Blackmailed Ch. 01

Sorry, no sex in this chapter. This is just the groundwork.

Main Cast

John, 35 years old, 5’ 11”, 175 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes, Cheryl’s husband.
Cheryl, 34 years old, 5’ 4”, 105 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes, John’s wife.
Meryl, 34 years old, 5’4”, 105 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes, Cheryl’s identical twin.
Monica, 33 years old, 5’8”, 140 pounds, auburn hair, green eyes, works with John, Tom’s wife.
Tom, 35 years old, 5’11”, 180 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, Monica’s husband.
Ed, 40 years old, 5’11”, 180 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, Dennis’ boss.
Ted, 9 years old and Natalie, 7 years old, John and Cheryl’s kids.

I got home from work on Thursday and was looking forward to dinner. My wife was setting the table and dinner was almost ready when I walked in. We always tried to have a nice family meal at least twice a week. The kids were now 9 and 7 years old and that meant that they always had more important things to do with their friends or in their sports activities than with their parents. There were sleepovers, going to the pool, practices, etc. I knew that this was one of those nights that we were going to all sit down together so I made sure to finish work and get home on time. When I entered I immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Hey, hon." I walked up to give her my dutiful husband kiss. She usually at least turned from what she was doing so that I could give her a quick peck on the lips. It was not sexual in any way, but at least it was on the lips. Tonight, I got the cheek. Oops! What did I forget to do now? "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine."

She didn't even look at me, just pretended to concentrate on setting the table like it was the most important thing in the world. Having been married for 11 years, I knew something was wrong. All the signals were there and I could have made ice cubes with the vibes I was getting from her.

I walked over to the den and put my work laptop down. I went into our bedroom and changed clothes, getting comfortable. I checked on the kids and they were both doing their homework. They were such good kids. Cheryl staying home until they got out of grade school was turning out to be a good decision for raising them.

I was checking on Ted when I heard my wife's voice calling us for dinner. I went downstairs with the kids right behind me and we all traipsed into the kitchen. The small kitchen table had a large bowl of linguine on it, with some small slices of garlic bread; a real carbohydrate lover's dream.

We all sat down and the kids were chatty, as usual. Cheryl never looked up at me and we both talked to the kids but never to each other. As soon as the kids asked to be excused I brought it up again.

"Cheryl, I know something's wrong. You haven't spoken to me since I got a 'fine' when coming home. What's going on?"

She looked warily over to where the kids had just left, stared at me with daggers, and hissed at me. "As if you didn't know, you fucking asshole."

I gaped. She had never spoken to me like that, even when we had an argument. We might get angry at each other, but she had never said that. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She got up, slapped her napkin down on the table, and stormed out leaving me with her parting shot. "Your turn for clean-up."

I sat there in shock. We had always been able to discuss any differences that we had. She was a passionate woman, but never so harsh. I decided it was best to let her cool down and then try again.

I sighed and started picking up the table and cleaning up the kitchen. I heard the doorbell, but kept cleaning up. I thought Cheryl would get it. I heard it again, so I put down everything and walked to the door. I answered it and her twin sister Meryl was standing there. "Oh, hey, Meryl, come in."

She entered slowly and stared at me.

"What?"

"I can't believe it. You are such an asshole."

I stared at her. "Well, that seems to be the consensus around here right now. Can someone tell me why I'm being lambasted in this manner?"

She looked at me closely. "You have no idea why Cheryl is so mad?"

I held my hands out. "Not a clue!"

About that time my wife came down the stairs with a small suitcase. I was shocked. "Cheryl? What's going on? Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving for tonight to stay with Meryl. I have some thinking to do. I'll be back tomorrow morning to take care of the kids. I'll come in when you leave to make it easy for you."

I looked back and forth between them. I slammed the door; probably a little too loudly. "Stop right there! Somebody had better tell me what the hell is going on. I come home from work and all of a sudden the Anderson sisters decide I'm an asshole and my wife wants to leave me? What the hell is this all about?"

Cheryl stared at me and I saw tears well up in her eyes. "What this is about is the fact that I had to save your job this afternoon by blowing your boss!"

I stuttered and gaped at her. I couldn't breathe for a second. My wife gave my boss a blowjob? I was lost! "Wait! What the fuck are you talking about? You had sex with Ed? What the fuck is going on here?!?" I realized I was raising my voice, but I had lost control of my ability to remain calm.

Cheryl turned away from me and started crying then. I wanted to grab her and shake her, but Meryl stepped in between us. "No use denying it John. You're having an affair, so you got nothing to say here, you fucking asshole."

Now I was getting pissed off. "You fucking idiot! Whatever gave you that idea? I am not having an affair! You know that I love your sister and until a couple of minutes ago, thought she loved me. You know how I feel about that sort of thing, so get the fuck out of my way and let me talk to Cheryl!"

Meryl backed up a little as I got close to her, but Cheryl seemed to shrink down behind her. She started to reach for the door and I saw it. I reached out and grabbed her wrist, but she jerked it back like I had burned her.

"Cheryl, please don't open that door until you tell me exactly what the fuck you guys are talking about. If you are leaving me, at least have the backbone to stand up and tell me." My anger was winning over my more rational thought processes.

Meryl blocked my way as Cheryl finally got to the door and ran out, leaving her suitcase on the floor. I was still in shock and looked closely at Meryl. I was still trying to process what she said about blowing Ed. Fuck! My wife was cheating on me and thought I was cheating on her. How the hell did this happen?

I looked at Meryl and knew that I had to let Cheryl go for now. I would have to wait for us to calm down. I took a deep breath. "Meryl, you know me almost as well as your sister. Please, tell her that I want to know what is going on because I am NOT having an affair. I have never had one and never cheated on your sister. I thought the two of you knew me better than that after what I went thru with my parents."

Meryl studied me for a few seconds. "Look, John. I'm trying not to judge, but I will always be on Cheryl's side. You know that. I will ask her to talk to you, but she is very, very angry right now."

I glared at her. "And how should I feel when I learn that she had sex with Ed, huh? I'm not cheating, but my pretty little wife is fucking my boss? Tell me how I'm supposed to take that?"

Meryl's eyes went wide as she suddenly seemed to grasp her sister's position. If I wasn't having an affair, then her sister had just cheated on me for no reason. "I'm sorry, John. She says she knows for sure, but I can't tell you how she knows. She hasn't shared that with me yet. I'll try to talk to her and get her to at least prove her point. I'm sorry."

She ducked out the door and I was left there with just my thoughts. At least I thought so until I heard a small girl's voice behind me. "Daddy, why are you and mommy fighting?"

I looked up the staircase at my daughter, Natalie, and walked towards her. "It's just some grown-up stuff. Mommy went over to Aunt Meryl's house so that she could spend some time with her sister. She'll be back tomorrow."

When I reached her I picked her up and hugged her, trying hard not to get too emotional. I hurt for her and Ted. I remember very well how my father's cheating had ruined my parent's marriage and how my sister and I, as the children, had suffered from it. I didn't want them to go thru that.

I got the kids ready for bed and then told them that they had to call their mother and say good-night. I promised that she loved them very much and just wanted to talk to Aunt Meryl for a while. I dialed Meryl's number and as soon as it started ringing I handed the phone to Natalie. I listened to her talk for a few minutes and then say good-night to her mother. She handed the phone to Ted and he did the same. As soon as he said good-night, I took the phone and put it to my ear. I walked out of the Ted's room and held it tightly. "Cheryl?" I could hear breathing on the other end of the phone, but no verbal response was forthcoming. "Whatever you think happened please understand that I love you and would never hurt you." The phone went dead.

As I lay down to try to sleep I had a sudden thought. How was I supposed to face Ed tomorrow? Did my wife really blow him, or was she just saying that to make me angry? I had no way to know for sure. I lay there, unable to sleep, my heart hurting because the one woman who I thought was the rock in my life had cheated on me and left me. We had two small children and I didn't want them to face what I did with bitter parents and being the subject of a tug-of-war between them.

I kept going over our conversation at the door. We were both passionate people and the yelling didn't allow us to think straight. She always said that one of my problems was that I tended to overanalyze conversations, but I parsed the one at the door over and over again. Did she really blow Ed? Was it just her way of getting back at me? Was it just revenge? Or was it really to save my job because of the reason she stated? My mind was going 100 miles an hour like I was on a caffeine high. I couldn't stop my mind from turning everything over and over and looking at it from all angles.

I woke the next morning feeling like I got no rest at all. The last time I looked at the clock before I remember sleeping was 3am. Ugh!

I went through the motions of getting ready and worked on giving the kids their first wakeup call. I usually left every day at 7am and then Cheryl finished getting the kids ready and out the door. I looked outside about 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave and Cheryl was sitting out in front of our house in Meryl's car. She saw me open the curtains and look because she got out of the car and headed toward the house. I took a deep breath, returned to the kitchen, and waited.

Cheryl came in and made her way into the kitchen. She remained on the other side of the room like I was a leper, unable to look at me. She was still in the clothes she had left with and looked like she got as much sleep as I did; which is to say very little.

I was having a cup of coffee. "There's coffee." I said it and my voice cracked a little. I wanted to let my anger out and yell at her about Ed. I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was all right. I was conflicted and I was hoping she would talk to me.

She stared at me for a few seconds. "You are having an affair with Monica. Just admit it and we can at least part in a civil manner and it won't be too hard on the kids."

I stared back. "I am not having an affair with anyone, especially Monica. She's as happily married as I thought I was until yesterday. I don't know how you could even say such a thing." She just stared as I continued. "Answer these questions for me." She looked up and hesitated for a second, then nodded. "You know how I feel about my father, right?"

"Yes."

"You know that I've always said I would never do the same thing, right?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes."

"Then what in the world ever gave you the idea that I would become what I despise and would have an affair with Monica?"

She fixed her gaze on me and then reached down into her purse. She pulled out a small envelope and tossed it onto the table. "Take a look at these, asshole. I can't believe you can stand there and lie about this."

She folded her arms across her chest and I reached for the envelope. She looked so angry, but there were tears starting to come down her face. When I opened it, the first picture was of me going into a hotel room with Monica holding the door open. I recognized it from when we were in New York on business and had held a business meeting in the suite that Ed had offered her. No problem there. Then I went on to the next few. They showed a man and a women having sex. The first was a shot of a woman a little from the side, clearly Monica, on her knees with a man's dick completely in her mouth. All you could see of the man was some of his torso. The second was him, from behind, on the bed fucking her missionary style, but the distance and angle made it tough to find any distinguishing characteristics of the man. The third was of Monica riding him, her tits in mid-juggle, her head thrown back and her hands on the man's chest. Nothing about the man was visible. Monica, a beautifully shaped voluptuous type, looked amazing in the photos. The only problem was that the man's face was never visible, and the body was barely shown. I looked up at Cheryl. "This is not me having sex with Monica."

Cheryl fixed me with another icy stare. "Asshole. How can you still deny it? There you are going into her hotel room and then there you are having sex with her." Her voice went up. "I can't fucking believe it. I wanted to not believe it, but when Ed showed them to me and made it clear that you could lose your job for sexual harassment, I was in complete shock. I was in such shock because we had decided that I would stay home with the kids for a while. That meant that you are our only breadwinner until I can get a job, and it left me in an extremely bad and vulnerable position. I was so fucking pissed at you and when he offered to let this problem go if I gave him a blowjob so that you could keep your fucking job, I did it. I figured I could save your job while I got divorced and found one and I could get back at you for Monica in one fell swoop. So there. But that's the end of it. He gave me the photos and I'm going to keep them just long enough to rip your balls off in court, then I'm going to destroy the fuckers."

I stared at her and took a deep breath. I had to remain calm. I hated the picture that popped into my head of her on her knees in front of that egotistical fuck. I took another deep breath and clenched my fists to try to hold my temper. "Cheryl, you are so wrong. That's not me in those photos and you are the one who has broken the vows that we both took so seriously. You gave a blowjob to my boss, a man that I have to see every day and work with." Now I was getting mad. "You put me in an untenable position, you cheated on me, and since you can't see the man's face in these photos you did it for nothing. I have never cheated on you, but you can't say that now can you?" I was almost yelling at the end.

She stared at me and I could see the indecision and doubt flash across her face. She looked down at the photographs. "No, it's definitely you. I can tell. Look at that body! It's you!" She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself that she was right. "That's definitely you! There's the shot of you going into that hotel room and I can see in the other photos that it's the same room. You went into the hotel room and you fucked her!"

I held up my hand. "Let me ask you a question." I was calmer now. I was resigned to the fact that she was wrong and now I was beginning to question Ed's motive. "Why didn't you ask me about this before agreeing to have sex with Ed? And why would Ed bring it to you? Haven't you ever noticed how he watched you at parties? The guy is a fucking lecherous asshole and I think he played you. I think he blackmailed you just to have his little fucking conquest. You cheated on us for nothing."

She stared at me now with something approaching fear. "But how do you explain going into the hotel room? What were you doing in there? Playing tiddlywinks?" The last statement dripped with so much sarcasm I could almost see it floating across the room at me. She was still persistent, but starting to waver.

"That was a suite that was rented for us, by Ed now that I think about it, so that we could hold the client meeting there when we were in New York, and then Monica and her husband could use it for their anniversary celebration. Yes, that's correct, Monica and Tom were staying in that room." I thought about that. "Come to think of it, Tom and I are very similar in body styles. I'm sure these are photographs of Monica and Tom. But the question is how the fuck did Ed get pictures of this?" Now it was coming to me. "Fuck! I bet that asshole set this all up. He rented the suite and I bet he set up some sort of camera so that he could get the photos of the two of them." My mind was working overtime now. "He took the photos, edited them appropriately, and then blackmailed you into sex, just so he could get to you."

Cheryl looked like she was in shock and then started to cry again as she realized her strong position was falling apart. "But, I mean, it looks like you. I... but, I...." her words trailed off and she collapsed into a chair, looking small and defeated. I think the combination of my remaining calm and making a few key points had her starting to believe me. I looked down at her. Once again I wanted to comfort her, but was angry at the same time for being so gullible as to fall for this... and blow my boss!

I decided I had to think about this some more so I looked at my watch. 7:15. "Cheryl, I have to get to work. I'm going to try to not kick Ed's ass. I'm also going to think about the fact that my wife has had sex with another man and see if I can get over it. Good-bye."

Her head whipped up and around at me. She was totally convinced now based on the way she yelled ab me. "Honey, wait, please...don't go yet. Let's talk about this!"

Now she wanted to talk... but I left, rushing out the door before I took her back without thinking of the repercussions. Work was going to be hell.

By the time I got to work and remembered to turn on my cell phone, it was 9:30 and I had three messages from Cheryl and one from Meryl. I listened and tried to stay unemotional.

First message: "Honey, please call me. [sniffle] I just got the kids off to school and I'm going to go back to Meryl's. [sniffle] Tell me if you want me to come back. I want to come back. [sniffle] Please tell me I didn't fuck us up because of this. [sob] I don't know what else to say. Please call me. I'll have my cell and I'll be at Meryl's. Please talk to me about this. [sob]" By the end she was weeping and kept reiterating her request to call her. It appeared that she believed me and knew that she had been duped.

Second message: "I love you more than I can express. Call me." She sounded very sad.

Third message: "I'm at Meryl's. I'll be waiting for your call. Please...."

Meryl's message: "Hey, John. Cheryl gave me the update. Uh, I'm sorry about what I said. I had to back her up, you know that. But I wish you would call her. She's a mess right now. She was a mess last night, too. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but last night she told me she was going to go back to you as long as you admitted it and said it was over. She really was willing to do anything for you and to keep the family together. She loves you more than anyone deserves. Just call her and let her know that she has a chance to fix this. I know that she is now the one that cheated, but it was a pretty good blackmail scheme. She really did believe that you were the one in those photographs. I also know that this will be difficult for you because of what happened in your family when you were a child. Please call."