Brother Anselm on Forgiveness

***I'd like to thank Randi for inviting me to participate in this event and also thank my beta readers for their invaluable advice and Randi for her editorial assistance. And I'd like to thank Literotica for being here for 24 years. Please look out for the other stories in this invitational event. You are sure to enjoy them all.***

It was an unusual sight, given the circumstances: two men and a woman in a small private waiting room at the maternity hospital. They all looked tense, but they were all trying to be as supportive of each other as possible.

Gary, however, was beginning to feel locked out of things. This was strange, because it was his wife who was in the maternity suite, about to give birth. But then, he wasn't the father of the child she was carrying. Having said that, his wife wasn't, technically speaking, the mother of the child she was carrying, either. But because he loved her so much, he could deny her nothing.

Those weird, disjointed thoughts were his way of coping with the stress of waiting. The man and woman who he shared the waiting room with were his brother-in-law, Paul, and Paul's wife, Mary, who was Sandra's sister and his sister-in-law.

18 months earlier, the trio had come to him to ask for his approval of a scheme they had concocted. For several reasons, Mary was unable to take a pregnancy to full term and Sandra had proven herself capable of giving birth as Gary and Sandra had a daughter of 16, who was called Julieta. The question was, could Gary and Sandra help them out by allowing Paul and Mary to make use of Sandra's womb?

At first, Gary had been inclined to refuse. After all, she was now 16 years older, at 37, and at the time of Julieta's birth, the Doctors had warned Sandra that a further pregnancy would be potentially dangerous. They had agreed at the time of the birth that Sandra would have her tubes tied and Gary would have a vasectomy, which they both did.

The trio had proceeded to earnestly plead their case to Gary, citing recent improvements in medical technology and newer birthing techniques. They spoke of Louise Brown, who was the world's first so-called test tube baby, born in North West England in 1978. They iterated and then reiterated all the advances in modern obstetric medicine and In vitro fertilization in the intervening 44 years.

Plus, they pointed out that older pregnancies were now more the norm rather than the exception as they had been when Sandra had given birth to Julieta when Sandra was just 20. They had gradually worn Gary's resistance down until he had agreed to the procedure, even though he still had some concerns and misgivings.

It was all to be undertaken under the guidance of the expert medical staff at the fertility clinic at the River City Polyclinic and Maternity Hospital. Eggs would be harvested from Mary, then the eggs would be subjected to in vitro fertilization with sperm donated by Paul in their laboratory.

Once the egg was fertilized, it would be implanted into Sandra's womb and the baby would be born, but rapidly handed over to the parents of the child, with all legal formalities already dealt with, in as far as was possible.

Put like that, it had all sounded so simple, but throughout the pregnancy, Sandra had been ill on and off and several times. Gary had suggested putting an end to the matter, but the others outvoted him, claiming that the life of their unborn child was sacred. Sacrosanct? Whatever. Even their daughter Julieta had gotten in on the act, gently chiding Gary to 'get with the plan.'

Gary had swallowed his misgivings, and with Julieta staying at a neighbor's house that evening, the three adults were anxiously waiting for the news of the birth.

Eventually, a harassed and tired looking young doctor knocked on the door and entered the room. It was obvious he had bad news. "Folks, the baby girl is alive and doing well, though in an incubator. Unfortunately, the mother did not survive the birth. She died on the operating table. We did our best, but we couldn't do enough for her. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Paul gave an audible sigh of relief and said: "But my daughter, my baby girl is safe and well!"

Mary gasped out: "Paul! That's not appropriate! I have just lost my sister and Gary has just lost his wife!"

Paul shrugged and said: "I'm sorry, but at least my daughter is safe. When can I see her?"

The doctor, a look of disdain on his face, gave him the instructions, begrudgingly.

Before the doctor could finally leave the room and escape the shitstorm he could visualize on the horizon, Gary asked him, quietly and sadly, "When can I see my wife, please?"

The Doctor gently took hold of his arm and led him to meet with his wife for one last time.

She looked remarkably well for a corpse, Gary thought, in shock as he was. When he kissed her forehead, she still felt quite warm.

He staggered back to the waiting room and as soon as he entered it he cried out: "Oh, God! I have to tell Julieta!"

Mary took his hand, and said, "She's with your neighbor, Mrs. Humbolt, isn't she? I'll tell her."

Mary watched in horror as Gary let out a sob and lost consciousness, slumping onto the floor. She buzzed for a nurse and quickly Gary was bundled off to a different and distant part of the hospital.

Simply put, his mental system hadn't been able to cope with the loss of his wife and he had suffered a breakdown.

After 48 hours of what was, in effect, bedrest, he was released from the hospital with instructions to seek CBT therapy as an outpatient.

He decided not to call his brother-in-law for a ride from the hospital. He still smarted from his callous disregard for Sandra's life, as if she had no more meaning to him other than being a baby making machine, and being discardable if no longer necessary.

Gary caught an Uber and tried to call Julieta to let her know that he was on his way home. He made several calls, all of which went unanswered.

When he arrived at the house he had shared with Sandra and Julieta he realized that nobody had been living in it for several days.

He volubly cursed his stupidity. After all, why would a child of 16 be left by herself by the other adults in her life under the circumstances?

He drove his own car to the home shared by Paul and Mary, which was a couple of miles distant.

The scene that greeted him was a scene of domestic bliss that tore through him. There were Mary and Julieta, both cooing over the baby: the baby who had killed his dear beloved wife.

Once again, but this time in silence, he cursed himself. Because he realized that it wasn't the baby's fault. The baby was, if anyone was, the sole true innocent in this whole diabolical mess.

"Oh, hi, Daddy!" Julieta said. "You are out of hospital, yeah?"

"Yes, Julieta, I am out of the hospital. I tried to call you several times but you never answered."

"Sorry, Dad. I must have been busy with my new baby sister. I didn't notice your calls. She's a real beauty, but a bit of a handful, too."

He shrugged as he stood there. Had his daughter, his own flesh and blood just lied to him? He thought that she had, in some way, done exactly that, but he couldn't figure out why she would have done it. Because he felt she had actually ignored his calls, rather than just failed to notice them.

And her baby sister? That was a twist he hadn't seen coming. Technically the baby was her sister, but also, and this made his head swim, technically, the baby was also her niece, even though they came from the same womb. The same, now dead, womb.

Mary must have seen some of the turmoil that was beating on Gary like a particularly evil tropical storm and she hugged him, saying: "I know, Gary, I know. My sister and your wife is gone, and I'd give anything to have her back. But we do have the baby to honor Sandra's memory."

He began to sob uncontrollably, and Mary managed to get him to sit down at the kitchen table, shushing Julieta and asking her to take the baby into another room. Julieta frowned at her father. Maybe she didn't think men should cry?

Mary and Gary spoke for what seemed like hours to him. She apologized for Paul's absence, but a business deal had gone south so Paul had had to hop on a plane and fly, ironically, northward to deal with whatever crisis had blown up. Gary had considered it highly inappropriate for Paul to leave home at a time like this, but decided not to mention that faux pas by Paul, the bloody father, damnit!

They used Mary's iPad to Google search funeral homes, florists, churches and the like. Mary took the lead in making the painful but necessary decisions. Eventually, Gary would realize that it was as if Mary had already done this research before. But why? And who with?

They were assisted by the fact that Sandra had left copious notes and instructions as a codicil to her will. Her will? Gary shook his head, realizing that the instructions would be very helpful. Later, looking back through the lens of 20/20 hindsight, he developed a level of awareness that did not sit well with him.

Eventually when the research was done, Julieta returned to the kitchen with the sleeping baby. Julieta smiled, saying, "She's asleep, now."

Mary praised her, saying, "You are so good with her, Julieta. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you."

Gary looked at his daughter, and said, "When will you be coming home, Julieta, now I'm back from the hospital?"

She frowned, glanced nervously at Mary before she spoke. "Daddy, if it's okay with you, I'd love to stay here and help Mary look after the baby?"

Damn! He hadn't seen that one coming! "I... see, but that would mean I'll be alone at home." His voice wound down as he realized how pathetic he was sounding.

He cleared his throat before speaking as he knew there was a risk of his voice breaking at an inopportune moment. "Actually, that's perfectly fine Julieta. After all, with Sandra gone I guess I'll have to get used to being alone, won't I?"

He gave a curt farewell and left the two women together with shocked expressions on their faces that actually made Pikachu's shocked face expression look like the work of a piker.

Over the coming days, Gary returned several times to their house which, by default, had become the hub of everything including, the organizing of the funeral which took place three weeks after Sandra had died. The delay was caused due to a snafu with some paperwork, they were told.

Everyone wore black, but with a touch of pink, as apparently, Sandra had wanted to acknowledge the baby, who, up until that point, still hadn't been named.

Everyone spoke in hushed tones about what a wonderful woman Sandra had been to sacrifice her life so that a new life could come into the world. What a fantastic sister Julieta was, what great parents Mary and Paul were being and how brave and stoical Gary was.

Gary thought to himself, "I'm not brave, or stoical. I just want this fucking nightmare to end. I want my wife back and I want my daughter back." But he said nothing.

The day after Sandra had been buried in the plot that had been pre-ordered at some point, Gary decided that he needed to do something for himself to establish what had gone wrong. He wanted to learn why his wife had died, despite the advances in medical procedures over the 16 years since Julieta had been born.

When he told Mary what his intentions were, she had gone as white as a blanched almond sat in her kitchen and had said with a tremor in her voice: "Why? What good will that do anyone, Gary? After all, I know you're grieving. We all are, but it won't bring Sandra back."

He sighed and said "I know, Mary, I know. But I need closure." He ended the call.

He took a shower, changed into some decent yet tastefully somber clothing, and after making a call to the hospital, arranged to meet the infertility program manager, Rhonda Bryant.

Rhonda had thought about declining to have the meeting, but thought better of it. The board of directors of the charitable trust who ran the hospital wouldn't appreciate any negative publicity, she knew for a fact after a recent scandal involving the unit.

Gary was several minutes early for their appointment. Rhonda greeted him, offered him a coffee, which he politely declined, and sat him down opposite to her desk. On her desk before her was a tan folder that contained all the details of the case.

She shook his hand and sat down at her desk. "Mr. Jones, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm wondering why you are here? Is there anything I or my department can do for you?"

He offered his thanks for her concern. Then he said, "I guess I'm here for closure, really. Everyone told us that medical procedures had improved since our own daughter Julieta was born 16 years ago, but Sandra still died. Please, can you explain why?"

She shook her head. "I can't, Mr Jones... Gary, because I'm not a medical expert, I'm only an administrator, so I don't know. But, and I really don't want to sound callous, but you, all three of you who were involved in the decision making process, signed the form giving the hospital full indemnity due to the very high risk of your wife carrying the pregnancy to full term. You knew the risk when you signed the document."

Gary frowned. "I never signed any such document."

Rhonda shook her head. "I have it here in the case folder." She attempted to sound sympathetic. "Perhaps under the strain of it all you forgot signing it?"

She presented him with the paper which he carefully took from her proffered hand. He examined it with great seriousness before returning it to her, frowning. He shook his head. "I can honestly tell you that I did not sign this form. The first time I saw the form was when you showed it to me just now.

"The signature on the form is a fake. A forgery. I don't know who signed it, but it wasn't me. It's a reasonably good copy, but a copy it is, all the same."

He handed the form back to her, a slight tremble being noticeable.

"Can you prove that?" she said, her tone one of suspicion.

Gary said: "What's the date on that form?"

She looked at it and said "15th of June, on the bottom of the form and on the notary's stamp."

Gray shrugged, and said, "Then it can't be my signature. I wasn't even in town then, because that week my fucking so-called family sent me off on a three-day Man's Retreat. They told me it was to reward me for being such a good guy for allowing my wife to be their surrogate. But now? Now I see it was just a callous ruse to get me out of the way so they could fake my signature on that form."

He took his phone out of his pocket. He showed her the relevant email chain and the diary on his phone with the three-day booking for the Man's Retreat.

Looking into his pain-filled eyes, Rhonda was speechless. She realized that what he was telling her was the absolute truth and that both he and the hospital had been tricked.

She shook her head. "Please, Gary, let me put a call into our legal department."

She picked up her phone, tapped in a number and spoke. "Hi. Legal? This is Rhonda Bryant here. I have someone in my office with me now and he's presented me with evidence that he the hospital have been the victims of fraud. Yeah. Big time. Can a lawyer and a notary or whomever, please, come to my office as soon as possible? Thanks."

Within several minutes, a lawyer and a young woman arrived in the office.

"Hello, I'm Barry Peters, this is Fiona Barr. I'm a lawyer and Fiona is a paralegal in our department. She'll be taking notes. I understand that a legal issue has been discovered which might impact on the hospital? Can someone please clue me in on this?"

Gary, haltingly at first, and then stronger as he warmed to the task, took the lead, explaining about the surrogacy, how he had worried about Sandra's health, how his wife, Mary and Paul had taken him out of the way for three days whilst they got someone to sign the document that absolved the hospital of any responsibility should Sandra die during childbirth.

Peters asked to see the document, took a photograph of it with his smartphone. "I see the document was signed before a notary public," he said. "There's her stamp and her details, Jane Bradbury. They must have had the document signed at her office. Are the other two signatures faked, as well?"

Gary answered "As far as I can tell, their signatures are legitimate. Mine is the only fake signature."

Both Peters and the paralegal had been busy taking notes. Eventually, Peters said, "Mr. Jones, I honestly don't know what to tell you, what to say to you. Both you and the hospital have been the victims of fraud. I'm sure this whole situation has just become a whole lot worse for you. Rhonda, do you have anything to add at this point?"

Rhonda shook her head. "Not at this point, Barry. This is still something of a shock to me. I have been in this department for 15 years, managing it for the last five of them, and I can honestly say I've never, ever seen anything like it. Look, I'll need to think about this and I'll get back in touch later, okay?"

"Thanks, Rhonda," Barry said Garry, Fiona and myself have both taken a lot of notes. If Fiona writes up a quick deposition from you, would that be okay for you?"

Garry shrugged, and replied, "Yes, it would. I don't think they should be allowed to get away with this."

"Neither do I, Gary. Neither do I," Barry replied grimly.

After the deposition was taken and signed by the others in the room and by Gary, he left the hospital feeling bereft. Not only had he lost his wife and seemed to be on the cusp of losing his daughter, too, he had just learned that Julie, Paul and Sandra had betrayed him in the worst way possible, and in a way that had resulted in Sandra's death.

When Gary arrived at the house of his betrayers Paul was skulking about in the background and Mary and Julieta were tending to the, as yet and somewhat mysteriously, unnamed baby.

Mary looked at him and frowned. "Is something wrong, Gary? What did you find out?" She was anxious, and it was obvious to Gary that she feared what he'd learned.

Gary said coldly "I think you might already have a damn good idea, Mary. Who did you, Sandra and Paul get to pose as me to get that death warrant form signed for Sandra?"

Mary shuddered before she replied. "What do you mean, Gary? What death warrant form?"

"The form that you should have had my signature on."

Mary shook her head and tears glistened in her eyes. "Please, please... Gary, just wait here. I hoped you'd not find out about that, but please wait."

Julieta looked at him watchfully, as she cuddled the baby, but she said nothing.

A couple of minutes later, Mary returned with an envelope with his name on it, written in Sandra's handwriting.

He carefully opened the envelope, removed the letter and began to read it, silently.

***My dearest, most beloved Gary, you are the best husband a woman could ever, ever hope for. I hope you know that. You may not be thinking this to be the case right now, but it is. Please believe me.

I am leaving this letter in the safe keeping of Mary and Paul, and I know that if you are reading it, then I am dead and you will have found out about the fact that we used subterfuge to obtain your signature on the hospital's legal waiver form.

No doubt you will be feeling hurt and angry about what we did, and you will presume that the only reason we sent you off on that three-day men's retreat was to get you out of the way so we could get your signature on the form.

Looking at this now, yes, I guess that is, technically speaking, the truth. However, please, please know that this is not the entire truth. We could have used some other way to keep you out of the way when we got the ringer to sign the form in front of the notary, but we hit on the idea of sending you off on that three-day retreat because we felt some guilt about what we were doing to you and so we wanted to make it up to you, even though you didn't know there was anything for us to make up for you.