be at home when the children returned home from school. Margarita was an elderly Latino grandmother who accepted the position. She moved into one of the guest bedrooms and immediately took over all of the household chores. It didn't take long for Jason and Christi to adopt her as their foster grandmother. In addition to her household chores she also began teaching the children the Spanish language. A quiet stability slowly returned to the Matthews' house. The children stopped pressuring me to allow their mother to return to the house. The weekends the children spent with their mother soon became part of their routine. They seemed better able to adjust to not having their mother live in the same house with them. The return home after their visitations with her became less stressful for them. Margarita always had their favorite meal ready for them when they returned home from their visit with Kathy. Still, it wasn't the same loving family any more. My life was particularly stressful because of trauma I suffered after the discovery of Kathy's infidelity and then the loss of her presence in the house. Down deep I truly missed her love and companionship. I went about my daily routines at home and at work as best I could. At times my actions were more robotic than that of a thinking individual. There was a huge hole inside my mind and soul. Something very valuable had been ripped from my perfect life. Something that might never be able to be replaced. The once close relationship between the Hunters and me now had a very large chasm between us. The cousins remain very close friends and still shared much of their time together. But the closeness I once had with Evelyn and Todd had diminished to almost nothing. Because of the rules I had set down weeks ago, Evelyn had never tried to persuade me to give Kathy another chance. Evelyn was caught between loyalty to her sister and her feeling that Kathy was solely responsible for the misery which now existed in the two families. One evening when I went over to pick up the children at Evelyn's, she took me aside and handed me a large manila envelope. "I know the rules you set down about my getting involved with this marital crisis you and Kathy are having. But, I absolutely believe you need to read the letter Kathy has written to you. It's in this envelope and it may contain some of the answers to questions you have been afraid to ask. Please don't destroy this letter before you read it, Paul." She handed the envelope to me. I took it reluctantly. "I will not bother you further about this situation. It's between you and Kathy. I only want to plead with you to read the letter before the divorce is finalized. You owe it to yourself." I hesitated in speaking to Evelyn. We both knew she broke my standing rule about her getting involved. Instead I just grimaced and walked past her to retrieve the children. I left the Hunter's house with the children chattering away, and with the envelope in my hand. It was several days of looking at the unopened envelope I had taken to work.. Supposedly inside the envelope was a explanation and possible confession written by my soon to be ex-wife. Do I dare read it? Would the contents of the letter be like salt in the wound and increase my anger toward her? Suspicion Ch. 02: Alternate When I read Whiteone_Redone's story "Suspicions", I was unhappy at the way that life turned out hunky-dory for everyone except the husband, Paul. W_R graciously invited others to complete the story with different endings, if they wanted to. This is my ending, in which Paul is not quite so dogmatic about Kathy's situation and believes that she is more emotionally confused than committed to Karl Gerring, her old high-school boyfriend. This story begins after he receives Kathy's letter in which she expresses her desire to remain married to him. My Paul takes matters in hand. I would suggest that you read "Suspicions" Chapter 1, and Chapter 2, up to Kathy's letter, although I think that if you don't, you will get a good idea of the original story as you read my story in any case. I have eliminated at least one character from W_R's version, the housekeeper, from my story for simplicity. Plus, if Paul wasn't boffing her, there was no real need to keep her. The entire story is complete with 9 parts, made up of 15 Chapters, starting with Ch. 2, Alternative. Chapter 2. Alternative I read Kathy's letter telling me that she still wanted to be my wife, except that she loved Karl as well. She wanted me to stop the divorce proceedings, and reconcile. Of course, there was this small detail: she made it clear that not only was she still in love with her old flame, but that she would continue to find ways to be with him. In other words, she wanted me to accept being cuckolded. I thought about it long and hard for a couple of days. It's easy for some outsider to suggest that the only appropriate response to a spouse's affair is to completely sever relations with the offending party, but years of a happy marriage, with all of the emotional ties, children, family and friends, as well as the mutual obligations, shouldn't be thrown away without some serious consideration. That Kathy seemed desperate to stay married, and insisted that she truly loved me added weight to my consideration. She seemed to be a very emotionally confused and conflicted person. Then there was the question of my own happiness: did I want to give up what had been, until recently, a very happy marriage, or if possible reclaim it. Did I want to grow old, alone and bitter? Could I count on finding a new love to replace the old? Regardless, I had to make a decision and act, because the way things had been going, I would just push Kathy into Karl's arms permanently. The final factor in favor of my finding a means of reconciling with Kathy was a session that I had with a certified marriage counselor named Bill Wattler. I described the situation to him and he explained what he perceived had happened to Kathy. He also told that in his opinion, the circumstances were so unusual, that if the old emotional bonds between Kathy and Karl were broken, that it would be very unlikely that she would ever stray again. He saw her dalliance as an aberration — one of those classic 'one time' situations. He also told me that if I could persuade her to start marriage counseling sessions, that he thought he could help her understand the 'why' of her infatuation, and to see that her real, solid bond remained with me and our family. At the end of two days of thinking and researching, I had developed "The Plan", as I thought of it — in quotation marks and capital letters. The Plan included knocking Karl out of the picture by destroying the emotional ties that he and Kathy had developed as teenagers. It included destroying his business, and very likely driving him out of the area. It would very likely cost my wife her job and her reputation as a business person. Too bad. And, at the end of it all, if I wasn't satisfied then, I could still toss her out on her ear. Best of all, executed correctly, no one would see my finger prints on the outcome. I was a patient man, and I expected The Plan to come to fruition over a period of two to three months. Maybe as long as four months. Time to savor the situation, no need to rush. I would, from now on, control the scenario. An immediate goal was to buy myself the time that I needed. Keep Kathy as emotionally close and tied to me and our children as I could, and let her juvenile fantasy about Karl play itself out. I was going to use Kathy's love for me to sandbag her, so I needed to convince her of my desire to reconcile. It was Friday afternoon. That afternoon and the following weekend would be the crucial first step to for my scheme to be successful. "Kathy Matthews," she answered the phone. "It's me, Kathy. Paul." I replied, in a flat sort of tone. "Oh Paul! You don't need to tell me who it is, silly, I recognized your voice. I hoped you would call." came her excited voice. "Kathy, I read your letter, and I think that we need to talk about what you said, and see if we can work out a way for us to stay together. I know Jason and Christi need both a loving father and mother, and frankly, I miss you terribly. I love you too, more than you can know or understand." I got through my little speech without sounding sarcastic, indeed sounding surprisingly sincere. "Could you come over to the house and see me?" "Of course, Paul. When?" she asked, breathlessly. "This afternoon, if you could. I could get us some lunch to eat here. I know its short notice..." I teased her to see how much she really wanted this meeting. "Oh, this afternoon would be great!" Kathy sounded so hopeful. "This could take awhile. Can you take the whole afternoon off?" I asked, the spider to the fly. "No problem at all. When should I get there?" she sounded excited as she grabbed the bait. "Whenever you take off for lunch. And please, this is between us for now — not even Evelyn and Todd, or your secretary. You know." I added. The implication was also that this wasn't for Karl's information, either. I assume that if she had anything planned with Karl that evening, she cancelled it. Matthew's House — 12:15 PM It was a little past noon when Kathy walked back through the door to our house, and back into my life. My acting skills had to be top notch. I greeted her at the door, and to her surprise, took her into my arms. Our kiss was passionate, her lips soft and moist and warm against mine, and when I used my tongue to touch her lips, lightly caressing them, her mouth opened, and we shared a deeper kiss that, despite our difficulties, still shook me to my soul, and caused an almost instant erection. When Kathy pulled her head back and looked up at me, she had a huge smile on her face. "Oh, Paul. That was breathtaking. I've missed kissing you so much! Among other things, I might add." she laughed as she spoke. Her hand moved lightly over the front of my slacks, outlining my rather stiff equipment. I had picked up a light Greek take-out lunch, a meal to Kathy's taste , with a Greek salad, lemon chicken, spanakopita, and baklava. To make the lunch complete, I had also purchased a bottle of white retsina wine. We talked a bit as we ate, but nothing serious. Work, the kids. It was an unspoken understanding that we would get to more serious issues after lunch. We each had a glass of retsina. Retsina is wonderful, it has this strong , almost overwhelming, pine resin flavor, albeit it is something of an acquired taste. It also concealed the fact that I had 'flavored' Kathy's wine with a touch of Ecstasy, not much, not as if I was trying to rape her, I didn't need to. Just enough to make her very receptive to sex. I had stocked up on Viagra as well, and had taken one right before she arrived, to give it time to take effect. I didn't want my tool to fail me today, even if I was having a tough time feeling sexy towards my errant wife. To be honest, even looking back, I don't think that it would have been too difficult that day to convince Kathy to have sex with me. She had never said anything to indicate that Karl had any particular sexual prowess, her attachment to him was basically emotional, not sexual. Both a good and bad thing. Kathy wasn't some sort of slut betraying me for short-term sexual satisfaction; but it put our relationship into a precarious position, that she had an long-term emotional attachment to this man. With the 'E' in her system, when I suggested that we had a couple of hours before the children would get home, and that she and I hadn't had sex for a very long time, she was ready to roll. In fact, I suspect that her plan had always been to use sex that day to 'prove' that she still loved me. Regardless, it was a race to the bedroom. I had also prepared myself. I had read up on sexual techniques, as well as acquiring a few 'toys' that I felt might be useful — not just for the pleasure of the day, but to advance The Plan. I was going to make Kathy a very sexually contented woman, and notch up the level of excitement that she expected from our sexual relationship. There was a certain rushed atmosphere to our sex that day. Kathy had the desire to demonstrate her love to me, with the added impetus of the drug that I'd fed her; I had been too long without her carnal favors, and wanted to get my design for the future underway. We practically ripped each other's clothes off, and pulled the coverings off the bed. We were mouth-to-mouth, kissing each other with a desperate need until we laid ourselves on the bed. At that point, I began to stroke and caress Kathy, knowing that her skin would be even more sensitive than normal, while I began to lick and suckle her breasts and nipples. When her nipples became aroused and extended, Kathy loved for me to get just a little rough, using my lips and tongue to squeeze and pull them. She could feel my teeth as well, which didn't bite her, but I always thought that the danger factor — 'they could' hurt her — added to her pleasure. At the same time, I was reaching down and stroking between her legs, on the inner thigh, down to the inner curve of her ass, and then softly running my fingers through the soft down of her outer lips. I gradually moved my fingers closer, until they were touching just the opening of the lips, and as my fingers moved in closer, I could feel the moist heat of her sex. By this time, Kathy was already moaning and lying back with her eyes closed, to better feel my hands, mouth and fingers again exploring her body, renewing my long acquaintance with her secret places, the places that would give her the sensual pleasures that characterized our making 'love.' Alas, she didn't understand that today, for the first time in our marriage, I wasn't making love to her, I was using sex to ensnare and deceive her. She reacted with a groan of disappointment when I pulled my hand away from her sexual center, but it was only so that I could add a scented, warming, oil, to my fingers to smooth any rough skin that might contact her sensitive nether regions. Then came the sigh of pleasure as my fingers returned, this time to enter between the lips, and caress her clitoris — the nerve of pleasure, a woman's 'penis', the sensitivity compressed into a small, narrow appendage. After several gentle strokes up and down on her now swelling clitoris, I would alternate, using my fingers to tease the opening of her vagina, gradually putting them in deeper, exploring, touching. Then back to the outside to keep her clitoris sensitized, expectant, desirous. I finally pulled my mouth from her breasts, and kissed her skin, lightly, as I moved down between her legs. Then my tongue began to move on her clitoris, Kathy moaned again, clearly entering that special kingdom of women, when their bodies' senses overwhelm their reason. One often reads about men rapidly flicking their tongues, sucking and using their teeth on a woman's clitoris, but Kathy really loved me to use slow, firm movements of my tongue, sometimes towards the top of the nerve, other times at the nub just above the vaginal entrance. To that I added my finger, placing it into her vagina, my hand turned palm up, so that I could massage that rough flower that reveals itself in a woman's vagina when she is sexually aroused; the 'G' spot. I moved my finger around, sometimes lightly circling her cervix opening, but then returning to her 'G' spot, and firmly massaging it. She clearly liked what I was doing. With my other hand, I was actually still squeezing her breast, and rolling her erect nipple between my fingers, while completing her with my mouth. I could feel her vaginal muscles twitching, and Kathy was no longer merely moaning, but calling to me, "Oh, god. Oh god, Paul, oh I love you Paul. Oh my god, Paul, don't stop." I knew that she was close when her hands started involuntarily fluttering and moving, then trying to grab the sheets on the bed. When her first orgasm struck, my finger was almost trapped, her vaginal muscles had contracted so hard. I actually stopped moving my tongue, but used it to put pressure on her clitoris, while the tip of my finger continued to slowly move and press on her 'G' spot. Her legs were flailing, until she got her feet flat on the bed, and her entire lower body lifted off the mattress, her back arched, only her shoulders and feet still on the bed. I moved my head and hand with her as she rose. She was still in spasms inside, even when her body relaxed, with my finger still ensconced in her vagina, as she collapsed on her side, I rolled her over on to her stomach. Her clitoris would be too sensitive for a little while, so for the first time in our marriage, I put my face down between her cheeks, and used my tongue to lick and caress her anus. To be honest, although I loved using my tongue on my wife's pussy, I wasn't enthralled with the notion of using my tongue on her anus. But, as it turned out, it really wasn't so bad. And did it ever achieve my intentions. She went wild again! "Ah, oh, oh no, don't stop, oh please, god, oh my god!" I used my tongue as if it were a probe, pushing, moving, letting her feel it enter her, if only for a fraction of an inch, while again stroking her 'G' spot with my fingers, until her second major orgasm had passed. She rolled onto her side, holding herself, continuing to orgasm, even without my ministrations. I went into the adjacent master bathroom, took a quick pee and wiped my face off with a damp cloth, returned to the bed, and she was actually still lying there twitching! Now, came the next phase, as I grabbed her legs and pulled her ass over to the side of the bed. Our mattress set was tall enough that I could stand at the side of the bed and enter my wife's sex, and the standing position gave me an extraordinary amount of control. She still had her eyes closed, and was still breathing hard, when I pulled her legs up, put her feet over my shoulders, and slid my rock hard penis (hey, by this time I was REALLY turned on myself, too,) into her hypersensitive vagina, and began to stroke in and out. Kathy had her eyes closed, and she was breathing, panting really, hard and fast almost immediately, clearly close to another orgasm. This was when I reached down and picked up one of the toys that I had purchased, a soft plastic, realistic dildo (just a normal size one, around the same as me,) with an adjustable speed vibrator. As I said, we had never used any toys like this before, so it would be another surprise for my wife — as well as getting her used to the idea of including other sex aids, which was part of The Plan. I covered the first two or three inches of the toy with some of the scented, warming lube I had used on my hand earlier, and turned the vibrator on to a low speed. Then, as I continued to stroke in and out of her vagina, I spread her legs apart and moved the vibrator/dildo down from the front into the slot between her labia, and began to us it to stimulate her clitoris. With my remaining hand, I reached up, took her nipple between my two fingers, and began pinching and rolling it in a pulsing fashion, slightly harder than I had ever done before. Her response was worth a million dollars to me. She began making animal noises, groans and moans, getting louder and more intense. She tried to get words out, but couldn't. She began to have either a series of orgasms, or a more or less continuous orgasm, I don't know which. But what a feeling of power when I climaxed myself and shot my semen into her pulsing vagina; she felt it, screamed, orgasmed again, and then... she fainted! Good lord, I was shocked. I'd heard about that happening, but I never thought that it would be something that I would see, much less cause. Personally, I think that it was her hyperventilation during that last series of orgasms that caused her to pass out. Well, I thought to myself, you wanted to shake her world, and by golly, if that didn't do it, nothing would. It would be something of an understatement to say that I was pleased by my performance — both sexually and emotionally. I had a passing thought that maybe if I had checked out a few sex manuals and watched a few instructional sex videos before this, maybe Kathy would have never strayed. Too bad, though, that was water under the bridge. First, I checked her out to make sure she was OK. She seemed fine; she was breathing, her heart beating. Then I lifted her back onto her side of the bed, and put a pillow under her head, and covered her with the sheet, before turning and going back into the bathroom. By this time, I really needed to piss again. After draining about a quart out of my bladder, I realized I was completely parched. I filled a glass with water and drank it all. It occurred to me that Kathy might need something as well, so I refilled the glass, and walked back into the bedroom carrying it. She had re-entered the land of the living by the time I returned. She was lying under the sheet, looking at me and smiling, but incongruous tears were dripping down her cheeks. I handed her the glass of water, and she sat up a little, and drank. When she finished, I took the glass back and put it on the bedside table. Kathy lay back down again. "Paul, you've made me so happy. I've never experienced such intense pleasure before in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you, my love." Kathy said, smiling, with that particularly languid post-coital look on her face, taking my hand in hers, holding it and kissing it. "Then why are you crying, sweetest?" I asked her. "I'm sorry, its just that I'm so overwhelmed." she answered, reaching out and putting her arms around me as I sat on the edge of the bed. "As wonderful as making love with you has been in the past, this was the best ever for me. And it made me so happy that I can't help crying." The tears started again. "Paul? Promise me that you'll never leave me." came a quiet, pleading request. "I won't leave you, my love." I replied, but we both knew that it was not I who had 'left' our marriage. "I'm sorry," came Kathy's voice, " I know that we need to talk, but I'm so exhausted, could I take a little nap?" "Of course, my love, there are a couple of hours before the children will be home. Let me pull the blackout shades, and I'll waken you in time for you to take a shower before dinner. OK?" I offered. "That would be great." came the sleepy reply. It seemed to me as if she had fallen to sleep before I could even get my pants back on. I left her to recover. I didn't shower, I just put my clothes back on. When Kathy recovered, I wanted her to smell the odor of our sex on me the rest of the evening, just to remind her. Step one in my plan: applying new glue between my wife and me, and our family. Later in the afternoon, I woke her in time for her to shower and dress before the kids got home from soccer. I had arranged for Kathy's sister Evelyn to bring them home. Suspicion Ch. 02: Alternate I sat on the edge of the tub in the bathroom, watching her as she prepared to enter the shower stall. Just before she was about to get into the water she turned to me, "Paul," she asked, "where did you learn to do those things that you did today?" I laughed, "Kathy, do you remember that blond bimbo secretary who works in Human Resources?" I was joking, but when I glanced at Kathy's face, there was a look of horror on it. She hadn't considered that breaking the bonds of marriage could go both ways. "I'm joking, honey! Please, don't cry. I got some books and DVDs on enhancing sexual pleasure. They're in the bedroom. In fact, I was hoping that we might both look them over to find new things that we might want to try out. With each other," I reassured her. She looked relieved after that. *** Kathy was standing next to me, clinging to me as if I might vanish if she didn't hold me tight, when the children arrived. Jason and Christi were delighted to find their mother there, waiting for them as she used to. "Are you staying home with us now, Mom?" Christi cried. Jason didn't say anything, he just looked at her awaiting her answer. With incipient tears in her eyes, Kathy looked at me. "For at least the weekend, Kathy?" came my question, to which she smiled and nodded her head to me. "We still need to talk, sweetheart. I haven't forgotten." she added. I nodded back at her, "After dinner when the kids are in bed. OK, my love?" I phrased it as a question, but it was really a statement. Dinner was easy — we ordered pizza! That is always a hit with our kids, and I could tell that even though Kathy had been seeing the kids after I had kicked her out of the house, it was still different and better for her to be with all of us together. That gave me a certain hope for the future, as well as additional leverage to use in making her understand that her real emotional family was the three of us. When the kids were finally down for the night, Kathy and I sat down in the living room together to finally have our talk. We put our chairs close together, facing each other, and Kathy reached out to put my hands on her lap, holding them with her hands. All evening she'd been constantly finding ways to touch or hold me. I actually regarded our discussion as a negotiation in which I was going to manipulate my wife's behavior to my advantage, and to advance The Plan. I opened up the discussion. "Kathy, I want to be frank with you. I decided that I want to continue our marriage, and that the best way for that to happen was to have you back living with us, at least most of the time." She looked a bit confused when I said 'most of the time', but I continued. "My hope is that the 'relationship' that you have developed with your old boyfriend will be a transient thing, something that you will get over." I began. Kathy was looking at me, and I could see that she was listening intently, if perhaps a little skeptical when I described Karl as a 'transient' thing. I continued, "I believe that I can understand to some extent what happened. You and Karl — yes, it hurts me to even say his name, but I'm a big boy, and man enough to acknowledge his existence — had an emotional and loving experience together, that was suddenly broken apart by circumstances entirely out of your control. "So a relationship that either would have either gotten closer, with the two of you marrying, or alternatively, would have wound down, as most teenage 'love affairs' do, was simply frozen in time, without a true resolution one way or another, and with only positive memories about each other. "I can imagine the shock of suddenly being confronted by someone who you had loved, and finding that there were still feelings there, submerged, not gone. "I don't want you to try telling me that you won't see him, since I don't believe it, and I don't want you sneaking around behind my back. So I think that you and I should try to be together, but with specific time set aside where, if you still feel the need, you can spend time with Karl. I paused. Kathy's eyes teared up "Paul, you are such an insightful man. I think that you know me better than I know myself." came Kathy's reply. That wasn't bad. I was just regurgitating what the marriage counselor had told me, but I was getting credit for wisdom and insight. Kathy was really impressed and paying close attention. "Now, we will need to set up a fixed schedule for when you will have your 'free time', but there are a few conditions that I want, nothing that I think you will find onerous, for us to reconcile," I explained. Kathy nodded, still looking serious, but actually rather optimistic. "First, I want you to start seeing a marriage counselor. His name is Bill Wattler, and I have been seeing him. He has helped me a lot. I would like you to see him by yourself a couple of times to discuss your situation and feelings, and explain how we have come to this impasse. Of course, I am willing to go together with you as well, but I would like you to see him one-on-one first. He is a certified professional, and is a neutral party who doesn't have an axe to grind, and won't try to push you in any direction," I paused again, and looked at her. She squeezed my hands in hers, and smiled at me before replying. "Of course, sweetheart, I would be happy to see him. Based on how you've been treating me today, he must have helped you a great deal. We can set up an appointment on Monday," she agreed. "Wonderful. A second issue regards our families and friends," I continued, "At least for now, and unless we decide to get a divorce, I do not want you to engage in any activities including OUR friends, with Karl. You can do what you want with HIS friends, or people who don't know US as a couple, but please, don't humiliate me in front of people who I have to face every day. And that includes even Evelyn and Todd and their children. If any of our friends ask us over for an activity during one of your 'Karl' times, you can pass on it, I'll come up with some excuse, but please leave me with some dignity," I said, with tearing visible in my eyes. "Oh, darling, I would never want to humiliate you like that! Of course, I understand. I want you to know, that when I've been with Karl, we've gone out of town if we were having dinner or a movie, or anything in public." A small, almost bitter smile came across Kathy's face, "Of course, I had been hoping you wouldn't find out, but I guess that isn't the issue anymore. But, I promise you, I will be discrete," she finished. Like as if I hadn't already been humiliated. Goodness, how could this woman fool herself so? "This may surprise you," I said, "I want you to keep your apartment, at least until we are sure that our arrangement will work out. I'm sorry, I know this is just another male ego thing, but I want to have at least the fig leaf that when you leave the kids and me here, that you aren't just running into your lover's arms, and into his bed. I want to truthfully tell the kids that as far as I know, when you aren't with us, that you are at your apartment." Again, Kathy's face reflected the pain in mine, as she nodded her head at me. "That's fine, Paul. In fact I want you to know something: Karl has never been to my apartment, I've kept it as 'my' retreat," Kathy sniffed a little as she told me that. "OK. Now for the tough part, setting up a schedule," I started and looked again a Kathy's face, "Have you thought about how we would 'share' your time, your family and your lover?" "Well," she looked off into the distance for a second, "I just more or less thought that I would split my time between you. To be honest, I hadn't really thought it out in detail." "I'm not surprised, but I have a few thoughts that I want to run by you," I said rather firmly, since this was a key issue that I wanted for my plan. "We should have a fixed schedule," I asserted," so that I will know when your 'free time' is, and won't be expecting to see you. Once the schedule is fixed, that's it; we won't be changing the schedule if Karl has a problem with his business, and I won't disturb you or try to reschedule if you or I have to work late, or some sort of similar problem would occur during 'our' time with you. That's how real life is," I paused, "The only exception to that rule is if there were an emergency with the kids, then I would reach out to you at any time." As I completed my thought, I looked at her again to see if she was on board. Kathy was nodding her head. "I would expect it, Paul," she agreed. "Now, I think that the split in time should be 80% with your family, and limited to 20% with Karl, and let me explain why," I was now going to set the stage, "Before your long lost lover showed up," I couldn't help the dig, but went on anyway, "There were three of us sharing your time, the children and I. Now, there is suddenly another party getting a 'share' of what had been our time. You know, of course, that most of 'our' time together is occupied by things that are really family responsibilities and obligations — kids doing homework, going to their soccer practices and games, doing the shopping, the laundry — you know the list. To be truthful, I doubt that I actually have one-on-one time with you ten percent of the time that we are 'together'! When you are with Karl, on the other hand, it's all PARTY time! You and he have nothing but one-on-one time. You can go out to dinner; no need to worry about a babysitter because you have good ol' Dad to take care of the kids. You can go dancing, take in a movie or the theater. No worries. Go back to his place and have sex — all undisturbed, no potential for kids walking in; make as much noise as you want." "That's why I think that the split that I'm proposing is fair. Actually, I think it is still unfair to me, compared to Karl, but I'm willing to accept that my time with the children has its own value, that he can't benefit from." "And the schedule has to take into account the 'quality' of the time as well. Karl is not entitled to have you over the weekends, and we get you during the week. Consider that we had some great 'alone' time today, and consequently had some great sex. But to find that time, we both had to take time off work, in the middle of the day, something we can't do all of the time. So can we work out something in that framework?" I asked Kathy, seriously not knowing how she would react. She had a serious look on her face, and she was nodding her head. "I can see that you've thought this through very throughly, Paul, and it seems as fair as any arrangement could be," came Kathy's slow response. "Then," I said, "let's each get a calendar and work out the next couple of months." Which we did, sitting side-by-side at the table. And what a mess it was! One Sunday a month was 'free time', as was one Friday evening after Kathy finished work, until noon (at the latest,) the following day. Every eight weeks, there was an entire 'free' weekend for Karl, and then the rest of the 'free' time was filled in during the evenings of the week. To be honest, I wasn't too worried about this schedule, because it was going to be moot one way or the other within a couple of months. But Kathy, not knowing any better, was very serious about it, trying to be completely fair. So she consulted her schedules for birthdays and anything that was already scheduled for 'us' and made sure that they wouldn't fall on 'free' days. Women are so organized, it's lovely to watch. It was about 11:00 P.M. when we finished, and after a hard week, and the earth-shattering sex we'd had that afternoon, we were ready for bed. Suddenly Kathy couldn't seem to look into my face, but cast her eyes towards the floor. "Should I make up the guest bed to sleep in?" came her timid query. "Heavens, woman! I took you in 'our' bed this afternoon, and that's where you sleep again, from now on!" came my immediate response. Kathy had a smile back on her face as we walked up the stairs to our bedroom, still holding hands. In bed, we hugged and kissed, and Kathy told me I smelled of sex ("How could that be?" I joked,) but we were both worn out, and Kathy slipped away to a peaceful sleep shortly afterwards. I lay there looking at the black ceiling, counting my victories in my mind. The Plan was advancing. First, I had convinced Kathy to go to marriage counselor who I knew regarded her relationship with Karl as a fantasy, a juvenile infatuation, and who would try to bring an end to it. Second, I had convinced her to keep Karl her 'little secret', something that was partly my ego, but also a means of keeping them isolated as a couple from friends and family. She would keep her apartment, which was one of the more underhanded parts of The Plan. And most important: by accepting my schedule ideas and other demands, she was acquiescing to living under my rules. I was not at all happy at sharing Kathy's time (and pussy,) with Karl, but I was sure that he would be even more unhappy. After all, compared with the previous couple of months, his time with Kathy would be greatly reduced, and he would know it was because I was retaking control. I slept very well that night, spooned up against my prodigal wife. I was going to kill her with kindness! Because this story is derivative, I am turning off the voting, but I am keeping the comments turned on. There is a warning: if you have something intelligent to say, fine, whether it agrees with the story or not. I will delete the (alas) too typical one-liners insulting the characters as whores, or wimps, etc. Make a point, discuss the reasons for your views, got no problem with that. Also I know about STDs, so don't harp on them — it's fiction, so there's some lattitude. Suspicion Ch. 02 I opened the envelope on the third day. I sat alone in my office after telling my secretary not to disturb me. There appeared to be about a dozen pages in the envelope. They were written in Kathy's beautiful cursive handwriting. Just seeing her hand writing gave a sudden jolt to my chest. At first, I thought about feeding those pages to the paper shredder.. But I didn't. Slowly, with tears forming in my eyes I began to read the first page. ****************************** My dearest loving husband, It is my sincere wish that you read this entire letter before you make your final decision about the future of our marriage. Since we have been unable to sit down face-to-face and discuss the situation we find ourselves in at this time, my only recourse is to write you this letter and try my best to explain everything concerning this crisis from my prospective. I know that some of what I have to say, you may find contradictory and irrational from your point of view. Still, I need at least to do my best to communicate the facts as I see them. First and most important, I want you to know that I truly love you more today than I did the day we were married. You must believe this fact even if you doubt everything else I have to say in this letter. These past 16 years have been the best years of my life and I owe all of them to you and our wonderful children. And I truly wish to remain your wife for the rest of my life. Second, you need to know that none of what has happened recently was any fault of yours. Your are the most wonderful husband a woman could ever ask for. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, in you or your relationship with me drove me into the arms of another man. You completely satisfied me in and out of the bedroom. What has happened was not due to any deficiency in you. Thirdly, I have no clear explanation of the how and why things turned out the way they have. I never in my wildest dreams (or nightmares) could have envisioned a scenario which would have brought you and I to this critical junction in our lives. If what follows in this letter turns out to be disjointed or jumbled, please bear with me. It's a hard story to tell and I hope I can tell it so you can fully understand why I am in this heart-wrenching dilemma. And why I still am begging to you not to end our marriage. My story starts out during my sophomore year at Crestview High School. I was a happy young girl who was just beginning to blossom into a lovely young woman. It was in March of that year, three months before end of the school year, that Karl Gerring transferred into Crestview. Karl's dad was a major in the US Army who was sent to help with the training of the reserve soldiers at the local armory. The Gerring family moved into a rental house about three miles from the high school. The opposite direction from where I lived. Karl ended up in three of my classes: English literature, trigonometry, and biology. It was obvious from the first week that the school Karl had previously attended was not on par with Crestview's curriculum. Karl was having a hard time keeping up with the rest of the class. One day, on a dare from my best girl-friend Betty, I went over to sit with Karl during lunch period. He was sitting by himself. I guess he was trying to figure out how to break into the school's student body instead of being looked on as an outsider. Karl was a little surprised and I think somewhat happy when I asked if I could sit with him. This first lunch meeting was just an introduction. It ended up that Karl and I had lunch everyday from then on. Betty even joined us most of the time. That's when Karl told us about his dad, his mom and his little sister Jennifer. The Gerring family had moved around the country and several overseas locations in the 20 years Karl's parents were married. Such was life for the family of a career soldier. After that first week of lunch meetings, Betty and I began to tutor Karl in the classes he was having trouble keeping up. The three of us formed a study group which helped Karl enough that he graduated to junior grade with a 3.2 average. We were all proud of his accomplishment. Yet during all that time, neither Betty nor I actually dated Karl. We were just happy to hang out together and enjoy each other's company. That summer, between our sophomore and junior years, Karl was sent to his grandparents' ranch in Idaho. I was pretty bummed out for those three months till school started and Karl returned from Idaho. Even though Karl and I had not been on a formal date, I was beginning to have some very strong feelings for him. I even challenged Betty to see if she was becoming infatuated with Karl. But, Betty had her eyes set on a different guy in our class. Before school began in the Fall, I knew I would get Karl for my steady boy friend when he returned. After Karl returned for the Fall semester, it was obvious something was wrong in his life. I finally got him to tell me that his father was not happy with his current assignment and was pressing his superior officers to transfer him to an active duty unit somewhere in Europe. The thought of relocating again had both Karl and his mother very upset. Within the first month of starting back to school, Karl and I had our first date. I was on cloud nine. I had someone who I was truly falling in love with. You might think it was puppy-love or just a teenage crush, but in fact, it was more than that. As Karl and I became exclusive with one another, we found that we were emotionally compatible and that our ideals were very similar. Even though Karl and I were steady dates, we never had sex together. There were some nights parked in his car where some very heavy petting and groping took place, but we never crossed the line. He never fingered me or asked me to touch his genitals. Both Karl and I thought sex was to be saved for marriage. We would often sit in his car, looking at the stars and telling each other the various versions of how our life would be after we got married. Karl was adamant that he would not become an Army officer like his father. He saw the effect all the moving around from base to base had on his family's life. That was not the life he wanted for his new family. He looked forward to settling down, establishing roots in one town with one woman and a house full of kids. The holiday season came around very fast that year, or at least it seemed that way to me. On Christmas eve, Karl gave me a friendship ring which he said was to be my pre-engagement ring. It was a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for me. Spring came racing around as the bond between Karl and I grew stronger and stronger. I was fearful he would be sent back to his grandparents' ranch again once school let out for the summer. He told me he would fight that decision and find a summer job somewhere around town. It was the last month of the school year when the bomb dropped. Karl's father had finally convinced his superior officers he would be able to contribute more to the Army at an active duty station. He got his transfer orders to Stuttgart Germany. Karl came to school the next day and I immediately knew something was terribly wrong. My first thought was that his father was going to send him back to his garndparents for the summer. When Karl told me he and his family were moving to Germany by the end of June my world literally exploded. I broke down in hysterics and had to be sent to the nurse's office. I was a total wreck for the remainder of the school year. My grades plummeted. If it had not been for my previous high grades, I would never have passed on to my senior year. All kind of thoughts raced through my mind. I even told Karl we should run away and elope. But Karl was the cooler head. He knew we were way too young to make it on our own. The day finally came when Karl's family left for the airport and their new life in Germany. Our farewell was like someone tearing my heart out while it was still beating. I was totally devastated. It was a good thing we were out of school for the summer. My parents saw the depression I was in and managed to get me into counseling and therapy before school began in September. The therapy did help me and I continued with it through all of my senior year. Karl and I wrote daily letters to each other. You have to remember this was the time before the Internet and email. Our letters were both loving and sorrowful. We missed each other and I firmly believe the separation was increasing our love for each other. I did not date any other guys during my senior year. In fact, I did not even attend the Senior Prom at the end of the year. I was Karl's girl and I would remain faithful to him no matter what. Instead of chasing and dating other boys in my senior class, I concentrated all of my efforts on improving my grade point average and making a high score on my SAT test. All of that effort paid off in the form of acceptance and a scholarship to Cal Berkley. My sister Evelyn was already a student at Cal Berkley. She would be able to help me with the relocation and getting me started on campus. All of those wonderful things made me very happy. In his letters, Karl also praised my efforts and the results. Still, I didn't look forward to the summer with us still thousands of miles apart. In August, the second bomb went off but it was not as immediate in its destructive force as the first bomb about the Gerring's move to Germany. This time the bomb came as a interruption to the stream of daily letters which Karl and I exchanged. There was an entire week where I didn't get any mail from Karl. I became very worried about Karl and I even tried to contact him by phone. That didn't work out, the phone number had been changed. In the next letter I received from Karl, he told me his dad had been accidentally killed during a training exercise. His letter was very short and he told me he was having difficulties with his mother. He did not elaborate. I continued sending my daily letters to Karl trying to extend my sympathy for the loss of his father and trying to give him some encouragement during those very tough times. The last letter I received from Karl told me his mother was very sick and she had been sent to a hospital. He was now trying his best to care for his younger sister and to put the family things in order. He signed his letter professing his undying love for me and stating one day we would be together. I continued to write Karl every day even though I was not receiving any response. September found me on the campus of Cal Berkley with my sister Evelyn. I was not sure I was emotionally ready to take on the challenges of university life. All I could think of was my true love in Germany facing some extremely hard tasks and I was not there to help him. If it had not been for Evelyn helping me through those first months at the university, I'm sure I would have flunked out. It was during the Thanksgiving holidays the first of my letters was returned to me marked "Return to Sender. Addressee unknown." That small notice on the envelope was like a dagger through my heart. I had not gotten a letter from Karl in over a month. Now it seemed he would not be receiving any of my letters. I was a lost soul. Nothing in my life seemed to matter to me any more. I felt I could have died and not regretted leaving my empty world. Once again it was Evelyn and her constant 'mothering' which gave me the courage to move forward. I finally had to resume my therapy. This time it was with a different therapist. Through her help and guidance I pulled myself together and once again focused all of my energy on my studies and future career. Still, something deep inside was missing. It must have been part of my soul because I felt spiritually numb and void. After a full year of not hearing anything back from Karl, I pushed his memory to the back of my mind and essentially laid him to rest. All of his previous letters were packed in several shoe boxes and stored in the back of my closet. As a side note, Paul. You never knew about those letters. I kept them stored away until the day you proposed marriage to me. Your love and that proposal began to heal my wounded soul. That weekend, I burned all of Karl's letters and scattered the ashes into San Francisco Bay. Karl was finally put to rest forever...or so I thought. I never told you about Karl. And I told all of my family never to mention him to you or to me, ever. What followed after college, were 16 of the most wonderful years that a woman, a wife and a mother could ever ask for in her entire lifetime. You must believe those words, Paul. They are the absolute truth. This next section of my explanation may sound strange and some of it absolutely absurd. There will be things in this letter that defy logic and rationality. Yet, after all the dust of my words has settled, you will find one terribly torn and bedeviled woman. A woman who has had to come face-to-face with some very serious revelations in her life. As you know, one of my major responsibilities at Cablenex is to review and approve all subcontractors who perform work or services for Cablenex. The review process of my department focuses on the subcontractor's past and present compliance with all of the State and Federal labor laws. We do not issue work contracts to subcontractors who employ illegal immigrants or who violate the work hour laws. Subcontractors are required to fill out a lengthy application form in order to qualify for a Cablenex contract. These applications are screened by two of my assistants and those applicants who pass the initial screening are then sent to my office for my review. It was March 22nd when a stack of applications were placed on my desk. There were six folders for my review which I began right after lunch. The third folder I opened was the application form from the KG Construction Company. I read the summary page that Loretta, my assistant, had done as part of her initial review. Her summary comments were very favorable for KG Construction. So I began to read the details on the application form. When I got to the section of ownership of the company, it was like I was just slammed into a brick wall at 60 miles an hour. Karl Gerring, sole owner of KG Construction company. I don't know how long it took me to catch my breath after reading Karl's name on the application. My mind seemed to explode inside my head. Confusion reigned supreme inside my shell shocked mind. Could this person be MY Karl Gerring? Could this person be the Karl Gerring who had professed his undying love for me so many years ago? The rest of that day was a total waste for me. I told Loretta to do some more detailed background checking on KE Construction Company and the owner, Karl Gerring. I left work early that day and came home to try and get my mind under control again. I needed you and the children around me to reinforce the loving bond we share as a family. As hard as I tried, I could not entirely push the thought of Karl back into that dark cold dudgeon where his memory had been imprisoned for over 20 years. I remember we had a great family night with the four of us chatting and enjoying several games of Scrabble before the children went off to bed. I also remember that we did not make love that night even though I was in the mood to have you take me intimately. The rest of the week for me was like working in a forced labor camp. I drove myself exceedingly hard to keep my focus on the daily assignments. Friday came and went with Loretta still doing her background check on KG Construction. Saturday and Sunday were totally hectic days for me, on purpose. Every small project I had postponed up to that point I jumped on with gusto. You even remarked that I must have taken a double dose of my morning vitamins. It was a Herculean task inside my mind to suppress the thoughts of Karl from overwhelming my conscious mind. Monday morning, Loretta came in with another small stack of application folders. She told me the background check on KG Construction was on top. She left my office and closed the door behind her. I remember looking at the top folder as if it were a poisonous snake ready to strike. It took me several minutes of staring at the folder before I reached over and opened the folder. There on the first page of the background check was all the information I needed to confirm that this Karl Gerring was in fact MY Karl Gerring. The report also indicated that he was single, divorced for eight years and living in Gilmore about 26 miles from my office. My body went cold as the flood of suppressed memories slammed into my conscious mind like a Tsunami wave. All of those feeling which I thought were long forgotten and buried rose up and shook me to my core. It was impossible for me to think any thoughts other than thoughts of Karl and the young love we shared so briefly 20 years ago. Once again, I turned to Evelyn for her advice and console. She knew there was a serious problem when I came to her house early in the afternoon to talk to her. She was the only living relative who knew about Karl and the relationship we shared before his father was killed in Germany. She had always been my rock and steadfast advisor. Now I needed her advice more than ever. After telling Evelyn about my discovery, she had a very bewildering look on her face. It took her several minutes to composed her thoughts before she told me I must forget all about Karl and leave his memory rest in peace. Although it wasn't necessary, she reminded me about the fabulous life we have as a family. She told me Karl was in the past and must remain in the past if I wished to keep our family whole. I knew she was right. I knew I had everything a woman could possible want or expect in a loving family relationship. Still, there was the nagging voice of curiosity that wouldn't shut up inside my mind. The following week my curiosity could no longer be contained. I had Loretta set up a meeting with Mr. Karl Gerring for the following afternoon. Karl had no way of knowing who I was other than I was the final person in the approval process. He was just asked to come to Mrs. Kathy Matthews' office the next afternoon. Despite all my efforts to control myself, my emotions were a raging inferno. What would happen during that first meeting? Would Karl remember me? Would there be any feelings left between us? I didn't sleep very well that night. Driving to work that morning was like driving to wake. The apprehension was almost overwhelming. My conscience was in full rebellion. Every nerve in my body was frazzled. At 2:30 there was a knock on my door and Loretta stuck her head around the door to tell me Mr. Karl Gerring was here for his 2:30 appointment. Karl stepped into my office and Loretta closed the door. There was a split second where Karl looked at me with a confused look on his face. Then he simply ask, "Kathy? Is that you, Kathy?" I stood up from my desk on legs which seemed as if they were made of rubber. "Yes, Karl. It's me. Kathy." Neither one of us knew what to say next. It was silence for a very long second. Then I told him to take a seat in front of my desk. I could tell Karl was is a mild state of shock at seeing me for the first time in over 20 years. He wasn't sure what he should do or say. I asked him how he was and commented on the fact he was looking very fit and healthy. Still, he was having trouble coming to grips with the situation. I changed topics and then began to tell him about the approval process. He just sat there not saying a word as I told him his application had been approved and that he would be able to contact the Director of Installations to receive his contract assignments. How I managed to speak to him for over 15 minutes without breaking down like a quivering bowl of Jell-O I'll never know. I just smiled politely when I was done and asked if he had any questions about the contract or the work. He just slowly shook his head 'No' but his eyes never left my face. Suspicion Ch. 02 When I indicated the meeting was over, he was very slow to rise from the chair. As he got to his feet, he finally seemed to gain some control over his initial shock. He thanked me for approving his company and then he said he would like to meet with me for lunch. I told him we could meet the next day at Brandon's restaurant across the street from my office. He looked pleased at my response but was still unsure how to end the meeting. So he just smiled and said he would meet me at Brandon's the next day at noon. After Karl left my office, I slumped back into my chair. There was a tightness in my chest as I realized the first lover in my life had just been resurrected from the dead. Nothing happened the next day over lunch except that Karl told me the awful details of what happened after his father was killed. His mother had always been a frail woman. The news of her husband's death caused a nervous breakdown. She had to be committed to a mental hospital. Karl was now forced to assume the role as the head of the family. There was his little sister he had to comfort and support. The Army arranged for Karl and Jennifer to be sent back to live with the grandparents. Their mother remained behind in the mental hospital as Karl and his little sister returned to Idaho. Before Karl and his sister had settled in at their grandparents', they were given the news that their mother had committed suicide in the hospital. In the brief period of less than a month, Karl and Jennifer were orphans. Karl told me his grief and the burden placed upon him with the deaths of his parents was the major reason he stopped writing to me. He felt he would no longer be able to uphold the promises he made to me. There were other more serious demands placed on him. He wanted me to be happy and to move my life forward. So he stopped writing to me in hopes I would find another man to love. At no time during the lunch conversation did Karl make any statements that he wanted to become a part of my life again. He knew I was married and the mother of two children. I believe he was sincerely happy for me and for my life as your wife. The luncheon ended with a hand shake as Karl walked to his car in the parking lot. I went back to my office and tried to get on with my daily work. Unfortunately for me those early memories would not go away as much as I tried to push them into the background. Evelyn continued to advise me not to see Karl again and for me to forget about him. I never told her any more about my meetings with Karl. I guess I was too ashamed to tell her of my adultery. Paul, I really did try to follow Evelyn's advise. For over a week I wrestled with my internal demons. The following week, I finally gave in and called Karl and asked if we could meet for lunch again. That next luncheon was the beginning of my infidelity. There was no seduction or sex involved. But during our meal, I confessed to Karl the fact I had never stopped loving him. He confessed the same to me. At that moment, I knew I needed to have Karl as part of my life once again. It was me, Paul, not Karl who started the wheels in motion for what would become several sexual tryst for us before you made your discovery. Somewhere in the following weeks I became a different person. Somehow I began to feel I was two different women living in the same body. When I was with you and the children, I was the same loving wife and mother I had always been. When I was with Karl, I was that young girl again finding my lost love and once again having him in my arms. I knew it was wrong. No excuses, no defense for my actions. All I can truly say to you Paul, is my love for you has never diminished. Contrary to many stories you may have read, there was never any competition between you and Karl in my mind. You are my husband and he could never be my husband. Those were my thoughts during those days of confusion and turmoil for me. Never, and I mean NEVER, did I ever consider leaving you for Karl. All I can hope for at this juncture in our lives is that you will reconsider your decision to proceed with the divorce. I do not want to be the ex-Mrs. Paul Matthews. I want to remain your wife and to live together as we have since we were married. But as much as I would like to say to you that I will never see Karl again, I would only be lying to you. Karl is back in my life and I don't want to lose him again. This is not the way a marriage is supposed to work, my darling husband. But, I cannot help myself for feeling the way I do now. It is my wish we can some way come to an arrangement which would permit us to live together as the family we have always been, and to share it with my dual life. If you can find it within your heart to meet with me, maybe I could better explain my feelings and answer any questions you may have of me. But, my darling husband, I desperately want to remain your loving wife. I love you now and forever. Your loving wife. Kathy ********************* I sat there with the letter in my hand. I now knew more about Karl and Kathy than I had before about their past relationship. It may have been a lost unfulfilled teenage romance for Kathy and Karl, but I would not be any part of its fulfillment. Kathy's letter was a true confession, but it changed nothing in my mind. I knew now there could never be a full reconciliation between us. She once again told me she needed Karl to be part of her life. There was no way I could be apart of that arrangement. I put the letter back in the envelope and filed it away for some future date when I would let Jason and Christi read it and understand why their parents divorced. I went silent about reading the letter. Evelyn finally stopped me several days later and asked me if I had read the letter. "It changes nothing. Whatever Kathy and I had for 16 years is now over. I do not care to meet with her or ever see her again. The divorce will be finalized next week." I turned and walked away from a very sad soon to be sister. ********************** Epilogue: The divorce decree was finalized without me being in attendance. I had my attorney attend the hearing when the decree was made official. I was told Kathy was there and cried as the judge issued the pronouncement. I had my wish. I was never forced to come face-to-face with Kathy. Whenever necessary, I would inform her of my plans with the children through her sister. The instructions would simply be for her to remain away from us and not to try and interfere with them. In effect, she no longer existed in my world. Six months after the divorce, Kathy and Karl married. Over the next two years, they Kathy gave birth to a baby boy. They remained living in Gilmore. Kathy's close relationship with Jason and Christi continued over the years. Christi was especially thrilled when her mother gave birth to her new step brother. I never met with Kathy or her family after the divorce. In my mind, she died the day I made my fateful discovery. I remained the stern and loving father who became totally involved with the children as they grew up. I refuse to go any dates with the numerous females who constantly tried to become involved with me. Kathy was the only woman I would ever love enough to want to be intimate with. In place of sex and female companionship, I focused my attention on the children, my job and I even became involved in local politics. Love may be a many splendored thing, but love can also be a very destructive force when Cupid decides to play his practical jokes. So it was for Kathy and me. - Fini - ********************************** So my dear readers, you have my version of the end of the Paul and Kathy story. I'm sure that there are a number of you who would like to tar and feather Paul for the way he shunned his wife and refused to meet with her. I can only say that in Paul's mind Kathy's betrayal of his love and trust was the ultimate crime. Her infidelity decimated his soul. Could he have possibly forgiven her if she swore the affair was over and Karl was no longer her lover? Quite possibly. But that's not the story I wanted to tell. Too many of Literotica's Loving Wives stories end with the contrite wife vowing her love and renewed faithfulness to her husband only. I thought a different twist might just get the readers' attention. Or maybe just their ire. Feel free to pen your own Chapter 2 of Suspicion. It's a story that could have many different endings. Especially if you can convince Paul to open up his marriage. Suspicion Ch. 03 The next morning Kathy and I woke at about 6:00 A.M. She looked over at me, her head still on her pillow, smiling. "Time for some more loving, darling?" she said. "Love to, but we've got soccer games starting at 8:30," I replied. "Oh, damn, I forgot. Shower?" came her next question. "That sounds great, but not too long, we've got to make breakfast too, before we leave," I answered, with just that gentle reminder that I had been there for the children since she'd been gone. The shower together was wonderful, almost like the 'good old days', i.e. before Karl, and while we didn't have time for sex, there was a certain amount of sex play, as Kathy soaped and washed my cock, and I cleaned her pussy, tits and ass. Love getting my hands on that body. Plenty of kissing and touching though, and I remembered again how much I'd missed having her here with me. Getting the kids up, feeding them and making sure they had everything they needed for their soccer games took up the time until we had to leave. Kathy's car was out in front of the house, but we all crawled into the minivan to go to their games. This was another control issue from my perspective: he who controls the minivan controls the agenda. This Saturday, I controlled our movements. We had been there at the soccer fields for about an hour, watching the kids play, Kathy saying 'hi' to people who she hadn't seen since we split. Again, like the night before, she was finding some way to be touching me, holding my hand, my arm, or her arm around my waist, almost the entire time. At about 9:30, her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller I.D., and then at me. I nodded my head, and she moved off about fifteen or twenty feet, and spoke for a couple of minutes before returning to my side. "Paul," she started, "I know this is family time, but could I leave for 30 or 40 minutes. I have to explain the situation about the schedule..." I nodded. "I understand you need to go this time. Go ahead and talk to Karl, but understand that this can't happen again. We decided on the schedule, and we will keep our times completely separate." I explained. "OK, hon, I agree completely," she replied, "I'm going to the Starbuck's in the mall, and I should be back real soon. I gave her the keys to the minivan, a kiss on the check, and a little swat to her rear as she turned to walk away. She did one of those little jumps, turned her head back at me and laughed and smiled. I think that she was happy that I was doing things that a husband does with his wife in public to stake his claim. At the edge of the field, she turned again before getting in the car, and waved. I waved back. At the Starbuck's "That's just the way its got to be, Karl. You know that I love you, but I love Paul too, and I need to keep my marriage intact. So we'll have to live with the schedule." Kathy explained to the clearly unhappy Karl. "Come on, Kathy. It's just a lot of time for 'them' and not much time for 'us'!" Karl complained. "Karl, you're not married and don't have kids, so you don't understand. Our time together is just you and me, one-on-one, doing things that we want to together. The 'them' is two children and a husband, and for that matter, other family members. And 'their' time includes all of the family responsibilities — doing homework, taking the kids to soccer practice, lessons, doing laundry, ironing, shopping. It isn't like I'm spending with all the time with Paul. I think that you're getting a fair share of the time. Maybe more than a fair share — I doubt that Paul will have nearly as much of my attention during a month as you will," came Kathy's reply. It didn't occur to her that she was basically repeating the arguments that Paul had made to her the night before. "I guess I'll have to live with it," came Karl's grudging acquiescence, "But I'm kind of pissed that you're letting your husband shove this schedule thing down our throats!" "Karl! He didn't shove ANYTHING down ANYONE'S throat. He and I sat there last night and worked it out together, as a compromise. I actually picked and set the days myself. I'm sorry, I tried to be as fair as I could to you, but my family needs me too!" came Kathy's somewhat heated response. "OK, OK, I get it; this is the way its going to be. I just hope that you can make it without our great sex for the entire weekend!" Karl said, with a grin, trying to lighten the mood. "Karl, our relationship has never been just about sex, especially considering..." Kathy let out without thinking. She blushed slightly, remembering the REALLY great sex that she'd had with her husband the afternoon before. "Especially considering what?" came a rather aggressive question from Karl. "Oh.. especially considering that with the fixed schedule, we aren't running around behind Paul's back, and I don't have to worry about explaining why I'm not home; I should be able to relax and have an even better time when we are together," Kathy got her words out, covering well for the disconcerting fact that she was sitting conversing with her lover, but suddenly hot for her husband. "Anyway," she continued, "I've got to get back. I'll see you Wednesday night, after work. That will give you time to think about what we want to do for the evening." Karl grinned at her, as they pulled their chairs back and stood up. "I already know what I want to do, baby!" he said, stepping around with his arms out grab her to give her a kiss. He was surprised, when Kathy stepped back and put an arm out, her hand up, to stop him. "Karl, I also promised Paul that I would be discrete. This mall is too close to home for that, sorry, lover." Kathy whispered in a low voice, inaudible from even a few steps away. Then Kathy stepped closer, and gave Karl a 'friendly' peck on the cheek. Karl stood there astonished. "Wednesday evening, Karl." as she turned and walked away. "What was that all about. Shit." was a pissed Karl's last word, after Kathy was too far away to hear. Kathy, on the other hand, was actually happy to have what she knew would be a difficult discussion, over. As she opened the door to the minivan, she stopped when a thought suddenly struck her. Her period would likely start on Monday, and go through Friday. "Oh well, Karl. You aren't getting any this week anyway, I guess." she thought. A slightly malicious smile crossed her face. Back at the Soccer Fields I looked up and saw the irritated look on Kathy's face as she approached the field. But when she looked up and saw me, a smile returned as her face relaxed. "Ooooh," I thought, "looks like perhaps the lovers have had their first little spat. All because of me. What a shame!" I actually chuckled out loud. One of the other parents looked at me, rather bewildered. "What was so damn funny about that, Paul. The penalty is on us!" he said, glowering. "Oh, sorry, Bob," I apologized, "Just saw my wife almost trip over that hose over there, even after I warned her about it this morning." "Oh, Oh, OK. Thought you were going crazy, for a second!" Bob replied, this time with a grin. "No, my friend," as I reached over and patted Bob's shoulder, "I've never been more sane." About then, Kathy had walked up behind us, and she slipped her arms around my waist, stood up on her toes and kissed the back of my neck. I turned my head enough to kiss her mouth, and then Kathy moved up next to me, her arm still around my waist. I put my arm around her shoulders. "Everything go OK?" I inquired, in a neutral tone. "Just fine," Kathy said in that tone that meant things did not go well, and she didn't want to talk about it. As the games were wrapping up, Kathy stroked her hand up and down my arm , one of her methods to get my attention. "Honey," she whispered, "Could we stop by my apartment on the way home. I need to get a few things to make it through the weekend." "Sure, no problem. Give me a minute here." I answered. I left and walked over and briefly spoke to one of the team mother's, handed over a $20 to her, and then returned. "OK, we can go." I told Kathy. "What about the kids? Are we going to wait for them?" Kathy asked, curious. "I talked to Jill, she's the 'team mother.' The teams were going to go out for a pizza lunch anyway, and she'll make sure they get home afterwards. So we can just stop by your place and pick up whatever you need," I filled her in. "Pizza for lunch? We had pizza for dinner last night." marveled Kathy. "Our children's idea of a balanced diet. Pizza for every meal." I shrugged my shoulders. Kathy laughed and hugged me as we walked towards the car. Her apartment seemed sad. Bland units, in bland buildings, with faded pastel colored stucco. Everything that I hated about apartments when we lived in one, back at the beginning of our marriage. Inside, Kathy's place was better than I expected, but that reflected her. Her taste, her warmth, her style. The only pictures on the mantle in the room were of the family — of the kids, of all of us together, and even an old portrait of me. One or two of her sister's family. There weren't any pictures of Karl, at least not yet. Kathy showed me around her little place. A small combination kitchen/dinette, a small living room, a single bedroom, with a queen sized bed, and a small bathroom. She had obviously picked up most of the furniture second-hand — although it was remarkably nice quality — and it had all of those little decorator touches that she could bring to make even an apartment a home. She joked with me about the bed never having been 'baptized', and then asked me when the kids would arrive home. She wanted to get some clothes and a few of her bathroom necessities. "Oh, there's no hurry. Those lunches last awhile, probably two hours or so. Take your time." I assured her. "Wow — two hours without children again. In the middle of the afternoon," she said looking at me. "True. Did you have something special in mind?" I asked her with a big grin on MY face. "Well, big boy, would you like ta mess around?" she replied, putting her hand up and patting the back of her hair, doing her Mae West impression. "I suppose I could be talked into it, my little chickadee," giving back W.C. Fields. "Give me a second, then. You might even get undressed," giving me a hint that was completely unnecessary. Then she turned and headed into the bathroom, and closed the door. I quickly grabbed the small digital camera out my pocket that I'd brought into the apartment with me, and set the it up on one of the dressers. I set it to start taking pictures in five minutes, and every minute afterwards. I just LOVE the new technologies, so small, yet the damn thing could take hundreds of pictures. Then I was ripping off my clothes, and strategically placing them over the camera, to hide it from sight, while leaving the field clear for the lens. The Plan was advancing. I was standing in my estranged wife's bedroom, naked, and not really sure about what to do next. Before five minutes was up, the door to the bathroom opened, and there stood my wife in a Fredrick's of Hollywood type outfit — black, lacy, transparent, and with openings for her nipples and a slit for pussy access. Damn, she was hot! Then I thought about it, my heart stopped, and I took a second look at her. My face must have given me away. She could practically read my thoughts. "Brand new, just for you, honey. I was going to wear this for you the first time we made love again, but you surprised me yesterday," she gently told me. I recovered, and I think that I must have leered at her. "Me Tarzan, you Jane!" I teased, "Come close so Tarzan can touch. Make that: so Tarzan can GRAB." Kathy walked over to me, and we began kissing. Despite being pretty drained yesterday, certain parts of my anatomy seemed ready to resume making up with my wife. I leaned over and began sucking on her nipples, my hands reaching down between her thighs, my fingers gently caressing and massaging her. Until she suddenly reached out and pushed me into a sitting position on the bed. "Listen, husband, you did all of the work yesterday, and WOW, it was WONDERFUL. So today, I'm going to repay the favor, at least a little." she informed me with a giggle, as she kneeled and lowered her head into my lap, engulfing what romance writers have called the ' turgid member', in her mouth. It was one of the great sacrifices of my life when I reached down and pulled Kathy off without coming in her mouth, which she seemed to want. But The Plan called for other things. Being a bit nasty, I basically ripped off her sexy 'fuck me' outfit, making sure that it wouldn't be used again, making sure it would never be on display for Karl. Then I pushed her down on the bed, and like the day before, began to use my mouth and tongue and hands on her. This time, though, when she reached that big combined clitoris/'G'spot orgasm, I pulled myself over her in a simple missionary position, I slid my penis into her very warm, wet and receptive vagina. I began sliding in and out, with a special attention towards making sure that the edge of my glans stroked her 'G' spot as I came out. Kathy was in a state of almost continuous orgasm again, with her arms holding me, her legs up over my back, and kissing me at the same time. Again, as the day before, when I reached my climax, it seemed to put her over the top again, although this time she didn't faint. Hey, nobody hits a home run every day. We just stayed there, holding each other for a couple of minutes. I finally told her that I had to get up and pee, so we arose from her now 'properly baptized' bed. I went first, peed, and washed myself with a warm wash cloth. After I was finished, she peed as well, and then jumped into the shower. We needed to get going. As I dressed, I retrieved the camera — now with 40 photos of Kathy and me having sex. It occurred to me that if Kathy had meant for us to have 'make-up' sex this weekend to help me accept the fact that she had cuckolded me, that I had pulled something of a judo move on her; using your opponent's motion to throw them. She wanted sex to assuage her guilt about Karl; I was using sex to sow confusion in her mind, as well as the seeds of destruction for her affair. And I had my set of pictures of us screwing in her apartment. The Plan rules. The rest of the weekend was just a pretty normal weekend, at least it would have been normal if the specter of Karl wasn't hovering in the background. Shopping, washing, mowing the lawn, all of the things that a family has to do. The one exception was something that I couldn't have bought for any money. It was Sunday morning, and for the first time since Kathy and I had split, our family was sitting in the pew together at church. I hadn't told anyone there about the split, and no one asked, so everyone was pleased to see Kathy again, and we were just vague about why she hadn't been with us for, as we diminished the time frame of her absence down to 'a couple of weeks.' The Pastor's sermon that morning was on, of all things, fidelity! Ouch, was that a tender subject. Of course, he was talking about fidelity to our beliefs and to God, and not in particular to human relationships. But he couldn't really discuss the subject without raising the issue of marriage and divorce. He spoke of the high divorce rates in our country, effecting almost 50% of marriages, and that, unfortunately, a lack of marital fidelity was so often the cause, or at least a contributing factor. He explained that he had counseled numerous couples, where one of the partners thought that 'the grass was greener on the other side of the fence', as the old saying goes, and it often resulted in the break up their family. He also said that most often, this pursuit of self-satisfaction turned out to be a chimera, an infantile illusion, and a destructive fantasy. I could feel Kathy looking at me — more like sneaking a peek now and then — as he was speaking. I didn't look back at her AT ALL! I just listened, and nodded, and kept my face completely neutral. As we left the church, The Pastor seemed truly glad to see Kathy. He shook her hand and gave her one of his big smiles, and told her it was delightful she could make service that morning. Sincere, wonderful man, the Pastor. I don't think that she saw me write that $1000 check that I put into the offering plate when they passed it after the sermon. Back in the car Kathy did look at me — I won't say quite with knives in her eyes, but a little skeptical. "I never said a thing or told a soul," I cheerfully told her, "It was sheer coincidence." She seemed to accept that, and the rest of the weekend went smoothly enough. Suspicion Ch. 04 We both got up early Monday morning, ready to return to work and the real world. Quick showers, and then getting Jason and Christi up and ready for school. Just a normal Monday morning. I did notice Kathy grabbing a tampon from her bag and taking it with her into the bathroom. My guess was that Karl wasn't going to get lucky this Wednesday, which didn't disappoint me. Kathy wasn't enthused about sex during her period — in fact she was often a bit cranky. And there wasn't a 'free time' on the schedule until the following Tuesday evening. Too bad. I had a busy Monday planned, although it wasn't for my job. In fact, I was taking another half-day off. If the weekend had been the foundation of The Plan, Monday was the beginning of the strategic offensive. I spent the first couple of hours in the morning getting my crew going, made sure they were clear about what needed to be done, and then retreated to my office. The first task, back in my office, was to call my lawyer and tell him to put the divorce on hold. I explained that Kathy and I were going to try and reconcile, and wanted to stop the process at least temporarily. He could pass that information on to Kathy's lawyer as well. Next on the agenda, was to get on the CableNex (the local cable TV station where Kathy worked,) web site, looking for a name. Specifically, I was looking for the name of an old high school friend worked at CableNex as a secretary in the purchasing department. I called up Jill Jones, who had been a year behind me at school. She didn't seem too surprised when she heard my name. When she answered the phone she was almost whispering. "Paul, is that you?" she asked. "Sure is Jill." I replied. "You know, don't you." came her response. It was phrased as a question, but it wasn't a question. "Yup. Could we meet for lunch someplace where we won't run into Kathy?" I asked, "I don't want her to know that we're talking." "Sure, Paul. I understand." she told me, and gave me the location of a small Tex/Mex restaurant that was about a ten minute drive away from the CableNex offices. When I entered "Pablo's Place", it was dark and cool. The host approached me, and looked at me as he asked, "Mr. Paul?" I nodded in assent, and he took me into a rather secluded room where Jill Jones was waiting for me. When I came to the table, Jill stood up and gave me a friendly hug and a buzz on my cheek before we sat down. Jill was a cute little blond, a little chubby now, who had been a J.V. Cheerleader when I was a senior. She'd married one of the stars of the football team, after he had graduated from the Police Academy with his Law Enforcement certificate. They'd settled down and had a passel of kids — five or six, as I recalled. He was still working for the Sheriff's office. We ordered lunch and as we ate, we exchanged the kind of news and gossip that old friends, who hadn't seen each other for awhile, would. When we finished and push our plates out of the way, it was time for the serious discussion. Jill looked at me with a kind of sad look on her face. "Paul, I've heard that Kathy is supposed to be having an affair. I understood that you had kicked her out of the house, and that she had gotten an apartment, but its been really quiet other than that. No one has a clue who it is, or if they do, they won't say." "I know who it is Jill," I explained, "and that is part of the bad news. You work for the Manager of Purchasing, don't you?" "Yes. Is that important?" Jill asked, a quizzical look on her face. "I'll let you judge. Does the name K.G. Construction mean anything to you?" I replied. Jill drew in a deep breath. "He is a new vendor, doing work for us." she said, her eyes closing a little. "Kathy's affair is with Karl Gerring, the K.G. in K.G. Construction. He is apparently an old boy friend of hers, and they have been having an affair for quite a while," I fudged a bit there, making it sound as if the affair had preceded the bid for work. Jill was clearly shocked. "Oh, my. That is NOT good. You know that from the purchasing perspective, that represents a terrible conflict of interest. CableNex could be in big trouble if this got out. Kathy should have recused herself from the consideration of his company. This is a big ethics issue. At a minimum..." she was going on, until I stopped her. "I understand that, Jill. Now, am I correct that your boss had been hoping to get the job that Kathy is now in?" I think that Kathy suggested that to me once." came my next question. Jill looked at me with a sudden reappraisal in her eyes. "Umm.. Paul, you are a devious one aren't you!" she smiled an evil little smile as she said it. "Jill, I love my wife, and we are trying to reconcile and put our marriage back together, and I'm willing to do a lot to make it happen. My question to you is: would you and your boss be willing to feed me some inside information on the sly, if it would very likely result in Kathy's position being open again — soon?" Jill laughed out loud. "Yes, I believe that my boss would be very interested in insuring that CableNex is being operated in an ethical manner, by ethical people," her cynical view of company politics apparent, "I'll have a very quiet talk with her this afternoon." That issue settled, we settled on how and when we would communicate so that the information that I was going to need would not be traced back either to me, or to Jill and her boss. A conspiracy had formed. I made my pitch and the sale; I had recruited a couple of 'inside' agents to help me with The Plan. Back in my office at work, I called Kathy and reminded her of her commitment to schedule time with Bill Wattler, the marriage counselor. I gave his phone number and she assured me that she would set up an appointment as soon as we were off the phone. Not long after that, Sanjay, the Java wizard who ran the Equity Corp web site came into my office. "Hey, Paul. What is going on? Your department need some very fine programming on the site? Just remember: you have to get me exciting content first, and, I'm sorry to say, maintenance is very necessary, but usually very dull and mundane!" he said, laughing. It was a bit of a joke between us, that the Maintenance department was too boring for the web site. "Sanjay, my brilliant friend! I have a non-work related question to ask you, since you are renown far and wide, high and low, for your great computer skills and loose morals. Would you deign to lower yourself to answer some questions from one of your humble followers," I was laughing as I said it, but I knew that Sanjay actually LOVED the praise, and pretty much believed his own press. "OK, Paul, but the shit is getting pretty deep in here," he laughed again, "so spill the beans, what do you need?" I explained my goals, some of which required some (as he called it, 'elementary level') programming, and some of it was understanding how to cover one's tracks over the web. I didn't have to fool the NSA FBI or CIA, mind you, and what I was doing was completely legal, so it wouldn't be that difficult, it turns out. Sanjay told me that he would put together a Java script to do what I wanted in the next couple of days, and that I could easily attach it to any email that I wanted to send. Viva The Plan! The last thing on my plate for Monday afternoon involved a pretty sketchy character who I had discovered by stopping in a local porn shop and if they knew anyone with certain skills. It turned out that they did, and I was on my way to visit his 'office', if you could call it that. Mitch Levine was a real creep. He specialized in doing 'special' custom porn. Anything you wanted, he could do — but it was all fake. He was a photoshop guru, who supposedly taught classes at some local 'art' school. But his real money came from putting together phony photos of really kinky sex stuff. I wondered how often his 'work' had been used for blackmail. And now, he was going to do some photos for me. I had picked out five of the shots of Kathy and I having sex at her apartment, including one of Kathy giving me the blow job, and four others in various stages of when we were actually having intercourse. There was one thing in common with all of the photos: you couldn't see enough of Kathy's face to recognize her just by her face, but in all of them, a man who knew her body would be completely sure that it was Kathy. The second feature of the photos was that I had already gone in to photoshop myself and blacked out my face. Those were precautions against ol' Mitch boy putting my face on the 'net at some porno site. I had been told he wouldn't do that (unless I wanted him to — fat chance,) but I wasn't taking any chances. "Mitch," I explained, sitting on one of the most uncomfortable chairs I'd ever tried, "What I want you to do is pretty straightforward — I want you to replace the man in these photos with a young black stud. It doesn't have to pass a close analysis, but it needs to be good enough to fool someone who knows this woman." Mitch kind of chortled. "Fuck me; this is really blah — no imagination. Oh well, its your money." he said, looking me over at the same time. "Your wife gonna git off seeing herself pronged by a 'brother' instead of you, huh?" Oh, Mitch thought he was so clever. I let him believe what he wanted to believe. "Well... I guess its pretty tame by your standards, but after 20 years we have to put a spark into the good times every now and then," I said with a grin, "Anyway, it was her idea. But if it gets her off..." "Yea, sure. I mean, most men got dirty minds, ya know, but women — they got us beat 10 ways to Friday for porn. Most of the best stuff I do is for some broad or another," Mitch concluded, figuring he had it all thought out. "Alright, $150 now, and $150 when you pick them up. Gimme about a week. OK, five hardcopies, and the originals on disk. You want JPEG or TIFF's? Your old lady will love 'em. You guys will be banging all night!" were Mitch's final words of wisdom. We shook hands and I left. I was SO glad to get away from Mitch and get home. I needed to wash my hands. Since I was going to be home early, I stopped and picked up a couple of rib eye steaks, a container of potato salad, and one of those salad 'kits' that comes with nuts, eggs, cheese and dressing all in one pack. I was home about the same time that the bus let Jason and Christi off at the corner by our house. I got the troublemakers settled, gave them some milk and snacks, and then on to their homework. In the meantime, I went out and started the charcoal burning in the grill. When Kathy arrived home, she was surprised to find dinner almost ready. She walked out back where I was busy watching the steaks, keeping an open beer available to spray them down it they started to flame — a great excuse, right? Anyway, Kathy came up and kissed me. "Wow! It looks great, honey. When do we eat?" she asked. "Oh, give me another, five minutes or so. Everything else is ready inside." I replied. "I saw when I came through. Oh, by the way, I was able to schedule an appointment with Bill Wattler for tomorrow afternoon. I'm taking a couple of PTO hours. He said to schedule two hours for this first meeting." she explained. "Great," I leaned over and kissed her again, "I glad you're willing to give marriage counseling a try." "And Paul, my lawyer called to tell me that you had stopped the divorce. Thank you. I know it gets old, but I still need to tell you: I'm sorry that I've hurt you so, and I still love you. More now than ever," she finished, another of her completely emotional and self-contradictory statements. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt me as much to hear that kind of nonsense now, because I knew that I was taking action, not just listening to words. Shortly afterwards we went in, and called the kids to dinner. The rest of the evening was a typical school/work night — finish homework, play some video games, talk with friends on the phone, clean up and get ready for bed. I knew that especially the first day of her period, Kathy would be exhausted, and sure enough, she was off to bed pretty early, although after sitting for awhile kissing and cuddling with me. It was somewhat strange to me, that now, when Kathy thought that I was allowing her to share herself between Karl and me, I was getting some of the best sex and affection that I'd had in years. How sad. After everyone was tucked away in bed, I finally had the private time to go to my home office and log on to the computer. I logged on to an anonymous email site, to check for information. It was one of the things that Sanjay, (bless his slightly crooked soul,) had taught me — how to set up a mail system that would bounce my emails through several servers, for example, maybe one in Hong Kong, another in Bulgaria, and another in the U.K., and changing I.D.'s each time, before sending it to its final destination. Not a foolproof system, but you would need specialized software and a clever hacker to trace the emails back to their origin. And in this case, no one would bother. That evening when I logged on, up came an email with a copy of Kathy's calender for the following day, showing PTO from 2:00 to 4:00, the reason listed as 'Medical appointment: Bill Wattler'. Following that was a single name: Butler & Sons, Inc. That email confirmed two things for me; that Kathy had indeed set up her counseling appointment, and second, that my insider was following through providing me with the information needed for The Plan. Tuesday, I was back at work for the full day. Nothing exciting. At the end of the day, a joke arrived in my email, only it wasn't really a joke, it was a confirmation. Kathy had been at work all day, lunch with some other employees, no changes to her calendar, she had left at 2:00 for her appointment. Kathy, in fact arrived home that night in a very thoughtful mood. When she kissed me, it was perhaps with less passion than it had been for the past couple of days, but with a gentle intensity. She hugged me close, seeming to want to feel as much of my body against hers as we could manage. When I asked if she'd made her appointment, she told me yes, but then I didn't ask her any more about it, and she didn't volunteer. She continued in a somewhat subdued way all evening. It was like she was suddenly looking around her and seeing things for the first time. She was hugging and holding and kissing the kids so much that night, that Jason finally told her, "Mom, lay off. I got to finish my homework if I want to play any video games tonight!" That actually got a smile and a laugh out of her, and she gave them some room until they went to bed. A little later, Kathy told me that she wanted to go to bed, and asked if I could join her, at least for awhile. "Paul, you know that tomorrow after work, I'm going back to my apartment. OK?" she stated, using our euphemism for her stepping out with Karl. "Sure, that's what's on the schedule." I told her as I lay there beside her. "I wanted to ask you something tonight." she looked at me in the darkened room, "You know last Friday when you used your tongue on my 'backside' — you know, my ass. I really got off on that. The next time that we have a couple of hours without Jason and Christi in the house, would you put your cock in there and have sex in my butt? I've always wanted to try that, but I was always afraid before to ask you. I thought that you would think that I was some kind of slut. But after you licked me there, I thought, well, if he will put his tongue up there, why not his penis! I want to share that with you." I was astounded, That would be another first in our marriage, her virgin anus. I had to kiss her. "Sweetie, you can count on it." I told her, with another kiss for emphasis. That night, despite her period, I used the lube on my fingers again, and caressing her clitoris, gave Kathy a nice orgasm, not spectacular like Friday's and Saturday's, but good. In return, I think to ease the fact that tomorrow night was 'free time', Kathy sucked on me again, but this time to completion, and I came in her mouth. She swallowed it all, but brushed her teeth afterwords, and we kissed and she went to sleep. I got back out of bed again and booted up the computer, and signed on to one of my special email accounts. The email I composed was going around the world several times before it was going to land on the CEO's desk of Butler & Sons, the company that had lost the contract with CableNex to K.G. Construction. The email read like this: CEO, Butler & Sons Services, Did you ever wonder how you were sandbagged on the CableNex contract? Did you ever wonder how an unknown company, new to the area, with limited resources was chosen over Butler & Sons? I can't tell you directly, but I could point you in the right direction to find out. I don't want any money, I just don't think how K.G. got the business is right. If you want to know more, and are willing to dig up the proof yourself independently (it's available out there,) let me know. I can't be involved, I would lose my job over this, but it's just not right. Just call me Ethos, the WhistleBlower The attack was initiated now, even if only I knew about it. Suspicion Ch. 05-06 Chapter 5. Wednesday Night They were finishing up their coffee after eating. The restaurant was part of one of the hot new chains, specializing in large, fire grilled steaks, and it was the most recent addition to the mall. A mall 25 miles from the home that Kathy and Paul shared. Far enough away to be 'discrete' as Kathy had promised. Karl look across the table from Kathy, smiled and reached across and held her hand. She smiled back. Then she took a quick look at her watch: it was almost 9:00 PM already. "Sorry I had to work so late, baby," Karl said to Kathy, "It's the life of the small businessman." "It wasn't really a problem, Karl. It gave me an extra hour to catch up at work anyway. I was behind because I had to take a couple of hours off yesterday." Kathy replied, without really thinking. "Oh. What were you doing yesterday?" Karl asked, with a rather sharp tone. "I had a Doctor's appointment." came Kathy's response. It wasn't technically correct, because Bill Wattley wasn't a doctor, per say, he was a psychologist and marriage counselor. But that wasn't really Karl's business anyway. "Everything OK?" Karl's voice was tinged with concern. Kathy patted the top of his hand. "Everything was just fine, sweetheart. Just normal women's issues." Kathy fed him the "woman's issues" line, because she already knew, that Karl, like most single men, wanted nothing to do with 'female problems.' He'd rather not know. "Ahhhh," Karl resorted to that bland response, because it was so much more diplomatic than the 'yuck' that he felt. Kathy then openly looked at her watch at that point. "Look at the time! It's almost nine." she exclaimed. "We can abbreviate the evening if you want. Your place or mine?" Karl said with a smile. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. Could I give you a rain check tonight. I forgot to tell you the other day, but I have my period this week. You know that I get cramps, and it puts me out of the mood for making love." she explained, "If you don't mind, I'd like to call it an evening so I can go back to my place take a couple of Advils, put a hot pad on my stomach, and try getting some rest." The look on Karl's face was not one of overwhelming joy, to put it mildly. "Damn, I'd hoped to make love with you tonight. It's been over a week now. And except for having coffee with you at Starbuck's on Saturday for, what, a half-an-hour, I haven't seen you since last Thursday," came his discontented reply. They spoke as they left the restaurant and walked towards their cars. "I explained it to you on Saturday, Karl. I can't be with you as much anymore, like it has been for the last couple of months. But the time we will have can be real quality time, because now I don't have to worry about lying to Paul. Anyway, we are scheduled together again next Tuesday evening, and my period will be over. I'll make it up to you then. OK? Its not like Paul is getting any this week either, and he's had a lot less of me recently." Kathy smiled at Karl as she concluded. "Fine, I understand. By the way, when am I going to see your apartment? I'm beginning to wonder about the place. Do you have another boyfriend stashed away over there that you don't want me to see?" Karl's question was framed in a teasing manner, but with a slightly pushy tone. Kathy was slightly irritated by both the question as well as the attitude. "Karl, actually, I promised Paul that the apartment would be off-limits to both of you. It's my place to be myself. I don't know if I'm even going to keep it, or if so, for how much longer. It allows me to tell Jason and Christi that when I'm not with them and their father, I'm at the apartment. I can have them visit me there, without throwing our situation into their faces." Kathy told Karl in a somewhat abrupt manner. She didn't even consciously understand why she'd put her apartment off-limits to Karl. Truth be known, her husband had been there, and had made love to her in her bed there. Now it was like the home that she and Paul shared, not a place to be contaminated by her affair with Karl. That she was lying to Karl about making a promise to Paul didn't cause her the slightest concern, and it shifted the responsibility. In the end, Kathy and Karl decided to agree to disagree about her apartment. They had Karl's place anyway, or could even use a hotel, if the mood stuck them. Kathy smoothed over the situation when they reached her car, and Karl opened her door for her. She gave him a kiss full of passion and promise, and reiterated her vow to make it up to him the next Tuesday, when her next 'free' day was scheduled. He waved goodnight to her as she pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the road back to her apartment. Back in her apartment, Kathy sighed, happy to be there, alone. She truly was tired, and looked forward to reading a little, something that she hadn't had enough time for over the past week, and going to bed. She changed into a comfortable pair of pajamas, and curled up with her book on her couch. She tried to read for a couple of minutes, but couldn't get into the book. At that point Kathy gave into her urge, picked up the phone, and made a call. Matthew's Home It was almost 10:00 when the phone range. The kids had been in bed for about a half-an-hour. When I looked at the caller I.D., I was surprised. It was Kathy's cell number. "Kathy," I said, worried, as soon as I placed the phone to my ear, "Is everything alright? Are you OK?" "Yes, Paul. I'm sorry to disturb you. I hope you don't mind my calling." Kathy was being rhetorical; she knew that I wouldn't mind. "Of course not, I'm overjoyed. What's going on?" came my reply, perhaps just a little wary, This was supposed to be one of the 'Karl' nights. "Oh, nothing. I'm just sitting here curled up with a book, and I wanted to hear your voice, and check on the children," she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for her to be calling me when she was supposed to be with lover-boy. She continued, "I just got back from a late dinner; I had to work late. So I thought that I'd call and make sure you were all... you're sure that you don't mind my calling on a 'free' night?" I laughed, and we spoke for about an hour. About everything and nothing. When I'd hung up the phone, I realized that Kathy had really called to let me know that she was not with Karl. By that time, it was almost bed time for me as well. I had to get up early and make sure that Jason and Christi made it to school. But there one more thing I had to do first. I logged on to one of my email accounts and opened the first email on the list. Dear Ethos, I'm very interested in knowing how K.G. Construction won the contract, if, as you imply, it was not on the up-and-up. There is a lot of money riding on that contract. You offered to point me in the direction, if I was willing to dig up the dirt. Give me a starting point, and I'll have an investigator on it tomorrow! I understand that you are putting yourself in harms way by letting me know about this, and I will accommodate your desire to keep your role quiet. I'm willing to work with you on this. Sincerely, Thomas Butler, CEO Butler & Sons, Inc. The second email was even shorter. No changes to calendar. When is the next time K.G. and K. are together? You know, systems can go down any time, and they need to be repaired right away. Oh and BTW, Karls email is .... I looked at the schedule and wrote an equally terse reply, and sent it. The Plan was moving inextricably forward. Chapter 6. Kathy was back home the next night, Thursday, and would be with 'us' until the following Tuesday. There was nothing terrible special that happened during that time; kids practices, lessons, games, and household things. She and I made love again after her period was over on Friday. We weren't alone for that weekend, except for in the bedroom after the kids were asleep. We had some friends over on Sunday for a Bar-B-Que, and Kathy spent a couple of hours shopping Saturday afternoon with her sister, Evelyn, while Todd and I watched a couple of College games. Monday afternoon, after work, I stopped by Mitch's place to pick up the photos and the disks. As I looked at the prints, I must admit that if I hadn't known that the man in the original photos had been me, I would have been pretty upset at seeing Kathy with her black stud lovers! Yes, Old Mitch actually did me a favor — he made two sets of the photos, each with a recognizably different man. In one photo, he got really creative, and showed one of the men having sex with Kathy, while the other appeared to be standing there waiting his turn. "It kinda makes the story work — two guys doing your wife, each one takin' pictures while the other one is busy," Mitch explained, his creative pride putting a big shit eating grin on his face. Why did I always feel like I needed to wash my hands after dealing with that guy? Once again, on Monday night, Kathy and I lay there in bed, and she reminded me that she would be away the next day. Like I didn't know. Still, I had realized that I could deal with the 'Karl' issue by simply putting it out of my mind, combined with knowing that I was going to bring this thing to a grinding halt in the near future. The two of them had best get their jollies now, because neither one of them was going to be happy when the walls came a tumbling down! Imagine my surprise late Tuesday afternoon when Kathy called and asked if I would mind if she came home that night! This was getting really weird. As the kids were doing their homework she explained that there was some sort of emergency problem at CableNex that required their vendor, K.G. Construction to do repairs to the system. They estimated said repairs were going to take all night. According to our agreement, that kind of situation was tough for lover-boy, but thems the breaks. Since it was a 'free' night, Kathy explained her reasoning to me, she could do what she wanted, and given the choice of being alone in her apartment, or being home with us (and sleeping in our much more comfortable King-sized bed, I mused,) she came home. About 10:00 that evening, Kathy's phone rang, and when she looked at the called I.D., she walked outside to take the call. She was outside for about 20 minutes, and when she came back in, I didn't ask and she didn't tell. Shortly thereafter, she went to bed, and I went up and kissed her goodnight and tucked her in. I stayed up awhile, again. I logged on to my computer system to check my "intel" and to sow more chaos. Mr. Thomas, Sorry for the delay in my reply. I communicate when it is safe for me to do so. A good start to understanding K.G.'s advantage over Butler & Sons, you might check out Gerring's love life. Who is his girlfriend, and what does she do? It may take a week or two to catch them together — I think that her husband has become suspicious, and she is being very careful and not seeing him as much as she used to. I think that you can put two and two together, once you answer those two questions. Please give me some advance warning of what you are going to do and when, so that I can make myself scarce, and not be subject to difficult questions. Ethos The email that I received that evening had a newly revised copy of Kathy's work calendar attached to it. There was a memo noted on the calendar from Kathy to her boss telling him that she was attending a meeting of one of the professional groups in Washington D.C. several weeks hence, starting Thursday morning, and ending Friday afternoon. I checked the 'free time' calendar and confirmed my memory, that the Friday evening, until Saturday mid-day that week was Kathy's 'Karl' time. So Kathy would fly into Dulles Wednesday after work, get a hotel for two nights, and fly back to be in Karl's arms Friday night. With this advance knowledge, perhaps I would throw a wrench into the happy time. Over the next couple of weeks there were several 'free days' for Kathy. Presumably she and Karl got together, and again, presumably, did what people who 'love' each other do. I suppose that I could have tried to interfere, but that wouldn't help The Plan. In fact, since I had sicked Butler & Son's investigators on to Karl boy, they had to meet and provide the grist for the mill that would be slowly grinding his business and their relationship, as the investigators discovered the affair, and traced my wife back to CableNex. It was after that when the fun would begin. It is a testament to human adaptability that life at the Matthew's home was rapidly returning to a fairly normal state, with the exception that there were times when Kathy would be "at her apartment". It is also, though, a frightening example of how one can grow accustomed to evil, and learn to live with it. I won't say that my living in a state of reasonable happiness (and sexual bliss,) with Kathy was the same as the German people learning to live with Hitler, but the "don't ask, don't see" mentality became at least somewhat easy for me. I have always rationalized it by saying that I was taking actions to stop the evil festering in our marriage, but I remain amazed at how quickly the duplicity in our lives just seemed normal. Kathy continued to see Bill Wattler, the marriage counselor, once a week, and she told me that he was really helping her to understand her emotions. We didn't try to get more specific, although Kathy told me that perhaps with a month or so, we should start seeing him together. I told her that I was glad that she was benefitting from the sessions, and reiterated that I would be happy to join her, when she and Bill felt it would help. Something completely unanticipated happened, about 5 weeks from the time that Kathy and I had set up the schedule that surprised me and gave me hope that there might be a long-term 'us'. It was a Sunday, and it was the first time that Kathy's 'free' day fell on a weekend. Kathy had 'gone to her apartment' that morning, instead of going to church with us. I had arranged in advance for Jason and Christi to go home with Evelyn's and Todd's brood to spend the afternoon. I would come by later bring the burgers and hot dogs for a BBQ, and take the kids home afterwards. As I was turning out of the church parking lot and on to the street, one of those sweet little old, blue-haired ladies, who you can see, looking at the road, over the dashboard, but through the steering wheel, ran a stop sign and rammed the side of my minivan at about 40 miles an hour. To tell you the truth, I don't remember much about the accident until I got to the hospital. There, they wanted to call someone, preferably my wife, and let them know what had happened. Instead, I convinced them dial Evelyn's number and put me on speaker phone, as I was too weak at the moment, to even hold the phone to my ear. By the time Evelyn got on the phone, she was in a panic. "Paul, are you alright? I'm coming right down their, this instant. Has anyone called Kathy?" came her worried voice. "Evelyn, slow down. Let me answer your questions. First, I think that I'm alright, but they want to do some tests, just in case. Second, no one has called Kathy, and I don't want anyone to. I'll explain it to you when you get here. What you could do to help me is stop by the house on your way here, and get me some real pajamas. This damn hospital gown is leaving my butt hanging out in the breeze," was my reply. At least that got a laugh out of her. She said I couldn't be too bad if I was worried about people seeing my butt. In fact, she told me, maybe she'd take a look herself — she claimed that she'd always thought I had a cute ass. Ha, ha, laugh, laugh. Easy for her to say. I had a splitting headache. When Evelyn and Todd arrived (they had a neighbor keeping the kids supervised,) they had a small overnight bag with everything I might need. By then, the Doc's had x-rayed my left arm and leg to make sure they hadn't been broken. Nope, just scraped and bruised. The x-rays of my head didn't show any fractures, or anything called a 'sub-dermal hematoma' — but because I had a headache, they had wired me up with electrodes and planned on keeping me overnight. Oh well! And, oh yes, I was going to have a hell of a black eye, along with the scrapes on my face (plus a stitch or two.) I wouldn't look pretty for a couple weeks. The swelling would come down in a couple of days. My dears assured me that they would keep Jason and Christi overnight and get them to school in the morning. Then Evelyn would check back on me. I explained why I didn't want Kathy told: we had our agreement, and I didn't really seem to be in any danger, so I didn't want to interrupt Kathy's time with lover-boy, since that would set a bad precedent. They finally, reluctantly, agreed, and left to get back to the thundering herd at their house. The following four or five hours I spent sleeping in a drug induced bliss. Hot damn, they have some great meds at the hospital for pain. I'm glad they're not easily available to us, most of the time, or we all be addicts. But, my head didn't ache, my body didn't ache, and I was out like a light. When I awoke, it was dark outside, and the room was dark as well. I could hear what sounded like someone crying. Please, when I confess to this, don't laugh. Remember I was awfully drugged up and not quite coherent. Since there was weeping in my room, and I remembered that I'd been in a car accident, my first words were, "Am I dead?" "Oh my God, Paul. You bastard," came a familiar voice, followed by a big sniffing sound. In my own, charming, less than entirely brilliant way, I responded, "Huh?" "How could you do that to me, Paul?" Wait a minute; I recognized that voice. It was Kathy. "WhadIdo?" I asked her, completely confused, still not sure if this was even real or a dream. "You refused to let anyone call me. I only found out about your accident when someone at the station called me to ask if I had an 'update on your condition.' Oh God, Paul, I'm your wife, I should have been here for you." she said, before the weeping took over again. By this time, I was pretty sure that I had her pegged. She was in the chair next to my bed on the right side. I concluded this because, something had my hand in a vice grip. Sure enough, when I turned my head that direction, there was the top of a head that looked a lot like Kathy's. "I tol' you, I wouldn't interrupt your precious time with lover-boy, except if one of the kids was hurt. I'm not no kid anymore. I keep my word!" I firmly made my position known. With that, I had exhausted all of my clever repartee, and fell back to sleep. When I once again awoke the next morning, I was not looking forward to seeing Kathy. I seemed to remember making some rather less than flattering remarks about Karl ('lover-boy") and about my relative maturity. I doubted that the whole incident was amusing to my wife, and it wasn't part of The Plan. I had vowed to keep a lid on my actual feelings, and the night before, the lid had slipped. On the other hand, I was pretty sure that she had called me a 'bastard.' The only other time that I remembered her saying that was in the middle of labor with Jason. Something about 'two minutes of pleasure' for me, and 'ten hours of pain' for her, according to my recollection. I shouldn't have worried. Kathy arrived again in the morning with some clean clothes for me, and helped me get showered and dressed. She was kind and gentle, and didn't say an angry word. We checked out of the hospital, apparently with the concurrence of the doctors and staff, and they wheeled me out to the curb in a wheelchair. Kathy pulled up in a rented minivan, provided by the insurance company, and the staff helped into the passenger seat, to make sure that I didn't fall on hospital property where I could sue them. Suspicion Ch. 05-06 At home, Kathy held on to me as I walked into the house, which by then I didn't really need, and made us a light lunch. She'd taken the day off from work, so she could take her time. After eating, she went upstairs with me, I took off most of my clothes, and lay down on the bed. Kathy took off everything except her panties and bra, and put on a light robe, and lay down with me, and just held me. "Paul," she said in her most serious tone of voice, "Don't ever exclude me like that again. If anything serious happens to you...Oh,God, what if you'd been killed while I was..." I pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. I didn't complete her sentence with what I had been thinking — "if I'd been killed while you were off fucking your lover." There's some fodder for thought, eh? What I actually said was, "I don't make a habit of letting old ladies ram me at warp speed, This was the first time in the 20 years that we've known each other that I've been hurt enough to go to the hospital. So figure, you don't have to worry about me for another 20 years!" trying to cheer Kathy up a bit. I was glad Kathy was feeling guilty about being with Karl, doing whatever, when I needed her. It made a point that could never be communicated without experiencing it. But it was an awfully painful way for me to teach Kathy an object lesson. Oh yes, the little old lady? She was driving a 1972 Buick, with real metal bumpers, weighing about 2 tons. My car was totaled, hers had a scratched bumper and a broken headlight. She was uninjured. Well, I was glad for that. Kathy and I both went back to work the next day. My head still hurt for a couple days. Suspicion Ch. 07-09 Chapter 7. Washington D.C. The next memorable skirmish in The Plan came three weeks after my accident. My 'agents' inside CableNex had kept me up-to-date on Kathy's scheduled trip to the quarterly meeting of the CPHRE — Cable Provider Human Resources Executives — a professional organization to which Kathy belonged. I had already known the date, but they also provided me with her flight information, and hotel reservations. The group was meeting in Washington D.C., at one of the Capital Hill area hotels. I'd had a long-standing promise to my boss that I would bring my counterpart in the D.C. office into compliance with some new Federal safety requirements, and that provided the logistics to support the next battle in my campaign to disrupt the Kathy/Karl affair. Funny, it turns out that our office was in the Capitol Hill area as well, and we had a corporate rate for the same hotel that CPHRE was using. In preparation for my next move, I'd called Evelyn and asked her if I could stop by her house to set some plans for a weekend trip for both of our families, minus Kathy, whose 'Karl' time was scheduled for Friday after work, until Saturday until noon. She didn't have any problem with that, and I arrived at mys place at about 11:45, during my lunch break. They always tell you not to underestimate people, and in this case, I hadn't quite given Evelyn Hunter her due. It didn't stop The Plan, but it put a slight bump in the road, and added a few complications. I first explained to Evelyn that both Kathy and I had to go out of town for a couple of days, she for some meeting, and I to update the HAZMAT procedures for one of Equity Corps offices. I asked if she could take care of Jason and Christi for a couple of days, which she told me would be no problem. Then I suggested, that since the office was in Washington D.C., that if she and Todd could drive down to meet me with all of the kids — Allen, Alexis and Alyssa, in addition to Jason and Christi, then I would pay for all of us to stay and catch some of the sights of Washington on Friday afternoon and Saturday, and then stop by the Gettysburg Battlefield on our way back home on Sunday. It was almost unfair to Evelyn that I put her into this position, because I knew that Todd was something of a Civil War buff, and had long wanted to show the battlefield to his kids. Both Allen and Jason were both going to study the Civil War this year in school, as well. A lot of temptation. Evelyn had almost no choice but to say, at least tentatively, yes. When we had concluded our preliminary planning, I was about to leave, when Evelyn told me to sit my ass back down. I looked across the table and found her looking at me in a disturbingly analytic way. "I don't know who you think you're fooling, Paul, but you're not fooling me." she flatly stated. "What do you mean?" I answered, confused by the sudden turn of the conversation. "This whole thing about you allowing Kathy to cuckold you with Karl, without your fighting back. I keep wondering when other shoe is going to drop. What have you got in mind? If you have some plan for breaking up Kathy and Karl, I'll help you any way that I can — at least if you're planning on keeping her. She really loves you, you know," she started to explain. Evelyn was putting me on the spot. There was a quiet pause as we sat there looking at each other in silence. As I thought about it, I decided that Evelyn could be a useful ally, but I could only expose a small part of The Plan to her. She would be horrified if she knew everything that was coming down on the love birds. The result was, I did lay out part of The Plan; specifically that I had gotten Kathy into marriage counseling, and that I had been trying to create situations that would disrupt Kathy's times to be with Karl. I explained how I'd convinced Kathy to create a schedule that gave us most of her time, hopefully causing a rift with lover boy, when he could only be with her at times when she and I had agreed. Then I explained my Washington strategy, which tickled her. So that was how I came to be standing at the Washington WyndGate Hotel on a Wednesday evening with Tom Hodges, my opposite number at Equity's D.C. office. Tom had picked me up at National airport about an hour earlier, and driven me to the hotel. I was standing in line to check in, talking with Tom about our schedule for the morning, when I heard, "Paul?" came the familiar voice I turned and looked behind me. "Kathy? What are you doing here?" I asked my obviously surprised wife. "This is where my meeting is being held." she explained, "What are you doing here?" I was doing my best to seem surprised and flustered as well. I moved out of the line to speak with Kathy. "My boss sent me down at the last minute to help Tom here," I pulled Tom up next to me, "By the way, Kathy, this is Tom Hodges who is in the same position as I am, for the office here in D.C. Tom, this is my wife Kathy." They shook hands. "Anyway," I continued, "I'm here for a couple of days to help Tom set up our compliance program for the new Federal HAZMAT guidelines. What meeting are you here for," and whispering, letting Kathy read my lips, "or should I ask?" Tom, with the grace of a family man himself, decided to excuse himself and leave Kathy and I to our own devices. We bid each other good night, and set 9:00 AM the next morning to meet in his office. Kathy smiled, told Tom it was very nice to meet him, and he left. Then Kathy replied to my last question, "I'm here for the CPHRE meeting. I attend one every quarter." Answering my unstated subtext, she also added, "This is not 'free' time for me. You don't think that I would lie to you and sneak out of town behind your back, do you?" "Well... you've done it before." I chided her. She blushed, but then I waved my hand and dismissed the whole thing. "Let's not go there, its just a waste of time, and makes us both unhappy. I'm sorry I said that. I'll try not to sound so angry," I said to Kathy's great relief. Kathy then, finally got the point to which I had manipulated her. "We both have rooms here for the next two nights?" the obvious fact striking her at last. "I guess. I actually have a small suite with a king-sized bed here on the corporate account." I bragged a little. "The CPHRE group rate was for a standard room with two twins. Why don't I cancel my room and stay with you in yours? Where are the kids staying? With Evelyn?" she asked. I nodded. "You mean we could have two nights here, with no children to disturb us?" she had a grin on her face as she mentioned this little added benefit. "And someone else will have to change the sheets," I grinned back as I mentioned that. "The only downside is, that I didn't bring any 'toys'." I had made using sex aids to really rev up our sex at least a sometimes thing — not so often that they became a necessity, but something fun to play with, when we were in the mood. "I don't mind that, we can make do. And I would imagine that, if we needed to, we could find a bottle of AstroGlide for sale somewhere in Washington," she said, teasing me now. "What would we need that for?" I asked putting on my most innocent face. Kathy giggled. We got back in line, this time together. It turned out to be no problem for us to double up in my room, and due to the unusual situation of a husband and wife unexpectedly (at least, so they believed,) finding themselves staying in town for independent meetings, they cancelled Kathy's reservation without the normal charges. In fact, it seemed so romantic to the manager, that he upgraded MY room for free to one of the larger suites, that included a whirlpool tub, big enough for two! You know, taking a bubble bath with your wife, in a tub with a bunch of water jets to massage you can be pretty messy. But a hell of a lot of fun. We found some AstroGlide, too. They had it at an all night drugstore down the street. Kathy finally got her wish when I took her anal cherry. I got her orgasm started, and put my stiffy into her pussy for awhile, but finishing her off by raising her legs up high, and carefully (after applying a lot of lube, and loosening her with my fingers,) pushed my cock into her previously virgin asshole. And it was worth it; she came close to fainting again from the pleasure of it. In fact, she like it so much, that I had her in the butt both nights that we were there. She told me that it was something that we would have to add to our normal repertoire. She also told me that her ass was all mine — not something that would be shared. For some reason that pleased me a lot, even though I knew that in a short time, I wouldn't be sharing her at all, regardless. Thursday morning found Kathy and I sitting together having breakfast in the hotel restaurant, in a scene of connubial bliss, chatting and enjoying each other's company, without the normal morning rush, and overweening demands of school age children. I love my children beyond my comprehension, but it's nice to have a break from them now and again. Kathy asked me if I would like to join her at the CPHRE dinner that evening. She thought that she could still buy an extra ticket for me, and told me that it wasn't especially unusual for spouses to attend the dinners. That sounded fine to me. Then came the trap I was setting. We began to discuss our schedule for Friday. Kathy's meeting ended at noon, and she planned to fly back home early in the afternoon. Friday night was a 'free' night, and no doubt she and Karl would expect to go out on a date, and then back to his place until Saturday morning. She asked me about my plans. Now, the wrench. "I'm actually staying in D.C. this weekend, and coming home Sunday night," I shared with her. She looked a bit shocked at that revelation. "Are you leaving the kids with my sister? Am I supposed to pick them up on Saturday or something?" she asked me with a somewhat irritated tone, as if I was somehow intentionally interfering with her time with lover boy. "Oh, no, not at all," I let her know, sounding as upbeat as I could, "You're not on the hook at all. Todd, Evelyn and the kids are driving down Friday morning, and will meet me here at noon. We've got reservations for all of us at another hotel in Fairfax for Friday and Saturday nights. I'm taking a half-day off, and we're going to spend Friday afternoon and Saturday doing the Washington tourist thing, and then we're going to drive up to Gettysburg on our way home, and tour the battlefield on Sunday. I already have a retired Army General who is going to drive us around to show us how the battle progressed each of the days." "Oh," came a rather muted sounding Kathy, "that sounds like a lot of fun." The distressed look on her face was priceless. I pretended not to notice and cheerfully continued on. "It works out well for their school curriculum, too. The girls are studying U.S. Government, and the boys are going to be getting to the Civil War in history within a couple of weeks, so the timing is great," came my completely plausible rationale. "I'm really looking forward to it, it will all be so new for the kids. I hope that they will enjoy it too." Not long afterwards, we finished breakfast, and in the lobby, kissed in the modest sort of way that husbands and wives kiss in public, and went our separate directions. My morning at the Equity office in D.C. was what could only be called "boring beyond tears." There are sometimes things that are necessary, but making emergency/contingency plans for HAZMAT incidences was punishing. That's why I had avoided coming to Washington for months. That's why my boss was so surprised and pleased when I finally volunteered to do it. Plus, I was distracted. I was expecting a call. It was at lunchtime, and I was with Tom and a couple of his crew at a burger place, when my cell phone rang. The caller I.D. was Kathy's. I stepped outside for a minute. "Hey, Kathy, what's going on? Were you able to get me the dinner ticket." I asked her, trying a bit of misdirection. I didn't care much about the dinner. "Yes, it wasn't a problem at all," Kathy reassured me, " The dinner is at 7:00; will you be back at the hotel in time to change?" "That should be fine. I'll get out of here right at 5:00, and that should be plenty of time. Everything else going well? Have the meetings been interesting?" I asked, just stringing her along. "The meetings have been very interesting, a couple of the speakers have had some compelling things to say. I'll tell you about them later. I was actually calling because I was wondering..." was her tentative beginning. "Hmmm?" was my only reply. "If I were to cancel my commuter flight tomorrow afternoon, could I stay here with you guys for the weekend?" was her almost pleading request. "Absolutely, darling! You are more than welcome. We might have to rent another car to carry us all, but that would be fine with me. I know the kids would love to have you along," I paused, "I would too," I added as if it were an afterthought. "I would have invited you along to begin with, except that, isn't this one of your..." I left the rest of the thought unspoken. "That's alright. I didn't have anything special planned, and I would prefer to do this to staying in my apartment," Kathy again pretending that she would have spent the night at her apartment. I was still tweaking her a little. "I mean, I don't want to interfere again with.. .you know, you and Karl," I reeked of sincerity as I spoke, "You cancelled your Sunday when I was involved in the accident, already. I thought that getting out of town with the kids would give you a break from all of us." We exchanged a few more pleasantries, and disconnected. I was whistling the rest of my afternoon. Several hours drive away, a little over an hour by commuter aircraft, a man on a job site closed the cover of his cell phone with a disgusted look on his face. "Goddamn, she's doing it to me again," Karl, talking quietly to himself, "I'll have to cancel those dinner reservations. Emergency my ass — what kind of emergency does a Human Resources department have, and why does she need to stay in Washington D.C. over a weekend to fix it? Its bullshit. First she jumps up and leaves me practically the minute she gets to my place, because her husband is in some two-bit fender-bender. Now some other shit." Karl Gerring was beginning to have doubts about Kathy's true feelings about him. She sure wasn't acting like she loved him much. Maybe he was just a little excitement in her life, and once she gets bored with him, it's 'goodbye Karl.' He turned back to his men. "Stop standing there, get your asses moving!" They just loved him when he was in one of his moods. She had reminded him that in two weeks, the schedule gave them a Friday evening, plus the entire weekend together. It was a once every two months thing on her precious schedule. She promised that she would make things up to him then. Plus, they had a couple of work nights scheduled as well. Maybe he'd fuck her until it hurt her to sit down the next day. "Wait a minute — I'll get us tickets for the long weekend to the Bahamas, or the Keys. We can fly down Friday, screw all weekend, and she won't get back until Sunday, in the middle of the night. Yea, I'll show hubby who she loves! I'll give her some real sex that weekend." Karl smiled at that thought. Chapter 8. Washington D.C. — CPHRE Dinner At the CPHRE dinner that evening I had gone all out. I'd pulled out my newest suit, a silky smooth fabric in navy with subtle pinstripes, and put on a solid light blue shirt and a red 'power tie.' I assumed that they all went together well, because this was a combination that Kathy had helped me select, just before Karl arrived on the scene. Actually that thought had made me grimace just a little, as I stood there, a glass of some non-desrcript white wine in one hand, the other hand in my pocket, at the pre-dinner reception in the ball room of the WyndGate. Kathy had wandered off in search of a woman's room, and so I was left to my own devices. For the most part I was just left alone; a brief nod of the head, or a quick good evening, and the other CPHRE dinner attendees would pass on. Until a voice to my right spoke up, seemingly to me. "Mister, you are not one of us. I can tell because you look too good to be with this crew!" followed by a laugh. I turned to my right, and there was a stunning, slender, blond woman, mid-thirties, tall, elegant. No rings on her left hand. She caught me looking. "Divorced. Three years ago, when the bastard reconnected with an old girlfriend," she said, and without stopping continued, "Hi, Meredith Bicksler," as she reached out her hand to shake. I transferred my glass to my left hand, and took hers with my right, looking into a set of blue-gray eyes that men might die for. "Paul Matthews, Ms. Bicksler." I managed to say without even stuttering. "Oops," came her little laugh again, when she saw the rings on my left hand, "Good looking hunk, but taken I see. You can call me Meredith, anyway." I smiled and looked back, kind of shaking my head. "Actually, I've been pretty close to divorcing my wife for a couple of months now. Same reason as you. It's still not clear how things are going to turn out. So give me one of your cards. Maybe in a month or two, we can exchange war stories," the smile on my face was real now, as I said those words. Meredith then saw the slight remains of the bruising and stitches on the left side of my face. Without thinking, she reached up and lightly touched my face. "Ouch. I hope the other guy came out worse!" she added, again with a gentle laugh. "Alas, she was 75 years old, weighing all of 100 pounds! And she wasn't scratched," as I proceeded to tell about my accident. She laughed at my description of the accident, some of which was even true, and then asked, "Should mama kiss it and make it better?" Oh the mischievous look on that woman's face! I couldn't help myself, "Oh, mama. Please!" I leaned down a little, and she gave me a quick light peck on the cheek. "See! It's all better now, " she proclaimed, and then we both laughed. Right then, Kathy walked up. I detected just the slightest coldness to her tone when she spoke; North Atlantic iceberg cold. I think that she had been watching the interaction between Meredith and me for a couple of minutes. "Carl, I see you've met one of our CPHRE members," came her chill remark. Meredith and I actually laughed at the tone when she said that. "Meredith Bicksler, this is my wife, Kathy Matthews," and they greeted each other. "I was telling Meredith how I came out second best to a 75 year old lady, which explained the bruises on my face." I told Kathy, without the slightest hesitation or apology. After all, this beautiful woman had come on to me, and to tell the truth, I rather liked that. The worst of my bruises weren't visible, they were from blows to my soul, and maybe Meredith's kiss did help the hurt a little. Anyway, things calmed down after that, and Kathy and Meredith chatted about the speakers, their respective jobs, (Meredith worked with a cable provider in the greater Washington D.C. area,) and mutual acquaintances, until we were called to the dinner. Somehow Meredith managed to be seated next to me for dinner as well. I could have sworn that a Mrs. Humbolt-Smith was what the original seating card read. Sometime during the evening, Meredith did slip a business card to me that happened to have her home and cell phone numbers on the back, with the words: Just in case! I made it up to Kathy that evening in bed, as I mentioned earlier. We had showered after the dinner, and I spent most of our play time that evening behind Kathy giving her anus a good work out with my tongue, followed by my John Henry. She was back in a great mood by breakfast. Suspicion Ch. 07-09 When Todd and Evelyn arrived with the kids, the only one not surprised to find Kathy there was Evelyn, and she just smiled and didn't say a thing. The rest of the weekend went as well as I had hoped. The kids loved seeing the sights in Washington, and Gettysburg, and Kathy loved being with the kids and me, taking in the history. Chapter 9. We arrived home late Sunday night. Everyone except me in the car was asleep. We had rented a second car in Washington, and caravanned up to Pennsylvania. The kids all rode together with Evelyn and Todd, until we left Gettysburg for home, when our kids came back with us, and the Hunter-mobile drove directly to their house. The rental car, I would return in the morning. When everyone was in bed, I did my periodic check on my special email accounts. I had mail. Ethos, Our investigators have come to an understanding of the information you brought to our attention. We have answered the questions that you asked. They have put together a significant package of information regarding the links between K.G. and K.M., and K.M.'s role in the contracting process. You were correct, the manner in which K.G. was awarded the contract does not appear to be entirely kosher, and we are ready to take action. On Thursday morning, I have an appointment with the corporate Executive V.P. of Operations at CableNex's headquarters in N.Y.C. Be prepared for the fallout to come within a few days after that time. Thank you for being an honest, ethical person. I will continue to update you should additional actions take place, or if new information comes to light. Thomas Butler CEO, Butler & Sons, Inc. The Plan was maturing. It was a matter of weeks, or days now. Once again, after the Washington D.C. trip, the Matthew's house returned to a semblance of normality. It was ironic that since Kathy had moved back home, our sex life was a lot better than it had been, although I think that I could take most of the credit for that. But it was the affection in our daily lives that was the biggest surprise. When Kathy would come into the room that I was in, she would go out of her way to come over and kiss or touch me. She wanted to sit closer to me than we had since we were courting. She listened to what I was saying to her. All of that was great, but she was still periodically 'going to her apartment,' that is, spending time with Karl. And THAT was unsatisfactory. That week, after returning from Washington, was uneventful and nerve racking. Anyone who has implemented a plan knows that waiting for certain things to be in place and come to fruition is one of the most difficult disciplines. That week, Kathy only had one evening of 'free' time scheduled, and I'm afraid that Karl lost out again, this time to Evelyn, or at least one of Evelyn and Todd's daughters. Although when Kathy and I had set up the schedule, she had her own calender to consult. But she hadn't even considered that her nieces and nephews could interfere as well. To be honest, I'm not even sure of what it was — some church or school event in which little Alyssa was going to sing a solo with her class. So that shot the evening. Not that Kathy seemed to mind. Its one of those women things; I'll attend your children's events, and you'll attend mine. It's why we always spend the whole damn Saturday at the soccer fields. Everyone has to see everyones else's games! Nevertheless, Kathy did come home a bit subdued. I later found out that Evelyn and she had a cup of coffee together before she came home. "Kathy," Evelyn asked, looking at her sister, with serious and sad eyes. "When are you going to stop seeing Karl. Why do you want to destroy the love of the man who you married, the man who is the father of your children, the man who you've just told me is a fabulous lover, the man who is everything that you ever wanted?" "I don't know, Evelyn," Kathy admitted, "It's the same thing that I'm wrestling with when I see the marriage counselor. What is it that I get from Karl that I don't get from Paul. Why am I doing something like this to a man I love? I think that it's partly guilt over how Karl and I were torn apart the first time. It's like, he still loves me after 20 years of separation, so how can refuse to return his love." Evelyn thought for a minute before speaking. "It seems to me, Kathy, that Karl didn't love you enough to find you during those twenty years. And Paul has spent the last sixteen years PROVING his love. Every day, in good times, in bad times, he's always been there, always loving and caring for you. For a smart sister, I think that you are being really dumb about this. You know there are a lot of women who would be happy to give Paul the kind of love you used to give him," Evelyn said with teary eyes. "Oh, don't I know that!" Kathy said, almost in tears herself, "I left him alone for about five minutes at that CPHRE dinner, and there was this blonde bombshell named Meredith ready to pounce on him. God, that hurt. He doesn't know that I know, but she slipped him her card. I looked in his wallet and found it, and it had her home and cell phone numbers, and said something like 'Just in Case' on it. Like what: Just in case he dumps me?" Kathy sat up at that, realizing what she had just said. "Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe, somewhere down deep, I don't believe that I deserve Paul, and that one day he's going to 'trade me in.' Perhaps Karl is kind of an emotional 'back-up' plan," she looked thoughtful as she analyzed her insight out loud. "Well, let me tell you a story," Evelyn interrupted, "Do you remember when you went into labor early with Jason? Remember that Paul and Todd were off on a hunting trip in the mountains? Well, when Paul got the call that you had gone into labor and your water had broken, Todd told me that he thought that they were going to die that night. It was raining cats and dogs and the wind was blowing so hard that trees were being knocked down left and right, but Paul wouldn't allow anything to stop him from getting to you in the hospital. Todd says that they were driving under power poles that were halfway down and arcing like lightening. Paul was clearing trees off the roads with his bare hands, and driving down bypasses to avoid roads that were closed from the flooding. Karl may have thought about you during those twenty years, but when it was a question of passing through a natural disaster to be there for you, Paul actually did it." It gave Kathy food for thought that evening. Suspicion Ch. 10-11 Chapter 10. I didn't hear anything more of any significance from any of my 'sources' for the rest of the week. The update of Kathy's work calendar showed that she was taking a half-day of PTO the next Friday, the beginning of her long-weekend with Karl, but I already knew about that. At least Kathy wasn't lying to me or sneaking around trying to fool me anymore. It was Monday night, after everyone was tucked in bed, and I logged onto my special email account that I saw the next item drop into place. The email was short: A group of internal auditors from corporate showed up today to review our contracts. They were only interested in one contract — K.G.'s. Usually a sign that heads are going to roll. K. was not specified, but purch. dept. was told not to tell any other employees about visit. "Rollin', rollin', rollin'; keep The Plan a rollin'; keep The Plan a rollin', Rawhide," I was singing to myself, to the tune of the old TV show, where Clint Eastwood got his first big break. Timing is always a difficult thing to gauge. My next step was going to be very difficult to do, because there are so many variables over which I had no control. Perhaps it wouldn't matter in the end, anyway, a day or two one way or the other. The Plan was working well enough. Equity Corp., among other assets, owned a number of commercial buildings. In one of those building, Equity gave away an office suite for a "Free Clinic." This was not really as generous as it might seem at first, because they got both a tax write-off for it, and a tremendous amount of free, positive publicity. They regarded it as something of a coup. While we did not pay the utility bills for the Free Clinic, we did maintain the office, the wiring, the phones, the plumbing — my department's responsibility. And although we weren't there on a daily basis, over several years, we got to know the folks working there, the Doc's — great people, working for a fraction of what they could make anywhere else — the nurses, and their in-house lab people. This was the one aspect of The Plan that was obviously immoral, very likely illegal, clearly disgusting, and totally evil. In other words, a key and vital component of The Plan. The technical name is Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, a bacteria that causes an ailment known as G.C. or 'the clap.' It has a two-to-five day (or sometimes longer,) incubation period. It can be contracted vaginally, in the penis, the mouth, and the rectum. It's sometimes asymptomatic, meaning the people can have it without knowing, which is why it can be so dangerous, especially to woman. It can cause scarring of the cervix, and infertility. It is also fairly easily treated with a number of modern antibiotics. There are several tests, including visual inspection, urine tests, and most reliable, taking a sample from the patient and growing a culture on agar in a petrie dish — those little, covered glass plates that you used in biology class. Kathy was leaving for the long weekend with Karl, Friday afternoon, so I figured that Wednesday night would be a great time to give her a little present to pass on to Karl. Something to share. Isn't that sweet? Wednesday towards the end of the day, I stopped by the Free Clinic, purportedly to speak to Carlos, the lab tech, about power requirements. Carlos was a pretty sketchy guy, with tattoos on his arms that probably dated back to his gang days. He was always trying to make the women, and never turned down a drink, if I offered to pay. All around useful man to know. Understand that given the nature of the Free Clinic, Carlos also had dozens of active Neisseria Gonorrhoeae cultures going at any time. As he explained it, "Man, those working girls, they have to get checked all the time. Someone pays them an extra $20 and they do it without a rubber, and...BAM... they got the clap!" What I told Carlos was, that me and the guys at work wanted to fuck this dude over. We wanted to give him a dose of the clap, and that would probably result in his wife divorcing him. He laughed; he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. In fact, it struck him as so funny, that although I was ready to pay up to $500 cash for the little dish and his silence, he only charged me $50. He asked me to let him know if it worked: "And remember, G.C. can't get through a latex rubber, man, so make sure he is going bareback!" What a charmer. I told him the guy would almost undoubtably be drunk and passed out, and we were going to pull out his tool and use a Q-tip to apply it directly from the culture to his urethra. Carlos was howling when he heard that. This was the only stage of The Plan that caused me any ethical problem; giving your wife the clap to spread to her boyfriend is definitely not nice. But I was going to drive a wedge between them so deep that they wouldn't even speak again. A critical component of The Plan was that Kathy was going to get the clap, Karl would get the clap, but I wouldn't. THAT was why I had been introducing sex toys to our romantic life. Chapter 11. We had, over the time since we reconciled and started having hot sex again, tried a variety of sex toys. Some Kathy enjoyed, others she didn't, but she was willing to try them out, and wasn't surprised anymore if I brought a new one out. Her favorites remained the soft plastic dildo/vibrator, and an 'egg' type vibrator that could fit into her vagina, vibrating while I ate her pussy. That's how it came down that a few hours after picking up a dish containing an active Gonorrhea culture, I was having sex with my wife. The kids were in bed, and although it was a little unusual for us to make love in the middle of the work week, Kathy, no doubt feeling guilty that she was running off to screw Karl all weekend, didn't object. Once Kathy got going, she was always enthusiastic, and loved to orgasm. Wednesday night, I told her that I had a new toy to try, which she welcomed. I showed it to her — it was nothing fancy, just a latex condom that was ribbed and had spikes sticking out to increase sensations when I had my piece inside her. She liked the general idea. I told her, though, that I would put it on once she was close to orgasm, so she might have to help me out by using the dildo/vibrator on herself while I figured put on this fancy condom. OK, no problem. We did our thing. Kathy got plenty hot, and plenty wet with me using my mouth and fingers. When I knew that she was close, I handed her the vibrator, which she started using on her clit, while I went into the bathroom. It didn't take any time to put the rubber on over my hard dick, and only a second more to take the petrie dish out from under the sink, swab across the bacterial growth with a Q-tip, and then wipe the Q-Tip off on the outside end of the rubber. I put the dish and swab back in a bag under the sink, and was back in the bedroom, in less than 30 seconds, all told. The vibrator had brought her to the verge of her orgasm, and I entered her vagina with my 'Trojan' rubber (pardon the historical pun, you know, like 'Trojan Horse', not necessarily the manufacturer.) I pumped her with that rubber for about five minutes, as she finished her climax. Afterwards she told me that it was OK, but nothing so special that she'd want to use it on a regular basis. I took it off and tossed it in the bathroom trash can, remembering that I had get rid of it with the dish and swab tonight. Kathy then almost put me into a panic. She wanted more sex before she went to sleep! I sure as hell wasn't about to put MY manroot back into her now bacteria filled cunt. We compromised: I had her turn over on her stomach, and I used my finger in her ass until she was loose, then I lubed up the vibrator again, and another first in our marriage, I eased the dildo up her ass and fucked her with it until she had another wild orgasm. She noticed that I hadn't come in her yet, but fortunately, I was able to convince her to let me cum in her mouth. As soon as I could that night, I took the incriminating evidence out and put it in the car, until the morning when I dumped it into the trash bin behind some building in the downtown on my way to work. Now I just had to avoid sex with Kathy for awhile; until she was diagnosed with a naughty STD. Nothing special happened on Thursday, although, because Kathy was leaving on Friday afternoon, she wanted to make love again, which wasn't going to happen. I used the old woman's excuse, that I had a headache, which she accepted, although she suspected that I was actually just showing her my displeasure at her leaving for a weekend with lover boy. Not this time, I guarantee. Kathy finally accepted my refusal, and went to sleep. Then I went to work. The email that night was another short one from inside CableNex: K.s boss has been summoned up to corp. HQ tomorrow by V.P. of Operations. No subject. Told short meeting in the morning. Sounds like shake up. Yes indeed, The Plan was continuing to move forward. Friday AM — CableNex Corporate Headquarters, Jim Graham's office Jim Graham looked and sounded a lot like the actor Wilfred Brimley, right down to the bushy gray mustache above his lip,and there were some around CableNex HQ who thought that he did so intentionally. Probably did. Tom Smith, the local CableNex Regional Managing Director, and Kathy's boss, was sitting in a chair across from Jim Graham, as Jim's secretary got them each a cup of coffee, made to their individual preferences. Jim and Tom chit-chatted while she was fussing around and waited until she was finished and left the room before Jim got down to the nitty-gritty. "Tom," he started, standing up and retrieving a thick dossier from a bookcase, that he tossed down on the desk, "That is the result of two investigations into the service and installation contract you let out about four months ago." He continued, "Now what I have to tell you, I don't need ta explain is real confidential. 'Cause its damn embarrassing to CableNex, lemme tell ya." Tom was shocked, and damn worried at this particular revelation. "The first 'investigation' was undertaken by one of the companies that didn't win the contract," he explained, holding up his hands to keep Tom from interrupting him, "I know that it sounds like sour grapes, or something. But these fellows — you don't need to know just who — had some solid reasons to believe that the contract process hadn't been entirely square. And it turns out, that they dug up evidence that it wasn't." "Jesus, Jim," Tom finally got in a word, "I didn't know anything about this. The contract process seemed normal to me!" "That's OK, Tom, because we don't think that ya did know," Jim pushed forward, "The second investigation took place last week, by our corporate internal auditors." Tom's eyes really opened at that. He never knew they had been there. "I'm sorry that we had ta go behind your back, Tom," Jim apologized, "but at the time, we didn't know if you were involved or not. Ya came out clean; except that ya should a' been on top of this thing. And now you're gonna have ta' clean it up." Tom finally got his head back on straight enough to start asking questions. "Just what precisely happened, Jim? What was the problem with the process?" came Tom's completely sincere question, since he still didn't have a clue as to what had gone wrong. "It seems that your Director of HR, who does the background and personnel checks on all bids," Jim hesitated as he looked down at a piece of paper, "her name's Kathy Matthews; it turns out that ol' Kathy has been havin' an affair with Karl Gerring, the 'K.G.' of K.G. Construction." "Dear God, I had no idea!" interjected Tom. "At a minimum," Jim continued, "she should a' been recused from doing the work on his company." Jim and Tom sat there quiet for a minute, both lost in their own thoughts, sipping at their coffees before it got too cold. Jim finally began to speak again, "As far as we can tell, Kathy Matthews didn't get any sort of payoff, unless ya count her screwing around with this Karl Gerring as payoff. That's why we're not filing criminal charges and having her arrested. But that contract is void, and we're shutting it down immediately. And Tom, she is history." Tom was still a little confused, "What's the problem if she wasn't getting any kickbacks?" Graham looked at Tom for a second, like he was just a bit simple. "Tom, do you talk to your wife when you're alone at night. Do you tell her your secrets?" Tom saw the problem, "So you figure Kathy might has given him information on the other bids." "It's a possibility. You're gonna to have to rebid the contract, and K.G. Construction is not gonna be allowed to bid. Now Tom, this is serious. Hell, you're skating on pretty thin ice your own self. So I'd get this taken care of ASAP. This screw-up is putting ya way behind the schedule for the year. I wouldn't count on getting' your bonus, because of this mess." Graham concluded, with a warning. Tom Smith left CableNex corporate headquarters an angry, directed, man. Matthew's House Kathy was only working a half-day on Friday, so she could go home and pack, I guess. I knew about her schedule, and so I decided, despite everything, to make it as painful as possible for her, emotionally. I arrived home myself about ten minutes before the kids would get dropped off by the school bus, and went into the house. No, I didn't find her screwing in the bedroom or anything, she was just packing. But she had some music going, and she was happily singing along, and when I looked into the bedroom I could see her getting out thongs and bikinis, and a bunch of vacation type clothes to pack into her suitcase. She and lover boy were pretty obviously going to some warm, sunny beach resort to spend the weekend fucking. To be honest, despite my knowing about things that were coming down, it still got me more angry that I could believe. I decided not to stick around to see her off to her lover. When the children came up to the house, I had them drop off their backpacks and schoolbooks in the front room, and we snuck out to go out to dinner and a movie of their choice. The kids thought it was a great idea. I told them that Mom was off traveling, so they never worried for a minute. I left a note for Kathy on the kitchen sink. Kathy, Don't worry, I've taken the kids out for dinner and a movie. We won't be back until after you've left for your weekend with your lover. I was going to say goodbye to you, but I came up to the bedroom and you were so cheerful, singing and smiling, as you packed your intimate things, that frankly, it hurt too much for me to stay. Have a great weekend. We will get along here. Paul No 'Dear Kathy', no 'Love, Paul'. We'll get along here without you was the implication. I had mixed feeling about that note. I wanted her to feel some pain, but I didn't actually want her to stay here. My punishment of Kathy and Karl wouldn't be complete if they didn't go to whatever lover's destination they were going to. Oh, the kids and I had a great time that evening. Pizza again. I suppose it was better than Mickey D's or Taco Bell. When we got back to the house, Kathy wasn't there, and she hadn't left me a note or anything, but when I fished my note out of the trash, I'm pretty sure there were a few tear marks on it. The email I received on my special 'intel' system that Friday was dramatic, and presaged coming events. At 3:30 PM, K.s boss returned from HQ — immediately asked to see K. Told she was off half day. Looked, sounded, pissed. Wants her to report to him ASAP Monday. Also, told accounts payable to hold all payments to K.G. Construction, until notified otherwise. Told Ops manager to stop all work orders to K.G. Construction. The shit has hit the fan. The place is in an uproar. The rest of the weekend was actually pretty quiet in the Matthew's house. I gave Todd and Evelyn a break Saturday night, by having their kids come over and stay at our place. Nothing special; we got a couple of new movies on DVD to watch, the boys played video games, the girls went up to Christi's room and did, well, whatever girls that age do. I refused to order pizza for dinner again, but I did go out and got a couple large buckets of chicken, with potatoes, biscuits and gravy. I was thankful that could finally repay Todd and Evelyn in some small part for all of the times that they had been taking care of Jason and Christi lately. Hope they used their night alone wisely! Sunday was another quiet day, but I suspected that it might be the last day like that for awhile. Kathy didn't arrive home until very late, either Sunday night or very early Monday, I'm not exactly sure. The kids were long asleep, and I pretended to be asleep when she finally climbed under the covers. She didn't bother to try and 'wake' me, although she slid over and gave me a light kiss on my forehead before going back to her side of the bed and going to sleep. I hoped that she would sleep well, because this was going to be a tough week. Kathy was still asleep when I got up and showered, got the kids ready and took them to school on my way to work. I didn't wake her when I left. I later found out that she hadn't been feeling well since the day before and decided to call in sick and go see the doctor in the morning. Suspicion Ch. 12 Chapter 12. Monday Morning 9:15 AM — CableNex By Monday morning, Tom Smith's anger was no longer the white hot rage of Friday afternoon, but he was still a very unhappy man. Sitting at his desk in his office, he hadn't heard from Kathy Matthews yet, which was beginning to irritate him. He finally called Kathy's secretary, only to be told that Kathy had called in sick, saying that she had started feeling ill the day before, and was going to see the doctor later that morning. That didn't change anything, it just postponed it. He was actually feeling down about what he had to do. Tom liked Kathy, and she was generally speaking a reliable, intelligent employee. Or had been, anyway. For that matter, Tom liked Kathy's husband — 'Paul', he remembered was his name. They had met at several company functions and he seemed like a good man. They had talked a little about fishing, football, and family. Tom could only feel sorry for Paul, since it was almost inevitable that Kathy's affair with Karl Gerring was going to come out now. Not wide public knowledge, certainly, Tom would handle it in as sensitive a fashion as he could, but Kathy's husband was almost certainly going to find out, if he didn't know already. Tom decided that he could wait a day to deal with Kathy, but he wanted to talk to her in person, not act like some kind of heartless ass and email her or leave a voice mail to deliver the bad news. In the meantime, the corporate lawyer was preparing the papers to deliver to K.G. Construction explaining that the misconduct during the bidding process, potentially breaching the confidentiality of K.G.'s competitor's proposals, had voided their contract. The contract itself would have to be placed out for bid again, and K.G. would not be considered as a 'qualified' bidder for the rebid. If K.G. Construction wanted to fight the decision in the courts, they could go ahead, but they would lose. What Tom didn't know, as he sat contemplating his next action, was that a reporter for the Wall Street Journal had received an anonymous email, dated the night before, giving him a heads up that there was a minor scandal brewing at one of the CableNex offices with respect to one of their contracts. It was from a self-styled whistleblower using the pseudonym 'Ethos'. The WSJ wouldn't rely on an anonymous source like that, but they had gotten enough detail from the tip to follow up for themselves. The reporter started making some phone calls. Monday Morning 8:00 AM — K.G. Construction Karl Gerring was frustrated. He'd just gotten off the phone with CableNex's local operations manager. "Gee, Karl, I don't know what the problem is," came the friendly voice, "but I got a stop order on Friday afternoon. I tried to get ahold of you, but your assistant told me you were out of town for the weekend, and they didn't know where you were. And your work cell wasn't on — I tried it three times. You probably got my messages." "Yes, I got your messages this morning when I came in," Karl confirmed, "but that still doesn't get my crews out working." "Karl, I'm sure that its some small glitch, and that it'll be resolved real soon. I mean, we don't want to fall behind on our schedule, either. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get you turned back on this afternoon." the voice on the telephone concluded. The one damn weekend when he gets his girlfriend completely away from her family, where they can't interfere and have her go running off, this happens. Karl was fuming. But he knew there was no point in shouting at his employees about it; he'd made it clear that he hadn't wanted to be disturbed for the weekend. All he could do for the moment was hope that whatever problem CableNex was having, they would get straightened out. Hopefully sooner rather than later. That Morning 10:00 AM — Evelyn Hunter's House Kathy was stirring her coffee, sitting across the table from her sister. She was actually very upbeat and happy that morning. So much so, that Evelyn almost didn't want to ask why. But she did anyway. "OK, spill the beans. I haven't seen you this cheerful for ages? Does this have to do with your weekend?" Evelyn said, rather sternly, her question echoing her disapproval of Kathy's love affair. "It does, at least indirectly," replied her sister, "and I think that what I have to say will make you happy as well." Kathy continued, "Karl took me to the Bahamas this weekend, and it was a great." Evelyn interjected, "I don't know how THAT's supposed to make me happy, and I'm sure that Paul was just tickled to death!" "I haven't spoken to Paul about it yet," Kathy responded, "But that is not what I was getting at." "Karl and I had a wonderful time there, but I realized as I was on the flight home that while it was fun being there, I was wishing it was Paul and not Karl with me, and that when I looked at Karl sitting next to me on the plane, I just had no special urge or desire to be with him. It was like, whatever I owed him for our love in the past was over, paid off. There was no feeling of 'a future' anymore." she explained. "So," Kathy was still looking positive as she spoke, "As soon as I've had the chance to talk to Paul, I'm going to call Karl and tell him its over — finished, done, ended. I hope that Paul will agree that I should let the apartment go and I'll be back to where I should be, being Mrs. Paul Matthews!" "I hope it works out for you, I really do, but you've put Paul through hell over the past four or five months, and I suspect it will take some time for him to get over it." commented Evelyn. Kathy looked at her watch and lifted herself from the stool, "I know, I know, believe me, I understand that. But I have to go. I have a doctor's appointment. I think that I may have a yeast infection. So I'll see you later, Evelyn." 11:00 AM — CableNex "Tom," came Jim Graham's voice over the phone, "I'm not going ta make you happy here, and you can guess that I'm not happy either. About ten minutes ago, I got a call from a reporter fellow from 'The Wall Street Journal'," Jim pronouncing each word of the paper really clearly, with a slight pause in between each word, "and he was asking me to confirm a rumor that CableNex was having a problem with a contractor, who had won a contract based on insider information. Furthermore, the rumor suggested that CableNex had known about an improper relationship between Karl Gerring and an unspecified employee, and not done anything about it." Tom almost fell out of his chair. "Shit." came his succinct reply. "Tom, now tell me: what is the status out there, and do I need to worry that I'm walkin' into any ambushes or minefields that I should know about?" Tom sat up and began to rapidly outline the actions that he had taken. "Jim, I put a hold on the contract Friday afternoon, as soon as I left our meeting. I also issued an immediate stop-work order to shut down any on-going tasks. The lawyers are writing up the documents to inform K.G. Construction that they are in material breach of the contract, and that we consider it to be null and void. The documents will be delivered to Karl Gerring either by the end of business today, or the first thing tomorrow morning," Tom told his boss, with the clarity of vision that comes to a men who finds his own job at substantial risk. "All right," Graham said, signaling that he wanted to move on, "And what about Kathy Matthews?" "Matthews was off last Friday, when I returned, and she called in sick this morning and is going to the doctor. I'm going to be asking for her resignation as soon as I see her," came Tom's immediate reply. Graham was silent for a moment, you could almost see him considering the options, before he continued. "Tom, here is what we are gonna tell that reporter fellow: CableNex, through its normal internal audit procedures, discovered that there was a possibility that one competitor, for the contract in question, may have inadvertently been exposed to critical information being submitted by other competitors. We do not believe that any leak was intentional, and have taken immediate action to remedy any possible improprieties that may have tainted the contracting process." "Let me point out a couple a things about this statement, Tom. You are gonna get Kathy Matthew's resignation, but we're not gonna throw her to the wolves. So let the resignation be for, say, two weeks from now, for family reasons. Off the record, I'm gonna push the notion that K.G. Construction may have found some papers that were accidentally thrown out, and I'm gonna try to downplay this whole 'affair' thing, its just too damn shoddy. MY story makes the whole thing a little more palatable. At least it won't show up on the cover of some tabloid that my wife will see when she's grocery shopping," Graham finished. "OK boss, that's what we do," agreed Tom, as if he had a choice. 11:30 AM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthew's Office It had been a busy morning for me, but I was a happy man, just waiting for the elements of The Plan to come together. It was down to hours or days now, and the situation would resolve itself. I wasn't entirely sure of how it would resolve, but events were coming to a head. One more task to do before my work was done, but I was still waiting for the signal that would trigger the last act. A little before 11:30 that morning I got my signal. When the phone rang the caller I.D. told me it was Kathy on her cell. "Yes, Kathy," I responded, sounding neither too happy nor particularly upset. The sobbing and weeping on the phone actually gave me a certain satisfaction, as I anticipated the cause. "Paaauullll," I could barely understand Kathy, just saying my name. "Paaaullll, yyouuu need to come to Dr. Browns office, ppleeaasee!" Kathy's pain was palpable on the line. "Kathy, is there something wrong? Tell me — what's wrong? Why are you so upset, are the kids OK?" I tried to sound worried and confused. She said something else, but I couldn't understand a word of it through the crying. "Kathy, just stay there, I'll be right down." I instructed her, trying to keep the glee from my voice. I was whistling as I strolled to my car to drive to our GP's office. When I arrived at Dr. Brown's, the nurse showed me right into a room, where Kathy was already sitting. Kathy was ready to run to me and wrap her arms around me to be comforted, but I kept her back with my hands and refused her embrace. "OK, Kathy. What's this about?" I asked rather abruptly, to Kathy's dismay. Kathy had finally gotten her tears and sobbing under control, although her voice was still trembling, and she couldn't look me, her husband in the face. "Paul," she finally started, "I came in to see Dr. Brown this morning because I thought that I had gotten a yeast infection over the weekend," She looked up at Paul with her eyes, not moving her face, and immediately lowered them again. "But when the Doctor saw me, he ran some tests," her voice had dropped to a whisper, "he thinks that I have gonorrhea. Oh, god... I'm so sorry... and he is going to have to report it to the county health department. He is putting me on antibiotics immediately while they do some other test..." Dr. Brown came in an closed the door behind him. He walked over and shook my hand. "I'm sorry, Paul, but when we encounter an STD, like gonorrhea, we have to test the patient's sexual parters, so we need to perform the tests on you as well." Dr. Brown explained, using his best neutral, clinical tone of voice. "We want to identify the source of this infection, if we can." "The tests are about 95% positive that she has gonorrhea, although we are running a culture sample to confirm it. But honestly, I've seen enough over my career that, well, there is no question in my mind." he continued. "I'm sorry, this is probably a shock to you, but Kathy wanted you to come in and be tested and treated as soon as possible." I looked at Kathy with a look in my eye that I hope communicated disgust. I was trying not to laugh at the little soap opera being played out in the examination room. "Let's start with: when did you last have intercourse with your wife?" was his first question. "Last Wednesday night." I replied. "And, did you use any sort of protective device? Oh, wait, cancel that," he said looking at her chart, "I see that Kathy is on the pill." he said, ready to go on. "Hold on, Doc. I used a condom last Wednesday, although not for birth control. We were experimenting with one of those 'french ticklers' with the ribs and spikes. Just for pleasure purposes." I confessed. "Hmmm... well, well, well. Why don't you drop your pants then." he ordered, in that particular way that the medical community uses to make it sound as if it is just a suggestion, not a command. I don't know about anyone else, but having some man handle my private parts is really low on my list of things to do — the request to 'bend over and cough' is one of the few things I hate even worse, but cold male hands examining my dick don't do a thing for me. But Dr. Brown took a careful look and then made another, "Hmmm" sound. Then he grabbed a Q-tip and a bag, and did a rather painful little jab into my urethra, the place I always called by its scientific name, the 'pisshole'. "Let's get you to urinate in this bottle, Just go into the restroom there at the end of the hall." he directed. And then he disappeared. I did, and about ten minutes later, he returned to the room. "Paul, the good news is that, at least based on my preliminary visual examination, and the urine test, you were not infected. We'll confirm it with the culture. So, you are NOT the source of the infection," was Dr. Brown's diagnosis, "which leaves us with a serious and, frankly, embarrassing question for you Kathy. We are going to need the name of any and all other sexual partners with whom you have had intercourse for the last month. They will have to be notified and treated." He looked at her, waiting, his pen ready to take notes. "Do you want me to ask Paul to leave the room?" he asked, a certain compassion in his voice. Kathy shook her head, 'no.' "There's only been one, Karl Gerring," she told him, still speaking barely above a whisper. He got all of Karl's contact information from her, and then turned back to me. "I'm going to put you on a prophylactic course of antibiotics as well, so that, when you have sexual relations with your wife again, we'll be completely sure that you aren't giving it back and forth to each other. You might also consider using condoms for at least some period, until we check Kathy again," and with that he left the room. I looked at Kathy. "We'll talk about this at home." I told her, and she had a look of complete panic on her face. "Calm down, Kathy, this isn't the end of the world. But you can imagine that I'm not feeling real charitable towards you right now, so give me some time to cool off, before we talk, OK?" She nodded, and (since I didn't want her to have an accident or something on the way home,) I actually hugged her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek as we parted to return to our cars. I told her to go home and rest, that I would be along in an hour or two. The last action required by The Plan, I completed at the local library. I found one of the computers scattered around that was both empty and secluded. For the last time, I opened my special email system on-line, and plugged in the USB flash memory device into the port on the front of the computer. Then, I prepared an email intended to stab a rival in the heart. To: Karl Gerring Subject: Hey dumb shit, You think you hot, fucking some other dudes wife. That's what you think. While she fucking you, look at what she doing in her apartment! Like these photos? I don't supposed she told you she was gang-banging a bunch of black dudes on the side too. Damn, I got to laugh. You as stupid as her old man. Me and the bro's thought you might want to know. Mr. 10inchMan Then I attached five of the doctored photos to the email. Ah, now perhaps you're wondering why I would do something as infantile as putting pictures of my wife, even if they were fake, into Mr. K. Gerring's hands? That was where Sanjay's programming came in. In addition to the photos, I attached a small piece of Java code to the email. If Java wasn't enabled on Karl's system, the photos wouldn't show up. If it was, then when Karl tried to either save or print the photo files, they would all self-destruct, including the original email. And once the email is opened, after a minute the email and photos would self-destruct anyway. I was stabbing him, but the knife would simply disappear. Poof! When I returned to my car, I turned my cell phone back on, and discovered a voice mail from Evelyn asking me to call. When I returned the call, she gave me a quick summary of the conversation that she had with Kathy that morning, before she went to the doctor. I was somewhat pleased that Kathy had, it seems, decided to put Karl aside, and that she did it before finding out that she had and STD, presumably from him. But, it was too late now for her to avoid the pain that was coming, because at this point, I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. Matthew's House 3:00 PM When I finally returned home, I call for Kathy, but there was no answer. I walked up into the bedroom, and thought that I heard water running in the shower. I knocked, and there was no answer, so I went in and found Kathy sitting in the shower, with the water running. She was just sitting there weeping. I reached in and turned off the tepid water. She had been there long enough to use up all of the hot water, and that takes some doing — we have a 75 gal. hot water heater. I reached over and grabbed a bath towel, and picked Kathy up into a standing position, and gently dried her off. Then I helped her step out of the shower enclosure, and dried, and brushed her hair out as much as I could. Kathy hugged me with an intensity that I'd never seen before, and tried to kiss me. I refused to kiss her, and she began to break down. I softly explained to her, that one could have gonorrhea in the mouth as well as the vagina, and that, if she had used her mouth on Karl, on her happy weekend in the Bahamas... So I didn't think that she should be kissing either me or the children until Dr. Brown had given her an all clear diagnosis. I put together a light lunch, just a bowl of chicken soup and a toasted English muffin, and sat there in the kitchen encouraging Kathy to eat it. She got most of it down, and then I took her back up to the bedroom and put her to bed, covering her with the sheets, and closing the blackout shades. When the kids got home, I told them that their Mom wasn't feeling well (boy was THAT the truth,) and that she was trying to get some sleep in our room. Amazingly, the kids actually kept the noise level down, we ate, did homework, talked and played until bedtime, and then went to bed with nary a complaint. Will wonders never cease. I finally sat down to watch the 10:00 News on the local network affiliate. I almost missed it, when they started the story, "In business news; according to an article that is to run in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, the local office of cable television provider, CableNex, has announced that a contract to extend and replace outdated cable with a new fiber optic network, originally awarded to K.G. Construction, has been terminated due to irregularities in the bidding process. According to well placed sources, an internal audit discovered reason to believe that confidential information on competitors bids from print outs that were supposed to be destroyed, may have found their way into the hands of Karl Gerring, the President of K.G. Construction. Our attempts to reach Mr. Gerring for comment were unsuccessful, but we will continue to pursue this story." Suspicion Ch. 12 I wasn't exactly jumping for joy when I heard this story, but that was only because I didn't want to wake everyone up. When I decided to go to bed myself, I entered our bedroom, and Kathy was asleep, huddled in a fetal position. I crawled in behind her, and moved in close, holding her until she relaxed and straightened out. I fell asleep spooning my wife. Suspicion Ch. 13 Chapter 13. Tuesday 9:30 AM — Rudy's Deli Karl Gerring was sitting across from his attorney, Dave Powers, finishing off his third cup of coffee since he sat down. At 8:00 AM sharp, papers had been delivered to the K.G. Construction office from lawyers representing CableNex, and they appeared to be voiding the large contract that he had signed with them less than four months before. Powers had been looking over the documents for the past half-an-hour. The papers weren't terribly complex, but they were bad news for Karl Gerring's company, if they held up in court. "Karl," asked Powers, "It doesn't come right out and say it, but the implication in these papers is not that you got confidential documents, which is what the media has been suggesting, but that you had access to some secret insider information through a source in the office. You weren't screwing the procurement manager or something, were you?" "Hell no," came Karl's immediate reply, "I didn't do anything wrong...." There was a pregnant pause. "What?" Powers finally asked, unable to sit in silence any longer. "Damn, damn, damn. No, it wasn't the procurement manager, but I've been involved with Kathy Matthews, the H.R. Director. It's a long story, but briefly, she was my girlfriend 20 years ago in high school, and we started seeing each other recently. In fact, it was while I was submitting the bid for this that I ran into her again," was Karl's explanation. The look on Dave Power's face momentarily turned incredulous, his eyebrows rising and his lips pursing, almost as if he was going to whistle. "Unfortunately my friend," Powers said, shaking his head, "You are most likely screwed, then. They are perfectly within their rights to void the contract under those circumstances. In fact, they could potentially sue YOU for the costs associated with rebidding the contract. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but to contest this action would be very expensive, you will almost certainly be out of business before you would get it into court, and you will most likely lose if you do." "I've got to get going, I have to be in court in about an hour," Powers noted, looking at his wristwatch. "Here, let me pick up the check." he said as he moved towards the exit door. "See you, Karl." Karl was just sitting there staring into space. He was thinking, trying to see some way to save his business from this disaster, and not at all sure that he could. Just then his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller I.D., and it said 'County Dept. Hlth', he answered it wondering who the hell wanted to talk to him now? 11:00 AM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthew's Office My personal cell phone rang, and when I looked at the caller I.D., it was a blocked number. Probably a sales call, but with the wheels in motion and the wall tumbling down, I decided to answer. It was Jill Jones, my inside source at CableNex. "Paul?" I heard Jill's voice. "Yes, Jill. What's going on?" I replied. "Kathy packed up her personal things this morning, and left the building. The rumors are that she is resigning for personal reasons. Tom is supposed to send out a memo later today. I just thought that you would want to know," she concluded. "Thanks, Jill. No surprise, eh? At least not to some of us," was my almost sad response. Jill chuckled a little, "I guess not. You know, Paul, I don't think that I would want to get on your bad side! But I really hope that you and Kathy can work things out — she's really a good woman, and I know that she loves you and your kids more than anything." "I do too, Jill. And I'll just say 'thanks'." We made our goodbyes, and I ended the conversation. 2:00 PM — K.G. Construction, Karl Gerring's Office To describe Karl Gerring's day as 'shitty' was akin to describing the bomb dropped on Hiroshima as 'a modest explosive device.' In relative terms, the destructive effects were about the same. First came the cancellation of the contract with CableNex, which was about 75% of K.G.'s existing business. Then his meeting with his lawyer, who basically told him that he was wasting his time and money trying to take legal action to contest the decision. Then, and maybe what had him the most angry, was the call from the fucking County Health Department, telling him that he needed to come in an be tested for a so-called STD — a sexually transmitted disease. So he stopped by the County Center, sure that it was some stupid screw up, only to be tested and told that he had fucking gonorrhea! Then they started asking about his sexual partners, and all of that kind or crap. Well, he'd only had one damn sexual partner, and her name was Kathy Matthews. The bitch must have gotten it from her husband, he thought. Oh, she's going to love that, he thought, when she finds out that her 'perfect husband' has been getting a little on the side. When he finally got to his office, he had another immediate concern. He had to call in his crews, and lay most of them off, explaining to them that the major contract that they'd been working on had been cancelled. He didn't let them know why it had been cancelled, and tried to fudge a little by telling them that he was looking into potential legal recourse. They all knew that was bullshit! They left, first to stop by the unemployment office to get their unemployment checks started, and then they would grab a newspaper and start hoofing it to find another job. Damn. Oh, hell, what else could go wrong. He'd reached bottom. Lacking anything else that he could do at that moment, he decided to check his email for the first time in a couple of days. Junk, delete, more junk, delete, request for proposal, oops — not in town, delete. Message from someone he doesn't recognize... he opened it. He read the nasty little note, and then HOLY SHIT!!! Kathy being gangbanged by a couple of black dudes? NO WAY! Karl's mind was spinning as he saw the pictures. He just sat there looking at the photos embedded in his email. That was her fucking apartment; the real reason that it was 'off limits' was because she was having goddamn orgies there! How, he thought, could I have ever thought that I loved that bitch, and that she loved me? All of the shit that she was giving me about how she loved me, but she loved her husband as well, and was going to try to keep her marriage together. She was obviously some kind of kinky, sick, whore. Finally, he decided that he would print some copies out to confront that slut. But was he reached for the mouse, the pictures started breaking up in that digital manner, becoming large undefined squares, losing their coherence, and finally disappearing. "What the fuck?" was Karl's insightful observation. Karl wasn't a computer guy, so he didn't have a clue. But he knew what he'd seen. It would be imprinted on his brain forever. The woman was pure, unmitigated poison. 4:30 PM — Equity Corp, Paul Matthews' Office I was wrapping up things for the day. The Plan had succeeded beyond my wildest hopes, and it looked like all of my main goals had been achieved. I was riding on top of the world, at least until tomorrow, I thought. Because, as they say, tomorrow is another day. Hubris. My General Manager, a nice guy named Erik Samson, walked in just to make my day. Nothing like being told at the end of your shift that your position is being eliminated, your department is being closed, and your function is being outsourced! Believe it not, when I left for home, at about quarter after 5:00, I could still manage a smile. 5:30 PM — Matthews House As I pulled up to my house, I could see Kathy standing out on the front lawn looking down at the ground and weeping, as some guy was shouting at her. The kids were standing together, clinging to each other on the front porch, looking scared as hell. I came in to the drive too fast, screeched the brakes as I halted, and jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, with my briefcase, and everything still in the car, as I ran over to where Kathy stood. Karl Gerring, I presume. The man didn't seem to notice that I was running towards them, and then I could hear him, "...my business, and now, you bitch, you gave me the fucking CLAP!" He raised his hand up as if he might slap her, although he didn't. I certainly wasn't going to let that happen! By then, I had gotten in between him and Kathy, and I could feel her hands on my back, as she hid behind me, looking past me at the maniac. "Hey mister — back off. This is MY wife you're threatening, and my children you've scared half-to-death, and this is my property, so I think that you ought to go. Right NOW!" I shouted at him. I wasn't making any aggressive moves towards him, I was just holding my arms out to form a barrier, as it were, to protect my family. "Oh, yea! You're fucking wife has lost me my business, and gave me the clap," he shouted back. "Pardon me, but," then I lowered my voice, "if you're Karl Gerring, then my wife picked up that little present from you!" "Bullshit, you stupid fuck. You know that apartment she has? Well, she's been having fucking orgies there taking on two, maybe three men at once. Oh, yea, black guys with huge dicks! Did you know about her black men fantasies?" he was shouting again, "Where do you think she got G.C. from? Not from me!" I took a quick look back at Kathy. She whispered in my ear. "Paul, I think he's gone crazy. I never did anything like that!" she whispered with an urgent edge to her voice, "Be careful, he's NUTS!" "You! My wife says you're a liar, and I believe her, so you're a liar. You are a miserable piece of shit," I told him, and then, as I saw the police car pulling up on the street, I stepped closer and dropped my voice again, but I made no openly aggressive looking motions, "And I'm the one who took down your life and your business, and flushed you down the toilet, like the turd you are!" That's what I said that pushed him over the edge, timing it so that Karl's punch hit my unresisting face just a moment before the cops could grab him. You know, I was surprised at the creative ways that policemen use their batons to control violent people. I got a kind of short tutorial on the subject, watching from the ground as they subdued the out-of-control Karl and hauled him in handcuffs back to their car. Icing on the cake! Thank goodness, he hit me with a right; he didn't reopen the scars from the car accident! I didn't really resist his blow, so it knocked me down, and I stayed there while the cops were subduing him. As they dragged him off, I was suddenly surrounded. My wife was trying to hold my head and shoulders and to kiss me. My children had run up, and were crying and trying to hold me. Actually, a couple of our neighbors, who had no doubt heard the whole scurrilous episode, came over to help me back up. "What was that about, Paul?" asked the lady from two doors down the street, who was particularly inclined towards spreading salacious gossip. "That's the crazy man who's been stalking Kathy for months!" I proclaimed loudly, knowing that this would become 'the story', "I guess he finally went completely over the edge." I turned to Kathy, and to add credence to my little lie, I asked her, "Did he hurt you, dear? Maybe this will be the end of the nightmare!" Our neighbors nodded in agreement, finally understanding the turmoil that had racked our family for months. At least they thought they understood. We thanked them all for their understanding and support, and I walked over to my car, got my briefcase out, and closed the door. Then I walked back, put my arms around my family, and herded them into the house. Once we were all in the house, we were still really hyped, and the adrenaline was still flowing. Too much to be bothered with fixing dinner. So take a guess at what the Matthews did for dinner? Damn right: pizza. Oh well, the kids sure loved it! I thought it was OK (my taste in pizza goes towards a thick crust with sausage and mushrooms — no way in our house. Thin crust, extra cheese and pepperoni. Sigh.) To tell you the truth, I don't think that Kathy tasted it much, or cared much, either. She was going through the motions. The kids had been terribly frightened, and they kept asking me questions like, 'Is that bad man coming back?', 'Will the police keep him in jail?' I told them that I didn't think he would be coming back, and that now that Daddy was home, I would protect them. When Jason asked me if I would use my gun if the man came back, I looked into Kathy's eyes, as I said, "Yes, Jason. If he comes back and tries to threaten us again, I will use my gun if I have too." Having said that, I did make sure that Jason knew that I would only shoot my gun if we were in danger ourselves, and the 'bad' man was seriously threatening us. But if I had to, I would. That seemed to satisfy the kids, although I had to stay with Christi for maybe 45 minutes before she fell asleep that night. Jason took me at my word, and seemed to accept it as the truth, and returned to his normal school night routine — homework, computer, games, texting his buddies, and finally bed. I did emphasize to both children that they probably shouldn't talk about what had happened to anyone, unless I told them to. With both of the kids in bed, I returned to the living room, where a cried-out Kathy sat in the dark, just staring. "I've really fucked everything up, haven't I, honey?" she quietly asked me, rhetorically I suppose, but I was going to answer. "It might not be totally inaccurate to say that." came my calm reply. "It's funny, but today I was going to let you know that my obsession with Karl was over, that I just didn't feel anything much for him, especially compared to my family. I was going to call you right after I got back from the doctors. But why should you believe me now, after finding out that I contracted an STD, and that whole scene out in front this afternoon," Kathy said, and then laughed a little laugh, a completely self-deprecatory sound, saying 'what kind of a fool am I.' The I think to her surprise, I responded, "Actually, I do believe you. For one thing, I spoke to your sister this afternoon, before the little tete-a-tete with Karl. She told me what you had told her this morning when you stopped by her place on the way to the doctor's office." She was a little relieved at hearing that, that truth and accuracy of what she'd admitted to me had been confirmed by another source, who had heard it before things had gone completely crazy. "And Paul, I have utterly NO idea what Karl was talking about, you know, that really vile thing about me having 'gang-bangs with black studs in my apartment," she continued, "I really, truly, think that he has gone completely crazy; he sounds like some sort of paranoid. I hope that you can believe me about this, too. The ONLY man I even had in the apartment, and the ONLY man that I ever had sex with there was YOU. Period!" I had to smile a little, happy that Kathy couldn't quite see my face in the dark room. "Kathy, I know you, and I am totally sure that you did not do those things. Even if someone presented me photos intended to prove such a thing, I would assume they were fake. Then I would ask you, and I expect that you would tell me the truth," I told her, thinking that it might be an impolitic time to let her know that I knew that such photos could be faked! And how and where to have it done. "I don't know how you can believe anything that I tell you anymore, Paul," came her answer to my statement. "You know, reflecting on truth and lies, throughout this entire sad time, I realized that you lied to me in two ways: you initially tried to misdirect me, by suggesting that the bite marks on your breasts were bruises; and you certainly lied to me by omission — by NOT telling me things that I should have known. On the other hand, when I asked a direct question, you didn't lie to me, you confessed. For that I am grateful. I'm not saying the 'lies' of misdirection and omission haven't hurt me, but they don't hurt as much as if you had out and out lied to my face when I asked you a question," I concluded. At that point, I moved over next to Kathy on the couch, and hugged her, and she returned the embraced with a quiet desperation. We sat like that for a couple of minutes, not saying anything, just holding each other like survivors of some terrible disaster, although in our case, it was not natural. A lot of my anger had dissipated, some of it as a natural consequence of having Kathy back living with us over the past several months, some due to the fact that I had taken action to deal with both Karl and Kathy. Before Karl had shown up at her office, we'd had a good marriage, and you don't have a long-term good marriage if you don't, at some fundamental level, get along and like each other. I still liked and loved Kathy. She wasn't my best friend to quite the same degree that she had been, and our love had taken a hit, but the roots were deep and were damaged, not destroyed. The decision to start having sex with her again, even if motivated for somewhat unethical reasons, and despite some real reservations on my part about it, turned out to be a good thing as well. As long as someone wants to have sex you with, it tells you that they still have a deep feeling for you, and sex is in some ways the lubricant that smoothes the friction of two people living together for a long period of time. It's hard to stay angry with someone who is trying their best to sexually satisfy you. To some extent, I suppose that at times, both Kathy and I during the recent months had made an extra effort to enhance our sexual bond with each other, even if we didn't always feel like having sex at any particular time, but that itself was a kind of proof of sincerity. It was Kathy who broke the silence. "There is something else that happened today that you should know about," Kathy's voice was almost trembling as she told me. "I was forced to resign from CableNex because of my relationship with Karl. "I heard," was my response. Kathy didn't ask from whom. She continued, "One of Karl's competitors thought that it had been too easy for him to win the bid, so they had investigators follow him around. When they saw me with him, and realized that I worked for CableNex, they went to corporate, and corporate investigated as well. They couldn't find any evidence that I had done anything illegal, but they told me that if it went to court, it would look like I had been leaking information to Karl that gave him an edge in the bidding." I could feel Kathy looking at me in the dark. "The funny thing is, I never gave Karl any information about the bids, but it didn't matter. They just assumed that if I was having an affair with him, then I must be talking out of school." "I wanted to tell you that. I don't ever want to keep secrets from you again," she explained. "Tom, my boss, was very nice about it. My resignation officially won't be effective for two weeks, and it will be announced that it was for 'family reasons. I'll be paid during that period, and I'll get all of my benefits and severance pay. So, I'll get about six months pay in total," she continued, "But I don't know where I'll get another job. Tom said that CableNex would give me a positive recommendation, but everyone here locally will know that something was wrong." I thought that my next words would surprise her, as I had my own surprise to reveal. "Well, Kathy, I may surprise you, but I think that's great that you don't have that job anymore," I asserted, and felt a jolt go through her body, as I held her. To make sure that she didn't get a word in edgewise, I just kept going. Suspicion Ch. 13 "Because, I submitted my resignation today too, effective in six weeks," I was already smirking in the dark as I said that, "although I'm not actually going back to work. I'm using up my accrued PTO to free up my time until then." Kathy, of course, was horrified! "But Paul! What are you going to do? Are you going to make us move? Is this because of my affair?" Kathy was just bursting with questions. I actually reached over and turned on the lights, because I was not going to explain our future plans in the dark! "That's better," I proclaimed, "now, where were we. Oh yes, my job." "At the end of work today, Eric, the G.M. of our division here, came by to let me know that in six weeks, Equity plans to close down the maintenance department, and outsource its functions," I told her and then gave her some time to absorb the information. "It's being done as a cost savings move across the company. Equity management thinks they can save 10% on what the company pays for maintenance now. Well, I know where the fat is in my group, and I also know that the real cost issue is that corporate accounting applies the corporate overhead rates to my department, which adds about 30% to the 'accounting' cost of running the department," I explained, giving Kathy a little insight into Equity's cost issue. "Eric and I put our heads together on this, and came to an agreement. I'm going to organized a new company to provide the maintenance services that my department currently provides, and I'll pick up the good people, and let Equity dump the laggards, and Eric will give the new company a contract at a price 10% below what the department is currently costing," came my continued outline, "That will actually allow me to capture the 20% difference, not including what I pay myself in salary. It should be a very profitable business." "Understand that I was going to have to go out and hire some good office/administration management type person to help me run the company. But, I hope that since you don't have a prior commitment any more, that maybe you could take that job on!" I finished. Kathy looked at me with an astonished look on her face. Suspicion Ch. 14-15 Chapter 14. Getting the new business up and running Then we spent the next six weeks getting our new company up and running. We hired on most of the people who had been in my old department. I knew where I could modify our practices to be more efficient, something that the old corporate structure wouldn't let me do. The transition from my running the department as an internal function to running it as an outside company went very smoothly, and by the end of the year, Eric, the G.M. looked like a hero. A lot of the other divisions made a mess of it, and were not only not saving that 10%, but were actually spending a lot more. Since I was no longer part of Equity Corp, I could also pursue other work, and within the year I picked up several other maintenance contracts. In a strange coincidence, the contract that gave me the most pleasure was a subcontract with Butler & Sons, when they won the rebid for the CableNex business. Most of the work that K.G. Construction had been doing, was now part of my subcontract. As for Karl Gerring, his company went under, and none of us ever heard anything about him again. Kathy absolutely promised me that if he tried to contact her, I would know about it immediately. Of course, one must consider that by this time, she was fairly certain that he was completely crazy, if not dangerous. To return to Kathy and I, we did manage to reconcile, but it wasn't easy. I was up front with her that it would take some time before I was sure that we should continue together, or whether we should divorce. We did attend marriage counseling with Bill Wattler together, and that helped. After Kathy was cleared of the little STD that I'd given her, we resumed having sex together, and that really helped. I guess because of the circumstances, we were willing to put more effort into our sex life, both in terms of making sure that we had time together; but also we were also both more willing to experiment and try new things. I think that when I decided to seduce Kathy that first day that she returned home, it marked a change for the better in our love life. I never wanted to know the details of Karl and Kathy's affair, but Kathy insisted that I should know enough not to let my imagination run away with me. She told me that she and Karl had rather mundane sex together; that she never did anything with him that she hadn't done with me, and that a number of things, like anal, she never did with him. She said that although she would suck on him, she wouldn't let him orgasm in her mouth or swallow, something she did for me on a regular basis. She told me that because of her conflicted feeling about Karl, combined with the interruptions that seemed to occur whenever she was with him, that they didn't have sex terribly often. The infrequency was something that pissed off Karl (too bad, I was really crushed at that news,) and she mentioned that after the Friday afternoon when I had knocked her socks off sexually speaking, she was almost completely uninterested in sex with Karl, and only did it the last couple of times out some sort of sense of obligation. I think that Kathy was quite surprised when, a couple of weeks after the run-in with Karl, we were at her 'going away' party with the CableNex staff. She was genuinely liked by her co-workers, and they were sorry to see her leave; although by then she could tell them that she was helping me with our own start-up business, which I think many of them, not 'in the know', thought was her real reason for quitting. She didn't contradict their impression. But Kathy didn't understand when Jill Jones came up and gave me a big hug; she didn't know that I knew her. And I think that her hackles rose a little when Amanda Demmings, Jill's boss, and Kathy's replacement-to-be as H.R. Director, a lady I had never met in person before, came over and spoke quietly into my ear. What did she say to me? "I hope that it was as good for you as it was for me, Paul," is what she whispered, and then smiled at me with a sly grin. I just nodded at her and smiled back. Chapter 15. Matthew's Home — 1 Year Later It was the one year anniversary of the day that Kathy was diagnosed with gonorrhea, forced to resign from her job, and had her final confrontation with Karl Gerring. That day was the beginning of our new life together. The business had been going gangbusters. With the Equity Corp contract, and the subcontract doing work for CableNex as our foundation, we had the revenues and cash flow to expand at a reasonable pace. And truthfully, Kathy is a great businessperson. She took over managing the administrative functions in a way that allowed me to manage the operations, and even spend some of my time out acquiring new business. The kids have gotten over the trauma of that day — I'm not sure that they even remember it. I do. Kathy does. That evening was cool, and I talked to Kathy before we left for home. "It's kind of chill out tonight. Let's stop and pick something up for dinner, and later on, we can have a fire," I suggested. 'Have a fire' was one of those code phrases that we had that meant cuddling on the couch, having a hot buttered rum, or eggnog, and climbing into bed and checking out what could happen under the covers. We hadn't 'had a fire' since before Karl. Kathy smiled at me, "We can stop at the Best Eats Bodega and buy one of those pre-cooked meat loafs you like, with some rolls, mashed potatoes and veggies! Real comfort food," she stated, even though it was really a question. We did, and then had one of those typical evenings in the Matthew's household. Dinner, homework, yada, yada! That evening we lit up a fire with one of those composite pressed logs that light easily, burn brightly, and last for hours. My kind of fire. The kids even sat with us for awhile before bed time. Finally we were alone. I turned to my wife, who a little more than year before I wouldn't have laid even money I would still be married to today, and said, "Kathy, it's been a year or so since I stopped the divorce from continuing. I stopped by my lawyers again today," bringing out a legal sized envelope, and putting it on the coffee table in front of us. It obviously contained divorce papers. "Paul?" Kathy stammered, fear and tears suddenly coming to her face. "I thought that we should burn these in the fireplace together tonight." I replied, unprepared for the lunge that Kathy made at me, grabbing me and kissing me. We sort of slowly fell over onto the carpet. "Don't ever do something like that to me again. My heart almost stopped!" she whispered into my ear, while nibbling at it, "I love you so much, Paul Matthews." And a couple of minutes later, we took the papers out of that envelope, and fed them into the fire a couple of pages at a time, and when the fire had died down, we crept upstairs and messed around. We stayed up later than we should have, and we would probably be late for work the next morning, but heck, we were the bosses, so nobody could fire us! Waxing Philosophic I know that not everyone would agree with my decision to reconcile with Kathy. I read a lot, and thought a lot about it myself. At this point, though, I'm sanguine that I made the right choice. Most folks would think that I had punished Karl and Kathy enough. I pretty much destroyed Karl, and if Kathy came out of it better, it was only because she decided to side with me and abandon Karl. And she had still received harsh treatment: She had been fired from her job; she'd been humiliated by having to openly admit to having a serious STD, she had been badly frightened by having her one-time obsession turn viciously on her, and frightened again that I might reject her as well. I'm surprised that she didn't have ulcers, or that her hair hadn't gone white! Kathy is also completely aware, that to stumble again and stray is to end our marriage. Because Kathy and I work together now, we always know where our partner is at any given time. I know if she isn't in the office ASAP, and she keeps my calendar, so there's no room to roam there. Another aspect is, that she isn't involved in a position where she is in contact with strange men, most of her day-to-day contacts are limited to our employees. It certainly enhances the 'trust' situation. Honestly, I don't think that I ever had to worry about 'men' in general. Kathy had a specific attachment to one man in particular, Karl Gerring. If we'd had a little luck, Kathy wouldn't have run into him, and the whole problem would have never occurred. We talked about that in marriage counseling, and I asked her about it point blank: are there any other old boyfriends out there who I need to know about? By then, she was actually able to laugh about that. No, she assured me. She hadn't seriously dated anyone except Karl, first, and then me. Finally, I know that my assessment is also based on something I accidentally overheard once, several months after we had become strictly a couple again. I overheard Kathy praying one night, "and Lord, thank you for Paul, the wisest and finest man I've ever known. Thank you for giving him strength when I was weak; for his forgiveness and fortitude to bring our family back together as it should have always been. And let me live in such a way, that every day I show Paul and the children my love, that I earn their trust and affection, and that I am never tempted to stray from the rock that is my happiness and life, Paul. Amen. You know, my prayers seem to have been pretty much answered too. The End.