Consequences Pt. 11H

Consequences Saga Part 11H: Retribution.

A Different Way of Life

Tags: Cheating Wives; Revenge; Coupling; Relationships

For the list of Characters fast forward to the end.

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Retribution - David

It was while I was later going through my laptop pulling together what we had before meeting with Rose again later that week, that I came across the Olivia file on my desktop and it wasn't long into the running before I spotted who the guy was and my blood went cold. I made a few phone calls to people who I knew didn't like this person. In fact, hate was probably nearer the mark.

By the first day back in the office I had made my plans, they would be reactionary because we didn't know where the man was so I needed Olivia's help without asking her for it. First I placed a picture of her riding her 'friend' on my desktop ready to become the background, then I waited. She had said she had put together some proposals for me to look over. When she came in that morning I asked her to copy them onto my laptop. She looked at me very strangely which was understandable because I had never asked her to do such a thing before but she said she would. I watched her from the copy machine as she went into my office and then I quickly walked over to listen at the door to a one sided telephone conversation that was inevitable

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Olivia: Her end of a brief phone conversation

"Hello, it's me"

"David has found out about you and made sure I know, you better get your stuff out fast."

"Where are you then?"

"So that's half an hour away, maybe more?"

"OK look if you don't want to end up in hospital I suggest you get there as fast as you can and then disappear from the area."

"What's that? yes there were pictures in the newspapers."

"Yes I did tell you, the Friday we went to the restaurant."

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David

I headed out to the hallway and started dialling. "He is on his way to the flat now, you have half an hour, send someone here to collect the key." I listened while the address was read back to me and then dropped a hint that there was a large Dildo in the bedside table that would fit painfully up his posterior if not lubricated. I heard laughter as I disconnected to relay the same message again to all the aggrieved people who had been waiting for such a day. Now I would make sure that my presence was noticed by as many people as possible.

Back in my office I greeted Olivia who looked somewhat green around the gills, she dashed out as I went in. On returning I asked casually, "Morning sickness?" but didn't wait for a reply. I pulled my laptop around and indicated for her to sit down. I noticed the folder had been deleted and the background was reverting to its usual landscape photo. "I hope he was worth it" I said as casually as I could.

"So, so, I've had better," she brazened it out.

"Well it's your body, everyone else has had it so why not scum like him too?" Then a possibility hit me, "Wait no, he already had hadn't he and that's his baby isn't it?" She started to deny it but quickly realised her word was worthless. "So many damned lies, after a while one forgets previous lies and they pile one on top of one another so that nothing is believable anymore."

I took a deep breath, this rant achieved nothing so I tried to concentrate on work. I looked at the map that Olivia had provided me with, it was good, locations flagged at suitable distances that would give us focus for our location search. I shook my head at the waste of a good mind in her perpetual lust.

I looked at her sadly, questions running through my head, why did you do it? How did you know him? How do you know where he was? But did I really want to know? In the end I just said, "This is fantastic. I'm going to the bar, you can do whatever you damn well like," and I went out to find Rachel and the others announcing that we were closing the office for 2 hours today to go and celebrate the completion of our first big project. Michael scowled at me when I put my head in his doorway but I noticed he came with us without complaint. As we all left I noticed Olivia still sitting at my desk but she was writing in her notebook.

She didn't join us at first and I began to worry that she was speeding home to spoil our plans but then she came in carrying her notebook. Someone in our party asked her what she wanted to drink and she gave her order so I assumed that she was staying at least long enough, then I looked at her and I saw a little turn up of her mouth. I did a quick rethink about today's plan, it was all there, no errors that I could think of. She must have been watching my face and she looked very pleased with herself. Then all at once I knew and I walked over to her. "You set him up didn't you?" She smiled, very pleased with herself.

She held her notebook up, "it's all in here," she said looking pleased with herself and offered it to me. "For you, all the honesty I can give."

"I don't want it," I said, "it is supposed to be for your therapy not mine."

"It's not what you think, please read it, this is my notebook to you. If you read this and want to read my other notebook you can, but I think by then you will not want to."

"Should I ask you again about today or will it all be in here?"

"It's in there, you could have had him a week back but you were going away and since you were having fun I thought I might as well have some a bit longer too, what's good for the goose and all that."

"I think you're manipulating the facts a bit there, when did you put the camera on the wall?"

"I ordered it when Peter got in touch with me and I decided on this plan to rub your nose in it."

"So I was right, you do hate me." I said with as much venom as I could muster."

"No, it's how you make me feel about myself, it's in there."

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The Confession

I flipped open the first page and read a heading

'David, I am a nasty conniving lying slut.'

I write this now as my confession but before you start I want to tell you a summary. I have been able to do this through your hard work looking into my background, and because you gave me the idea of writing my history down at the right time. I am calmer at this moment perhaps more than at any time for a year or more. This is because inside me I feel like I have won even though I know that I am a loser. Bringing Peter back into my life feels like the ultimate insult, punishment, degradation or belittlement that I could put on you, call it what you like. So now as you read this you probably hate me, so I must tell you why.

I shall start at the beginning. I have always been highly motivated sexually or as men like to call it, a slut, men are allowed to be that way but women have been castigated for being what nature intended of us. However, this meant that from an early age I looked for sexual experience and because my family were strong on some things and not on others I was probably rebellious, that seems to be a part of my nature. Anyway you know much of what happened from then until you stole me away. The thing that has been hard to understand is why I changed and what made it possible. My conclusion is that we gave our lives purpose, But despite what you may suspect we were the perfect couple.

I had one or two temptations, I remember there was one with Shawn when without knowing you stopped something happening, but now as I write my memories I write how angry I felt at you for interrupting. It happened again another time, I won't mention the details here but I was just about to achieve a massive climax when you rang and left a message that told me how much you loved me and the hit of guilt totally wiped out the moment. If I was a nice reasonable person I would have blamed myself and not done it again but no I am a totally selfish slut and I blame it on you. I suppose you would like to know when that was, so I will keep you wondering but I am sure you wouldn't really like to know, after all I am just a dirty slut aren't I?

As a generalisation I would say that I began rebelling even more then, or soon after, but I began to subconsciously build up this demon character who was a complete contrast to how I knew I should be. I must say you have fought well in stopping my downward spiral and the vendetta started to make me think. The trouble is that the more that you are you, a very caring, loving, sexy, wonderful man the more I feel guilt and shame and the more my inner self rebels. I think you began to fall out of love with me as my transgressions became worse and that was reasonable given my behaviour, but that doesn't satisfy my demon side either because who do I rebel against if not you?

As Winston Churchill once said, I am a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In those special moments when I haven't been fighting you, the love that you give me is so special that I feel that I don't deserve to live. I really mean it when I tell you that I adore and love you, without you my world would be nothing, so you see I am my own worst enemy.

Last week you gave me something that suddenly gave me a purpose, something that took me away from my obsessions and straight away I wanted rid of your nemesis from my life and I started frightening him with stories of what you do to people who mess with me. Then it was the weekend and by Tuesday you were gone so I waited. Despite my sex controlled self, I hate that man and each day I tried to abuse his self-styled idea of what a man should be; he doesn't even enjoy sex I don't think. It is just his way of having power over women and I was his revenge on you for taking Ana and forcing him to change his life.

I want you to trust me with the development project but I don't know what I have to offer you for your trust. I will not offer you another worthless apology as I am sure you are tired of my worthless apologies. I have exchanged all honour and love for random sex and the destruction of your self-respect. I throw myself upon you to ask that you will let me have this one chance and if I fail you I will sign a divorce then sign myself into an institution forthwith.

At that, David didn't bother to check for anymore, he didn't need to, he had heard pretty much all he needed by now and nothing surprised him anymore, he supposed that it was the last nails in the coffin and as he stood on the periphery of the lunchtime crowd he began to think rationally. The decision was, did he need Olivia on the team or not and if he included her could he stand to have her around? This was not something for rash decision making. He decided to talk to some other people to try and see if their opinions would help him clarify. He decided to talk to Michael first then changed his mind and decided to make an appointment to see Angela but then wondered if that idea was pointless, but he had nothing to lose. Then he decided to talk to his closest confidants, the ladies who had committed to him and some of those who hadn't.

He re-joined the others and Olivia looked at him questioningly, he didn't respond and tried to join the general conversation. When he got back to the office he rang Angela's office first and asked the receptionist to speak to Angela and say that he wanted to obtain an opinion from her and that it would be likely that he would never have to talk to her again. He decided then that he should tell Olivia that he would be showing her notebook to Angela and to some of the women then possibly her parents, and if she had any objections she should say now. A message came back saying that she could understand that he would want to show Angela but preferred that he did not show the others as she may have to deal with them in the long term. He could see the logic of that so decided he would see how he felt after talking to Angela.

Despite their last interaction, Angela made time for him after hours and he handed her the notebook to read first, saying that he had Olivia's agreement to show it to her and he showed her the message. She raised her eyebrow at first wondering how much of this book was full but he assured her that it wasn't by any means, well, so far as he had read anyway. "You can stop after she makes a request of me, I couldn't read anymore." Angela read and a cloud gradually grew over her until she closed the book with a deep sigh. She asked who the man was that Olivia referred to and as he answered, she continued to look very unhappy, especially when he added that the man was possibly the father of Olivia's child.

She said, "I suppose you want my opinion, so fire away with your question? I will answer the best I can as long as it doesn't breach my privacy commitment to my patient."

"I have to decide whether my business needs her and if it does whether I can bear to be in her company? Before I can even begin to decide, the big question is what can I trust?"

Angela thought for a minute and then replied, "In a way I don't find any surprises in what she said, her admittance to certain things must have been very hard on you and I felt at one point she was trying to influence you against what she was about to ask. Why tell you even worse things then ask you for a great favour? If favour is the right word. I feel that I need to give this more thought and see her again, is there any time pressure on this?"

"I suppose only my peace of mind."

"Would you mind if I copy the notebook?"

David took it back from her and looked at the sections they hadn't read. "I would ask you one favour" She nodded "Would you read the rest of it and let me know if there is anything else that I really need to know in this context."

She thought for a moment, she knew she owed this man and perhaps this was her chance to make some amends. "I will, but I want you to know that I think I am treading on dangerous ground. I have the note that you asked Olivia before you showed this to me but for peace of mind I will double check."

David sent Olivia a message explaining that he had only read up until her request but he wanted Angela to see all of it and advise him if there is anything he needed to know in order to make a decision.

She came back quickly saying that she didn't think there was anything more in the remainder that Angela couldn't read. Then David wanted to ask, 'Why did you tell me things that you know might upset me more than ever, if you knew you were going to ask me for something big?' Angela agreed with the message so he sent it.

The answer also came back quickly, 'I am trying to show you that I can be completely honest no matter what the cost.'

David showed the reply to Angela and shook his head saying, "I do not believe her."

"I can understand why you wouldn't, I can't offer any reason why you should."

He began to type again 'The point is that anyone who can be so callous and unfeeling would not hesitate to lie and scheme, you did not need to put those details there, they could have been added in the section after.'

"What do you think? Angela." He said, showing her his phone.

She thought for a moment, "I want to suggest something to you, I am sure that dealing with this issue now is rubbing salt into the wound so I am going to suggest you shelve it for the moment. I have a proposal that we might try, give me some time to absorb this and put together some questions. Then I propose that we bring in a rather good hypnotist I know. In addition there are some very good lie detection systems available these days, we know how devious Olivia can be so she might try to confuse the hypnotism but if we can test her at the same time we might be able to get somewhere. I know it's expensive but as a further precaution I think we should get another analyst that she doesn't know to either watch proceedings or take over my role at the last minute. Olivia is an extremely bright person so she will be expecting something and I think we have to build precaution upon precaution."

She continued, "I think the plan should be to continue her appointments while I arrange the specialists. I think you should be up front by telling her that you are bringing in another specialist who may be a hypnotist. I cannot break my commitment so it may be that it is better if someone else asks the questions, we can discuss that and the questions nearer the time. Something has occurred to me though that I will say completely off the record, there is an option that we aren't considering and that is she wants you to say no. That is something you must think about."

That last thought worried David more than anything else and he decided to hide his thoughts for the moment merely saying, "You could be right, I will think about it."

Collecting the copies he wanted they agreed to speak again when she was ready and he headed out. In the car David decided to see if Aleesha would see him but he decided not to phone, in fact he decided it was time he became a lot more careful so he headed for her home. And left any electrical item in his car.

Aleesha was of course very surprised to see him and her first thought was something bad had happened. "If your boy can spare you a moment I would like to have a chat and he pointed outside," he whispered into her ear close to the loud TV.

Quickly he outlined what was happening and his suspicions, finishing on the final thought that she might want him to say no and all the possible ramifications of that, then his own sudden idea that she might be playing him at his own game. If there is someone who she has got close to that could betray me I am wondering what damage could be done, and he suggested his lawyer as one who might be aggrieved that Louise had joined the Retreat. At first he could see that she thought that he was being over-dramatic but as it got towards the end she started to see possibilities. "What could your Lawyer do to you David?"

"Well he was supposed to have set everything up so that the business is run as a Company where we are equal shareholders and there are a few shares with Monica and Michael. Everything is supposed to be set up equal but unbreakable in the event of a divorce or separation under whatever circumstances."

"And the development company?"

"Well that's in the name of the major shareholders of which I am one, my father and Jane's father are the other major shareholders but there are changes in the shareholding set-up in progress so that others can buy in."

"This all sounds complicated David and beyond my full understanding, but I think you should start making any enquiries immediately, I suggest you have your father go into the Lawyers office with authorities from you, one to read any of the documents appertaining to you and your business and a stinger that gives him the right to remove all documentation."

"That sounds like good advice Aleesha, I shall move on it immediately. Do you think I could use your phone in a moment?"

"No problem, so what else would you have of me?"

"I wish you were asking that at another time." he huffed.

She smiled indulgently.

"I need to get rid of everything that someone might use against me, I need equipment and I need a different kind of surveillance, something more significant than placing cameras in her flat. I think she is going to be wary of anything she thinks I know about but I think we ought to monitor the office and our car park. There's cameras all over our old house so I need to do something different there that can't be copied. You can start by getting me a burner phone and a laptop, bug the new Retreat by all means and anywhere else that comes up on her radar, particularly anything in her past. Please update the list of previous acquaintances, there was a new man at the wedding who has gone off the radar. You'll find some of them won't be happy that they had to leave town."