Rob and Gwen

"I have been expecting him to do something, but I never thought I'd have to shoot him. I thought that just pointing the gun at him would scare him off, but when I saw him going after Gwen with a knife in his hand I didn't hesitate."

It didn't hurt that I knew half of the police force and had gone out to the range and shot with them. They all knew that I was pretty level headed. What the hell, I'd even been civilized and hadn't gone off when I walked in on Amy cheating on me.

It also didn't hurt that Rory had gone to jail seven or eight times for being drunk and disorderly, fighting in bars and pulling his knife on people. He actually cut one man when they got in a fight over a parking place. There were also a half dozen people who had heard him threaten me the day I ran him out of the restaurant.

The outcome was that I got away with it.

++++++++++++++++++++++

And then the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in.

Gwen became nervous when she got close to me. She became withdrawn and one morning when I got home from work I found that she had moved her things into one of the spare bedrooms. I tried to get her to talk to me and tell me what was wrong, but she said things like, "Not now; I'm too upset" or "Later when I'm in a better mood." This went on for two weeks and finally I'd had enough. I brought it up again and when she said, "Not now" I said:

"Yes Gwen, now! I want to know what in the hell is going on and I want to know right now!"

"You want to know? Okay then. You killed Rory in cold blood. You had me bring him here so you could kill him. You used me to lure him into the house so you could deliberately kill him. He was never a threat to us. He wouldn't have hurt me. In the three years we were together he never once lifted a finger against me. He was an asshole when it came to me getting pregnant and his running out on me killed any feelings I ever had for him, but even then I didn't hate him enough to want to see him die.

"So he threatened to go to court to get rights to see JR, but so what? Even if he really did it do you think the courts would give him any rights given what he did and given the kind of man he was?

"And the worst part? You did it while he was right in front of me. I got to see the hole suddenly appear in his head. I got to see the blood and brain matter splashed against the wall behind him. I got to see him fall to the floor like a puppet whose strings were dropped. I got to see the blood puddle spread on the floor as he looked up at me with sightless eyes. I got to stand there and look at him knowing that I was the Judas goat that led him to his death. That's what is wrong with me Frank. That and the recurring nightmares I'm having as I get to remember every bit of it over and over and over again.

"Every time I look at you it all comes back to me. Every time I look at you I remember how you used me to lure Rory here so you could kill him in cold blood. That is what is wrong with me Frank and I do not know that I will ever get over it."

I looked at her for a bit and then nodded my head that I understood. Then I got up and went out and busied myself in the garage.

++++++++++++++++++++

The next two months went by and we basically just co-existed. We shared the cooking and housekeeping and not much else.

I stopped going into the "B" in the mornings except on Gwen's days off. I kept waiting for a change in Gwen's attitude, but it never came. I finally accepted the situation and did what I had to do.

It was Gwen's week to cook and when it was ready she called me to supper. We ate in silence and after we had eaten I handed Gwen an envelope.

"What is it?"

"Divorce papers. All you have to do is sign where the sticky notes are and I'll give them back to the attorney to file. There will be a hearing to set alimony and child support and in ninety days you will be free of me. Nothing has to change. We will simply go back to the agreement we had on the day you moved in. The only change will be that once the court has set alimony and child support I'll hold back half as payment for your room and board."

"I don't understand. If everything is going to stay the same why are you getting a divorce?"

"Because I am still a healthy young man and I have certain urges, wants and needs. I took my vows seriously and I will not break them so in order for me to fill those needs and satisfy those urges I need to be legally released from those vows. I am not willing to spend the rest of my life celibate because of something I did to protect my marriage.

"I know that you say Rory was no threat to us, but in my mind he was. One of the strongest forces in the universe is a mother's determination to protect her child and in the back of my mind there was the thought that you might eventually give in to Rory to protect JR. It might never have happened, but if by some set of circumstances it did happen and I found out about it our marriage would have been dead. I was not willing to take the chance.

"It is ironic that what I did to protect my marriage is what ended up killing it. Just sign the papers and put an end to it."

I got up and went out to the garage to do some work on my truck. About twenty minutes later Gwen came out into the garage. She stood there watching me work for a couple of minutes and then she said:

"You actually think so little of me that you think I'd cheat on you?"

"On the contrary. I think very highly of you. You read it in the papers or see it in the news all the time. Women who go off and leave their kids at home while they go party. Women who let their husbands and boyfriends abuse their kids and do nothing about it. Women who have their babies and then leave them on the doorstep of a church, fire house or police station or even worse, toss them in a dumpster while they are still alive.

"That isn't you. We both know that you would kill if that is what you had to do to protect JR. If you gave into Rory in your mind it wouldn't be cheating. It would be you doing what you thought you had to do to protect your baby. You would have done it and it would have killed us.

"We both know that Rory was never going to go away and we both know he was never going to stop trying to get his dick back into you. He didn't give a shit about his son, but to him you were his and he couldn't stand the fact that I had you and he didn't. He was determined to fuck you just to show me that you were really his. He would have used JR to try and make it happen. I wouldn't have put it past him to threaten JR with physical harm to get you to give in.

"I took steps to make sure that it would never happen. I regret that what I did put an end to us, but I don't regret killing Rory; not the least little bit. In my own way I was doing what I knew that someday you might have to do. I protected my home and family."

I climbed into the truck, pushed the button on the garage door opener and then backed out of the garage. It was too early to go to work, but I went in anyway. When I got to the hanger I caught the employee shuttle over to the terminal and browsed the book stores until it was time for me to go back to the hanger and punch in.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

It was an easy night with nothing but service checks and some components that needed to be changed for time. I stopped at the Village Inn for breakfast and I had some house work to do when I got home so it wasn't until one that I went up to bed.

The divorce papers were on my pillow and I picked them up and saw that Gwen hadn't signed them and I wondered what that meant. I tossed them on the floor and went to be and fell asleep almost immediately.

Something woke me up and I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was seven-twenty. There was enough light in the room from the street light outside by the sidewalk that I could see Gwen standing by the bedroom door. I sat up and looked at her and then she walked toward me. She got on the bed, pushed me down on my back and pulled down the sheet exposing me and her right hand reached for my cock. As she took it in her hand she said:

"I hate what you did and it will take me a while to get over it, but you are too good a man to lose. There will be no divorce" and then she bent and took me in her mouth.