Blackmailed Bride Ch. 22

"Marion said, 'My daughter doesn't need you in prison, she needs a father. She needs a good father. Are you ready to be a good father to this little girl, no matter which of you planted her in my body.' I told her I would be the very best father I could, and if she'd have me, I'd be the husband to replace the one she lost. I wept, crying at her feet, and she picked me up off the ground and said, 'I've already forgiven you. I need you to be a man now. The time for regrets is past. I'll accept your offer.' So she married me and I've tried to be the best husband and father I could be, because I could never make up for what I'd done. It was only through her grace I was saved. I tried to protect you from what I was, and maybe I kept you too protected, too innocent. But I feel like I'm responsible, it's my fault all this happened to you. The sins of the father."

"Now, Henry. That's too Old Testament for me. God sent his Son to take our sins and wash them away and through him you were saved. The God I believe in is a loving God and he wouldn't need to visit your sins on our Brooke. These were evil man who haven't found the Lord, acting of their own volition. Let's not forget, my daughter may have inherited her love of sex from me. I've always had a fondness for the desires of the flesh. I've happily taken you unto myself on a regular basis I've loved it so much, even when you weren't much in the mood. It sounds as if God has taken them for their wicked ways and they're probably burning in hell as we speak. No. The past is the past and there's nothing for it. The thing we need to do is get our baby girl out of this blue funk she's in. I raised a fighter, not a quitter, and she's quitting and I won't have it. Brooke, I want you to get on your knees with me. You need to speak to God again."

"Mother, I already told you I don't feel close to God anymore."

"You may not feel close to Him, but He's close to you, whether you will it or not. Give me your hand and we'll pray together. On your knees now."

I took her hand and we knelt down. "Henry, you too. Take your daughter's other hand and pray with me."

He got down on his knees and offered his hand to me. I didn't want to take it. I was still shocked and angry at his revelation.

"Brooke," my mother said, "take your father's hand. He's done enough he's earned your hand in this one thing. We need to pray together. It's through our uplifted voices calling as one, God hears us best. Trust me in this. You will feel better."

I took his hand and we all bowed our heads.

"Lord, we ask for Your divine intervention on behalf of our daughter, Brooke Grant. She's recently suffered the travails of Job and her spirit is weak and unable to find You, her Heavenly Father, in her heart. I would ask, dear Lord, You send Your Spirit into her, to uplift her heart so she may find You again. Grant her Your strength, so she may endure all that's happened to her and find her way into Your loving arms once more. Grant her soul Your serenity so she can find peace. Please forgive her sins of the flesh and strengthen her resolve so she's able to resist their allure in the future. Let her find the understanding and forgiveness of Your Son so she may forgive her enemies and those who've hurt her. Open her heart to her earthly father who she feels has betrayed her in the means of her birth. Let her love him again as I love him as he has rued his evil past and tried to make amends by being the man he's become. I ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who You sent to take our sins and make them His own, to die for us and remove our stain. In His name we pray, Amen."

I don't know how it happened, but as Mom prayed, it felt as if a great weight was lifted from my heart and I was freed of my despair and anguish. The great pain I was feeling started to melt away. It was so simple. I squeezed her hand and that of my father. He squeezed it back.

"Can you ever forgive me, Brooke?" Dad asked simply.

"I don't know," I honestly replied. "It's a lot to take in. How did you forgive him, Mom?"

"He gave me my greatest treasure," Mom said, "you. No matter how it occurred, the means by which you came to me; he gave me you. I couldn't have asked for a better daughter. Maybe it's why I could forgive him when he raped me. God let me know you were the blessing which would follow. It's very seldom we're given burdens greater than we can bear. That's not to say we can just say a prayer and all is right. God helps those who help themselves. You need to see a therapist, Brooke. This is not something you should bear all by yourself. You feel guilt from the pleasure you took. Guilt is a terrible thing. It can bring you to seek forgiveness as your father did, or it can cause you to seek ruination; to wallow in your sins. So I recommend a steady diet of therapy as well as prayer."

"Did you have a therapist?"

"I had a wise, compassionate pastor, a loving mother, and a good and saintly friend, Sister Mary."

"Tiffany's mother? I've heard you call her that before."

"Mary was a young nun, who also suffered from desires of the flesh. She made love to a boy, Tiffany's father, and became pregnant. She left the convent and married him and they had Tiffany. She understood the weakness a woman can suffer and helped me through a lot."

"She's Catholic and you're Baptist."

"I don't believe God differentiates between us sinners. We're all His children. What we call ourselves is of no more importance to Him than the words in a book. We're called to him and each find our own way."

"And now Tiffany has helped me."

"Her mother taught her well. She will always be a good friend. It's why she called us. She knew she needed help to reach you. We all need help once in awhile. Tiffany has recommended a good therapist. We need to make an appointment with her tomorrow. Your father and I will be staying for about a week or so, just to make sure you're on the right path again. Oh, this is getting harder and harder on my knees," Mom said. "I hope God won't take it ill if I start praying from a seated position."

She stood up, then helped pull me to my feet, then Dad. She hugged him.

"Help me make up our bed, Henry. I feel the need for some loving. It's been a hard day."

"Yes, dear."

He smiled at me and whispered, "She forgave me. I hope you can too."

They disappeared into the guest bedroom.

******

I started therapy the next day, a loving and compassionate woman, experienced in helping victims of sexual abuse. I went twice a week for a month, then down to once a week. She's helped me a lot.

I had a gathering for all my friends two weeks after Mom and Dad went home. I explained some of what happened to me, told them I'd bugged them and why. On the whole, they understood, though they've been a little chillier towards me than they used to be. I can't say I blamed them, though they were happy I wasn't the one who listened in on them. They were glad to know they'd been turned off as soon as we found Sydney was the culprit, and happier still when I removed the bugs from their homes. The chill seems like it's starting to thaw and I'm so happy because I cared for them so much. I was closer to Maria now than I used to be, but she was the first one to find out and steered me in the right direction. I'd licked her cunt, I'm sorry, pussy, and that was a bond I didn't share with any of the others. It was something I hadn't repeated, but Maria knew I wasn't into girls and didn't expect a return engagement. Still sex was sex, and I suppose we always feel a little closer to one we've shared it with.

Tiffany has been stalwart, a rock of Gibraltar. I couldn't ask for a better friend.

My divorce finally went through. Tanner gave me everything I asked for. His family was more resistant, but they eventually capitulated. I was a quasi-wealthy woman. Tanner enclosed a letter with the divorce decree. I hadn't spoken to him since the day he walked in on me.

In the letter, he apologized for what he'd done. As I somewhat expected, Oliver had used the leverage he'd gained from knowing of Tanner's family's incest from Geoff to leverage Tanner into turning me over to Oliver. Geoff had a bigger part to play than I realized. He was friends with Oliver from the Club and when he found out about Tanner's family, helped give Oliver the blackmail material needed to control the Mason's. When Geoff heard Tanner say I was a virgin and unwilling to have sex with him, Geoff told Oliver, which is when he became interested in me. Tanner told me Oliver really did seem to believe in the sex magic bullshit, and Tanner had believed it at first, but what he'd thought was magic, was probably Oliver blackmailing people to do what he'd wanted. He'd found out afterwards his junior partnership was given to him because his boss was blackmailed into giving it, in addition to the 'carrot' of having sex with me, which opened the boss to even more blackmail. He believed Oliver talked about sex magic so much to make people believe he had special powers, whereas he mostly had good blackmail recordings.

Kathy and Stan were chosen to help control me. Both had long associations with Oliver. He confirmed what we already knew from the conversation held in Sydney's room that both Stan and Kathy had sex with me while I was drugged. He also admitted to never having left the US, working for his company in Memphis where they had a branch office, staying in a hotel there. Oliver's idea to make him lie about it. He also admitted Sydney frequently came to Memphis to have sex with him while he was away from me.

Tanner said Oliver told him to demand a child earlier than we planned. It was to put pressure on me and make me more frantic and prone to errors in judgment, thus resulting in my alteration of my agreement.

Tanner said he and the rest of his family were all moving, him to the west coast, the rest going elsewhere. He said he wasn't having sex with them anymore, though I wasn't sure I believed it. He told me he really had loved me and the whole thing hadn't been the fraud it felt like. He realized he was sick and was seeing someone for it. He asked me to forgive him, but I'm not my Mom, no matter how much I pray, so I question if I'll ever forgive him. He said Jackson crushed his testicles rather badly when he kneed him in the groin and he may never be able to have children.

Probably for the best if his line died with him, and I wished Sydney was sterile as well. In all, it was a rather open and honest confession, about two years too late, by my estimation. If I'd known about the incest, I'd never have married him, nor would any other decent human being.

With the money from my divorce, I repaid Tiffany back for all the money she paid to Caponero Investigations. Jolene remains my close friend and I've never asked about Stan and Kathy's boating accident. It's none of my business really, and probably deserved if she did do it. What they'd done, including using a date rape drug on a young, vulnerable woman meant they were not good people.

Not wanting to do nothing with my time just because I had some money, I started swimming again, and using Suki's connections, started working as a live model. Sometimes, I was nude, other times, I wasn't. Being nude wasn't much of a problem for me anymore. The pay was good and I was used to holding still for long periods of time.

******

There was a knock on my door about four weeks after my divorce was final. I was expecting Jolene so I was surprised to see Jackson at the door.

"Jackson, it's so good to see you. Won't you come in?"

"Thanks. I'd love to."

"What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Your divorce is final, I understand."

"Yes, about a month ago."

"You didn't call me. You were supposed to call me when you were divorced."

"Ah, yes. Unfinished business. I'm sorry. I should have remembered." I started to remove my top. "You've earned a good fuck. I'll be happy to supply it. Let's go into the bedroom and get comfortable." I was working on the front clasp of my bra.

Jackson grabbed my hand before I set my breasts free. "I didn't come here to fuck. That's not my unfinished business."

I looked up at him. "What is your unfinished business?" I asked.

"To date." I looked up at him stupidly. "I want to go on a date with you. You're free now. You can date anyone you want. I'd like you to go out with me."

"You want a date?"

"Yes, ma'am I do. And could you put your blouse back on. Your boobs are distracting me."

I started buttoning up my blouse again. "Why would you want to go out on a date with me? You know what I became, what I am? I'm a whore now. You saw me fucking nine different men is this very apartment."

"Well, Brooke, I disagree. I do not believe you're a whore at all. I want to go on a date for the same reason most other people go on dates; to check our compatibility to determine if we should get married."

"You would want to marry me after knowing what you know?"

"I believe so, yes ma'am, but we would have to date first to see if we're simpatico. Might be we hate each other's guts. Only way to try it out is to date. Besides, I don't know if you're any good in bed."

"You're wondering if I'm any good in bed?"

"Well, I don't want to take some other fellows word for it. I have to check for myself. But there's a progression to these things. We don't start with the sex part. We have to see if we like one another first. If we do, the sex follows. I understand in most cases there's no sex until after at least the third date. I'm a traditional guy. I can wait."

"You saw me getting fucked in three holes, like 57 times by 49 different cocks in one 15 hour period, and you don't think I'm a whore?"

"Well, now. It may be you're a whore and I don't recognize the symptoms. Answer me a couple questions."

"Shoot."

"How many men have you fucked since the day your husband walked in on you?"

"None," I admitted.

"It's been like six months now, right."

"Six and a half, but who's counting."

"No sex for six and a half months."

"I've masturbated."

"Me too, and I don't think I'm a whore."

"What about all the people I fucked before that day? All the times I climaxed when they were fucking me."

"Well, you do realize most people have a sexual history before they got married, right? I hope you don't think you'd be marrying a virgin if we got hitched?"

"No. I don't think you're a virgin."

"You know. Every time I had sex, I orgasmed. Sometimes before I was ready, much to my everlasting shame. I always wanted to show my partner a good time."

"It's different for men. Our biology is different."

"Yes, and no. Different but the same. We were all born with the ability to enjoy sex. I know. Men and women are supposed to be different, but you would agree we all have the ability to enjoy sex, right?"

"Yes. I would agree with that."

"Now supposing I was tied up and you wanted to have sex with me, and I didn't want to. Do you think I could keep from cumming just because I didn't want to?"

"No. I'm pretty sure I could make you cum. But deep down, you might want to have sex with me. It makes a difference."

"Supposing it was a man sucking my cock and I didn't want to cum because I don't want men sucking my dick. Do you think I wouldn't cum?"

"Not if he was any good at sucking cock."

"There you go. How am I different from you?"

"Men and women are different. We work differently. It's not the same."

"You already agreed we were both born the ability to enjoy sex. It's what makes us different from animals."

"I was raped and I enjoyed it."

"And the man who was sucking me off wouldn't be raping me? I hope you don't think so little of my gender identification."

"We're different," I protested. "We just are."

"No, we're not, Brooke. If you were a real whore, you'd have fucked a hundred different men by now and maybe a few women too. You went through something bad in your life, and it sucked and you orgasmed in spite of it. Tough shit. Oliver had a degree in psychology, did you know that? Some European place which is why it wasn't on his first summary. Eton, I think, the same place Aleister went to college which is where Oliver probably decided to adopt him as his father. I don't think his mother knew who his father was. She was an actual whore, unlike you. He knew how to twist you up and turn you inside out. It was his specialty, not sex magic, just bullshit. He knew how to make you feel bad about yourself. It-is-not-your-fault. You-are-not-a-whore. Get over it."

"Okay."

"Okay, what?"

"Okay, I'll go on a date with you."

"I don't usually have this much trouble getting someone to go out with me. Usually, they're a little more willing. With you, it was like pulling teeth. Will tonight be okay?"

"I can't. I was expecting Jolene to come over."

"Oooh, about that. She's not coming over."

"Why not."

"I didn't tell you. My new job is with Caponero Investigations. They decided they needed a full time computer guy on their staff. Got the job a few months ago. I asked Jolene to keep it a secret until we saw everything worked out. Turns out; it worked out great. Anyway, Jolene has to tail someone tonight and she can't make it, so she sent me in her place. Since you have nothing better to do, I'm thinking date night."

"I'm not dressed for a date."

"I can wait. I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer. How long will it take you?"

"An hour, maybe less, depending on how snazzy you want me to be."

"I don't really need snazzy."

"Well, you've seen me with cum dripping out of my cunt and ass, so I'm not surprised, but if I'm going out on a first date, I'd like to make a good first impression."

"Snazzy it is. I'll be waiting right here." He patted the couch. "You know, if we decide to get married, you're going to have to give up the nude modeling. I don't mind the other stuff that much, but a woman should save her nudity for her husband."

"Do tell."

"Absolutely. Ask your mother. I'm sure she'll agree with me."

"Have you been talking to my parents?"

"Well, I had to tell them I was seeking your hand in marriage. I'm a traditional guy."

"Of course you are."

"At least three dates. More if we're not sure yet."

"I'll be right out."

"Take your time. I'll be waiting right here." He leaned back on the couch. "I want to see what you look like if you're trying to impress me."

As I walked away, I started shedding my clothes. I was nude before I hit the bedroom. I turned to him and winked. Jackson laughed, and I started getting ready for our date.

******

We went on five dates before we slept together. Jackson wanted to be sure I was ready for sex again. He was such a gentleman, until he wasn't. Holy moly, that man could fuck. Sexual compatibility was no issue. We were married six months after our first date at the office of a Justice of the Peace. No more big weddings, though Tiffany was still my Maid of Honor. Well, Matron of Honor. She got married before my second and was a month pregnant when Jackson and I tied the knot. Phil was his best man. It felt odd knowing the best man had seen me naked and fucking the day I got my revenge on Tanner, but Jackson didn't care and it was never talked about. We didn't go to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. We went to Pensacola, Florida instead, not too far away from where my parents lived. They came to visit one evening on our honeymoon and we went out to dinner. I've forgiven Dad. If Mom could, I could. I still don't know if he's my real father, or it was the other fellow that raped my Mom. He could be though. I'll never tell anyone else. I wonder if Tiffany's Mom, Mary, knew. If she did, she never told Tiffany, or if Tiffany knew, she never told me.

Jackson and I have two children now. A boy, Jackson Jr., the oldest at five, and a girl, Marion, after my Mother, now three years old. There's another bun in the oven, a girl, who I'll name Tiffany, after my very good friend. The boy looks so much like his father and Marion looks a little like me, but her hair is prettier, Jackson's blonde, not my mousy brown. We're planning on one more. I'm a very happy woman, and if I sometimes dream of another cock in me besides Jackson's, I say a little prayer and get over it, because I love the cock I have and the man attached to it. I thought I'd lost love when I learned Tanner betrayed me and no one would ever want a whore. Turns out I was wrong and the happier for it.