15 comments/ 18778 views/ 10 favorites Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution By: outofshadows The following is a sequel to StangStar06's inspiring BTB story for Thanksgiving 2013 Airbag Thanksgiving. It was for me in equal measures dramatic and horrific. And thanks to the devilish suggestion from a fellow author, DFWBeast, I decided to do a gothic horror twist for the sequel. My inspiration for the twist here includes: Edgar Allan Poe's Eleonora, Ligeia and Morella as well as Henry James' The Romance of Certain Old Clothes. Hope you'll enjoy this twisted tale for the holidays! Ian I stood in front of my wife's grave in a numb blank. I wasn't sure what to feel or think. I guess I'd loved Selena on some level yet the discoveries of the last year left me wondering if I ever knew what love is. It wasn't some engineering problem that I could solve. It wasn't a car that I could try to fix or understand. Before marrage, I thought I had feelings for Selena but I had been banging her sister for much of the time that I had been hanging with Selena. Yes, Melissa had manipulated me into sleeping with her and later into marriage. However, before the discovery of her longstanding affair with Johnny, we had been happy and I had loved her even though I'd professed to have feelings for Selena. Of course, my feelings for both didn't stop me from being a leading cause of death for both sisters. And now, in a final irony, the two sisters were buried side by side. I wondered if both were spinning in their graves. And I wondered if I'd soon find out why Melissa had asked me to appear at her graveside on this Thanksgiving afternoon... A Year Ago Three weeks before Halloween Selena rubbed her big belly absent-mindedly with pleasure as she watched Piper and Steve play in the sunshine in the backyard. The kids had adjusted well to the loss of their mother Melissa and were well on their way to accepting that their aunt was now their father's new wife and their new mommy. Neither had called her mommy as yet but she was hopeful that the awkwardness would subside once they accepted that she was a permanent fixture in their lives and that she was going to give them a new sibling. What had disconcerted her though was the closeness of the housekeeper, who Ian had retained after Melissa died, to the children and how she often looked at Selena with disapproval. Particularly the fact that Selena had moved into Ian's bedroom on the very day he had been discharged from hospital. It had worsened when Ian and her started having sex, the woman had radiated disapproval whenever she had to change the stained and rumpled bed sheets, which was daily. Actually, now that she thought about it, Selena realised that the housekeeper's hostility and disapproval of her increased before the sex began. It began the day Selena had burnt the pages she had torn from Melissa's diary. A chill still ran through Selena at the recollection of that day 10 months ago. She'd finally read Melissa's diary in its entirety and realised how close she came to losing to Melissa again. That prompted fury that matched what she felt when Melissa had stolen Ian from her all those years ago. Another thought occurred to her, if Ian found and read the last pages, she would lose him to Melissa again, albeit on an emotional level. 'Damn you Melissa! I won't let you get away with stealing Ian again. Not emotionally or any other way' Selena thought to herself. Those thoughts drove Selena to an impulsive act that she was unsure if she really regretted even now. She tore those last pages of Melissa's diary and ran out of the house. No one else was in the house, Ian had taken the kids to go last minute Christmas shopping. The housekeeper was nowhere to be seen after she'd finished the dishes from brunch. Selena looked around and saw no one in sight, which was hardly surprising considering how cold it was outside. She picked up some stray dried branches of the trees that were now bare and withered in the backyard and dried them meticulously. Then she searched for some lighter fluid in the garage. Failing to find some, she settled on motor oil, the disused can of motor oil that had been meant for Melissa's ill-fated Jaguar. It gave her pause. She remembered the initial horror when she realised Ian's role in Melissa's death. It had all been swept aside in her rationalising process,centred on the one premise: the bitch had it coming after all her nasty tricks and behaviour. The same rationalising process had her reaching for the motor oil as an alternative to the lighter fluid. It would just be an added touch of irony to the vengeance she was about to wreak on her dead sister. Selena poured the motor oil on the branches, there was little of it left and she hoped it would be sufficient for the task. She searched for a lighter or matches but found none. Silently cursing, she wondered why it was so difficult to destroy Melissa's last attempt to win Ian back. A stray thought almost like a whisper floated across her mind. Maybe it's meant to be. She shook her head, wishing to deny that thought because of its implications: that she and Ian weren't meant to be. 'No, damn it! We were meant to be together. It was Melissa who stole him and hurt him. I'm just going to make things right again!' Her jaw clenched in rage at those thoughts. Her defiance was reflected in her facial expression and eyes. She patted her pockets and found a pack of matches she could have sworn was not there just minutes earlier. Ignoring the sudden shiver that ran through her as the wind blew, Selena struck the matches and lit the branches. The whoosh of the fire coming to life was almost extinguished by the sudden pick up in the wind that blew across the backyard. Selena suddenly wondered why she didn't do this in the fireplace in the house and then remembered she didn't want to raise suspicion should traces of the paper fragments remain in the fireplace. She took out those torn last pages and tossed them gleefully into the fire. There was an odd pause and she was afraid the pages wouldn't burn. Yet, they suddenly burnt rapidly and disappeared into the iridescent flame that left only black ashes in its wake. Selena barely heard the loud howl of the wind as it blew in that backyard. It was perhaps disconcerting that others who heard the wind thought it sounded like a drawn-out "Noo..". Selena never noticed the housekeeper who had been roused from her routine midday nap in the corner of the kitchen by the curious wind. In truth, the housekeeper felt she had been shaken awake by someone but upon opening her eyes found no one in the kitchen. The howling wind then brought her to the window which overlooked the backyard. There she saw the new mistress of the household standing in the backyard next to a fire that was burning. She tut-tutted when the new mistress installed herself in the master bedroom scarcely days after the old mistress had died. That the new mistress was the sister of the old mistress made the whole affair even more scandalous. She had felt pity for the old mistress who had hired her when she was separated from her husband, the master of the household. She loved the children and could see that the old mistress loved her children and husband though her actions said otherwise. While the old mistress had moved another man, presumably her lover, into the house, she was keenly aware that the old mistress had literally no interaction with the other man who was relegated to the guest bedroom. She could hear the occasional calls made by the old mistress to her husband and how she tried to provoke him into returning to their home. She remembered how the old mistress cried every time the master refused to return or to respond to her provocation. She also remembered how alcohol became her old mistress's best friend and constant companion in the last weeks of her life. When the master had brought the old mistress home after an accident, she had wanted to tell him what she knew, but she had hesitated. Afraid that she might overstep boundaries and not be able to retain her position, she had kept quiet. In the days after the old mistress had died in that awful accident, she wondered if her silence had contributed to the situation. Regret, however, served no purpose. She could only hope that by keeping an eye on the master while this new mistress took over, she could atone for what she had failed to do. At the same time, she would do all she could to protect the children whom she had come to feel close to in the months that she had worked for the family. The housekeeper froze, her eyes suddenly fixated by the figure that stood in the light sundress just metres behind the new mistress looking at the new mistress and her bonfire with great intensity. The housekeeper felt she could not move even as the figure looked past the new mistress and directly at her. While the figure's lips didn't move, the housekeeper heard her words almost as clearly as if the figure had spoken next to her ear. Please save the ashes after my sister finishes what she's doing. Please help me. I cannot leave until I have absolution and Selena has just deprived me of that. The housekeeper could barely nod her head before the figure indicated her thanks with a grateful expression. After a last baleful glare at the new mistress, the figure vanished, seemingly leaving with the wind, which stopped blowing abruptly. Despite the warmth of the kitchen, the housekeeper shivered as she crossed herself. Watching till the new mistress left the backyard and came back into the house to get her keys before leaving to join the master and the children at the mall, the housekeeper sat in ruminative silence. While a thousand questions and doubts ran through her mind, she was sure of only one thing. The old mistress was still around and things were going to get interesting for the master and the new mistress. While it was certainly spooky to have seen an apparition, she could feel that it had no ill intentions towards anyone, except perhaps the new mistress who had apparently crossed the old mistress in a really bad way. She grinned and thought sometimes life only got interesting after death. **** Selena brushed aside the disconcerting thought that the housekeeper could have witnessed her act of burning Melissa's diary pages and therefore became more disapproving and hostile. No, she recalled, no one was around the day she did it. Emboldened by what she had done, seeing it as her clearing the last remaining obstacles in her new relationship with Ian, she had gone to bed that night determined to use the tactics described in Melissa's diary to seduce Ian. She had needed courage to overcome her nerves despite her boast a month earlier that she would outdo Melissa's seduction of Ian and make Melissa look like an amateur,. She had never been great at this and after denying Todd carnal pleasures despite being married to him for two years, she wasn't entirely sure that she could pull it off. The buzz from the red wine was wearing off so she had downed some whisky and was now regretting it as the headache intensified. She'd had that headache after she had burnt those diary pages but put it down to stress. It had weakened to a light throb but was now threatening to wreck her plans for the evening. She'd gotten Ian to drink a little more than usual, hoping to make him more pliable and open to seduction. Ian was already in bed when she joined him.She decided to go for the direct approach, stripping out of her blouse and baring those bountiful breasts that Ian so admired. She knew she was gaining ground when Ian's feeble protests faded away and his eyes glazed over with lust as he watched the impressive cleavage in front of him that was within tantalising reach. She allowed herself her first smile of victory when Ian reached out and grasped her tits. She'd pulled his shirt half off him and was working on his pants when the sharp pain hit and she had laid back on the bed, almost blacking out. Actually it wasn't that she had blacked out, it was more like she had floated out of her body and was watching it make love to Ian. It was as if she were watching a video of herself following and using all the tactics described in Melissa's diary to seduce and please Ian. It was odd because while she was watching her body, she couldn't seem to feel the pleasure of the orgasms and hard pounding that Ian was giving her. In fact, what seemed to rouse her from that state was the shock of seemingly seeing a strange face when Ian had collapsed on her body after his explosive climax and later shifted on his own back when he had recovered sufficiently. It was Melissa's face not her own. The shock of that sight had her jerk out of the apparent zoned out state she felt she had been in after she felt the sharp pain. Coming abruptly to her senses, she could feel the wetness of their combined cum on her thighs and across her mound. Satisfied that she must have had a bad dream out of guilt, after having destroyed part of Melissa's diary while using the other parts of it to seduce Ian, she curled up next to Ian and was fast asleep within minutes. She hadn't noticed Ian's strange expression as he looked at her sleeping form. **** Days before Christmas 2013 Ian I wasn't sure what to think. Was it the alcohol? Selena had plied me with more alcohol than I'd had since the disastrous Thanksgiving dinner scarcely a month ago. I suspected she was going to seduce me that night and I was right. She stripped and waved those magnificent breasts at me and I capitulated. Hey, I'm only a man. Since the fight with Melissa and leaving home months ago, I've been without sex. And with the guilt I felt over Melissa's death, I wasn't even tempted with Selena moving into my bed the day I moved back into my house. No matter how much Selena kept telling me that Melissa deserved what she'd suffered, I knew better. Besides, what would she say if she only knew of the role I'd played in her sister's demise? However much she hated Melissa, surely as her sister, she can't let that go and live with her sister's murderer? If she could, what kind of person would she be? I'd just escaped from one coldly conniving bitch, could I plunge into a relationship with another? My mind raced as I recalled what I'd just seen. Yes, the two sisters looked similar but after years of watching my wife, I was quite sure I could tell the difference between the two. I'd seen my late wife Melissa. I'd been slightly surprised when Selena seemed so certain in her seduction of me. She seemed to know so well what turned me on. As my head cleared somewhat, after the shock of seeing my dead wife's face as we climaxed together in fulfilled lust declined, I searched for the logical explanation that my rational engineer brain could accept. It would be easy enough to explain why I saw Melissa's face, after all, I'd played a big role in her death. But why Selena? Suddenly an unrelated thought struck me: Selena must have read Melissa's diary. That was the only explanation for her knowing the intimate details of my sex life. Only Melissa knew the details of what turned me on. It also explained exactly what happened to the diary when I'd left it on my desk in the office that early morning. No one had known that I'd gone into my office late that night after sneaking out of the hospital. Melissa's funeral was to be held four days later. For some reason, her last words before leaving the house that fateful Thanksgiving night rang insistently in my mind. Read my diary. It was strange that that should be what kept playing in my mind, after all, I'd caused the airbag failure on her side of the car and caused her death. Most people would have thought that if nothing else that guilt would be driving me crazy. In this case, I thought the nagging thought of Melissa's diary was my mind's way of reminding myself of the guilt I had to bear over Melissa's death. So I sneaked into the office and sure enough the diary lay in a package on my desk. There was a short note from Melissa pleading for me to read it. I could recognise her handwriting after eight years of marriage. Somehow, the sight of her handwriting and the searing memory of her last act, pushing me aside in a bid to protect me, had helped to partially redeem her in my mind. Yes, Melissa was a manipulative bitch who seduced me when I'd started developing feelings for her sister Selena and eventually manipulated me into marriage while making use of my money to provide for her boyfriend and supposedly her real love Johnny. Yes, it had devastated me to know that much of what I thought was genuine love between us was part of her devious scheming. Yet, her last act alive had convinced me that there was a level of love deep inside Melissa that I'd not believed was there. While the early parts of her diary had me gritting my teeth in fury and rage, her minute description of details of our blissful marriage gave me pause. There were careful observations of what pleased me and what didn't. Particularly meticulous notes on what I like in bed. Those were not the notes of one who was indifferent to me. Or one who saw me merely as a financial tool for her and her boyfriend. My unease grew as I read further, had I been so blinded by my rage and pain that I had wilfully ignored the inconsistencies between what my wounded pride or Selena told me and what Melissa's actions said of her feelings towards me? It was almost 3 am when I got to the part where I'd left her after discovering her longstanding affair with Johnny. I was still recovering from the after effects of the crash and was stretching the limits of my weakened state to have read so far. I was about to put the diary down for the day when a thought occurred to me to scan the rest of the diary so I could refer to the portable electronic version later. It proved to be a fortuitous decision since after scanning and saving the scans to a cloud server, I'd left the original on my desk. I remembered locking my office door before I left so I was reasonably certain that the diary was secure. Sneaking back into the hospital was a bit of a chore but no one was the wiser. Selena found me in the hospital bed the next morning. The next few days were filled with activities related to arrangements for Melissa's funeral, running Johnny out of town and taking care of the kids. Having to tell the kids that their mother was gone was most traumatic, I wasn't sure they really knew what was happening. Fortunately, the housekeeper Melissa hired was close to the kids and they seemed fine with her taking them under her wings. I was a little surprised when Selena moved right into my bedroom when I'd thrown Johnny out and moved back into house. But for all my guilt, I couldn't resist the warm body solution to loneliness. Besides, it had always been a matter of guilt for me that I'd fucked Melissa when I was just about to be more than friends with Selena. It was a sticking point that whatever feelings I'd for Selena hadn't been strong enough to stop me from fooling around with her little sister. Hooking up with Selena was almost reflexive since I knew about the rivalry between the sisters and how Selena had taken Melissa's victory badly. And if I were to be honest, Selena's tits were a natural wonder. When I finally had the time to return to my office, I had to deal with a ton of mail and only noticed after a day of trying to catch up with business matters that Melissa's diary was missing. I wasn't too perturbed by that since I was sure that it would turn up under some pile of papers. That was a month ago. The diary never turned up. And then as time passed, I simply forgot about the diary. Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution **** Selena woke the next day with little idea of what happened though the crust on her mound and between her thighs told her she must have had sex with Ian the night before. She snuggled up to him as he lay there. "At last, he's mine again," she muttered. The soft whisper in her mind started up again. Sure, based on Melissa's diary and knowledge. Are you sure you could have ever won him without Melissa's help? The snide sarcastic tone of the whisper had Selena's hackles up. Why was her victory and triumph always tainted by Melissa? Even in death, it seemed her sister would not allow her happiness. Annoyed, she was determined not to use the knowledge she had gleaned from Melissa's diary. After all, she told herself as she looked in the mirror, smoothing her hands over her impressive cleavage and narrow waist, that she was in great shape. And she was fully confident that Ian had feelings for her, so seducing him would be simple. She would just have to play up her assets, she thought as she grinned and thrust out her tits. It didn't turn out as simple as she thought it would. There was plenty of awkwardness and Ian gave her an odd look when she fumbled. They ended up not having sex but falling asleep in an embrace, each frustrated and neither willing to ask or probe. The failure of the attempt and the humiliation she felt drove Selena to greater dependence upon Melissa's diary. She pored over every detail, determined to overcome the failure she'd experienced. Selena did it by the numbers, Ian seemed helpless every time she employed Melissa's tactics. The immense pleasure and satisfaction every time she brought Ian to a shuddering climax was marred only by two seemingly insignificant points. The first was the reminder that all the success she had in seducing Ian was attributable to Melissa, the idea of which was rankling at best and at worst, ate at her like acid. The second, more puzzling and insidious, though she was unconscious of it at the time was the tendency for her to black out every time she was intimate with Ian while using the approaches she had learn from Melissa's diary. Apart from the first time she experienced it, Selena had no real idea how she seemed to fall into unconsciousness every time things heated up between Ian and her. She barely remembered much more than kissing Ian deeply and his hands sweeping over her tits before darkness claimed her. Waking up, often the next day, she had to surmise that she had such a great time that she blacked out from the pleasure and could only tell from her sore or tender nether lips or the dried cum and her swollen, bitten nipples that Ian had spent another night making passionate love ending in an explosive climax in her. Ian never seemed to mention anything but he often covertly observed her, trying almost to discern if Selena detected anything amiss. **** Ian I could never reveal it but things had become really strange just before Christmas, going into the New Year. Yes, it was fantastic when Selena and I finally got together, sexually speaking. I tried hard to get Melissa out of my mind. The guilt was what made me see Melissa. She was dead and I killed her, that was why I saw her face in the most explosive climax I had had since I separated from Melissa. Only after I continued to see Melissa's face each time I made love to Selena did I know things weren't that simple. Gradually, it became Melissa's pussy that I pounded, Melissa's tits that I worshipped and Melissa's cries that sounded out in the bedroom. Lacking a logical explanation for all of this, I began to blame the similarity in features between the two sisters that I'd talked about before. I even suggested to Selena that she should change her appearance, such as going redhead. Unfortunately, none of it worked. Melissa never failed to appear. Though it was logically impossible, my dead cheating wife found her way back into my bed. And instead of the expected disgust, I only felt the rush of lust and perhaps a slight assuaging of the guilt that had haunted me since her death. Perhaps it was all my guilty conscience at work hoping I could somehow find peace with her after death. Then parts of the truth started to emerge. And it all started with the housekeeper. Now, Selena never quite liked the housekeeper. It could be because she was Melissa's hire but I doubt that was the entire story. The housekeeper was one of those old fashioned ladies who were silent but efficient. I think that she seemed to want to tell me about something on several occasions, including the first time I brought Melissa back from the police station but she never did. I wonder now, knowing what I know, if things would have been different if she had spoken up. Hindsight is always 20/20 but regrets are useless. As for the housekeeper, I could really find no reason to fire her. Selena may be a fantastic engineer but she was no Martha Stewart. Neither was Melissa, though before our marriage started falling apart, she was managing things pretty well. She'd only hired the housekeeper after she started her decline into alcoholism. One of the reasons why I refused to fire the housekeeper was how close the children were to her. For all of Selena's opinions about how easily the children accepted the loss of their mother, I was still concerned that the children were suppressing anxiety. While I didn't detect any sign of cruelty or neglect or anything negative in Selena's attitude towards the children, it was clear, at least to me, they were slightly uneasy with her. Particularly my eldest, Piper, and where Piper went, Steve followed. And it became worse after she moved into my bedroom openly. While life continued almost normally, Selena was taking every chance to become more intimate with me and to get pregnant. In her marriage to Todd, she failed to get pregnant and seeing my children as a bond with Melissa, she was more determined than ever to get pregnant. My children became closer to the housekeeper and a little distant from me, I didn't blame them though I felt a little hurt. Considering they had to deal with a whole lot over the last year or so: they had two relative strangers move in with their parents ; one was their mother's lover, Johnny, albeit he stayed in the guest bedroom, the other was an aunt they rarely saw apart from some holidays; my moving out, their mother's decline into alcoholism and the loss of their mother; they held up pretty well. The housekeeper was not exactly doing much to ingratiate herself with Selena since she often gave her that silent look of disapproval, particularly after she started openly sleeping in my room. And there were times when I caught her staring at Selena with an odd expression on her face and making the sign of the cross surreptitiously. When Selena announced she was pregnant just before summer, things worsened and it came to a head when we got married right after her announcement. The children effectively retreated from both of us and clung almost exclusively to the housekeeper. Selena was convinced that she had an agenda and was deliberately setting them against us. To Selena, the children always seemed happy and comfortable around us until the housekeeper appeared on her daily routine. That was how things seemed to her. I never really realised how subjective Selena's views were till we lived together. I guess I should have known when she put the blame for my marriage solely on Melissa. And because Selena was reluctant to blame me for my role in eventually marrying her sister, I knew instinctively that she blamed my eldest as well since Melissa and I got married largely because she was pregnant with our Piper. Thinking back, both sisters were manipulative. While Melissa managed to trap me with the child, Selena had strategically lost her virginity to me when we were drunk. Selena was simply outclassed and not an innocent. It's funny how the truth reveals itself in the least expected way. Things became tense when Selena and I turned up at a parent teacher meeting and my eldest, Piper, corrected the new teacher who'd mistaken Selena for her mom. Selena flushed with anger and embarrassment when my daughter said, " No, that's not my mom. She's my aunt, mom's sister. She's dad's new wife." I suddenly felt awkward but there was no denying facts. Selena was visibly upset and ranted at me all the way home, making me glad that Piper had decided to go for a sleepover at her friend's house that night. When we reached the house, she was almost hysterical. And she ended with a demand to fire the housekeeper, who she was convinced was behind the effort to "discredit" her with the children. In an effort to get her to calm down, I agreed to talk to the housekeeper. Selena stormed off to the bedroom while I went to look for the housekeeper reluctantly since she was probably blameless. The housekeeper listened silently as I tried to explain the situation. She nodded and sighed before she packed up her meagre bag of belongings and stood to leave. She hesitated before turning the knob of the door. Then she handed me a small bag of what looked like burnt ashes. "What is this?" "New madam was burning this just before Christmas last year. Old madam," she crossed herself before continuing. "Old madam said to save this. She said she cannot leave because you didn't read these." I was so stunned by what I'd heard that I had to run to catch up with her as she was half way down the street by the time I'd reached the front door. "Wait, please let me drive you. I need to hear all that you know." We were both aware that Selena was watching from the bedroom window. I ran back for the car and drove the housekeeper to her living quarters. On the way there, she described what happened that day I'd gone shopping with the children just before last Chrstmas. I was flabbergasted as she confirmed having seen Melissa or rather an apparition. So it wasn't guilt or imagination, Melissa's spirit was somehow still wandering around. I was sure fear and horror was showing on my face. Fortunately, the housekeeper, who was the only one to witness that look probably thought it was the usual fear of the supernatural. The housekeeper patiently explained that according to the apparition, she couldn't leave until she had something from me. I thought cynically if Melissa was referring to my life in return for hers. The housekeeper saw the dread on my face and explained that it all had to do with what Selena was burning. So the answers lay with Selena. The prospect of confronting her was not exactly one I looked forward to. I returned to the house only to be confronted by an angry Selena who was angered by the fact that I'd driven the housekeeper home. She was taken aback when I set the small bag of ashes on the dining table. "What is that?" "It's the remnants of what you were burning just before Christmas in the backyard." Selena's face went white but she sought to cover her guilt and fear. "That's nonsense! I never burnt anything." She started ranting and eventually turned it into a crying bout, blaming me for believing in an outsider rather than her, my wife. "I love you so much, I-I even kept quiet about what you did at Thanksgiving. B-but you'd rather believe a housekeeper than me." 'Well, she's never lied to me' was the thought that flitted through my mind. While I thought it, I knew better than to say it out loud. She sobbed and had her head in her hands. She didn't see my face or the myriad of emotions I was sure was plainly clear to anyone observing the scene. Not only did Selena know what I'd done to Melissa, she had kept silent all this time. Out of love or so she said. But now she was using it as an emotional lever against me. Now, my loving wife was using her knowledge of what happened to Melissa to guilt trip me. To say that this made me see Selena in a whole new light is an understatement. I could feel a new emotion creep into the feelings I had for Selena. Vaguely, I recalled feeling the same when I'd found out about Melissa's betrayal. I stood up with leaden feet. I'd done the dumbest thing: go from one conniving scheming bitch to another. I guess my happily ever after pronouncement was premature. Well, better that you see the truth of it now than later. I didn't have to search my memory for the identity of that whisper that sounded in my mind then. It was Melissa. I was about to step out of the bedroom when Selena ran up and hugged me. "Ple-eas-ee believe m-me. I wouldn't do anything to hur-rt y-ou. I'm not like her, I really lo-love you." I sighed. I had to make the best of the situation. A second divorce drama in a year would simply kill any chance of restoring normality to the family. "Then just tell me the truth. What did you burn?" I could feel Selena stiffen behind me and the shake of her head. "I didn't burn anything," she insisted stubbornly. "Why won't you believe me?" A sudden suspicion struck me. "Was it Melissa's diary? Was that why it wasn't on my office desk as she said?" Selena had backed away and was glaring at me with accusing eyes. "No, I never saw her diary. Why won't you believe me? She's dead! Why is that dead conniving bitch more important than me?" She shrieked that last accusation. My ears were filled with her angry rant but the voice that rang out next overwhelmed my brain. You lying bitch! You read and kept most of my diary after stealing it from Ian's office. You tore out the most important part, the truth, and you burnt it! Selena's eyes were wide with fear and I knew right away that she had heard the voice as well. That and the fact that she'd been exposed. As a vision of Melissa appeared, glowing in iridescent light, Selena shrieked and hid behind me. You denied me the final step towards peace and you'll have to pay for it! Melissa's face was calm and her lips barely moved but her voice clearly sounded in both our minds. "Melissa, please, don't hurt your sister. She's pregnant with my child and she can't take the stress." I tried to plead with the spirit of my dead wife. Ian, are you sure it's her child? Didn't you tell her what happened every time you guys went to bed? There was a faint mocking tone in her last words. "Ian, what's going on? What's she talking about?" There was no escape, it would be worse coming from Melissa. "I don't know how it happened but every time we were in bed, somehow Melissa was the one with me." Selena looked at me in horror, shaking her head. That's right, you husband stealing bitch of a sister! You're carrying my and Ian's child. It's in you but it isn't your love child. "Noooo!!" Selena shrieked as she ran out of the room and headed for the garage. I stared at Melissa in rage and horror. "Why? Why destroy my chance at happiness, Melissa? Didn't you do enough in the past?" I didn't do anything Ian. The moment you decided to kill me, it set things in motion. Still, I was willing to forgive and move on. I felt I owed you that much. But after she stole my diary and denied me absolution, it was no longer possible for forgiveness and I couldn't move on. I'm stuck here. I stared dumbstruck. Of course, I guess she'd have known that I was responsible for her death. But it never occurred to me that she could have brought herself to forgive me. Selena ran crying from the bedroom, I was about to follow but Melissa stood there looking sadly at me. Rage and grief fought within me as I realised that in life as in death, I was still caught between the two sisters. Suddenly I felt exhausted and after hearing the slam of the nearest door, indicating Selena's retreat into the guest bedroom, I slumped down on the bed. " Why, Melissa? Why are you still hurting me? Haven't you done enough over the last 9 years?" She shimmered, almost as if she tried to reach out to comfort me. Her hand stopped short of my cheek and I felt only a whisper of air brush past me. I'm so sorry for all the hurt I've caused you in the past, Ian. Things weren't supposed to turn out this way. If only I'd told you the whole truth.. If only you had known.. If only you could read the truth... "But why hurt Selena? She has done nothing to you. She loves our kids and is helping us all move on." If ever an apparition could look annoyed, Melissa probably looked the picture of it. Are you really sure she loves our kids? Can't you see how she really feels about Piper and Steve? Maybe you're just too blinded by her tits to see anything. I gave her one of my usual looks that told her she was getting nowhere. And you're wrong to say she's done nothing to me. She knew before Thanksgiving what condition I was in. She sensed it but she was just too intent on winning you over that she simply didn't bother to keep her claws off you and you were so distracted by her boobs all night that you didn't think about what you learnt when you came back, such as the information about Johnny's sleeping arrangement in this house. Then it was all too late and you did what you did. She saw my grimace and mercifully refrained from further mention of my deed. "That's all in the past, Melissa. Move on, we all have to." If you've never had ghostly eyes fixed on you, you will never know the chill that ran through me when I saw Melissa's eyes flashing at me. That's another thing Selena has stood in the way of. The truth she burnt was my path out of this limbo. Perhaps you should ask your new wife why she did that? Why was she so afraid you'd read the truth? Her agitation was obvious as the shimmering intensified. If you don't read the truth Ian, I will never have absolution and neither will you and neither of us will ever be freed from this situation. For all her brains, Selena simply can't understand what she did. Then the shimmering stopped but the sinister expression that replaced it and spread across Melissa's face sent more chills running through me. Selena has no idea what her childish selfish act has done but soon, my dear big sister will find out the price she has to pay for it. "Don't you dare hurt her and my child!" I yelled at Melissa. That's my child too Ian! But it's out of my hands now. Selena was greedy and spiteful, she happily seduced you using what she learnt from my diary but chose to kill the truth. She killed a part of me and any chance I had of absolution. The minute she burnt the truth, she set things in motion that no one can stop. Just like you did when you replaced the fuses. Fear pulsed in every cell of my body as I heard what she said. Of course she knew what I had done. Before I could even begin to explain myself, she disappeared. Just what did she mean about Selena's child being her child too? What will happen to us? Questions that had no answers danced restlessly through my mind till my guts knotted in anxiety. A tentative twist of the handle told me Selena had finally returned to our bedroom. "Is she gone?" Her timid question seemed at odds with her earlier defiance and rage. She looked in equal parts fearful and angry as she walked into the room, after verifying that no apparition was awaiting her in the room. "How could she? Why can't she leave us alone?" She whined as she sat herself down on the bed next to me. Her eyes kept watching me as she tried to decipher my mood. I opted for the direct approach. "What did you do to Melissa's diary?" She sputtered, as if outraged by my question before she replied. "Nothing! I told you. Don't you trust me?" "Look, Selena, whatever you did, we need to rectify it. The safety of our child and you may be at stake." Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution "Did she threaten us?" Her eyes rounded in shock and then flamed with rage. "How dare that bitch do this! She's not getting away with it." No matter how I pleaded and cajoled, there was no getting through to Selena. Old rivalries never die, even death it seems could not stop the bitter struggle between the two sisters. **** Weeks before Thanksgiving 2014 Ian After several days of looking around her to ascertain she was not stalked by some ghostly apparition of her hated sister, Selena decided she was in the clear. Things were tense and what didn't help was the absence of the comforting figure that the housekeeper had become for the children. They fretted and whined and then they refused to eat. Selena saw in this the wicked scheme of her sister in interfering and therefore driving a wedge between us and the children. She continued in her determination to rid all remaining influence of Melissa. She removed Melissa's photos from all corners of the house and dumped them in the basement. Even Melissa's favourite china had to go. She virtually replaced everything that Melissa had bought or used in the house. The only place that was closed off to her was the children's room, which was a sore point for her. I couldn't resist Piper's pleading eyes and Steve's whiny tantrums so their room remained beyond the reach of Selena's campaign. Selena wasn't pleased and she showed her displeasure every chance she had. For one, she refused to cook after the children ate virtually none of the dinner she cooked the day the housekeeper left, hence we had had takeout every night. Then she wanted to hire part-time help to do the household chores which she was hopeless with. I agreed but somehow she was still unhappy, complaining that the new help didn't know how to get the chores done right. Finally, three days before Halloween, the current reversed. The new hire quit because she couldn't take the children's mess and Selena's highhandedness. The laundry was undone, including Selena's important stuff. The kitchen sink was clogged and dishes were left unwashed. The house was in a mess. We had takeout for dinner again and even Selena was getting tired of her favourite deliveries. So when Steve started whining about how awful the limp fries were and how he needed that T-shirt for school tomorrow which was missing despite it never having left the house, Selena apparently had enough. She slapped her hand on the table, making the food and soda jump while I eyed her cautiously. "That's it! Get that old woman back here if you want. Just make sure she stays out of my way and doesn't interfere with us." Selena's baleful glare as she stalked off to the bedroom was counterbalanced by the children's gleeful smiles as they realised they had won the battle. I was just relieved that I didn't have to do all the chores and would have time to work on my Mustang. Little did we know that disaster was just round the corner. Halloween in our household was marked by 2 main traditions: unbelievable loads of candy, which we often had to hide from Steve who would demolish everything otherwise, and homemade costumes. Melissa never bought any of the costumes the kids wanted to wear for Halloween, she made them together with the kids. It was a great bonding process. The only time that tradition was broken was last year when she retreated into alcohol. Even then, she had helped the housekeeper put together something for the kids. Piper beg me to allow the housekeeper, who had graciously agreed to come back after the kids both got on the phone and excitedly asked when she was returning, to get Melissa's stuff which Selena had relegated to the basement along with her photos. "Mommy always kept her scrapbooks and sewing stuff so I'm sure we can construct a costume with the cloth she kept and all the pictures she stuck in her scrapbook." We spent much of the afternoon sorting out through the mess that Selena had created as she tossed Melissa's stuff in a haphazard manner around the basement. I had the good grace to blush as the housekeeper tut-tutted when she saw how carelessly my late wife's belongings were treated. We were briefly distracted when Piper found an album of photos of our family. The memories of all the good years we had before I discovered her affair with Johnny came flooding back. I could hardly keep the tears from my eyes when I saw how Melissa had pieced together our wedding photos which I'd torn in my fury and stuck them into the album. She had written on a beautiful piece of paper, which I recognised as hotel stationery from our honeymoon destination, the words "I won't let us go, I will repair what I've broken" The words that followed were too smudged with what looked like water stains though I thought I could make out the words "love" at some point. I shook my head and wondered why I was letting this all get to me again. I thought I'd buried all the emotion I had in me with regards to Melissa along with the guilt when I finally decided to make my relationship with Selena a permanent one. The whisper in my mind echoed the doubts that rose at that point. Would you have given us a second chance if you saw this before Thanksgiving? I didn't need to turn around to see the whisper of air on my back to know Melissa had appeared. Then the voice of Selena sounded out and we all hurried upstairs before she could throw one of her tantrums again. Curiously, neither the housekeeper nor Piper seemed to notice the glowing figure I caught a glimpse of out of the corner of my eye before it disappeared. Upstairs, Selena looked in growing disapproval and anger as the housekeeper and Piper brought a whole load of Melissa's stuff upstairs. They wisely scooted off to the children's room before Selena could make any noise. Selena was moody the rest of the night. Everything seemed to be the usual buzz of a Halloween bustle the next day till early evening when the housekeeper and Piper unveiled the kids' Halloween costume. I'd been working quietly in the garage on my Mustang when Steve came running in and gasped out, "Aunt Selena is going crazy on Piper!" I groaned inwardly thinking how my quiet evening was going to hell. I didn't know how accurate I was going to be. Selena was in full rage, towering over Piper, the housekeeper was in the middle trying to shield my daughter from her aunt. "How dare you! Give me that diary and get rid of all those stupid things! You will stop helping your stupid mother torture your father and me!" Piper looked slightly worried but the steely determination she inherited from Melissa and me was clearly there as she struggled to hold onto Melissa's scrapbooks and what looked like a battered journal that had pages torn from it. Suddenly, I realised what it was, it was Melissa's diary. Selena had not noticed me standing there, neither had Piper, whose focus was on the centre of contention: the diary. They struggled and Piper, for all her determination, was losing to the strength of an adult. Yet she clung on, unwilling to lose her mother's treasured journal. "No! I won't let you burn mommy's book." "Let go you brat!" Selena yelled, stunning both the housekeeper and me with her open hostility towards the child. "You're just like that stupid bitch! Well, I'm not going to let her or her brat win again! Give me that diary it's mine." With that Selena raised her hand, ready to slap my eldest. The housekeeper pulled Piper to her side, forcing the kid to let go of the diary. I'd started forward, incensed by the way she treated my child. Selena's look of triumph at having won the battle was brief. The voice that rang out stunned us all. If you ever try to lay a hand on my children again, you will hurt beyond what you can imagine. Selena stared in silent fear at her dead sister, her hands clutching the diary in an almost nerveless manner. The feel of the journal in her hands might have triggered a sense of defiant rage in her for Selena began to straighten herself. Clutching the diary in one hand, she took out a lighter and began brandishing the lighter and the diary in front of her. "I'm not afraid of you and I won't let you get away with it bitch! Threaten me one more time and this goes up in flames forever!" Selena practically snarled the last line. As Melissa watched with anguish on her face, Piper ran forward, yelling, "No! Mommy! Your diary!" My little girl had ran forward, snatching at the diary at the instant that Selena's lighter touched the cover. I watched in horror as her hands were about to come into contact with the flame when Melissa was able, by some force unknown, to whisk our little girl away from harm. I'd stepped forward and grabbed my daughter before she could endanger herself once again. Looking up, I saw Melissa's face overrun with iridescent drops of tears as she watched our daughter struggling to reach out to touch her, yelling "Mommy" all the time. Whatever force she had harnessed had deserted her and her outstretched hand barely made contact with our daughter's cheek. Steve had stood beside me through much of the harrowing struggle and when Melissa stretched out her hand towards Piper, he yelled and ran forward to hug his mother. Both our kids kept yelling "Mommy" as Melissa looked helplessly at them both and faded. At the sight of my kids' faces with their expressions of devastation, my heart felt as if it were ripped out of the cavity in my chest and shredded. I knew I was largely responsible for the scene that played out in front of me. "Ian , I can explain," Selena stuttered. I brushed her aside with the detachment that I'd shown Melissa a year ago. She shrunk back. The housekeeper, having seen the kids were safe, had proceeded to save the diary, which had been a little damaged by the flame that scarred its cover. When she was satisfied that the book was safe to handle, she handed it back to Piper who hugged it while muttering "Mommy's book" as Steve looked at her in askance. Both sister and brother eventually calmed down and were reassured enough to be persuaded to prepare themselves for the Halloween party. Neither seemed to question the curious sight of their late mother's sudden appearance. It was only months later that Piper explained that the housekeeper had told them their mommy had gone away to heaven but would be watching over them. So neither of them were too surprised that she had reappeared that evening to defend Piper. After the kids were sent on their way to their Halloween candy rounds, having hidden their mother's diary in a secure place, I returned to my bedroom. Selena was sitting on our bed, looking anxiously at me when I entered. "Ian," she began tentatively, "I can explain." I held up my hand and simply said," Cut out everything else, just tell me why?" She didn't pretend not to know what I was referring to. "Yes, I'd gone into your office the day after Melissa's funeral and found Melissa's diary. I was curious, and-and worried because she'd hurt you so badly. I'd read the accident report and I knew why you felt so bad. So-so when I had read her diary, I was afraid that it would hurt you even more or make you feel worse. S-so..so I burnt part of her diary. When Melissa's stuff was packed into the basement, I tossed it there." "What could have hurt me? Her words? Did she insult me? Or maybe she humiliated me by describing her 8 years of happiness with Johnny?" I asked, hoping against hope that Selena would finally take the chance to confess since she had no idea that I'd read at least part of Melissa's diary. But she persisted in lying. "Yes, most of that diary was her gloating about her affair with Johnny. She hardly mentioned you or the kids." I stared at the woman I'd married, who I'd thought I'd had feelings for over the years, who I thought loved me truly as she lied without even blinking. If anyone had asked me six months ago which sister was more duplicitous, I would have had no trouble answering Melissa. Now, I wasn't so sure. I began taking stuff out of my drawers and moving them into a small bag I'd taken out of the closet. Selena watched me nervously. "What are you doing?" "I can't sleep next to someone who keeps lying to me, not when we agreed that we wouldn't do that to each other," I snarled as I began moving my stuff at a faster pace. "But I didn't lie..." "Save it, Selena, I read part of Melissa's diary and I know the truth," I blurted out as she paled and her hand moved to her mouth. I spotted the small bag of ashes that the housekeeper had handed to me scarcely a month ago and took it out of the drawers that I'd stashed it in. Moving faster than I've ever seen her do so, Selena snatch the bag out of my hands and hurled it against the wall. "Damn you Ian! How could you let that dead bitch and her pathetic words tear us apart!" The bag of ashes hit the wall and then flopped to the ground, spilling ashes, some of which floated in the air. Then it happened. A tiny glow initially, then it seemed to burst into a glorious flame-like incandescence that spread across the walls of the room. It felt like minutes but it had to be mere seconds as pages and pages of Melissa's handwriting flashed across the walls like they were projected for my viewing. It was flashing too rapidly for me to read properly, but the emotion contained in them was palpable. It was as if I could feel Melissa's emotions as she wrote those words. Misery, confusion, bitterness, fear, anger and above all, love. My cheating slut of a wife was in love with me but realised it only too late when I was stubbornly blind and deaf to all her overtures and her truth. I wasn't aware that tears were streaming down my cheeks till my vision blurred and the sounds of broken gasping sobs reached me. It took a while but I recognised my own sounds of grief and realised my blurred vision was a result of the tears that poured out of my eyes unbidden. Thank you Ian.. I can leave now.. Melissa appeared as the glow in the room dimmed slightly. Her eyes were filled with tears and what I now recognised as love. 'No!I really need you here, please, Melissa!' I screamed in my mind as I found my voice stuck in my throat. I barely heard the background noise of Selena yelling and cursing as she threw every object possible at the walls. I only felt the light whisper of air that brushed my forehead as the glow faded and Melissa shimmered till all that was left were those iridescent teardrops that coursed down her cheeks when she kissed me. I captured the iridescent drops in my hand, thinking that was the very last bit of Melissa I'd have left. Bringing them to my lips, I kissed them, feeling the mingling of her tears and mine. The hidden reservoir of bitterness I'd carried within me against Melissa all this time faded, leaving not just a hollow emptiness but also the ache of regret. A year ago I was bitter and angry because I'd found out that my 8 year marriage was a sham and the woman I'd married didn't really love me. She had had a lover for all the years we were together and had trapped me into marriage. In my anger and without real knowledge of her true feelings, I engineered her death. At the moment she faced death, Melissa had chosen to push me out of the path of danger, an act of love; love that she had never been able to fully express or even if she had, I'd been too deafened and blinded by my wounded pride and jealous anger to understand or believe. And I'd allowed myself to indulge in the fantasy of thwarted true love that had marked my relationship with her sister Selena. Selena had encouraged the fantasy, reinforcing it with the promise that we would get together once I'd divorced her sister and that Melissa was the one keeping us apart. Selena also convinced me that she truly loved me where her sister had merely duped me and used me. I now know this all held fatal appeal for an angry ego which thirsted for love after the shock of discovery of betrayal. I don't doubt that Selena had feelings for me or that I'd had feelings for her after all, I had taken her virginity or rather she had cleverly engineered me into the whole incident years ago. However, those feelings have always been complicated, on her side, by rivalry with her sister and on my side, by the guilt and the fact that whatever feelings I had for Selena certainly didn't do much to prevent me from banging her sister. And Selena had been happy to transform that guilt into fuel for the anger that burned in me a year ago. We'd focused our anger at having been deprived of what we thought was mutual true love on the easiest target, Melissa. Today, our illusions or delusions and excuses were all destroyed in a brilliant show of truth rising literally from the ashes. Whatever her initial motivations, Melissa had loved me, I'd have to read the diary to know more but the love that poured out of her words just minutes earlier was unmistakable. My mind had always shied away from the truth that had flashed across the walls. Perhaps I'd known the moment Melissa protected me in that fatal crash. But my mind had shied away from being confronted by my act of killing true love. And I continued to blind myself with help from Selena of course, the very person who was now trying to explain her actions. " I couldn't let her destroy us! Can't you see, I did it all for us. For you! I won't let that stupid bitch hurt you again!" I extricated myself from Selena's tight embrace, cynical distrust of the scheming sister of my dead wife rising within me, choking in its irony. "Selena," I uttered in a dead, weary manner. " Don't fool yourself. We both know why you burnt it. You may have thought it spare me pain but a part of it, a big part, was your fear that you'd lose to your sister, even in death." I didn't have to hear her gasp or to see the flush that spread across her face to know I was right on the money in my words. Selena stood looking at me as I picked up my stuff and bags, moving into the guest bedroom. **** The next few weeks proved harrowing for the couple. Although Selena was relieved by Melissa's absence, she did look nervously around her in the first week or so, the awful feeling that it was a Pyrrhic victory began to build in her. She tried every trick, from seduction to appealing to his feelings for her to even using her baby, to get Ian to return to her bedroom. All attempts proved abject failures. It worsened as the kids and the housekeeper gave her a wide berth. Something else also preyed on her mind, what Melissa had said about the baby. What did she mean when she said it wasn't her love child? Selena's mind began to darken with all the wild speculation and myriad possibilities. A week after Halloween, she quietly asked her doctor for a prenatal DNA test on the child. The spiral that began on Halloween accelerated as Ian withdrew further, limiting his time in the house to activities with the children, often ignoring her or giving the shortest of replies to her questions and attempts at conversation. He spent increasing amounts of time in the garage on his Mustang. The last straw came when she spotted Ian emerging from the kids' room with what looked like Melissa's battered diary in his hands as he left the house for the office one morning. "What are you doing with that damn thing?" She shrieked. He was on his way down the stairs and had turned on hearing her shrill voice. "What I should have done a long time ago," he said flatly. "Read it." "No! Don't fall into her trap!" She pleaded to no avail as Ian simply exited the front door with the journal still in hand. Selena crumbled into tears and then started drinking that very day. As the alcohol slid down her throat, she comforted herself with the thought that Ian wouldn't be able to read the worst part, since she had burnt it. That freak show that happened on Halloween had been too rapid for him to have read or understood everything. Somewhere in that morose mind was the thought that she was pregnant and wasn't supposed to be drinking alcohol. However, what egged her on was the possibility that Ian might be provoked into engaging. By the time she'd drunk enough for the housekeeper to be concerned and for her to have contacted Ian, she'd emptied an entire bottle of brandy and was asleep on the living room couch. Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution Ian had been furious, asking the housekeeper how she could have let Selena drink that much in her pregnant state. After listening to the housekeeper's protests, he helped carry his wife up to her bedroom and took care of her through her drunken heaving and vomiting till he was sure she was settled for the afternoon. It was dinner time before Ian left the bedroom, the longest time they had spent together since Halloween. Selena smiled when Ian returned with her dinner. Her happiness was brief as Ian quickly left after she'd finished with her dinner and checking that she was not feeling any pain or aftereffects from her drinking. She thought bitterly that he was only concerned with the child. However, she was encouraged by his concern for her when she was drunk and proceeded to play that card for the rest of the week. Ian knew Selena was playing games with him and was trying to manipulate him into engaging with her again. He was furious that she would risk the health of their child just to get his attention. This hardened his resolve to distance himself from her. When he returned to find her drunk again two weeks after Halloween and heard that the doctor had called with a message for Selena, he was determined to bring her to her senses. He carried her to the car and drove her directly to the doctor's, still drunk and hardly aware of her surroundings. The doctor was appalled and quickly helped Selena to sober up before delivering the results of the DNA test she had requested. Ian was completely surprised when the doctor mentioned the DNA test after delivering a lecture on the dangers of alcohol for a developing foetus. The doctor didn't notice the odd look that was exchanged by the couple and proceeded to announce that the foetus had an unusual condition. "Your baby is a chimera." The blank looks of both parents told her they were completely baffled by the term. "She has two different sets of DNA. One shows she is your child. The other, however, is a bit of a mystery." "What do you mean?" Selena asked fearfully. "Well, actually, we would like to ask if you're acting as a surrogate mother for one of your family members? You see, the other set of DNA seems to suggest a family relation who's not immediate family but still a close relative to you." "Like a niece," Selena whispered in horror as she stared at Ian. "Yes, possibly though there are other possibilities—" "I want this baby removed! Now!" Selena's screaming brought the nurse and the doctor to their feet. Ian tried to calm her down. "You know, don't you? She created this monster so it'll never be my child. You knew and you let her!" Selena ranted and raved, growing increasingly hysterical. The doctor tried to calm her down and after giving her a light sedative, advised Ian to keep a watch on Selena. "She's very vulnerable now and with the stress that seems to be affecting her moods and making her drink, I fear for the health of the child," the doctor said while eyeing Ian. Ian explained briefly that things were tensed at home and Selena's mood swings were making lifedifficult. The doctor listened and was sympathetic, it helped of course that she was not impressed by Selena's decision to drink or her abrasive attitude. When Ian finally left carrying his wife to the car, the doctor wondered how such a caring husband could end up with such a nasty wife. Matters only deteriorated as the days passed, Selena's hostility reached new levels as she sought to retaliate against what she saw was a conspiracy against her. She drank heavily the day after her trip to the doctor's, even ordering a case of alcohol from the stores when Ian asked the housekeeper to get rid of all the alcohol in the house. When Ian got home after receiving a call from the housekeeper, he found a very drunk Selena attempting to enter the kids' room. "What are you doing?" "I'm gonna get all that bitch's stuff and dump them in the landfill." Her words were so slurred, he had to ask her to repeat them twice before he made sense of what she was saying. Her frustration at not being able to open the door and the effort of having to repeat her words exhausted her and she slumped down against the door. Ian could only sigh as he picked her up and brought her to the bedroom. Selena whispered in his ear something which made him stiffen though he didn't drop her as the housekeeper feared. The housekeeper looked at the unhappy couple as the master carried the new mistress into their bedroom and tried to get her sober. She shook her head, the scene before her was a stark contrast to the smug happiness the new mistress had radiated just months ago. Looking at her now, the housekeeper felt a tiny bit of sympathy for the new mistress who was now suffering for her misdeeds. **** Ian I looked at my wife as sympathy and hate warred inside of me. A year ago, six months ago, hell, three weeks ago, I thought she loved me. Now I see she loved the idea of having me or rather the idea of winning me, snatching me like some toy or trophy from a hated rival, her sister, Melissa. When that triumph was marred, as was the case with our child and my alleged betrayal of her with Melissa, she became determined to destroy it. That included our child, who she labelled a monster since learning of its chimerism. After the initial shock and worry over the potential health consequences for the child, I have to admit I was secretly and perversely thrilled that I could begin to atone for what I'd done to Melissa through this last child we were to share. So, regardless of whatever I felt about Selena, I was determined to protect the child as best I could. Which included protecting the woman who was carrying that child, Selena. My determination was tested the very next day after I'd brought Selena to the doctor's. What Selena whispered in my ear as I carried her to the bedroom made me stop and stare at the woman who had professed to love me. "I'll tell everyone what you did last Thanksgiving, how you 'fixed' Melissa's car and caused her death. If you're going to stop me from getting rid of this monster that my sister foisted upon us, if you're never going to be mine, then I'd rather destroy you!" The look she gave me, even in her drunken state, told me she wasn't kidding. So that was what she meant by love - winning, possessing what she thought her sister had snatched. I felt bitter irony rise in my throat like some wave of acid that threatened to burn me from the inside out. This must be divine retribution — I'd killed a cheating wife who realised too late that she loved me and now I was stuck with a bitch who claimed she loved me for years but wanted to destroy me when she felt she'd lost. I walked woodenly to the bedroom, laid her down and automatically began to wipe her face with the wet towel that the housekeeper had thoughtfully placed upon the dressing table. Selena looked at me with a drunken gloating smile as she waited for my answer. "As long as you keep my children out of this and you ensure the safety of the baby, you can do what you want. I deserve to pay for what I did to Melissa," I said evenly though my stomach was beginning to roil at the thought of leaving my children at her mercy. I guess I surprised her and probably enraged her further since Selena began hitting me with a pillow. She screamed as she pummelled me, "You wimp! You wouldn't fight that bitch when she was alive, now that she's dead, you'd rather fight for her, her brats and this monster she's created than me!" I didn't react, what could I say? In our last fight before she died, Melissa had accused me of standing up to Todd, Selena's ex-husband, and fighting for Selena and yet being unwilling to fight for us as a couple. I bitterly regretted that. I'd thought there was nothing to fight for since she didn't love me while Selena openly professed her love for me and hence there was something to fight for in Selena's case. Chalk that up to me being dumb and look where it got me. Selena continued venting for a good 30 minutes before she was exhausted from her tantrums, and simply slumped back on the bed and slept. This scene repeated itself at least two more times that week with one occasion where we ended up in the emergency room of the local hospital. Selena had thrown one of her small but heavy jars of moisturiser and hit me square on the brow, stunning me so I stepped back carelessly and crashed into the mirror behind me. The crash brought the housekeeper running and she screamed when she saw me unconscious with shattered glass all around. According to the kids who she prevented from coming into the room due to the glass bits all around, she quickly regained her senses, closed the door to prevent the kids from entering and called the emergency services. The emergency services took me to the hospital along with Selena, who was hysterical and who loudly proclaimed it was an accident. I'd regained consciousness when we reached the hospital but the doctors insisted on me being observed for the night as they were afraid of a concussion from the collision with the mirror. I noticed the nurses and doctors whispering as they tended to Selena, who was still raving about how it was all an accident and how I was the bastard who was trying to kill her. Her obvious drunken state and wild raving convinced everyone she was the nasty abusive wife and I was the hapless husband. Even the cops were there, having been called by the housekeeper along with the emergency services. They asked me questions and I admitted it was just an accident that occurred after Selena got drunk. They looked at Selena with disapproval and when she became defensive and abrasive, even they left giving me looks of pity. The only good which emerged from those chaotic days was Selena toning down her abrasive attitude though her erratic behaviour was now common knowledge around the neighbourhood. She even hit on the idea of hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Her guest list was short, consisting of her brother, his lover, two of our neighbours and a few of our colleagues. I could guess what was going through her mind, she wanted to expose me in front of people we knew and therefore ensure maximum damage. I wasn't going to be a sitting duck thought he first order of the day wasn't my protection but rather that of the children. I quietly took some time out every morning to consult with the lawyers regarding custody of the kids should I be unable to care for them. We worked out a plan to help my brother gain custody of my kids and prove Selena's incompetence as a parental figure, the latter was easy seeing how Selena had built a reputation for erratic behaviour over the last few weeks. The trust fund I'd set up for the kids years ago was functioning well, so I didn't have too many worries there. The evenings i spent mainly with the kids trying to make the best of the time left with them. The day before Thanksgiving, I walked into a largely empty office and began picking up stuff that had to be handled in case I was going away for some time. After business matters were dealt with, I opened the safe and took out Melissa's battered diary and began scanning the pages I'd read, which Selena had not burnt. Reading as I scanned each page, I felt my heart break and could barely stop the tears from falling. It was almost dusk when I finished scanning the entire volume. I combined the latest scans with those I'd made almost a year ago after ensuring they were intact. I could only read the earlier scans briefly before my eyes blurred over as tears fell. It was worse than what happened on Halloween as the words were starkly presented before me. And there was no Melissa there for me to apologise to or comfort me. I could only ensure the scans were safely stored in two different clouds before leaving the office with the physical diary for perhaps the last time. **** Selena smiled as she surveyed the table settings for Thanksgiving dinner. 'Oh, she was going to serve them all up a most unforgettable Thanksgiving!' she thought as she took another swig of the brandy. She had stayed sober for the last couple of days in order to plan her revenge on Ian and her dead sister. Those bastards who crossed her were going to regret and pay for their transgressions against her. The pain in her belly was starting to become more obvious. 'Good, the monster is dying.' A spasm of pain ran through her heart as she recalled the joy she felt just weeks ago at the thought of the child growing in her belly . The pain was quickly quashed by the rage that flared when she recalled the doctor's announcement that her child, no the monster, was a chimera , with two sets of DNA, one of which was a close relative, like a niece. At that moment, she finally understood what Melissa's words meant. That was the moment the baby became a monster to her. She smiled in anticipation as the doorbell rang and the housekeeper began ushering in the guests. Ted, her brother, asked her if she was alright and she waved a hand in dismissal of his concern. She was feeling increasingly excited as the guests arrived and the adrenaline she was feeling running through her veins dampened the growing pain in her belly. When the guests arrived, she made small talk with them. After light banter, all were gathered round the dinner table as Ian finally arrived back in his house and joined his guests. "Well, since everyone is here, let me serve up the main course!" Everyone thought Selena meant the turkey and were a little surprised when she returned with a small covered silver platter which was too small to be containing a turkey. The doorbell rang again and the housekeeper had bustled off remarking on the ridiculous ways of the Americans. As Selena opened the cover of the platter with a flourish, the guests started to whisper at the sight of a book sitting on the platter even as the smell of motor oil filled the room. " As most of you know, my bitch of a sister died last Thanksgiving. This is her diary and I'm sending it to join her." Her fierce glare quelled Ted's feeble attempts to rebuke her for her rude behaviour. Selena noticed Ian's fixed stare at the book soaked in motor oil on that silver platter. She leaned over and whispered with malicious glee, " Yes darling, Melissa's precious diary is finally going up in smoke. Noticing her latest guests joining her round the table, Selena beamed with an evil gleam in her eyes. "Join us, officers. I'm about to reveal vital information." "Ma'am did you make a report about a murder?" She waved her hand dismissively. "Yes, officers, the information is related to that," she muttered impatiently. "While most of you think that my stupid bitch of a sister died in a car accident last year, I know the truth, she was murdered. By a cold-blooded killer. Who switched the fuses and ensured the airbag would malfunction." Everyone stared at Selena like she was mad. "Are you drunk Ma'am? This isn't a joke is it?" "No, officers. I'm dead serious. The murderer is among us today. " Ian close his eyes and tried to remain calm. "The murderer is none other than-" Ian braced himself. "Me! I switched the fuses and killed her." There was utter silence as everyone stared at Selena. She looked in horror, her hand clasped over her mouth. She looked as if she couldn't believe what was coming out of it. She recovered quickly and in a flash, she whipped out her lighter and set the diary on fire. It all happened too quickly and none of the witnesses had any idea just how it was that as the diary burnt, Selena herself began to burn. All anyone really saw was Selena engulfed in flames as everyone else round the table started screaming. Selena's screams were drowned out by the tumult. Ted tried to douse the flames with water but the grease fire spread. Ian ran off, returned with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire almost instantly. But by then Selena was seriously burnt. The officers called for the emergency services while Ian tried to cradle Selena's shaking body gently as she went into shock and her eyes stared at him uncomprehendingly. At the hospital, the police officers who had accompanied Ian and Selena there began to ask Ian questions which were met with blank looks. They assumed he was in shock himself. The doctors scurried around trying to save Selena and the baby. But three hours later, the chaos was largely over. The doctors told Ian that the baby had apparently already been dead for a few days mad that they couldn't understand why Selena had managed to ignore all the signs that the baby was in distress. Selena herself was barely clinging to life and the doctors were not optimistic about her condition. The staff at the hospital looked at Ian with some pity since most remembered him from his last trip there just a week or so earlier. An hour later, they told Ian that Selena was gone. She never regained consciousness. **** IAN I don't recall getting home that night. Somehow, someone must have helped me because the next thing I knew I was in my bed. Sleep was at best fitful and patchy. So I was quickly aware of the presence in the room. I sensed her before I saw her. "Melissa? I thought you'd left." I was about to leave but I sensed something would go badly wrong. So I stuck around and observed. When I saw Selena take the diary from the kids' room where you'd returned it, I knew she was planning something. I'm sorry I couldn't save the baby. I couldn't stop Selena from killing it. "Why did you stop Melissa from exposing me? I deserve punishment." That you do but what good would that do? Nothing. Our children would suffer. I can't let them lose both parents within a year or so. In any case, when you read the diary, there was absolution. That helped me to really forgive you. My head hung low in shame. My voice was gruff when I spoke. "I guess I really screwed up huh?" The rueful smile on Melissa's face helped confirm my assessment of the situation. "Couldn't you stay? I mean for the kids of course." I hated the pleading note in my voice but I was desperate and on the verge of begging. It's better for everyone to move on. "But I'll never see you again!" I blurted out. The enigmatic smile on Melissa's face made me anticipate her next words. Well, if you really hope to see me in this lifetime again, I must leave now. Almost as if she read my mind, she laughed and spoke. No darling, you're not that lucky to be a 49 year old with an 18 year old hanging off his arm! But it will be close! She turned serious. Take the kids away for a while, help them get over what has happened. Rebuild this house and when you return, rebuild your lives. She took my hand and we walked over to the kids'room where we looked over the kids sleeping the sleep of the innocent. As she began to fade, she whispered urgently. Be at my grave next Thanksgiving, your second chance will be there! A whisper of air caressed my wet cheek and then she was gone. So I did as she said. No one was surprised when I said that the kids and I needed to get away. After the disasters of the last two years, friends, family and everyone else were very understanding. Selena's death was ruled a misadventure and all witnesses, including the hospital staff and her doctor all testified that she had been erratic for the last month or so. The police suspected that the seasonal holiday triggered her deep-seated guilt and depression. I'd been half afraid that Selena would come back like Melissa but she never did. Thank goodness for some wives who do stay dead. Thanksgiving 2015 Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution I was about to give up and leave when a figure walking jauntily towards me caught my eye. Somehow that gait seemed familiar. When she lifted her head and smiled at me, my heart skipped a beat. The twinkle in her eye and the knowing smile on the face was Melissa's! "Melissa?" I ventured tentatively, not quite believing the teenager in front of me was my dead wife. Ok, not so dead wife. The smiling teen walked up to me, grabbed me in a tight hug and whispered "Missed me much Ian?" "Wha.." was all I was able to get out before she crushed her soft lips to mine and stuck her tongue into my mouth in a kiss that left me in no doubt that she was Melissa. The loud crack behind us was what broke the lip lock. When we looked, it appeared that a large crack had appeared across Selena's headstone. Glimpsing the dread spread across my face, the girl in my arms giggled as she reassured me. "Don't worry Ian, she isn't coming back." "But you did." "There's a big difference between her and me," she huffed. "Such as?" She gave me the evil eye for what she perceived as an insult before explaining. "Selena's last act before dying was destruction, she died with hatred. That condemned her. She's been taken away for good. There are things beyond this life that I've seen that will make the worst creep out there rethink their behaviour," she said with a shudder. "When I died, I was filled with remorse and love. I guess that was my saving grace." My mind was filled with questions which she saw in my eyes. Slinging her arm through mine, she said "Let's go home and get this Thanksgiving dinner. I'll explain everything on the way." And she did. The girl's real name was Cassandra, or Cass. Cass had been involved in a horrific accident two years back, which left her in dire need of a heart and cornea transplant. When Melissa was brought in to the hospital, a mix up had her on the operating table as a donor and her heart and corneas were given to Cass. Both Cass and Melissa had been standing there and watching the entire operation. To Melissa's surprise, Cass had been hesitant about returning to her body after the operation. Melissa only found out later that Cass had come from a wealthy family and had been in love with a poor boy from the wrong side of town. They had run away together and pretended that she was kidnapped to get money from Cass' father. Unfortunately, their car had crashed while they were trying to evade the police and Cass' father's hired hands. The boy survived with few injuries but Cass was in critical condition until the operation. While Cass was happy to have survived the accident and operation, she had had the opportunity to observe the people around her who supposedly cared for her. She found out that her estranged mother didn't even bother to visit her, her father only sent money for the medical bills and even her boyfriend was only worried about the ransom money they had stashed before their accident, which he had to abandon when Cass' father set the police on him. Sickened by the behaviour of her loved ones, Cass refused to return to her body, leaving her body in a coma. While Melissa tried.to persuade Cass to appreciate her second chance at life, she had told Cass her own story. Cass had increasingly sympathised with Melissa and when Melissa had visited her just before the climactic Thanksgiving last year, Cass had offered her the body on the condition that she was to live a good life with me and the kids. No straying or infidelity. That made me smile and Melissa swat me on my arm. "So do I call you Cassandra from now on?" "Nope, I had a deed poll and I'm now Melissa Cassandra Williams. Said I wanted to honour the donor who saved my life." She smirked as she continued, "Can't have my husband screaming someone else's name while he's in me." Thankfully, I'd pulled up in our driveway by then since I was fairly doubled over with laughter. I'd thought dinner might be awkward, but I was met with a happy surprise. Though dinner was a little quiet compared to the dramatic turns Thanksgiving dinner had taken the last two years, it went surprisingly well. The kids were quiet when they were introduced to my new friend, Steve surprised everyone by clinging onto Melissa's leg after shyly observing her from his safe position between Piper and the housekeeper. When Melissa took the housekeeper aside just before dinner, I covertly observed the two women. The housekeeper's eyes widened in surprise before she gave Melissa a hug. Both women wiped tears from their eyes before Piper joined them. Piper's reaction mirrored the housekeeper's. She seemed reluctant to leave Melissa's side even when we started dinner. When dinner was over and bedtime approached, the kids reluctantly left her side only after reassurance that she would be there the next day. I was uncertain where Melissa would sleep that evening, it came as a surprise when she led me unerringly to my bedroom. She laughed at my puzzled look "I drew a plan of my ideal house in the diary so I was hoping that it would be similar. " Out of politeness I let her use the bathroom first, and was rewarded for being a gentleman when she emerged wrapped in only a short terry towel. I showered quickly and shaved, ok, so I expected something - hey I'm only a man. As soon as she heard the shower stop, she called out asking me for a razor. I brought one out and watched in fascination as she asked for her bag where she pulled out a bottle of shaving cream. She spread her legs, the towel parting to allow me a delightful eyeful of breasts straining against the tucked in edge of the towel plus long smooth legs and the au naturel mound at the apex of her thighs. Clearing my suddenly dry throat, I asked in a strangled voice if she preferred me to leave the room while she shaved. "Won't you help me?" she asked teasingly and pouted. She covered her mound in cream and then sat back against the pillows piled behind her while I shaved her. As my fingers moved slowly across her lips, trying to shave her without nicking her, her lips swelled and the scent of her arousal rose in the air. I wasn't sure how I managed to finish the job. My cock was so hard it hurt. Melissa chuckled and reached out, holding my penis in her warm hand while gently running her palm up and down the length. "Wait," I gasped before she could take me in her mouth. "Are you legal?" "Yes," she grinned before running the tip of her tongue around the slit of my cock. I couldn't help groaning. "Well someone's happy," she whispered as she cupped my balls and then attempted to deepthroat me. "What do you expect after a year of just soft hands and lubricant." "I know. If you'd been dicking other women, all you'd have found at the grave would have been the lyrics to Better In Time." I couldn't believe it but she started singing right there and then. Since there's no more you and me It's time I let you go So I can be free "You were watching me?" "Of course, a girl has to be careful who she gives herself to. Only a loving husband who's all mine deserves me!" I grabbed hold of her and swore never to let her go. After all, how could I let go of a loving wife who returned to love me after I murdered her. Guess even death is no match for a determined wife! The End Thank you to readers who have made it thus far. A computer glitch made this the default final version. Again a huge thank you to StangStar06 for writing the original story and also DFWBeast whose joke triggered this. Having said that, please direct all negative comments towards me and not either of these authors.