All Comments on 'Caroline Alone Ch. 04'

After revisiting it I am amazed once again of its beauty. This story asked the age old question 'Can a woman love two men at once and hurt neither?' The answer was stated perfectly in the story. Why did Caroline not see that she did not treat her two men equally? Damien knew of Jack, but Caroline kept Jack in the dark as long as possible. Damien got her truth and Jack got her lies.

There were two stories in this writing. One was the affair of Caroline, the other was Jack and Hazel's love story. We saw the rationalizations by Caroline on the ethics of her love affair. I do believe that in real life a person who believes it is alright to take a chance on love even while still married will NEVER see the error of their reasoning. Thanks for letting Jack find someone. The great story in Hazel and Jacks relationship was the amount of work both had to do to be able to get together. Hazel was barely able to date let alone marry, but with observation and empathy she was able to become a more complete woman ready to raise a family.

The portrayal of the children was precious. The eccentricities that the children exhibited were proof that when you cheat, you cheat on the whole family. Thank you for a gripping story.

Great tale. I really enjoyed your writing. Please continue ..........

5* - PLEASE MORE OF THE SAME - depictig logically and rationally thinking and acting men.

I'm sorry I critisize you but you are good. To make your stories better is to add more mini plots like you did for the Dam charactor, you used dam to make him more the villian but It didnot work that well. And realy what was the climax/es? Very small the way you written it. Mostly mini anti-climaxes throughout this well written story. Pop, get readers mad / happy, get the readers more involved emotionally. Everything doesen't have to be moral, let the characters blow them selves up your simple stories......bill

5

I have to admit you are a good story teller but your characters are just too unrealistic; Caroline is sooo stupid and deluded and Jack is the paragon of patience and virtue.

People can rationalize to get things they desire and this was a good example.

It also worked that it took her a long long time to figure it out.

She still seemed like Damien could probably come and say the right words too her and have another fling.though.

No there are no BIG finishes as one request desired - but that makes it all the more real in its possibilities. Life does not usually have big bang finishes - it has continuations.

Jack did well and pretty realistically - he made sure he knew - he made sure he had the ability to act effectively then did with decision and without regret. What he did was also well within the realm of reason..

Caroline is a flawed human (like all of them) but she is missing a vital component compassion, she also has no empathy or ability to see impact and cause. Put them together and she see herself as being obligated to betray others and be "true" to herself. It failed - until the end of the story - to register that she did things to others not just took what she wanted for her own pleasure. By that time she had also just begun to figure out how flawed she was and it was not a joyful realization.

Maybe - just maybe such a person can grow and become more and better - and maybe she can find a way to actually repair some of the damage to her children - Jack has his peace and future.

Nice work - thank you

troughout the story ,well written btw,caroline is really too much out of this world ,she is or can never be a real person ,i gave it four stars :)

And I see his acceptance of her as him feeling he could not do any better. They have very little in common except he likes intelligent women and she gives him a stiffy.

I cannot think of any dimensions where he in fact clicks with her in any way except he is desperate to get laid and have someone who loves his kids. A man who enjoys a joint of beef and a nice wine is suddenly with a semi ascetic socialist with a hair trigger about women's rights and is a vegan?

Bollocks!

In this story all the principal adults seemed to be out of sync with the reality of the situations they created.

Unimaginitive and dreary story that looked for a way to collapse on itself. Sorry, I didn't like it at all.

gave it a 5

A complex story at a deep level. On the surface easy to identify the enemy and the personal failures. But worth a harder look and analysis into the motivations and behavior. She is probably shallow enough to settle, eventually, for some sort of companionship. Does beg the question of how the children could have good characters after suffering her influence all their lives. And her sudden surrender to her infatuation with Damien begs credulity. But it was engaging and thought provoking. Thank You for your time and effort.

Wonderful ending.

At last Caroline realized her mistakes.

Good story, interesting plot. Overall very enjoyable. I thought there could have been better character development and that the main characters seemed to fade in and out, and then in the end only Caroline was left. She was painted as a selfish bitch, when she went to live with her parents I couldn't help hoping they'd find her dead one morning from an overdose. She was NOT a good influence in the children's lives. I got Jack's strategy, divorce is never good for the father. It is a woman's game. Moving on to Hazel, she went from superficial strident bitch to maybe she has a soul, back to bitch. This girl is fucked up. He should have said thanks, but no thanks. Men can survive on their own, and it is better than being tortured by a bitch, cheating bitch or otherwise.

After reading the authors intro I almost skipped reading this story. I'm glad now that I didn't. I was so afraid it was going to be another one of those cheated on husband takes back cheating slut because he loves her so much he can live with what she did, and the almost certain reality that she will cheat again. Thankfully that was not the case. I know that children have a great impact on every relationship, good or bad, but the man in this story was strong enough, and wise enough, to know that children are better off with divorced parents than living in a house where there is no trust between the mother and the father. That puts the children in the situation of living in constant fear that every day will be the day the cheating slut strays again dumping them into a world of hurt, pain and shut yet again.

I think the story also does an excellent job of showing how many cheating sluts do so because they put themselves and their wants first, even over their husbands and children's needs.

All in all this is one of the very best stories I've ever read. The bad guy pays, but the husband comes out with his dignity intact and even the cheating slut finally faces the fact that she was the cause of her own downfall.

But I have to confess, Caroline was retarded. Retarded in every bit of way as a special needs child.

honestly speaking, your character is awful, caroline is dense and dumb, jack is just a wimp husband that doesnt brave enough to divorce is cheating wife in the first place. i am sorry for the kid to have parent like both of them

is a typical producct of a certain brittish society : selfish,selfcentred and unsensitive ,she takes everything and everybody for granted as if she is entiteld to all her heart desires,very well written picture of an english middelclass family

A well written romance. I enjoyed nearly all of it. Just a little too much of Caroline's introspection in the early chapters.

but Jack is bughouse nuts. Not for dumping his first wife. But why would any sane man want to marry someone offended by the "partriachy" ? THAT'S sure to be a match made in heaven.

In this, I think you were able to capture at least a few of the rationalizations of a cheating woman. With apologies to JPB, it is seldom about the Cock!

Why is she cheating? Because she felt a rush of 'love' and emotional connection to Damien. How do adults who feel love and lust for one another respond to each other? Sex! Except...she has a few prior entanglements. She actually 'loves' Dam...even as he has a different picture of what they are.

Actually, I think Dam is also rationalizing up a storm. A man who is 'play acting' does not invest that kind of time, exposure and demands for more time and affection from a fuck buddy. He is trying to leave the relationship with his dignity intact. It is easier to leave her if she is poisonous and selfish...so he makes her that way in his mind.

The wife is not stupid. She IS rationalizing though. She feels her feelings are a force of nature, not a choice, no more deniable than a gooses desire to migrate.

She IS a silly goose, but lacks feathers.

Let me for a moment act as devils advocate for the wife. Say hubby was A soldier gone to war and reported dead. She goes and fucks and falls in love with a new guy. Hubby returns. The wife here pictures herself in a similar pickle: loving two men concurrently and wishing like hell she could have both. Except it wasn't an accident and she does not have that freedom. She feels her husband isn't even trying her idea, which is pretty irritating. She has a very low sense of empathy.

Nicely written and I feel she is at least semi credible, except for being a bit TOO slow to get the big picture

four stars

No gratious violence but still a very solid 5..

bill.....

Interesting story that had some feel of reality to it. The cheating, the reaction to the cheating, the recovery from the cheating all seemed possible. What also seemed real was the characters choices. Her's: to justify her cheating, then to follow her children around like a wounded animal. His: to glom onto the first attractive and available woman he found. She was attractive in more than appearance. That she was a leftist, PC, feminist made her more attractive because that could easily justify her rejection of him if it came to that. Also, she was extremely different than his completely egotistical wife. She had standards, albeit insane standards that was in contrast to his wife's moral relativity.

So, an interesting story although I am not sure there really was a loving wife to be found in it (as much as women out for themselves) and it was not particularly erotic. The two best characters were the children.

How can any man be told by a cheating wife that she loves her lover and him also. I just don't buy that. All cheating women want their cake and to eat it too, Jack waited too long in my opinion to dump her. I would have dumped her ass to the curb as soon as I had found out(as I did in reality)She might have had a chance early on if she had not kept trying to tell Jack she loved Damien over and over and wanted him to accept that. Any real man will never accept shit like that. Writing wasn't bad but I would loved to have seen them burned even more.

Still one of my favorites and one of the best developed storylines.

Well written, well above average for this site with a good story line and three dimensional characters (apart maybe for Damien!). A cut above.

still a dad deadbeat dad....

was a bit disapointed the wife never really had an epiphany of what a nasty cheating self serving bitch she really was!

Boring and talentless.

Well done.

In real life I would suggest that the wife get mental health evaluation.

No one could be that clueless unless they had a mental condition.

Well done... These people were quite realistic even though I had some real trouble relating to Caroline's attitude towards expecting her husband to accept her lover. It was also interesting to see the husband's reaction when he found out about her cheating.

Good job!!

to offset the big blow hard annony who always yells to try and get his dumbass comments across. Eat shit annony

Caroline is the pathtic result of a middle class british society,stupid to the limit and self absorbed not caring for anyone but herself,so sad,so pathtic so utterly brittish

so far above the maddening crowd, one of the best ever posted. Dont know how I didnt comment on this before, this was really good. The ebb and flow, the sense of justice served to aggrieved parties, the slow realization of the error of her ways by Caroline.

Pls write more.

Pure genius.I am new to this site and being thick thought 'loving wives' meant just that.However this is one extremely talented writer/author and I was quite unable to put it down until I finished it.How very sad and shows how selfish and hurtful people can be to each other.I am so relieved that I'm with a wife that is incaperble of cheating on me as I am her.I met her when I was 18 when I found out my birth mother was not the women who brought me up as she was my step mom.My real mom lived in Alabama.I had a sister and we fell in love.She told our mom she was going to marry me 5 days after I first met her.We married when I was 21 and she was 19 seems I'm blessed as most stories here are about cheating,revenge and divorce very sad.

good story gave it five

it gets better every time. A cut above most stories on this site, with the possible exception of Laptopwriter`s `Boilerplate`. What a shame we haven`t seen anything from this talented author for some little time.

that I credited the wrong author with writing Boilerplate Rendering. It was of course The Unoriginalist. I can only plead premature senility and total brain fade. Sincere apologies to both authors.

Thank You.

Absolutely a well written sad story.A masterpiece

So very British, not a relationship counsellor in site. My ex-wife once asked me if I thought it possible to love two people at the same time? That's the first indication I had that my marriage was on the rocks!

Very well written, a well constructed sequence of events. I enjoyed the sorry tale of selfishness.

Such a good read. Loved all the drama, romance, emotional turmoil.... great stuff .... and like someone has already commented ' not a relationship counsellor in sight '.

One of my best reads for quite a while, hurry back.

5 *

It was never revealed what mental illness afflicted Caroline.

Simple extreme selfishness and narcissism doesn't cohese with being able to successfully be a wife and mother for over a decade.

Caroline suffered imho of psychopathic tendencies,she just couldn't see the wrong in what she was doing,most of the time she felt like she was entitled to have an alternative relationship without seing the wrong in it and even blaming her husband when a date with the lover couldn't go trough

Really well written story with many more dimensions than the typical BTB or the opposite. It took us through an emotional journey brought out beautifully by Caroline's blindness to the problem she had created and her total refusal to accept responsibity ... until the end. I read this one after trying out the other, shorter stories. Always looking for stories with more depth like Jidoka and DanielQSteele and the like. Can't wait to see your next submission, Jack

Thank you for your gift.

I really like the line:

"People act badly, not out of a desire to gain unfair advantage over others, but because they see life through the distorting lens of self-interest."

Explains my first wife's behavior.

I wanted to wait until I had finished the story. I have read a number of stories that started really great but ended poorly leaving me frustrated and unsatisfied. I think you have painted (or written as it were) a master piece. Certainly one of the best I have read on Literotica and in an especially difficult and raucous category. My hat is off to you. Thank you! Absolutely 5*s.

Genuine, striking an even pace and measured, believible tone throughout. This wasn't a story wallowing in angst or a riot of great vengeance and furious anger, both of which can be fun in their own context but instead a tale of a woman's selfish delulsion and her husband's coping with the destruction of his marriage and protecting his kids.

Well done, sir.

I'm not sure that Caroline ever did learn her lesson though.

You're a good writer....you took me in different directions just like that (quickly and unexpectedly) in the second chapter, it grabbed my ****s and just pulled me along....and on this site, (umm lol). It's a fantastic surprise running into new authors like yourself. Please keep writing......bill

555555s

Good from Ch.1 to Ch.4...(5*)

Great story although I would have liked you to dwell on her realisation about what she did and her blame in the breakdown in greater detail and feedback. Well done good story 5* overall

A good plot, good character descriptions ( although you did make Caroline supremely stupid ) & overall a pretty fair story. However, I can't shake my feeling of disappointment, not quite sure why but there just seemed to be that spark missing that turns a good tale into a great one. 3 ***

Very literate. Deeply understanding of complex interpersonal relationships. Well developed characters with believable flaws; few stereotypes. Offers an accurate picture of the depth of self-delusion lovers commonly manifest. Deserving of a solid five stars.

Seeing the societal damage that Hazel's sisters are doing society, one wonders if you still love her character or has she suddenly palled to you?

Jack is lucky she doesn't sue him for sexual harassment just to make a point. Certainly it would be as germane a point as burying her dolls or refusing to eat chocolate because of slave labor.

I'm just glad that he didn't take Caroline back!

Other than Caroline being overly dense, this is another well written story by a skilled craftsman

glad he didn't take the deluded bitch back. I was just being open to life coudlnt turn him away .. only to find out he never held her in any regard but a place to put his cock. Listen to what a fool believes from the doobie brothers and just switch that man and womans places in the song and it sums up this story's gist. well done MG well done.

Avoid the Carolines and the Hazels. Both will make you miserable just in different ways.

Maybe being odd is part of what made this story interesting. The three main characters -- Caroline, Jack and Hazel -- were odd. Damian was more normal, but a normal perverted, male pig. The University faculty were odd.

Then the plot was odd, focusing on "loser" Caroline rather than "winner" Jack. It was odd, that Caroline could hold to her idea that a lover is OK, and especially keep holding to it tenaciously.

Then, for an American, the oddity of English language and customs (as opposed to American).

Who wants to read a boring story of normal life? Odd is more intriguing (compare Jerry Springer show). It's also odd to find such writing skill on Literotica, but here it is!

Paul in Oklahoma

This began to look to be the mother of all BTBs. I'm pleased though that it ended on a note of hope. Where there is life there is hope.

Your story is masterfully told and impeccably written. I can often think of things I might have done differently, but not with this. A wonderful storytelling job, MortonGrange.

MortonGrange

Thank you for your contribution...you managed to retain my interest throughout each chapter. I especially enjoyed getting to know your characters. Please keep sending those pearls into the site

This was a well written story and your characters were believable. And they were consistent throughout - except Hazel.

Right after the very believable break up after the fountain fight, which WAS consistent with the Hazel character, she becomes this love-struck, homemaker anti-feminist. Jack, "the more experienced lover" manages accidently to get a university professor pregnant.

The character mix sounds all wrong however. Jack and Hazel are too set in their beliefs to last long. And of course Caroline is the irrepressible Scarlet O'Hara and Brighton is Tara.

Still it was a five star effort.

I like this story, and I love the way you've told it. I'll now try the rest of your stuff. Thanks.

Loved it!

The whole story had a very different feel to it compared to those written by American writers. A lot of the Britishness resonated through.

That Jack would end up with Hazel was interesting and I actually ended up liking her in the end, despite her initial depiction as a feminazi. To those saying that he was setting himself up for more trouble with her, I don't agree. When she turned up with the rose, she was basically casting aside her man-hating ways, recognising that she'd fallen in love with him.

When she sleeps with Jack the first time, he says the following:

"despite her feminist zeal she's content for him to be the man of action while she lies back and takes it."

Which hints at natural submissiveness and she also responded to the 'caveman kiss' much earlier in the relationship. She was good with his kids and they immediately liked her, showing that she'd make a good mother. Hazel even says that her body knows what it wants, it's just her mind that's untrustworthy. Her getting pregnant was no accident, she was eagerly embracing a traditional maternal role.

As for the ex-wife, she was clearly delusional and monumentally self-centred. It was satisfying to see her finally realise that she was solely to blame for totally destroying her previous happy life.

Very good. Your writing reminds me of Ian McEwan especially the last few pages of On Chesil Beach where the male protagonist realizes, too late, how hubris and blindness lost them everything and they wonder how they let it all slip away!

A well written and engaging story about people who it's very hard to like. Caroline is naive, selfish and self delusional and she's far and away the most likable of the bunch. Her lover is a complete egocentric dick and I've known cabbages with more emotional depth than her husband, Jack.

I'm sure people like the characters in this tale must exist but they make exceedingly dull subjects for romantic tales. I found the children's almost non-response to their parents' separation barely credible and Jack's petty revenge and bizarre psychological warfare both infantile and a callous disregard for his children's emotional well-being. Just divorce the woman if you can't forgive her.

Caroline, for all her many faults, showed at least some capacity for human warmth and compassion, unlike hubby and lover boy, and I can't avoid the conclusion that she is well rid of both of them.

LA

Chur bro awesome story

Very interesting story. I think everyone ended up just where they should have. Caroline was a self absorbed idiot who totally deserved the loss of her family. The very British tone of story was a little difficult to follow , but still worth reading.

caroline and her lover did deserve each other.

great story.

What a well-crafted story!

I found Caroline hard to stomach, accept or even believe as a character.

She was so out of touch with reality. Are there people so delusional in the real world. If so I lead a charmed life never having met anyone like that.

That being said I was in for the long haul and thoroughly enjoyed the tale.

I find Caroline pretty believable .... at least in respect of trying to run a secret life in parallel with a public one. The notion of persuading a husband to accept the affair once the secret is out is a little unrealistic, but honestly some husbands (and wives for that matter) have waited for affairs to run their course, as they generally do.

I rate the story 5. Because of its fluent, grammatical, writing. Because of its complex characterization, and well-worked out plot lines. Because it is, to a fair degree, plausible. Because it is an honest exploration of a difficult situation.

Not a great literary work. But head and shoulders above most of the simplistic ill-spelled ungrammatical stuff one finds here.

Gerontius

It would have to be a fluke. You can't fix terminal stupidity.

My ex was smart enough to know that she was toast when I found out that she'd been fucking one of her old boyfriends while I was recovering from surgery and injuries I'd received in a serious auto accident. When I found out, stood up and looked at her, she leaned so far back in the kitchen chair she was sitting in that she went ass-over-tea-kettle.

I didn't say a word.... just pointed at the door. I think she saw the Grim Reaper on my face because she couldn't get to it fast enough.

Her clothes and everything that was hers was in a pile on the porch when she came back with her brothers the next day. Her key didn't work. She didn't knock or ring the doorbell. She was crying her heart out as her brothers scooped her shit into their car and they left. She never knew that I was crying mine out, too.

Only a fool or a fucking idiot would give a poisonous snake a chance to bite him again. She knew that I was neither.

Clearly, when it came to picking women, he was a complete fuck up.

Fascinating page turner though.

Very talented. 5

Well done.

I was worried about '4 chapters,' but you managed to sustain 'it' throughout. I do admit that I loath cuckold tales, but I persevered (as did you).

I have decided as a character that Jack in the end is a total train crash. First wife was a selfish slut. Second wife a feminist. Sheesh did Jack get dropped on his head at birth?

Your a wizard with words. In today's society, especially in academia that is the reality of today's single male. How you protrayed it to be somewhat optimistically is a marvel in it's self. The hero of your story is truly a super hero. Unfortunately in the back of my mind i keep hearing the words "Once more unto breach, my friends, once more."

A humanities professor dedicated to proving men are the problem. The cheater might have been better.

Love can be a bad drug for some people and make them do things they would never have thought in a million years they would do.

It just blew me away that she completely ignored in her mode what the institution of marriage means not to mention what he vowels to her marriage meant.

What surprised me is that there was no mention of professional marriage counseling what so ever. I mean it was apparent she thought it was completely acceptable to maintain her marriage and be a wife and mother while having a lover on the side. I mean that alone is just twisted how she just thought he husband should be 9k with it.

On the other hand I don't agree with his whole way of how he handled it. It was what I would call passive aggressive submission in certain ways. It did make for interesting reading to say the least because it was so out of the norm. But in the end I can see who karma came for her in 10 fold. I enjoy reading some of these stories to a point where it's more of a fantasy story and not very realistic in the real world. I mean there way be a few out there who would play out the situation like this if the wife wanted to turn her husband into a cuckold and yes there are men who would allow it for the sake of trying to hold on to whatever part of there marriage they could. Just not my cup of tea you could say. But again it was an interesting read.

Loved the series and I liked how Jack wasn't going to do the RAAC thing. However, in the beginning I wonder why he waited so long to confront her and why the divorce was so long coming? Then Hazel.... Man how do you even get close enough to fall involve with a man hater? Feminist is one thing but she was over the top.

The story ass a whole sucked

The last sentence reminds me of a line from HHGTTG where the young woman sat in a cafe finally understood christs message and knew how to spread so that people would understand and take on board.

As she rushed out of the cafe, the Vogons destroyed Earth.

Despite the happiness of Jack, Hazel and the kids at the end, there was no upbeat to this story, it sits under a heavy air of melancholy. Maybe it just feels too much like the shit they call real life...

Well written, but overall very sad story of a woman you had everything and even after she lost it all took an age to actually realise she was in the wrong the whole time. And even seeing she had been a cheating bitch and shat all over her family, I was left with the feeling that I hope she found happiness.

Thank you

actually feel sorry for conceited people when they lose, just the same way when some superhero kills an old villain. Except that Caroline is no villain; she is a good girl who doesn't know she can be good; just selfish and it got the better of her; she thought her husband is helpless she is too good to be thrown away. The last two pages of this story I think are the best I've ever read on this site. Uncomplicated tears of self-pity; what a gem? Every little thing that happens when children are involved post divorce hurts major time, especially when the wife realizes her follies.

It just wasn’t enough. When Caroline finally got her comeuppance it made me almost feel a little twinge of sympathy for her. Key word being “almost”. It’s just hard for me to believe that a grown woman could do something so destructive to her family and still be so clueless about the damage she caused. Reading this story was like watching a faithful old pet die: Painful as hell and you’re just glad glad when it’s over.

After all Caroline's been through and suffered while becoming self aware, seems she now has a shot at becoming a decent wife. Hazel on the other hand is a deranged college professor women's studies whacko who shouldn't be trusted with anyone's children. MC has fucked up twice now. I've got a buddy like this. Can't pick women for shit. His daddy is the same way.

a helluva story by a talented writer.

I rarely comment but this story compels me to compliment you for the depth, emotion and impact of your writing. So many stories on this site are predictable and formulaic in reducing relationships to cartoonish versions of reality. You have a gift in drawing in a reader to connect with the characters (even when not likeable) in all their imperfection and complexity. Hope you will continue to share your unique talent.

...best story on the literotica site. Realism abounds in the plot and in the characterization. Five stars! Easily!

I agree with all of the recent favorable comments. Further, regardless of viewpoint, Caroline’s or Jack’s, one cannot help being touched by their circumstances. Although much of the time Caroline seems to be a path to destruction, with only the most tenuous grip on reality.

would say Jack ran away. I disagree. Life goes on so he let the lies that she believe destroy her lie. Bravo!

Nice job. Jack displayed strength and dignity throughout, prioritized his children, yet went after what he wanted. Caroline remained in denial far too long, convinced that she’d done nothing wrong.

Enjoyed your story.

Wonderful story

I was the one that fund the first installment too wordy and long, but I found the rest of the story had a better pace for me. Nicely done.

she got what she deserved no sympathy behaved like an airhead more please