Abandoned Rage

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"Hey Greg," James said one Tuesday after the coffee run, "You got a few minutes?" he said not waiting for the response but closing the door.

"Sure," I said in reply, raising an eyebrow and gesturing for him to finish closing the door.

I sensed he wanted to talk about something serious and by the look on his face, I am guessing it was Jillian-related.

"So things are going well between Rebecca and yourself?" he asked.

"Yeah," I grinned, "It's only been a few months, yet I feel that we've been together for six."

"I get that, Sherri and I have been together for just under five years, but I feel like it's been ten." James looked at me worried for a moment. "ah, but not in a bad way, I mean that I can't..."

I held up my hand and chuckled.

"I get it, James, I do. It's not a bad thing."

He nodded, "Sherri and I are so glad to see a smile on your face again. In fact, we were wondering if both of you would be interested in dinner Saturday night at our place?"

There was something else there, a nervousness based around hope.

"I don't think we have any plans, but I'll double-check with Becca."

He nodded.

"Um, Greg..." James said getting to the topic he closed the door for.

I sighed.

"Jillian?" I asked

"Kind of," James said.

"You know the Kensington audit we're doing?" he asked.

I did and nodded my head. Of the two big multinationals that we had taken on, Kensington was one of them. James was second seat reviewing financial records.

"Well we've come across a couple of issues, and I need some instructions." He told me.

"All right, show me what you have," I told him.

James then spread out a number of reports, but aside from a number of issues, it highlighted that one of their middle managers looked like they were skimming from the company and using the money to pay for a number of less than desirable services from drugs and hookers to what amounted to sending money to a mistress and child over in the United States.

Judging by the audit log, this had been going on for a number of years but had not come under scrutiny as the individual had been quite clever in hiding the skimming around various cost centres and projects, never the same amount, never from the same purchase order and payments to a variety of bank accounts. However, due to the length, the amount skimmed as a little under two million dollars.

I sat back trying to take it all in. My mind was literally blown by the implications.

"So let me get this straight in my head," I said to James. "For a little over four years, he's been skimming off the company to pay for drugs and hookers. Then for the last three, it looks like he's been making child support payments using company money to a woman and child overseas."

James nodded, "Pretty much."

"Wow," I was trying not to smile. "So much for true love."

James snorted.

A month later we gave an initial report to Kensington but held onto the specifics until we had completed tracing the files. They were disturbed that someone may be defrauding them and agreed that they needed to know how deep the corruption went before taking action. We asked for another month of time, and they readily agreed.

Two weeks after that, one Friday night, I got home, and I found that Becca had let herself in and had already arranged dinner by candlelight. She had poured me a Kraken and Coke, along with a glass of red for herself.

As we ate a dinner of Chicken Boscailoa, I eyed the box sitting in between us. It didn't quite dominate the conversation, but Rebecca knew it was on my mind.

When we cleaned up and refilled our drinks, retiring to the lounge, Rebecca had already dimmed the lights, and she had soft music playing through a Bluetooth speaker.

"Greg Baby, I just want to say the last six months have been the absolute best of my entire life." She told me, I went to respond in kind but she held up a hand. "Sorry, I just want to get this out." She smiled.

"I know that you were broken when we got together, but in a way so was I. As you know I had some weird experiences in my early love life, and ours is SO much better than anything I can imagine, but that's because we give fully to each other. I love spending time with you, and I can't wait to end my day at work to come home to you.

"I told you I had a crush on you from the day we met in your office and that's true. But I love you Gregory Other. I really need you to know that as you open the box."

With that, Rebecca put her drink down and handed me the box that was on the kitchen table during dinner and now on the floor in front of us.

She handed it to me but didn't pick up her glass again looking at me expectantly.

The box itself was small, about the same size that you would get when shipping a pair of headphones from Amazon. It wasn't sealed though, and I carefully took the top off to find another box inside it, however, sitting on top of that box was an envelope.

I picked up the envelope and looked at Rebecca. She eyed me nervously but nodded as I unfolded the letter inside.

[ Gregory,

Inside this box is the engagement ring that you bought last week. I accidentally found it last weekend as I was cleaning up and you were in the shower. I'm really, really hoping that you'll open the box, pull out the ring and ask me to marry you!

I love you so much!

Yours truly and forever,

Rebecca Brown.

p.s. _ love you, love you, love you! ]

I looked back up at Rebecca, hope written all over her face and mouthed, 'I love you too' to her as I opened up the second box and there in the middle of a whole lot of tissue paper was the engagement ring box I had bought. Inside was a simple gold band with a single claw set diamond in the middle.

I smiled at Rebecca, removing the ring box.

"I never looked inside the ring box baby," Rebecca told me. "I wanted to, but I didn't."

I nodded, then got down off the couch, on my knees in front of her. Despite the fact that Rebecca had orchestrated this a few weeks earlier than I intended, she gasped but smiled.

"Rebecca Brown, from the moment you turned up at my door you have pursued me. You have built me up and made me feel alive again. Before you kissed me that first time, I never thought I would see the sun again. The first time we woke up together you amazed me with your willingness to chase but show how much you wanted to be mine.

"In all of creation, I could not imagine a more beautiful woman or more perfect partner. You always surprise me by pushing boundaries but never disappointing me. I had planned to do this in a couple of weeks at your family barbeque. However, I don't think either of us can let the moment pass us by."

I opened the ring box.

"Rebecca Beth Brown, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife and agreeing to marry me?" I finished.

The words had barely left my mouth before she jumped to her knees in front of me, and shouted "YES!"

She held out her hand and I slipped the engagement on her ring finger before she smashed her lips over mine in a smouldering kiss that caused me to get a little hard.

"Thank you, my Fiancé," I told her.

"Oh you are so going to have the most doting wife around, and wait till we have babies, I can't wait for you to knock me up and keep me barefoot and pregnant!" Rebecca knew that would turn me on, she knew of the talk Jillian and I had about kids.

A moment later the doorbell rang, and I groaned as I had to separate from the woman I just proposed to so I could answer the door, not take her to bed and ravish her body until the wee hours of the morning.

Opening the door, I was surprised to find, Colleen, Rebecca's parents, James and Sherri.

"Congratulations!" they all shouted as one as I opened the door and caught my surprise. I felt a pair of hands go around my waist.

"Sorry baby, I wanted to celebrate us getting engaged, so I invited a few people around, the last surprise for the night I promise," my now intended bride told me.

We ushered everyone inside, her parents bringing two bottles of champagne with them. As they passed around glasses I tried to act mock hurt since I had no idea, however, I couldn't help but smile. As Rebecca showed her ring to the ladies, I got slaps on the back from, my intended father-in-law and James.

We then sat down as a group and spent the rest of the evening laughing merrily at stories of both Rebecca and I growing up.

Later that night, well early morning, when everyone had left, Rebecca and I retired to bed. Before we fell asleep though, she made me take a few more pictures of her with her engagement ring. However, in those photos, and even a video no one else would see, the engagement ring was all she was wearing.

In keeping with the fact that my life is nothing but drama sometimes, it was about a month later that three things all happened within forty-eight hours of each other.

The first is that we delivered the completed forensic audit to Kensington. In walking through the report with them, they were not happy at all. Heads would roll and more than likely the authorities would be called upon.

I tried not to be too excited in delivering the report. Kensington management didn't know I had something against the major player running the fraud.

The second thing happened that same afternoon, Rebecca had taken the afternoon off work and come into my office with some paperwork, wedding ideas and just to be a happy presence in the office to all the staff.

It was reading through the legal documents that she put in front of me that I got angry at my intended bride for the first time.

"Becca, you have to be kidding me with this document!" I told her getting more and more upset as I read it.

"Why baby, it should give you a lot of peace with our upcoming marriage. You'll be protected, your house, the business, everything."

"I know Becca, but it's unfair to you. This prenuptial agreement leaves you with almost nothing."

"No it doesn't. It only leaves me with nothing if I cheat on you, which I am never going to do!" she replied. "In all other cases, the marital assets are split down the middle and your business and trusts are still safe regardless."

"Becca baby," I said. "I know you're just trying to show me how much you love me because of what Jillian did to me, but the protections I already have in place are enough..."

Rebecca held up her hand.

"I know Greg, trust me I know." She told me now holding my hands. "But this is my promise to you. The only way I walk away with nothing is if I cheat on you. As I told you, that is never going to happen!"

I picked up a pen and signed the document, "I'm going to trust you Becca."

"I know baby, trust me, we'll chuck this in a drawer and never need it."

The rest of the afternoon we discussed the document a few times. However, she was right in the end the document went into a filing cabinet drawer to collect dust.

The third thing that happened occurred the following evening at home. I had just gotten home and Rebecca, now having permanently moved in, had sent me for a shower. I was just getting out when I heard yelling. Throwing on a pair of shorts I hurried out to the entry.

"So I move out, and he just moves on to some gussied-up slut!" I could hear my ex-wife shouting at my fiancé.

I heard Rebecca laugh. "Honey, you walked out the door pure and simple. You abandoned the most loving and kind man on the face of this planet, breaking his heart. And I am not 'gussied'." Rebecca replied using her fingers for quotation marks.

I held back in the hall, just out of sight.

"But slut, yeah I will own that, however, I am Gregory's personal slut. He gets my body unreserved for his exclusive use. Can you say the same when you were married to him?" My fiancé hissed back at Jillian.

"Why you little fucking whore!" I heard Jillian shout and a moment later the rounding sound of a slap. I took that as my cue hurrying the rest of the way into the room. Both women turned towards me as one, though Jillian was standing with a hand over a red mark on her cheek.

I chuckled.

"Rebecca," I said with a smile on my face. "Meet Jillian, my ex-wife. Jillian, meet Rebecca, my Fiancé."

Both women glared at each other a moment before separating as I moved to stand in the middle of them.

"You find this funny Greg?" Jillian asked me.

"Actually," I said pausing for a moment. "Yes I do, as you weren't invited and started shouting at my fiancé before you got slapped, I do find it funny. Perhaps a little karma for the way our previous life together ended."

Rebecca sneered at Jillian then, but I put a handout. "Enough Becca." She stepped back, still glaring daggers at my ex.

"What do you want Jillian?" I said sighing.

"Why did you do it Greg? Why did you have to destroy my life?" she asked, turning some of the anger at me.

"What do you mean Jillian," I said innocently. "I have had nothing to do with you in almost a year now. As I recall it was you who tried to ruin my life, you left me for true love and damn the consequences."

Behind me, Rebecca snorted.

Jillian gave an angry glance at Rebecca, then back at me.

"You didn't have to go and ruin Troy," she said a note of mournfulness in her voice.

I laughed, which caused Jillian to pale a little.

"You will have to be a little more specific Jillian," I told her, crossing my arms over my chest. Rebecca automatically slid her arms around my waste.

"It was Other Accounting that did the forensic audit of Kensington. It was your report that got Troy arrested. You didn't need to do that." Jillian said, her voice becoming softer.

"What, should I not report to a business I am auditing when one of their employees has defrauded them a little over two million dollars to be used on drugs, hookers, as well as a woman and child back in the U.S.?" I asked my ex-wife rhetorically.

"Drugs, hookers?" Jillian said going white. "A woman and child?"

Obviously, whatever truth Jillian had been told, it didn't include the salient details.

I leant forward, "Yes, Jillian. The 'true love' that you dropped me for had a woman and child back in the states. In addition, he stole company money to pay for quite a lot of drugs and hookers. It's all in the report. I can send it to you if you like?"

She sank to the ground, her world shattering around her. I could see for the first time since this all began that she was lost. Whatever narrative she had been telling herself about her life was falling apart.

Rebecca and I watched as she slumped to the ground on the front porch.

"He's been arrested you know," Jillian told us, the anger from earlier gone, the mournfulness in her voice now sounding hollow. I didn't know Troy had been arrested, but I had suspected it wouldn't be long before the authorities wanted to talk to him.

"We've been married less than three months, and a month of that he's spent in the states..." Jillian told us.

As we watched, Jillian started sobbing. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't pity her in some way. I mean I was married to her for a number of years, I had held her body in the throes of passion, and we had spent hours talking and sharing dreams. Yes, I felt for her, but at the same time she was also my tormentor. In a cruel and callous way, she had discarded me without a second thought. I'm a kind person, but when it came to Jillian, I could no longer be that kind...

"What do I do Greg?" Jillian asked at one point, looking up at Rebecca and I.

Rebecca responded for me.

"You have a lot of balls to ask that of him after what you did to him," Rebecca said firmly, but surprisingly, without venom.

A little of Jillian's fire came back.

"He was mine a long time before he was yours," Jillian retorted.

Rebecca laughed, her arms tightening around me again.

"He was never truly yours Jillian. You never really let him into your heart. You never gave yourself to him one hundred per cent. You must have always held part of yourself away from him to do what you did to him."

"That's not true," Jillian protested, shaking her head, looking at me. I just stood there still as a statue watching the conversation unfold. "I gave myself to Greg fully when we were married!"

Rebecca laughed, "Of course you did. That's why the moment your true love came back you started sleeping with him behind your husband's back. It's why you humiliated him in front of a group of people and tried to screw him out of his house, his investments and even his business. Right? That's totally giving yourself to Greg..."

For a moment, Jillian said nothing. If a person could go transparent and fade away, I got the feeling that would be happening right in front of us. It was at last hitting home what Jillian had done, what she had given up.

Rebecca's arms left my side, and she walked over and sat down beside Jillian in a surprising compassionate move.

"Jillian," Rebecca said softly. "You don't know my history. The first time I met Greg, I wasn't in a great place. At the time he was happily married to you, and I could tell how much he loved you in the short conversations that I had with him. I heard more about him over time, and I must admit I was jealous of you."

Jillian looked up, a note of surprise on her face. Rebecca kept going, and I leaned on the doorway, arms still crossed over my chest.

"When I heard what you did to him, I was incensed. I wanted to come and slap you three ways from Sunday and make you see what you were giving up."

Jillian was nodding slowly. Her head lowered looking at the concrete on the front porch.

"But then," Rebecca said, looking at me and smiling. "I was at a barbeque for Greg the weekend that the divorce between both of you became final."

Jillian looked up at me, something akin to pain showing in her eyes. I stayed stoic, wondering where Rebecca was taking the conversation.

"He was in a daze. Even Aunt Colleen was having trouble getting through to him." Jillian looked over quickly at Rebecca, startled by the revelation. Rebecca continued. "Yes, Colleen is my aunt. Anyway, Greg was broken, you had left him, broken your marriage and he was in danger of sliding into depression or worse. Gone was the kind and gentle man that had offered me comfort a couple of years before. My heart broke for him."

Both women looked at me then, Rebecca with loving adoration, Jillian with mournful sorrow.

"Throughout the evening, even though Greg didn't see it, everyone spent time comforting him. He cried openly in front of all of us. Not hiding his pain at what you did to him, he was being vulnerable. I think almost everyone at the Barbeque hugged him that night, including me."

Again Rebecca smiled at me. Jillian drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, still staring at me as Rebecca told her tale.

"After I hugged Greg, he doesn't recall it, but he said thank you. Right then I knew I could help him. I knew that I had a chance to stop his slide into bitterness. I knew then the spark of desire in my own heart to give myself to Greg could be built in the ruins of what you left behind."

For a moment no one said anything.

"The following week I came over here and when he opened the door," Rebecca said, a smirk on her face that mirrored my own. "I placed the largest smouldering kiss on him that I could. Then I slapped him."

Jillian's eyes went wide, she looked at Rebecca, then back to me as both Rebecca and I smiled at each other, both of us recalling the memory.

"That was it, Jillian," Rebecca continued her story, "From that moment I was his, totally and completely. In my heart, there will never be another man, another person that I will love as completely as Greg. The thought of doing what you did to him makes me want to be physically ill. You threw away someone who would have given you the world, and for that alone I thank you. He owns my heart and soul now, and if you would not have thrown him away, I would never have gotten my chance."