Obsession

"I don't trust you, Peggy...all that is gone, along with the respect and love...so you'll have to come to where we are to see them, and I'll always be close by to watch you...but that's your problem. You brought this all on yourself and I'm not going to feel sorry for you."

"Kyle," she whispered.

"What, Peggy?"

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

"Yeah, so am I," he said. Suddenly there was nothing else to say.

"Well, okay...I guess that's all for now," he told her. "I'll call back from time to time," he said, "and you can always reach me through Brad's office." He was quiet for a long time.

"Goodbye," he said quietly.

"Goodbye," she said in a soft voice. Kyle disconnected before she could say anything more.

********

"Hello?"

"Peggy?" her mother said crossly. "Why didn't you call me when you got home?"

"Mom, everything is all upside down," Peggy said. Her voice was uneven but she got it all out.

"Why, baby, what's wrong?" her mother asked in a concerned tone. "What's Kyle done now?" she demanded.

"It's not what Kyle did," Peggy responded. "Well...it is, but that's not everything."

"What, honey? Tell me what's going on."

"Mom, Kyle is divorcing me," Peggy wailed, giving in to the pain for the first time.

"What?" Denise thundered. "Who the hell does he think he is?" she wondered. "Don't worry, baby, we'll make sure he doesn't get away with this," she assured her daughter.

"Mom?" Peggy said hesitantly. She took a deep breath. It might as well be now as later, she thought. "I was having sex with a man out there...in Orlando...and Kyle has pictures of it." Her mother was silent for a moment.

"Well," Denise said at length, "that doesn't matter, honey. We'll get through this."

"Mom," Peggy insisted, "you don't understand. I was getting even with Kyle for that thing at the party and now he's left me. I've lost him forever...he won't even let me see the kids until I see the doctor," she whispered.

"Huh? He can't do that!" Denise said loudly.

"Mom, Itold you...he has pictures and videos and everything," Peggy insisted. "If I fight him for the kids, he'll spread those all over this town. You'll get your own copy, Mother. Do you want to see your little girl with her tits hanging down while a stranger fucks her cunt from behind? Do you want that, Mother? No, I didn't think so. Face it, Mom, he's got me over a barrel and I can't do a damn thing about it. I don't even know where he is!"

Denise could not reply for a long while.

"I thought I was so smart," Peggy continued bitterly. "I was going to get even with him for what he did with Ann and I wouldn't listen to him. I never did. I was too stupid to see it reallywas just a mistake...and now I've lost him."

"Well..." her mother said hesitantly. "I don't think you were wrong in that, honey. Kyle should have understood you...he should have seen you couldn't let a man do something like that to you. If he was any kind of husband, he'd have seen that," she said with conviction. "Baby, your Dad and I will help you all you can, you know that. We'll get back at Kyle...I promise you that," she said.

Peggy held the cell phone away from her ear and looked at it in disbelief for a moment.

"Mom," she said finally, "Why don't you just shut the hell up?" She punched the off button.

The lonely woman threw the cell phone at the far wall. She sat on the carpeted floor and gazed unseeing out the patio door as she contemplated how thoroughly her world had shattered.

finis