How Does it Feel to be a Cuckold?

Shawn joined Jenny and Diane looking at the travel brochures, and Peter and I squared off for battle. We weren't even through the first game when Stephanie opened the door, and Jake and two men entered the cabin.

Stephanie sneered, "Didn't think I'd catch you humping the babysitter, did you?"

Diane quipped back, "It's far better than getting genital herpes from a whore wife!" Diane was about to get up and face off with Stephanie, when I waved her off and got up from the table and walked over towards our new guests.

I motioned my arm towards Peter at the table. "This is my attorney, Peter Hershbaum, from the firm of Traub, Hershbaum, and Kensington, and this is his daughter, Diane, a child psychologist, specializing in child placement after divorce. I have been using her as a baby sitter to gain evidence of child neglect for the last fourteen years. If you would like to serve me papers, would you please wait until after I disclose some important history and financial information to you?"

Stephanie and the lawyers stiffened up. Jake stayed his cocky self. The lawyers looked at each other, and then at Peter. Peter made a hand motion to the lawyers to back down. The paperwork that one of the lawyers was carrying was quickly placed into a briefcase. Once their gyrations stopped, I looked over at Peter and he nodded for me to continue.

"Stephanie, I've left you for good. This cabin is my home, and the house is yours. Take Jake and your lawyers, and go home. There is nothing for you here.

"Mark, I'm not leaving without getting what I deserve. I want a divorce."

I looked puzzled at her, "Why would you want that?"

"I am in love with Jake, not you. You have not come to my bedside in over three years now. I have not been able to find physical comfort in my own home, so I have had to look elsewhere. I am suing you for alienation of affection, so that I can marry Jake."

The sheer mechanical nature of her statement made me grin. The lawyers must have drafted the statement, and had her practice it over and over. It didn't mention the fact that three years ago, she became infected with genital herpes just after one of Jakes visits. I smiled back at her and simply repeated my stand. "Stephanie, you don't need to get a divorce, just go back home and live with Jake. There is nothing for you to gain financially here, so just leave.

Jake couldn't just stand by and watch, he moved forward. "Just sign the fucking divorce papers, you wimp. You know that you can't handle a woman like Stephanie, it takes a real man like me."

"Oh, then just leave. You have your woman, Jake, and I have mine. Take yours and go."

"Maybe not Mark, maybe I'll take both of them from you. I've already taken your wife from you, and I'll take your new one too. Tell me Mark, how does it feel to be a cuckold?"

"I wouldn't know Jake, how does it feel?"

Jake grinned, "You feel pretty worthless, don't you?"

"Not really, since you, Jake, are the cuckold."

The shock on Jake, Stephanie, and her lawyers faces, was priceless.

I picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. I then turned to Stephanie, "You may not remember much about your wedding night, because I was buying all the drinks. I bought screwdrivers for you two and plain orange juice for myself.

I turned on the DVD player and pressed "play". A drunk Jake, and a very drunk Stephanie were in front of the Chapel of Love. An Elvis clone was in the process of marring them, with me waving to the camera. I chimed in after everyone had time to understand that Elvis was marring Stephanie to Jake.

"I had noticed that Stephanie was late on her period, and I was planning to propose and marry Stephanie, but the way you two were acting made me think something was up. I was so suspicious of you two that I set up my lecture recorder in our room, and excused myself to go to UNLV to work on a term paper. When I played back the tape, I heard you two go at it like crazed rabbits. Stephanie confessed she was pregnant, and you two concocted your plan to 'marry me to Stephanie' and "have me take care of the kids" while Jake finished his tour of service."

"I didn't want to go through with your stupid plan. I had always used a condom, and from the tape, and I found out that Jake didn't always use protection. I figured that Jake was the father of the child, just like you two did." Your idea of getting me drunk, and marrying me to Stephanie was what gave me the idea to do the same to you two."

I walked over to Peter, and he handed me some papers. I handed these papers to one of the lawyers. "These are copies of the real marriage certificate, and the marriage license. I took both of you back to the hotel, and put both of you in Stephanie's room for your honeymoon. The fake marriage certificate you found in my room with Stephanie's and my name on it, was supposed to be my memento how I almost fucked up my life. I want you to understand that I knew that I had lost her to you, Jake. I didn't want to get into this cuckolding scheme of yours."

I paused, and shook my head. "Jake, I was awake and crying when you opened my room door and pushed Stephanie in at 3AM in the morning. Did you really feel the need to cuckold yourself on your wedding night?"

Jake was red faced and shuffling from one foot to another. I had taken a lot of grief from Jake over the last 19 years, and I could see he was about to blow. I decided to back off from chastising him, even though I knew I had three lawyers watching as witnesses. I chose to back down.

I decided to switch gears and talk about the timing of the paperwork. I paused and paced the room, to allow what I said to set in, and to allow Jake to calm down. "I will admit that making a fake certificate was a bonehead mistake. Even worst, I had left the fake one out in the open, and the real one was carefully put away and preserved. I did have the actual marriage certificate, but the actual marriage license from the state of Nevada took three weeks to arrive at my dorm room. I could have argued about who was married to whom, but you seemed perfectly happy to have me fucking your wife, so who was I to complain. You had planned to fuck me over, so I decided to screw Stephanie until Jenny was born and use the DNA tests to get out of this mess."

I walked over to Peter and received another set of papers, and handed these to the lawyers. "Jake, I got a sample of your DNA off of one of Stephanie's Panties 3 months after Jenny was born. I had the DNA lab run tests to determine who Jennifer's father was. I am Jenny's sperm donor. I always used condoms, so my guess is that one of them leaked. By the way Jake, your sperm lack mobility, you are sterile. Stephanie, you had your tubes tied after Shawn was born, so both of you are sterile".

"I could have walked away at any time, but I had a daughter with Stephanie. I was told that If I would have left, my Jennifer would have be given to Stephanie and Jake to rear. I would get nothing but child support payments. I made a choice to stay and raise her, and document the money given to your marriage as child support. The money I made above paying for support is my own. I also documented that I made a cabin getaway out of my own money to allow Stephanie and Jake to make conjugal visits while he was serving our country. Even though I portrayed myself as a wimp, I want to stress that I was not being cuckolded. I KNEW who was married to whom, and I never felt right about denying a husband's right to make love to his wife."

"The paperwork will show that I paid two and a half the average amount child support. One payment was for Jennifer and one for me as a live-in caregiver, the half payment was for Jennifer's college fund. When Shawn entered the picture, I went after the sperm donor, and he made one payment for child support and a half payment towards a college fund for Shawn. Stephanie contributed the same amount from her trust account, a share for herself and each child, and a half share for each child's college fund."

I went over to Peter and retrieved a third set of papers. "Stephanie, as for the money you inherited from your parents, you have been living off of that for the last 14 years, as well as my child support, and the child support that your have received from Shawn's sperm donor. I gave an deduction for the home, but you were using more money than the inheritance was generating. I have asked you repeatedly to 'Get a Job', but you have refused. If your husband had been saving any money, and if you had started working after the children had started school, you two would probably be worth over a half a million dollars by now. Your trust fund portfolio still has over $50,000 in it, and you still own your home outright. I know jobs are scarce about here, but with Jake's military pension, you two should be able to get by and even flourish."

I went over to Mantle this time, and retrieved a key. I handed this key directly to Stephanie. "This is my key to your safety deposit box at the bank. You will find the actual marriage documents there, the original VHS recording of the wedding ceremony, as well as a DVD version. Please check the names carefully."

I stopped and looked at the lawyers. They were still trying to leaf through the papers that I gave them. "I would like to make an appeal for child custody now."

I then walked over to Shawn. "Jennifer is over 18, and is an adult. Jennifer can do as she wishes, and she has chosen to stay with me. I have received a guardianship transfer document from Shawn's sperm donor, so you, Stephanie, and I have joint guardianship over Shawn. At 16, he can choose which parent he lives with, and he can choose me even though I am not his biological father."

"Stephanie, Jake is a proud man, and I don't think he will want a daily reminder walking around your home that he was cuckolded. I want you two to be happy together, and start your marriage with a clean slate. If Shawn chooses to stay with me, and he has, you will have to pay me child support. I know you love your son, but I would like to make a deal with you concerning Shawn's upbringing.

I will pay your part of Shawn's child support, both his living costs and his college fund, if you just walk away, and live with Jake. You will no longer have to contribute to his welfare. There will be no lawyers, and no fees. You just have to leave. You know that I used Diane as a babysitter for over fourteen years, and you now know that she is a child psychologist used to evaluate child placement. I will use her to get custody away from you. This will cost you a lot of money, Stephanie, and you will still lose. If you just leave, I will not enforce any limits on visitation. You're already married to Jake, so please, please, just leave and make a new life with Jake.

The lawyers continued to mill over the paperwork, and seemed to be completely baffled as to what their response should be. Stephanie was in shock, and Jake was about to blow. Jake wanted to hit someone or something, but he had been the mastermind of this fiasco, and it was all blowing up in his face. Instead of making me an unwilling cuckold, he had made himself into a willing cuckold.

I watched Jake as he stewed in his own juices. "Jake, we can keep this a secret, and you and Stephanie can have a 20th anniversary wedding, and take your vows anew. I will allow a divorce period of three months to pass, and Diane and I will wait to marry, so that it will appear that Stephanie and I have gone through a divorce. If nothing else, you and Stephanie have had an 'open' marriage, and I know that both of you have had partners outside of your marriage.

Jake, there are too many witnesses here. If you do anything stupid it will come back to haunt you. Jake, please take Stephanie home and claim her as your wife. She is your woman, and I conceded that fact 19 years ago."

One of the lawyers spoke up, "I think it would be best if we had a week to go over these papers, but I believe that Mr. Whitefield and his lawyer have prepared a very compelling case. We suggest a meeting next Friday afternoon."

Jake finally bolted out the door. Stephanie turned and ran after him. Peter took the two lawyers outside and talked to them for a few minutes. They exchanged cards and left.

When Peter came back in, he found us in a group hug. He simply looked on and smiled.

EPILOG

At our victory dinner that night, Stephanie called to tell us to pick up Shawn's stuff tomorrow morning. Shawn told me that he had enough clothes, so I told her that we would wait until Jake had left. I told Stephanie to make sure that Jake knew that he was everything to her, and that the children would come over after he was gone. She thanked me. I listened as she tried several times to start another sentence, but it was at best just random words and phrases. She ended the call with "Mark, I'm sorry." and hung up.

Jake stayed in town for two days. On Monday morning, Stephanie and Jake went to the bank and pulled the safety deposit box. Jake went a little wild, and then left town. Shawn and I ended up going back to the house and patching all the holes that Jake had punched and kicked in the wall.

A week later, we picked up Shawn's stuff. Jenny and Shawn still have bedrooms at Stephanie's house, and they sometimes go over. But even Stephanie had seen the pain in Jake face when he looked at the children. She knew that the only chance she had with Jake would be if she let go of her children. She also had an idea of how much evidence I would bring to the court. Stephanie simply walked away, just as I asked her to, and gave full custody to me, without getting the lawyers involved.

Stephanie is still not sure if Jake will be back, but she's going to try to make her marriage work. She went into therapy, and I was asked to come in for three of the visits. She found a job at a store near the mall, and says she likes it. I showed her how to pay the first month of bills, and how to manage her trust fund. Stephanie is feeling more confident about herself, and I'm not sure Jake is going to like the woman she is about to become. She also told me that we didn't have to wait three months.

Diane and I were married a month later. It was a last minute marriage, so we had a small church ceremony, with only twenty three people attending. Summer was halfway over, and Diane wanted to go on the family vacation as Mrs. Diane Whitefield. Peter was a proud father walking his daughter down the aisle. Shawn was the best man, and Jennifer was the maid of honor.

On the way to our vacation in Europe, we stopped by Boston for a few days. We went to a ball game at Fenway Park. Before going to our seats, I pulled the family aside.

"Shawn, this is your ticket. You're going to be on the inside. The family next to us will have a mother and a father and two young girls. They will probably switch positions so that the father will be next to you. I want you to be friendly, and on your best behavior with this man and his family. I want you to act like the two girls are your sisters, and not make a pass at them. I want you to respect the husband, and you are to not let his family know that you are related to him. Shawn, I do not want to tear his family apart, so if you don't think you can keep yourself in reserve, please tell me now."

Diane went over and hugged Shawn. Shawn cried for a moment, and Diane joined in as she held him. He had never known is biological father, and was about to meet him. After a few minutes; everyone took a beep breath, wiped our eyes, and headed to our seats.

All my concerns about this meeting were unfounded. It turns out that the girls started hopping up and down as soon as they saw Shawn. They each had gifts in their hands for their older half brother. After everything calmed down, Shawn excused himself and went up to the souvenir stand to get each of them a present. The mother confided in me that the affair had been a wake up call for their marriage. My intrusion and my forcefulness to fight for another man's child had made a lasting impression. She was surprised that Stephanie was not my wife, but she was happy that I had reared Shawn to be such a kind and courteous brother to his two sisters.

We spent the next day with them at the zoo, before flying to Europe.

We didn't make it to China in the fall. After Jennifer left for college, Diane started getting morning sickness. We'll have to plan to visit China another year.

Our family is growing, and life moves on.