A Conspiracy to Deceive

Part II of the Barry and Carol story

As way of introduction, this is the sequel to "A Conspiracy to Commit..." It would be to the reader's advantage to have read that first segment of the Barry and Carol drama. "A Conspiracy to Commit..."

That story was my first submission to Literotica and I was very pleased with the response that I received to story. Both the positive and negative comments were received and digested. Some of them actually found their way into this sequel.

This sequel will be the second section of the Barry and Carol story. It is a very long story. The reader may want to copy all of the pages and download them to a word processor. This would enable the reader to read this story as if it were a paper-back novel. Just a suggestion.

There were numerous avenues that the Barry and Carol drama could have taken. I found that the following story line stayed truer to the nature of the (my) characters. I'm sure that some of the readers would have liked a different approach to this complex story.

Also, it should be noted that even though there are sections in the story that have very explicit sex sessions, they are there to enhance the story and not necessarily be the central theme of the story. My apologies to Mother Thumb and her Four Daughters.

Chapter 1

The first meeting:

Over the phone, the day before their first joint meeting, Dr. Lee had requested that Barry not mention to Carol about the Psychotic Transfer Response syndrome. He said that if Carol were told that her fall from grace was caused by a suspected mental dysfunction, she might hide behind this illness and never accept the fact that she needed to face her indiscretions directly.

With some hesitation, Barry agreed that he would keep silent about the PTR syndrome until Dr. Lee felt it was the right time to inform Carol of his diagnosis.

Yet, in the back of his mind, Barry knew that if it wasn't for Dr. Lee's suspicion that Carol's fall from grace was caused by a mental dysfunction, he could never have forgiven her for her adultery. If her affair with Les had been caused by the lack of moral character or the actions of a wayward wife, Carol would have had the divorce papers in her hands already.

But for Barry, a mental illness puts a different spin on this whole sordid situation. Could he abandon her now? If she needed professional medical treatment, could he just throw her unfaithful ass out in the street?

"In sickness and in health..." Those words spun softly around inside his head.

Was he deeply hurt by Carol's adultery? Absolutely.

Could he forgive her and build trust back into their marriage? Maybe.

Barry has always been a patient person. In his previous business situations, he would gather all of the information possible before 'writing the final report'. Now he would have to take the same patient approach in his marriage crisis situation.

He would try his best to help Carol recover in spite of the fact that Dr. Lee had told him that if she did in fact have an extreme case of PTR, there would be little chance of a full recovery for her. Barry was told that there would be a latent tendency for her psyche and personality to do another flip-flop back into the fuck-slut state if certain events triggered a relapse.

This single bit of knowledge weighed heavily on his mind. Could he survive another episode of Carol's infidelity? No, not again! Once is almost too much to bare.

Carol continues to profess her undying love for him. But that love now appears to be a two edged sword. That sword had cut him deeply once, would he get cut again by it?

* * * * * *

Dr. Lee concluded the first joint therapy session with Barry and Carol. The ground rules for the continuing therapy sessions had been established and understood by the Knolls.

Barry would meet with Dr. Lee on Tuesday and Thursday evenings after work. Carol would meet with Dr. Lee on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at 10:00 in the morning. If a joint session were required, then the doctor would schedule that for Saturday mornings.

The reason for the multiple visits each week was to expedite the discovery and then the healing process. Dr. Lee told them that he hoped that the initial phase of the treatment would take no more than a couple of months. After that, a complete evaluation of the progress would be made to determine if a second phase of the treatment would be necessary. He also suggested that Carol not return to work but instead remain at home and focus her energies on her marriage and her husband.

These therapy sessions would be very intense and intrusive. In them, the doctor would delve deeply into their sexual fantasies and desires. He told both of them that they would have to be willing to open up their souls to him in order for him to properly diagnose each of their state of mind.

Carol would have to face the hard reality of her adultery. Even though her fall from grace was caused by a suspected mental dysfunction, Carol still had all her free will and the understanding of right and wrong.

"I have always been free to leave this relationship with Sir and return to my role as your faithful wife. I chose to stay with Sir until he gives me permission to go home to you."

Those were her own words. Spoken to Barry as she stood in The Position in front of the video camera. She would now have to deal with the consequences of those words and that adulterous relationship.

Barry would have different challenges to come to grips with. He had been a cuckold. And for over three months, his wife held that secret from him. As soon as Barry left town on another assignment, she would resume her affair with Les.

But now, Barry knew. He knew all about the sordid affair and his wife's willing participation in it. There was no doubt in his mind that if Les and Phil had not been arrested that Carol would still be with Les and not with him.

How damaged was Barry's ego? How damaged was his self-image as a man?

Where would Barry gather the strength to move forward with Carol and their marriage? Would that strength come from his love for her? Would it come from his belief in his marriage vows? No apparent answers to these hard questions.

"In sickness and in health..." Those words continued to spin softly around inside his head.

* * * * * * *

The car was silent, the radio was off, as Barry and Carol drove away from Dr. Lee's office and headed home. Driving through the busy streets, they sat quietly as their minds were sorting through all the statements that Dr. Lee had laid out for them in this initial session. Since neither of them had any previous experience with a psychiatrist, there was no basis for them challenging any of the proposals that Dr. Lee had set out for their future sessions with him.

Barry knew that in order for their marriage to survive in some form, there would definitely be the need for serious marriage counseling for the both of them. It was obvious that Carol's fall from grace would need to have some professional help in order for her to understand the internal forces that caused her infidelity.

For him, there was the daunting task to rebuild his shattered male ego. There was also the agonizing feeling of being a cuckold that needed to be dealt with and put behind him. Until this marriage crisis, Barry never had any doubts about his manhood or his self image as a strong male figure.

In all the other areas of his life, he was a complete success. His career is on a fast track to the top executive office at GeoTex. The financial portfolio he had begun five years ago was performing very well, ensuring a stable and secure future for he and Carol.

Only in his marriage and his relationship with his wife had Barry found failure.

But, his mind was still wrestling with the concept of that failure. If, as Dr. Lee had diagnosed, Carol had become an adulterous spouse due to a medical condition call Psychotic Transfer Response, what level of failure could be assigned to him? Without prior knowledge of Carol's susceptibility to this PTR syndrome, how could he have prevented Carol's infidelity?

Barry shook his head to try and push those mitigating thoughts out of his mind. Never mind trying to reduce his guilt level, he was her husband and apparently he did not respond to the warning signs that Carol must have been sending him over the past two years.

Carol look over at him as she could tell that he was deep in his own thoughts. She was concerned with his state of mind over this on-going crisis that she had brought into their marriage.

"Is there something wrong, Barry?" She asked, hoping that he would share his deep thoughts with her.

Barry blinked his eyes as if to return to planet Earth. He smiled and replied. "Nah.... Nothing wrong, Carol. I was just deep in thought about the things that Dr. Lee said would be necessary for our sessions with him." A long pause "Uhh.. Are you comfortable with the things the doctor has listed for you?" There was an uncertainty in the way that Barry asked the question. As if he had some doubts about subjecting Carol to the intense interrogation sessions that the doctor outlined for her.

"Well...I'm not sure how I feel at this moment, Barry. Some of the things that Dr. Lee said would take place in my sessions with him have me very nervous." Her face grimaced as if the thoughts about those sessions were causing her some distress.

"Do you think we should get a second opinion from another psychiatrist?" Carol was watching Barry's face as she softly answered his question and added a question of her own.

"Well.....I'm not sure if psychiatrist aren't all like new car salesmen. Each one wanting to sell you their brand of automobile. Dr. Lee comes highly recommended. In addition to being a tenured professor, he has also published several books on psychiatry."

Barry's mind was also mulling over the fact that Dr. Lee did not want him to mention the PTR syndrome to Carol. Were there other reasons that the doctor had for wanting her to remain ignorant of her mental dysfunction?

"My first thoughts would be to give the good doctor a trial period and see if his methods seem to work for us. If not, then we need to try another psychiatrist or marriage counselor. You agree?"

Carol was nodding her head as she sat there wondering what her future had in store for her and her marriage.

Chapter 2

The Prefect Couple:

Back in his office, Dr. Lee was contemplating the full range of possibilities this situation had presented to him in the Knoll's marriage. For the past four years he had been trying to find a married couple whose marriage was in deep trouble due the PTR syndrome. He needed the right couple to further test and validate his PTR theories.

Dr. Lee felt that with the proper suggestions and the right mental stimulus, he could create a situation where both the husband and wife would be ideal research subjects to finally validate his theory of Psychotic Transfer Response.

The 'perfect couple' would be trying hard to put their marriage back together in spite of the wife's infidelity caused by the syndrome.

The husband would be trying to find a way to forgive his wife for her transgressions and make an attempt at putting their marriage back together some fashion.

The wife would be in serious guilt mode over her adultery. She would not be aware of the mental illness that was the root cause of her adultery.

To support his theory, he had written a number of scenarios of how to develop the right set of circumstances where the wife would be driven by two opposite forces. One force would be the loving support of her husband and the other force would be that of a dominant lover who would use her as a fuck-slut.

* * * * * * *

In the world of psychiatry medicine, new theories of human behavior are always received with skepticism and doubts. Even though he had spent the last fifteen years developing the research to support his theory of the PTR syndrome, there was still no universal acceptance of his theory. At most, he had gotten lukewarm acknowledgment from some of his closest colleagues. From others in the world of psychiatry medicine, all he received was negative comments or complete rejection of his theory.

Driven by his egomaniac personality, Dr. Lee was determined to prove with clinical evidence, that his theory was not only valid, but that it was possible to involve both spouses equally in the dysfunctional situation.

In previous sessions with other wives suffering from the syndrome, he had proven that the wife was easy to manipulate and control in one direction. The direction away from fidelity. What he lacked was the evidence that the syndrome could be made to fluctuate back and forth between both mental states: Fidelity and Infidelity.

The first state, that of being a loving and devoted wife would be supported by the commitment of the husband to help his wife. The second state, that of a submissive fuck-slut, would be caused be the presence of a dominant lover drawing her away from her faithful wife status.

Dr. Lee knew that a traumatic situation could trigger the PTR episodes in women with this latent dysfunctional trait. What he needed was a way to demonstrate that the syndrome could be further developed so that it would respond to a more normal stimuli and not require a high stress stimuli. In other words, fluctuating between the two states would become normal and routine for the wife.

His previous experiments on wives suffering from PTR, had proved that sexual stimulus of the female libido coupled with the wife's suppressed sexual desires could reduce the stress level of stimuli required to trigger an episode. These experiments were done without the involvement of the husbands. In most of the previous cases of the wife's infidelity, the husband had already divorced the adulterous mate after finding out about her extra marital affair.

The 'perfect couple' that Dr. Lee was looking for would require that the husband knowingly offer his wife to a dominant lover who would exploit her PTR susceptibility. Then the husband would 'rescue' his wife with loving kindness, only to have the lover pull her back into his control. This constant strain on the wife's loyalties, torn between her loving husband and her dominant lover, would eventually have to resolve itself.

The mental strain for the wife would eventually alter the syndrome, until as Dr. Lee theorized, there would be no difference for the wife in either state. The unknown risk factor involved with this experiment was that in the worst case, a failure to resolve itself, the wife might suffer a full mental breakdown.

Chapter 3

The Treatment:

During the first two weeks of the therapy sessions, Barry and Carol would sit in the den after supper, and exchange notes about their individual sessions. It was obvious to them that Dr. Lee was counseling each of them a different manner.

For Barry, the doctor was probing the residual feelings that Barry had toward Carol and the affair that she had with her dominant lover.

Were those feelings hateful? Were they directed at Carol or at her lover? Now that the lover was in jail, did Barry feel vindicated? Did anything about Carol's affair stir any secret desires or fantasies?

Dr. Lee had given Barry a 'homework assignment' to write out his answers to those questions and a dozen other questions. The doctor wanted him to take time in answering the questions as best he could now that the affair was over and her lover was out of the picture.

For Carol, the doctor was very interested in her early adolescent years. His questions probed her mind and memory trying to find those clues that might have created her susceptibility to the PTR syndrome. In all his previous test, he could not find any clinical evidence to indicate that the latent dysfunction was genetic in origin. It had to be a learned trait, at least that was the doctor's latest theory.

He gave Carol a similar 'homework assignment' but his questions were very different than those he gave to Barry. How old where you when you first became interested in boys? When was your first boy/girl contact? Who was your first real boyfriend? When did you have your first real date?

There were about 30 questions on Carol's assignment sheet. The questions about her sex life stopped just before her affair with Les. None of the questions were directed at her adulterous affair.

Dr. Lee collated the data he received from the questionnaires and the notes he had written during the office sessions he had with each of them. He smiled at the results the data gave him. Barry and Carol were indeed the 'perfect couple' for his theory validation experiment. Now he had to formulate a plan that would be acceptable to the Knolls and still provide enough evidence that his theory of Psychotic Transfer Response was a valid theory.

He knew that this experiment bordered on the unethical. His plan was a deceitful and manipulative practice that his profession shied away from. Yet, he was driven by his own obsession to prove his theory. If deceit was necessary to obtain that proof, then that is what he would use to lure the Knolls into his validation experiment.

Chapter 4

Another Step Forward:

During the next session with Barry, the doctor began to sow the seeds that he hoped would convince Barry that the only treatment avenue left for Carol would be to add a lover for her into their marriage.

"Barry, its been three weeks since the first session with you and Carol. There have been eight private sessions with Carol in that time frame." His voice was almost monotone as Barry could sense that the doctor was about to give him some bad news.

"During that time, Carol shared with me some of her deepest secrets and desires." ...A short pause... "First, I must tell you that I firmly believe that she deeply loves you and wants to continue as your wife." ...Another pause... "Yet, there is still this deep desire to have a dominant force in her life. Its almost like a right brain - left brain situation for her."

The doctor flipped several pages on the pad that he was holding. This was more for a distracting effect than accessing any notes on the pad. Barry shifted his body on the couch, took a deep breath and relaxed as best as he could.

"At this point in her therapy, Carol has become very tense and easily agitated. I believe the cause of this is her lack of sexual contact with you. I have given her a mild sedative to take daily for her nerves, but it is not having the desired effect of calming her anxieties." The doctor flipped several more pages slowly. "Increasing the dosage of the sedative might cause her to become addicted to the drug. I don't want to do that."

Barry had his eyes closed, his body was relaxed and his mind was focused on the doctor's words.

"I think that it is time for you to resolve the sexual contact issue with Carol. She desperately needs to have you as her sex partner.....or the consequences of her built up sexual needs might result in her seeking sexual satisfaction outside your marriage again."

Barry opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He had denied both Carol and himself all sexual contact since that night she returned home after the arrest of her lover. The sexual tension between them had been increasing every day. Still, Barry wasn't sure how he would feel when he fucked Carol for the first time. Would the ghost of her affair still be there? Worse of all, in his mind, would he be able to perform properly? Would she respond to him with the same enthusiasm as she had with her lover? Would he be as good a lover to her as Les had been?

Chapter 5

The First Time:

Although he had made the trip from Dr. Lee's office to his house a number of times, this time the trip home seemed to have a heavy burden attached to it. Tonight would be the night to open the dam and release a flood of his pent up emotions. That thought sent a shiver up his spine.