A Wife's Fall Pt. 03

"I'm sorry, Wane, I know Bill was supposed to drop Jan off this morning yet something happened and he got called in at five this morning." I noted how she couldn't look me in the eye when she said that. The moment she saw me her gaze quickly dropped to the top of her feet like there was something very special that marred them.

"Uncle Wane!" Jan squealed before rushing to me and wrapping her arms around me.

"Good morning, Jan, are you ready for the Planetarium?" I asked, feeling her nodding against me as I rubbed her back. "It's going to be a blast! Why don't you go say hello to your aunts..."

"Aunt Maggie!" I turned to look and there she was like some kind of lightning rod sent to shake me up. Her arrival yesterday had definitely thrown me off-kilter. It annoyed me. I didn't like that sensation. However, I saw no means of rectifying that at the moment; unless I simply threw her out of my house. Then I knew I'd never hear the end of it from my parents. My parents were very good people, it couldn't have been easy raising a child like me.

"Hey munchkin, how've you been?"

"Good, Uncle Wane is taking me to the Planetarium!" I recounted the last time they saw one another. It was about two years ago when she and Griffin made it out here for Christmas that year.

"I heard, guess what?" I noted the smile on Maggie's face as she stared down at Jan. "I'm coming with you," Maggie said, with this rather conniving grin on her face when she peered at me. I wondered what the hell my sister was playing at. "Why don't you go watch some TV. I need to talk with your mother." I saw the shocked look on Celine's face when my sister said that. Granted, I was curious too, though not as much as my sister might have thought.

"You might as well come in, I guess," I said, in a cold, dispassionate voice when I stepped out of the way. Jan's hand slipped into mine as I led her into the living room. Jan was a very affectionate girl. Then again, with how her life has been for the past three years, I would assume she would cling onto anyone that brought some stability to it.

"You want some orange juice while you watch Bugs?" I asked, flipping on the TV turning it to the Boomerang channel that played reruns of the show this early in the morning.

"Please!" I couldn't say no to that warm wide smile of hers. "Thank you, Uncle Wane," Jan said, when she took the glass from me.

"Wane come in here for a moment!" I groaned in my head at the sound of my sister's voice. Just what was she planning now?

"What?" I asked, standing in the doorway of the guest bedroom.

"Come in and close the door so Jan doesn't hear us." I noted the annoyance in her eyes when I sighed loudly. "In order for you two to save this marriage we're going to have a group session."

"Do what?"

"You heard me, Wane, don't play dumb. You're smarter than that." I noticed the defiance in her eyes beckoning me to just say something about it. "These two need to come to understand why they cheated and what actions their parents infidelities had on their young psyches."

"You told her!"

"Of course, I did. I'm trying to save my marriage!" Betty snapped.

"You think because Mom is a slut that's the reason I..." I smirked cruelly when Celine looked away from me when she was about to call herself one. After all, she was indeed a slut.

"Yes, in a way," Maggie nodded, yet her eyes never left me.

"And why the hell do I need to be here?" I asked, not voicing my ponderings from the night before; I so wasn't going to tell my sister any of that. I knew I would need to visit my shrink after our trip to the Planetarium.

"Because you need to understand why this happened. So that you and Betty can begin to heal from this error in judgment. I saw you, Wane, you might have heard Betty's words yet did you really understand them?" She shot me that pointed look of hers knowing I didn't.

"Please, Wane," Betty pleaded with me, those big brown eyes of her glistened in the overhead light.

"Fine, we done?" I asked, eager to get out of that room.

"No, of course not," Maggie smirked, I think she has a sadistic side in her given how it appeared to me that she was taking great enjoyment from my discomfort. "Can you and Bill be here at six tonight? I'm sure Wane wouldn't mind cooking us dinner."

"So now I have to cook for you?" I stated, feeling my eyebrow twitch.

"I am the guest after all." She was enjoying this far too much for my liking.

"Uh-huh, well, you all can stay here, but Jan and I are leaving," I said, noting the time on my phone. I heard their scampering feet when I walked into the living room. Noting how Jan was watching Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck arguing with one another. "You ready?" I asked, feeling a smile forming on my lips when her head snapped towards me. The way her eyes widened in glee and the smile to match it. "Come on, we don't want to be late do we?" Holding out my hand, seeing her little legs carrying her to me once she had turned off the TV.

~~~Maggie~~~

I watched my brother intently while he and my niece walked around the Planetarium. Also noting how Jan held his and Betty's hands as she walked between them. This wasn't a side of my brother I've ever seen before. It was strange to say the least. When he was younger he was always cold and distant. Never letting any one in, never giving out more than he wanted known. However, after last night, what I saw between Wane and Betty was something so rare for someone like my brother. It seemed to me that Betty had done something that not even his family could do. She had got around that cold exterior of his. Wane might not understand it, yet I saw it, in his own way he loved her.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't what a normal person would see as love. Yet, I knew my brother, all the actions he has taken to this day wasn't like anything I've experienced with him or with my patients like him. I knew if he didn't have a shred of feeling, if he felt anything in that cold heart of his, then Betty would have long been thrown out of their house. My eyes ran down his back as I stood back as an impartial observer watching every single action, every gesture, every word he spoke to Jan and, oddly, to Betty. I had to throw out everything I knew about my brother. This new Wane was an enigma that I was determined to solve.

"That was so cool!" I heard Jan roar in excitement as we walked towards Wane's car.

"You think so?" I heard the curiosity in Wane's voice when he looked down at Jan. "What was your favorite planet?" I heard him ask when Jan nodded.

"Uranus," Jan said, giggling.

"Oh? Why?"

"Because it's on its side, wouldn't it be cool living on it?" Jan asked, with the innocence of a child.

"Sure, if you like the cold. Think of how big the snowmen would be?" I felt myself smiling at the interaction between the two of them. It was good to know my brother would be good with children if or when he and Betty had their own. "So, who's hungry?"

"Me!" Jan squealed bouncing on her feet.

~~~Betty~~~

How today was so good! Wane was gradually talking to me. While it wasn't the in-depth conversations we've had in the past. It was a huge step given the days of silence on his part. Not that I blame him for it. I did after all put us at odds with each other over my actions. However, my mind was a little preoccupied at the moment knowing yesterday was the peek of my ovulation. While I did want to have Wane's baby I just hoped the two loads he shot into me last night hadn't taken. I didn't think Wane would believe me that I wasn't trying to trap him in our marriage if I told him I was pregnant given how we've always used condoms when we had sex due to my reaction to birth-control pills. Yet the feel of my husband's naked cock in my hot, wet, eager pussy was so fucking good. The thought of a condom at the time was the last thing on my mind as Wane fucked me. I knew it would take time to get back to the point of making love to one another. Still, though, how wonderful it felt to have my husband back inside of me.

"I won't stay long," I whispered as we idled in my parents driveway so they could watch Jan for the night. I lightly squeezed his hand when he nodded. I could tell his mind was struggling with something. What that was I wished I knew. I'd give anything to know what he was thinking at that moment as I opened the passenger door.

"Do I have to stay here?" I looked down as Jan's voice carried her displeasure.

"Don't you like staying with your grandparents?" I asked, as Jan shook her head.

"They're always doing something. Like what Mama used to do."

My eyes widened at what Jan had just told me. I set my jaw as I approached the front door. My fist pounded on the front door. My anger fueling my pumping arm. I couldn't believe they couldn't put their shit away while Jan was staying with them. I wasn't about to allow them to fuck her up like they had with me.

"Where're my parents?" I asked, in a growl when their butler answered the door. I knew that look from anywhere. One of them had one of their fuck toys inside.

"Your father is still at his office. Your mother..."

"I see," I noted how the man was taken aback by my cold tone, "show Jan to the TV room and make sure she doesn't leave it," I said, forcibly.

"You're going to yell aren't you?" Jan asked, peering up at me.

"Yes, so you don't pay any attention to what you hear, alright?"

"Okay." I began to wonder just how much that little girl understood as I watched the butler leading Jan to the other side of the house. Pulling out my phone texting Wane that I needed a few more minutes, that my mother was up to her old tricks again. How I smiled when I read his text when he asked if he could watch. Sending him a kissing emoji before I closed the door behind me. I marched up those grand stairs of my former home knowing exactly where my mother was. I watched how their bodies scrambled to cover themselves as I stormed into the room. Noting the man was the same man they tried to set me up with.

"So... you fucking can't keep your whorish fucking legs closed around your own granddaughter?!" I screamed. Seeing the look of fright in my mother's eyes as I laid into her as she held the sheet against her naked chest. "Isn't that the same assface you tried to set me up with?! Were you going to betray me if I agreed to see that piece of shit?!" I saw how she weakly shook her head as my finger pointed at the man's face. Honestly, I couldn't place the man's name. Not that it mattered, he wasn't important enough to remember. "Get dressed and get out!" I shouted pointing at the door.

"Betty this is..."

"Shut up, slut!" I barked only to see my mother sink deeper into the bed. I sneered as the man scurried out the door like a frightened rat. To me that was exactly what the man was. A rat. "Do you even care what your and Dad's actions have done to us?! About what it's doing to Jan? Do you even fucking care that your constant cheating has seriously fucked up your children where we can't have fucking normal relationships because you conditioned us to think cheating is fucking normal! Well, do you?" I was growing red in the face. "It's bad enough you two have fucked up our lives, do you have to fuck up Jan's too? Do you even care that Jan is aware of what you do? Of course not, you only care about getting that cunt fucked!" My heart fluttered when I turned my head towards the door. There, standing in the hallway, looking at me, his face might not show it, his eyes said he was enjoying the show I was giving. "Clean your shit up! When Jan's here act like a fucking grandmother and not a corner whore!" With that I left my shocked mother there on her bed. Taking my husband by the hand and leading him back down the hall. We both hugged Jan tightly before we said our goodbyes telling her we would take her out Saturday to the park like we've always done.

"Aren't you coming in?" I asked, when we returned to our home. I wasn't going to think of it as Wane's home any more. I was determined to make it our home once again.

"No... I need to talk to..."

"Oh, okay, will you be back before six?" I asked, praying it wasn't that woman. I knew I agreed to the date, yet that didn't mean I was happy about it. "Be safe, I love you, Wane," I said, reinforcing that emotional connection that I was praying that I could repair.

"He'll be back, don't you worry." I nodded as I watched Wane's car disappearing feeling Maggie's arm holding me tight to her. Silently praying to myself that he wasn't going to meet that woman. I don't know how I'd be able to handle that.

~~~Wane~~~

I sat in the waiting room of my psychiatrist. It wasn't my normal day to visit the old man. Nonetheless, what passed through my mind last night still nagged at me. I needed answers and I sure as hell wasn't going to talk to my sister about it. I would never hear the end of it.

"Mr. Carter, Dr. Moses will see you now," the man's receptionist said once she set her phone down. Thanking the woman as I passed her and reached for the doorknob.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Carter," he greeted gesturing to the chair I normally sat in, "what brings you to my office today?" I heard his question as I walked across the room.

"I need answers," I stated, plainly.

"Oh?" I knew this was totally different to anything he's experienced from our past sessions. "Answers to what, exactly?" I remained silent trying to word my questions without sounding impotent. "Mr. Carter, I can't help you if you don't tell me what troubles you."

"I need to know why my wife affects me so," I finally spoke.

"Come again?" I heard the confusion in his voice.

"I need to know why my wife arouses me when another woman cannot."

"Mr. Carter are you contemplating on cheating on your wife?" I heard the man's disapproval in his voice.

"Why not? It didn't seem to bother my wife when I caught her with two other men."

"I see," I watched how the man quickly wrote on his pad, "how did you feel when you came upon that?"

"How do you think I felt?" I retorted. I wasn't here to talk about that.

"I don't know, people like you see such betrayal in a different light than those like me would."

"Rage."

"Oh?! Interesting." I heard the scribbling of the pen on the paper. "What did you do when confronted by this... betrayal?"

"Made all three of them walk the six blocks to her slut of a sister's house, naked," I said, truthfully.

"You didn't harm them?"

"One might have peed blood for a while but no lasting harm," I said, begrudgingly. Not voicing what I had set into motion. I might not have harmed them as much as I would have liked at the time. That didn't mean they would get off Scott free.

"That's good to hear, I'm glad you didn't act on those urges."

"So can we get back to why I'm here?" I asked, slightly annoyed at the diversion.

"Well, hmm... that's hard to say Mr. Carter. If you were like any other man I would have said you were still in love with your wife and the thought of crossing that line, no matter how raw your wife's indiscretion still is, is so abhorrent to your mind that you cannot achieve an erection."

Could it be that? Could I be in love with my wife? Me of all people? Was that even possible for someone like me?

"Tell me, Mr. Carter, when was the last time you two had sexual relations?"

"Last night."

"And before that?" My eyes flickered down as his top of his pen moved quickly as he wrote this all down.

"Two days before her..." I felt my hands curling into fist just thinking about it.

"Where is your wife staying now? Did she move in with her sister?" I shook my head. "Motel?" Again, I shook my head. "You didn't kick her out of your house did you?"

"I kicked her out of my bed, not the house," I admitted.

"Interesting. I'm amazed that you can stand to be around her. I would have thought you would have cut her loose by now. Given your black and white view on such things."

"I know, it boggles me as well," I sighed, dropping my chin to my chest.

"Let me ask, can you see yourself with another woman if you two do get a divorce?"

"No."

"Can you see yourself sleeping with someone else that isn't your wife?"

"... No," I said, after a moment of thought.

"Do you have any wish to sleep with someone that isn't your wife?"

"No."

"Then, Mr. Carter, if you were any other man, I would say you were indeed in love with your wife. Now what this means for you I can't say. It's not common for someone like you to get that attached to anyone. Does she know about your condition?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"How did she react to the news?"

"As anyone would when you tell them you're like this," I shrugged.

"Was she not supportive?"

"Very."

"What about now? Has her support wavered any since that day?"

"No, what's the reason for these questions?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"To show you, while, yes, you have every right to be angry, to question whether or not that you can trust her again. I know that will be very hard for you to achieve given what you are. But I want you to try."

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Because, Mr. Carter, whether you feel the emotion or not your actions show me that you do indeed love your wife in your own unique way. Many women wouldn't be or aren't as supportive to those with your... condition. You have a very special woman, yes she made a grave error in judgment. Yet, sometimes you need to ask yourself am I better with or without her? I've been your psychiatrist for many years now. I know how you were before and after you met your wife. I don't know what it is about your wife, but you have changed from the man you were before you met her. She might be the only person on this planet that can ever get past that armor of yours. I can't tell you to forgive and forget. Only you can do that. Only you can determine if your marriage is worth saving. I will say this if you do choose divorce you will not find a woman as supportive of what you deal with as she is. So, give that some thought before you decide to do anything drastic. Now, Mr. Carter, I'm glad that you came to see me when you're seeking guidance in this most troubling time. Yet I have another patient waiting. If you like we can continue this discussion at our normal appointment time," he said, setting the pad and pen aside.

"Thank you, Dr. Moses, you've given me something to ponder."

"You know my door is always open to you. If anything comes up before our scheduled appointment please feel free to call or come in. Until then, Mr. Carter, have a pleasant rest of the evening." I shook his hand as he held the door to his office open.

I took stock of the young pre-teen male sitting beside his mother. It took me back to the times my own mother or father would bring me to these things in hopes they could some how understand me. I'll give them credit; they did try their best to understand their son. I nodded to the woman as she got to her feet. I could tell the boy didn't like sharing. Like I was at his age. Paying my fee for the doctor's time, pulling out my phone noting the time. Seeing that it was three o'clock in the afternoon. Knowing I could make it to the store and to home with enough time to make dinner for Betty.

My eyes fell on the fountain in the little courtyard that the U-shaped building surrounded. Noting how the water's surface rippled as the fountain shot a jet of water into the air then growing calm after a few seconds. Wondering if this was just like a ripple in that fountain. That if I waited long enough the turmoil I was in would calm itself just like the water's surface. Yet how long would I have to wait? I couldn't say. So deep in thought I failed to notice the people walking past me as my mind ran through the pros and cons of divorcing my wife and giving her a second chance. That didn't mean I was forgiving her, at least not yet. If I ever could forgive her. I will admit, Dr. Moses made some very good points. Betty was a one of a kind woman, even if she had fallen in my eyes.