Perfect Marriage

In any case, turned out that my injuries were far from life threatening, and the next day they sent me home. Couldn't do all that much to help myself though, so I bided my time while I had to rely on Hilly to minister to me.

Gave me time to think; time to plan.

Waste of time though, and I still didn't know what to do, but somehow Mike and the other two kids seemed to be the central issue here. Whatever I decided it had to look after their interests, even if mine had to suffer.

From then on, Hilly's interests would come a poor last.

All I did know was that our twentieth wedding anniversary was looming, and the room was booked for our big dinner. It would have to be sorted by then.

---------------------

Within a week or so I was more or less back to normal, at least physically, and everything seemed to return to the way it had been, while I thought out what to do.

Except for Mike that is, and he seemed in danger of going off the rails, and was just the right age to do it.

"You'll have to speak to him Davie," Hilly said late one evening. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He just doesn't seem to want to speak to me anymore."

"I'll talk to him," I promised.

"Any idea what's wrong with him?" She questioned me.

"I've got some ideas," I replied shortly.

"Want to discuss them with me Davie?"

"Not really," I replied, which bought her up short.

The opportunity arose the very next day, when I caught him on his own in his room, and short of pushing me out of the way, he had way to avoid me.

"Want to talk about what's bothering you son?" I started gently.

He just shook his head. Didn't want to talk.

"Would it be anything with the other day Mike," I urged him. "About ---- well about our relationship?"

Mike looked up and me and I couldn't but help notice the tear in his eye. Suddenly he looked more than his tender years.

"You don't know Dad, do you?" He challenged me.

"I might know more than you think son," I countered him, trying to retain the smile on my face.

"Then why don't you do something about it Dad," he whined. "Why do you let them get away with it?"

Hang on!

This wasn't going the way I thought it would. It didn't sound as if we were talking about the same bloody thing.

"Get away with what son?" What the hell else could I say?

"You really don't know do you Dad," he repeated.

"Apparently not son," I had to admit.

"It's Mum and Uncle Tim Dad," he told me in not much more than a whisper. "When you're at work, once a month or so. It's so damn embarrassing!"

Uncle Tim!

Bugger me!

Tim was Anne's husband, another of Hilly's damn sisters.

"Oh that," I muttered pathetically, at a loss for anything else to say.

"They've been at it for years Dad," my offspring informed me further. "Linda reckons that I'm Tim's son and not yours."

With that he broke down and cried, and I wrapped my arms round him to comfort him. It had been a long time since I'd done that and it surprised me quite how big and strong my little boy felt.

"I can absolutely guarantee you Mike," I consoled him as I continued to hold him. "You are my son in every way, and not Tim's."

"How do you know Dad?" He sobbed. "How can you be sure?"

"I'm sure son," I told him confidently. "Believe me I'm sure."

We chatted away for some time, and without giving too much away, I convinced him of his parenthood, and it was like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. There was however no mention of my brother being the other two's father, and I discovered that my perfect family were not all so happy and contented as I had believed. Both Linda and Tom knew of their mother's dalliance with their uncle, but not knowing what to do about it, chose to simply turn a blind eye.

What an awful position to put your own children in!

But Tim?

Christ, his wife Anne was the youngest of the four sisters, and without doubt the prettiest of the bunch by far. Hilly was attractive enough, but Anne ......?

Yet another spike was struck at the heart of my so-called perfect marriage to Hilly.

----------------

A few days later I took all three kids out for lunch and did the most difficult thing I'd ever done in my life.

I told them.

I told them everything that I had found out. The whole damn lot!

I had no idea how they would react, but they took it well all things considered. Linda cried a little and Tom sat there with his head in his hands. All three of them wanted to go and confront their mother straight away, but I persuaded them to wait, as I had things to sort out first.

All three of them swore their love and devotion to me, and were not far from refusing to ever see Hilly again. I talked them out of that of course, reminding them that whatever she'd done, she was still their mother and had cared wonderfully for them their whole lives.

I spoke of her in terms that I didn't really feel, especially when the kids told me their story. Hilly, my loving wife, had apparently been having some sort of relationship with her brother in law, Tim for some time, but in reality probably not really long enough to have been Mike's father. The once a month could have been a big exaggeration as well, but to be honest, none of us really knew.

The one thing that I did know was that the kids were just so grateful to get it all off their chests, and all three of them cried, yes even Tom, as we huddled together at the end of the evening.

I'll correct that final statement ---- All four of us cried.

REVENGE

I needed revenge, but I needed it in a way that wouldn't cause grief to my children, and yes, I use the term advisedly ----- I did mean MY children!

I thought long and hard, but couldn't come up with any spectacular act of revenge. It would just have to be a straightforward confrontation.

At least I had the event coming up when I could do that!

The Tenth of December:

The family had gathered, as families do.

My parents had both passed away by then, Bob and I being fairly late on children.

There were thirty-nine of us that sat down at the celebration dinner that night, mainly Hilly's side of the family and their families, but with a good sprinkling of other friends of both of us.

The meal was good!

At least that's what they told me, as for me, I could have been eating cardboard and drinking dishwater.

Time for the speeches.

Here we go!

The end?

Maybe the beginning.

I was sweating profusely, and taking long deep breaths to settle myself down. What I had to do wouldn't be easy, but it had to be done.

"Welcome all our family and friends," I began, and went on for a few moments about inconsequential things.

"Now to celebrate twenty years of marriage to my wife Hilly," I eventually arrived at. "There are a number of very interesting and even intimate and personal things about my marriage to my darling wife that I want to tell you all about."

There was some chuckling round the large table, and one or two ribald comments about our presumed sex life.

Hilly blushed.

They all assumed I was joking, but how wrong could they have been.

As the laughter died down, first Linda got up from her seat and made to leave the dining room, closely followed by Tom and then Mike.

They never said a word to anyone, and the entire table watched their backs in astonishment, at a loss to what was happening.

"Come back here you three," cried out Hilly angrily, leaping to her feet. "Don't be so rude to your father."

Only Tom responded, turning back to look at his mother for a moment and shaking his head unhappily, before joining his brother and sister outside.

"Davie," shouted my wife to me. "Do something! Tell them to come back immediately."

"It's OK honey," I told her very firmly. "They already know what I'm going to say, and since it concerns the three of them, maybe it would be better if they weren't here."

Hilly's mouth dropped open in astonishment. Firstly in surprise at the manner in which I'd responded to her demand, and then worry taking over, as her mind must have ran through all the possible reasons for my attitude.

"Sit down Hilly," I told her, my tone leaving her in no doubt that I wasn't to be messed with.

"As I was saying," I continued looking at the people around me. "I've had twenty wonderful years of marriage; the perfect marriage, or so I thought till a couple of weeks ago."

I paused for effect, the atmosphere around the table electric. Some were looking bewildered, others still smiling waiting for the joke, but several of them very worried, including a few that surprised me.

"Imagine my surprise," I continued when nobody said anything. "To find out that Linda, my beloved Linda, is not actually my own daughter!"

"Oh God!" sobbed Hilly quietly, covering her face with her hands, the only one to make a sound.

"Would you care to tell everyone who Linda's real father is Hilly?" I asked her, but she remained silent, except for her loud sobs, the only sound spoiling the complete and utter silence around me.

"OK then," I went on. "Anyone else care to tell everyone who Linda's father is? Anyone else care to tell everyone who's been fucking my wife behind my back?"

Nobody spoke, and I just stood there, my angry gaze surveying the family and friends around me. As awful as it was, in some weird way, I sort of got some strange pleasure from teasing the people who had been deceiving me. None of them knew quite how much I had found out.

I couldn't help but give my brother Bob a particularly severe stare, and he visibly wilted under my gaze, knowing the game was up.

"Nobody going to own up then?" I questioned them. "Have I got to tell everyone who it is?"

Then came my surprise, and it was a surprise, as Bob's wife Pam leapt to her feet.

"It's not what you think Davie," she cried out in anguish. "It wasn't a sordid affair or anything. It was just sex a few times to get Hilly pregnant. The whole family were desperate for a boy in the family, especially mother, and it didn't look as if you were capable of fathering a child."

Fortunately at that point, nobody actually hit me with the proverbial feather, otherwise for sure I would have been knocked down ---- as sure as eggs is eggs.

She knew! She bloody well knew! ----- Pam knew about her husband, my brother, fathering my daughter.

I looked round the table and saw that it split into two camps. Friends who didn't know, and family, who for the most part seemed to.

Even as I stood there trying to regain my senses, the friends, one by one, stood up, made their excuses and left in embarrassment, leaving seventeen or eighteen of us, all family.

"Off you go and play over there," said Julie one of Hilly's other sisters, and one by one the younger children were packed off out of the way. The teenagers were encouraged to disappear as well, but it must have been like 'Eastenders, Coronation Street and Neighbours' all rolled into one, and not one of them would be budged.

Fair enough!

"You all fucking well know, don't you," I exclaimed, looking round. "You all know about this bloody fiasco except maybe the kids there."

A couple of the husbands looked a bit blank, but otherwise nobody denied it.

"Look Davie," my brother stated to say. "It's not what it looks like, honestly."

He went to add some other stupid comment, but my look of sheer hate at him shut him up dead.

"So you all knew that Bob had sex with my loving wife, and fathered Linda then?" I demanded of the table. Nobody said yes, but again, nobody denied it.

"It was only three times Davie," piped up Pam again. "Just enough to get her pregnant."

"Who's damn idea was this in the first place?" I shouted aloud at them, my temper beginning to flare. Again nobody said anything, but simply too many glances were directed at Jan, my mother in law.

I might have guessed it.

"Thanks Mum," I said to her solemnly. "Your desperation for a son in the family has cost me my marriage."

"No!" cried out Hilly, at last deciding to take part. "Please don't say that Davie. You can't mean it. I couldn't live without you. Surely you can forgive me just one mistake."

"One mistake," I asked her. "Just one mistake?"

"Of course honey," Hilly sobbed at me. "It was just that one time. It seems terrible now, but when Mum planned it all out all those years ago, it seemed to make sense."

"What about Tom then?"

"Well he's yours of course Davie," she whined. "What do you mean?"

"Wrong!" I informed her. "I've had DNA testing done, and his father is the same man as Linda's."

The atmosphere round the table changed immediately.

"What are you saying Davie?" Pam cried out in surprise.

"You heard me Pam," I told her. "If my ever loving brother there is Linda's Dad, then he fathered Tom as well."

Silence!

That piece of information was obviously new to the table, or at least to most of them.

"You bastard Bob," Pam rounded on her husband as realisation dawned. "You promised me! You promised me, and then you went off fucking the bitch again."

Bob just put his head down wishing he was somewhere else.

"And you, you bitch!" Pam screamed at Hilly. "I agreed to let you have my husband just that one week, and then you carry on fucking him."

With that she took three steps towards her sister, and slapped Hilly mightily hard round the face.

"Bitch --- whore --- bleeding cow," she berated Hilly, hitting her yet again and again, only stopping and bursting into tears, when one of the others pulled her off her younger sister.

"Happy Mum, are you?" I spat out at Jan, but all she did was stare back at me blankly.

"So who else has been screwing my wife behind my back then?" I challenged them when nobody else spoke, looking across directly at Tim, who was sat on the other side of the table from me.

"You bastard," screamed Julie alongside me.

Now that one caught me out as well!

"It's true what they told me that night wasn't it you bastard. You did fuck her that night at the party.

Hello!

What was going on here?

Julie was screaming at her husband Ted, and he was looking sheepish, denying nothing.

"And you my darling sister," she shouted at my wife. "Have you fucked all your brother in laws, you bloody whore?"

"Well she's certainly done Tim over there," I threw in heartily, really beginning to enjoy the whole show.

"Me ---- what? ---- I haven't .... That is ....."

Tim didn't even lie very well, nor was he very agile that night completely failing to dodge his wife, Anne's fist, as she clocked him one slap bang on the nose.

"Don't come back to our house tonight," Anne screamed at her husband. "In fact don't ever come back."

"That goes for you as well," Pam spat out at Bob. "I'm divorcing you and never want to see you again."

The three aggrieved sisters linked arms and made for the door.

"You're no sister of ours," they shouted back at Hilly as they stormed out.

"Happy now Jan?" I asked my mother in law, but her expression never changed as she sat there staring straight ahead, while Hilly continued to sob into her arms.

"Sorry Davie," Alf, my father in law broke in at last. "If I had known .........."

He broke off, lost for words, but was the only one of the turds who'd made any effort to apologise.

Then brother Bob came round the table towards me, holding his hands out, a look of utter shame on his face.

"Davie," he coughed out. "Davie, what can I say?"

"Nothing you bastard," I spat back at him, and with no real force behind it, I swung at him and caught my brother right on the point of his chin.

Not much force maybe, but the timing was perfect, and he staggered back till he tripped over a chair and went sprawling on the floor, and made no rush to get up.

I guess you could say that the party broke up about then. Seemed the fun had gone out of the whole evening!

-----------------------

Hilly never came home that night, and in fact except for collecting a few things, she never came home again.

The kids refused point blank to speak to her for some time afterwards, but hate her as I did, I had to think of the kid's long-time welfare. Eventually they came round and accepted her back into their lives, but never the same as before.

I was Dad, and she was ...... well I guess she became more like a favourite aunt of some sort.

The whole family thing split apart, two of the three sisters who had walked out that night getting divorces, only Pam staying with Bob, though she gave him a hell of a run around, deciding that what was good for the goose, was good for the gander.

Pam came round a couple of evenings later when the kids were out, and it rapidly became apparent what she had in mind. Whether it was revenge for her, or to give me some payback I never found out, but payback I got. There was no love, no compassion, and we just screwed like rabbits for several hours.

It was strange, just like having sex with my wife, but different. She thanked me afterwards and left, and I only discovered some months later that she'd made a habit of it, slowly working through Bob's mates till she'd bedded just about all of them.

Would their marriage survive?

No idea and I didn't care --- not my problem, but it must be bloody miserable for that damn brother of mine.

Three weeks later one of the other sisters, Anne, the pretty one phoned me, and invited me out to dinner. I went, we eat, we talked, we romanced, we kissed and ended up in bed. But this time it was different and after the first passions, we made love, and it was like my early days with Hilly again.

No idea why Tim had strayed from his marriage, but it certainly wasn't anything to do with Anne's appetite for sex.

The sweetest pill maybe was when Jan, my ex mother in law's long suffering husband Alf, decided he'd had enough of her interfering, bought a forty foot yacht, and spent the rest of his active life sailing throughout Europe.

Came in handy!

Me, and sometimes the kids would spend a week or two sailing with him, and places like The South of France, La Rochelle and the Canaries became familiar to us.

Linda met and eventually married a young Spaniard who she met when sailing, and whose family owned what was maybe the biggest boat marina in Europe.

That came in handy as well!

The two boys are still playing the field, maybe warned off of marrying too early like their father had. They had time.

And me?

I don't see Hilly, but the kids tell me she is living life day by day, and asks after me frequently. The kids tell me and I just grunt.

Oh, and I'm thinking of trying out for that perfect marriage again, but this time with Anne. I think we love one another, but we are both still a little wary.

We'll see!

I want to be sure I'm not marrying Anne partly to spite Hilly, but I'd love to see her face if I did.

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That's it!

Vote, comment, whatever you wish, but please don't pick me up on tiny details. I write for my pleasure, and hopefully yours, and have to fit it in between a very busy business life.

Thank you.