All Comments on 'Devotion and Duty'

So are we supposed to feel sorry for the lying whore who thought her selfish wants were more important than her husbands or sisters needs?

James was a disgusting bastard whose place is in hell. But Jessica is not a victim, she began an affair voluntarily while her husband fought for his homeland. She was a hypocritical, promiscuous whore, her place in hell with her lover.

1*

She isnt a saint dont care how u word it she is a cheating bitch that got what she deserved a long painful death

Problem with having the bulk of the story in letter form and formatting it accordingly is that italicised text is a pain to read when there's this much of it. Not to mention it feels a little off to have this much exposition in the letter itself.

The asshole deserves to disappear.

*****Good love story very refreshing storyline something different. Thanks for sharing.

They should both go shit on her grave....

nicely written cowards way out. Why didn't you tell them while she was still alive,,,,,

Finish the story

It was one well written story.

But I don't find it poignant or romantic.

Beneath the facade of this being a happy love story I instead find this a despicable horrible story of a conniving lying cruel cheater. At the end the selfish female manipulated her sister and husband to come together in the hope that would salve her guilt and sins against the two.

/

I have no emphaty with the selfish cruel cheater. She didn't make it right by telling them her story probably hoping for forgiveness but laid out instead her cruelest act telling them what she enjoyed doing behind their back. The manipulating cheater had the last smile. Hope she is in hell to wipe that smile.

/

Though this was well-writen but I do consider this a cuck story.

I hate cuck stories.

I fell asleep, what happened?

Jessica was a cheating cunt, who hurt a lot of people because of her weakness and cowardice.

I would not forgive the cheating slut. She died hard and she deserved it. Her guilt insured that. What a bitch!!!!

Nice story

Not sure I would forgive a wife that cheated through most of Our marriage and confessed only in death as the confession would only serve to hurt me. I would probably blame the sisters-in-law for bringing the asshole my wife cheated with back into her life and have to cut all ties.

Okay, I haven't read the letters yet, but I HATE confessions from beyond the grave. If you can't bear to confess while you're alive, then take the secret(s) with you to the grave.

\

"people who we both care about who would have been hurt by my selfish need to purge my conscience" - So why hurt them now?

I like reading stories with no more than three pages long.

I guessed over 75% of your story half way through page one when you said Frank and Victoria.

Sorry a story has a beginning a middle and a end.

Your story is nothing less than one of those TO BE CONTINUED.

Sorry I don't that type of story. LIKE ALL THE OTHER I.E. CHAPTER 1 TO WHAT EVER.

I FIND THEM BORING.

So no marks.

good story but no way could I forgive her and shame on him for assuming he affair and sleeping around. Confront her first.

What utter crap

The letters to me was just throwing it in their faces after she was dead. No other reason to write them and NO it wasn't so she could relieve her burden before she died by writing them. It was just more cruelty on her slutty ass.

This POS could have been over in 1 page... 1*

"The sister and the husband took their individual envelopes" -Why not say "Victoria and Frank?" We've already been introduced to them.

Good Lord, what next?

Carry on, good, good, wonderful

The story and the content are interesting and well told, but there are assessments that I can't get along with! The statement: "James had put Jessica in an intolerable position" is not okay. Jessica allowed herself to be seduced even though she was married and her husband fought overseas for the country, she cheated on him voluntarily. I assume he was a soldier before they got married, so she knew what she was getting into. PTSD is a terrible thing and the soldiers were mostly left with it. However, there is a regulation that makes sex with a comrade's wife a criminal offense. The fact that he had sex with the wives of his comrades after his return is unforgivable. The only real duped is Victoria, she is just the victim. The fact that he now has her as a partner only applies until he dies of cancer. If his wife had to pay for her sins, so did he, hopefully!

Some parts of the letters were really powerful, bringing me tears at times. You did a good job presenting a terrible situation, shedding some light on the suffering of veterans from unseen wounds, and presenting cast of flawed characters that were believable. 5*

That wife was trash

First of all, I LOVE your writing. However..... what was this: "Don't miss your next bedtime story - A Northern Welcome"? An advertisement at the end of your story? Copy/Pasta inadvertently included? Or, was this some attempt on Victoria's part to make Frank think she left some cheesy writing project? I liked the story up until that rather dodgy ending, now I'm wallowing in a bit of cognitive dissonance.

FYI, Gulf War Syndrome is not PTSD. It's a physical ailment related to long term exposure to a small amount of a nerve agent.

A powerful story well told.

PTSD has been the term for an official psychiatric diagnosis since 1980, long before any of the Gulf Wars. Before that it was called shell shock or combat fatigue.

Gulf War Syndrome is something completely different that has afflicted many, many combat veterans a deployed thirty years ago in the first Gulf War. It’s suspected to be a result of exposure to something released in the environment then.

Really didnt get pulled into this one. Even though of it felt real enough emotionally no one gave me the impression that they were worth more than something you scrape off your shoe.

Gulf War syndrome is far different than Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. GWS comes from something soldiers were exposed to in Iraq while PTSD is a stress induced mental condition experienced by soldiers in every war (and other scenarios by anyone in really shitty conditions). Good story though and parts were very emotional.

I liked it. I probable would have loved it but the things the brother-in-law blackmailed her onto doing was just a little over the top. At least that was my take on it. I felt like it was just to much and was written just for the shock value. Otherwise a very good story showing a number of failings and frailty of human beings. I also have a little trouble since I'm American and a different form of English, or as we say American. Thank you.

Damn

Hard to figure this out. No revenge because both cheaters are dead. The guy was a filthy prick but the sister was a cheating whore. The fact that both are dead doesn't help the tale. How do the survivors deal with this? I haven't got a clue. I never admitted that before. I have no clue. I'll leave it like that.

I've come to understand that we military people and our families have nothing to apologise or explain to you civilians. You will never understand us, our pains and nightmares, nor will you understand the rough lives of our spouses and children.

A few of you get parts of it. But having never lived it, you run your mouths and pass judgement on people who have suffered.

5* from me.

To the spiteful anon who gave you 1* and bragged about it. "Fuck you, you stupid small dicked twat. The story was great."

Taking my PTSD out on the LW Taliban. They are so quick to judge, aren't they.

What is that word I am looking for?...hmm Oh yeah! Melodrama! This reads like a 1940s British melodrama. All it needed was a butler!

I’ve already told my wife not to leave me any letter to “ make peace and ask for forgiveness.” I told her I wouldn’t read it, and would hope she burned in hell. If she had something to confess then be adult enough to do it face to face. That being said it was a great story!

Damn fucking dark. Depressing as watching The English Patient.

vile stupid boring non erotic and frankly offensive

WTF! Jessica is a cunt. What goodness of any kind did she ever believe could from writing those letters? She simply wanted to push her pain and burden onto else. Proving again that shitty wives will not only tear out your heart while they are alive, but then they will come back at least one more time to stomp on your nuts “from the grave”.

Excellent story, thank you.

Now why did I think halfway in the reading of this story that the writer defiantly had to be female! And LO ...when I checked it was a female writer...

Most of the female writers have this amazing vision that it’s ok to have an affair ...most are really pathetic in their thoughts...their ego and vanity trump common sense most times...and the they end up blaming the guys pride!!! So pitiful ...and the same is the present story... and xcuses excuses ...excuses for why she was forced to spread first time ...why the second time ...it’s never her fault...it’s always circumstances !! I almost want to puke !!

She was not being "loving" by not confessing her affair to her husband at all. Had James not had that accident and become paralysed she would have carried on her affair. Where's love in this? Had she confessed it all to her husband in the first place her husband would have been able to make a choice, maybe he would've stayed with her. But no she didn't do that. She rather wanted to have sex with her "molestor" over and over again. That's not love, that's selfishness. 1 star from me.

I don't see the point of confessing at the end. She only caused more pain. **

Unhappiness all round. I need something to cheer me up.

Jessica’s cheating, blackmail, revenge, confession made an incredibly good story. I would give the story 5-stars if the frame presenting the story wasn’t so ugly.

Since I lived through the timeframe of the body of the story, the HUGE inaccuracies really stand out. I suppose it like my father seeing WWII and Vietnam War movies and seeing artistic license after artistic license being taken with historical fact.

First of all PTSD started to be used by therapists in the early 1980s, and had entered popular lexicon by the 1990s. So the whole thing about PTSD MIGHT have been effective if you were talking about the Gulf War (1991), which for the bulk of the military, lasted less than a year. And the actually fighting lasted weeks. There were few if any “second tours” of Iraq at that time. So if Frank had comeback from that war, and PTSD was just being “created” you might have a leg to stand on. But since it’s obvious you mean the second Iraq War, your use of that of PTSD as some brand new thing is way off. So you’re wrong about PTSD use or you’re wrong about which war Frank was involved in. And since so much of the story is framed with when PTSD started to be used in civilian lexicon AND ALSO which war Frank was involved with, having those two facts wrong really makes reading beyond that difficult. But I’m glad I did

Same thing with reference to the internet. If Frank had been the 1991 war, yes the www/internet were just being created for commercial use. But by 2003 it was very well established. So again, either Frank was in Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom, over 10 years apart. And since you refer to a “second tour” you are probably referring to the later.

BUT...

The actual skeleton of the story was really well done. The storyline itself is a very very common one, but your use of posthumous letters was a nice and refreshing twist. And the best twist was Jessica getting James to commit suicide. It very rare in LW stories, and when it is its very very rare (I can only think of one other story) that we get to see the goading. And nice consideration with how James got the pills. The whole suicide scene is genius.

Very well crafted. 5 stars

I thought it a good story, well told in the letters. But I hate stories of deathbed confession, or confessions from beyond the grave. The cheating bitch betrayed her soldier husband and her sister. She started it willingly, and then started again. James was an immoral bastard, but she was a cheating whore. They can resume their affair when they are reunited in hell.

" And you have to forgive her, just as I forgive her." Lol, isn't that utterly cruel & selfish? Well at least the cancer was impartial & fair.

Sorry but l'm awarding it 1 star. Not hiding behind anon.

Liked it , well done . Me personally I’d have an extraordinary hate for her even in her death. I assume they had no kids as none are mentioned. Is he to old will the sis have one with him she is much younger? I believe he will have some hate for her after he hears the letter to the sis. He can forgive and still hate and it easy because she is not alive in his face. My suggestion if I were the sis would be to make a passionate love with him first, then through the night then read the letter in the morning . The hate for his bro inlaw will be huge and I’d think about finding that guy who filmed them if I were him because it was blackmailing even if she started to enjoy the sex part of it, . I think I read that sometimes woman who get raped have a guilt because maybe they orgazam or get wet and the lowlife uses that against them while he ruined there life . I also remember a story on the news how one woman was beat and raped but she belittled him as he did it . She attacked him psychologically which helped her endure and she felt made him feel low . Her thoughts as they found him apparently that night over dosed , karma bites in a good way sometimes

The only bright spot in this story is that Victoria made the right choice by sharing the complete contents of Jessica's letter with Frank. If she withholds even a tiny bit of the full story, She'll lose Frank for good. I say this, because if I were Frank I'd dump her in a heartbeat if she'd refuse to come clean. He deserves the full story and thankfully Victoria seems to be doing the right thing. Since the story ends here, I guess we just have to assume that she'll actually do right by Frank.

If Jessica had kept her wedding vows she would not have found herself in her situation. She should have confessed all and accept the consequences. Forgiven is only possible with confession. She got herself into the mess she was in and the longer she stayed, for whatever her "self-sacrificing" reasons, the worse the situation became. She took the cowards way out.

-

Pasqual

⭐

Bottom line is it's a shit story, a cowardly slut-cunt delivering more pain to people she supposedly loved. She's no better than her brother in law she was fucking.

If there's such thing as a Hell, she should be getting raped with baseball bats with 10 grit sandpaper wrapped around them. So 1 star from me, and if that cum guzzling queen Kalimaxos wants to bitch about it, come get some...

A well written but very sad story. For the record I think Jessica is a hero.

Why did the slut need to tell her PTSD afflicted husband and widowed sister anything about her history with James? Why not simply write them both explaining that it is obvious they have feelings for each other and they have her blessing and encouragement to become a couple if that is where exploration of their feelings leads? There was no benefit to anyone in dredging up a sordid history that was better left dead and buried.

The only thing they can do is to forget about keeping ANY of her stuff and sending the lot of it to the dump, especially any photos with her in them. That and never again visit her grave.

I think you have a service background - either "wife of" (a hateful term, hopefully passed into history) or actual service.

A very interesting and disturbing story

... that almost every Commenter here thinks Jessica and James should be burned at the stake yet not one of them mentions what a complete dick head Frank is. Convenient how you all just overlook the fact that this useless prick was fucking whores and the wives of other servicemen who were out of the country. And, no, the fact that he had PTSD and SUSPECTED his wife was cheating is NOT an excuse. He's a hypocritical asshole and the first time he stuck his worthless dick inside another Army wife he lost all credibility. Funny how no one else mentions that. Guess it's more fun to talk about how much worse Jessica allegedly was.

Long story short, there's no good characters in this story except Victoria. She should run away fast, take her children and find a REAL man to marry. Not this disrespectful, hypocritical slob.

No

Been around a long time

Combat fatigue, Shell shock, General Patton (shit head)

Slapped one during visit to hospital WWll.

PTSD finally got more credence with Vietnam.

Family members I knew/know from WWll, Korea, Vietnam (included myself), Afghanistan, and Iraq. Panama, Nicaragua,etc etc.

Some had and some still have.

Some deal with it even if it means sleeping in different bedroom (due to waking up violently) But handle waking moments with family or leave them. Number left. Quit reading as soon as death letter started to be read. Don't Need to hear sorry excuses from either side. Have enough acquaintances pull that shit. Not psychologist or psychiatrist (have classmates who are) but deal with it or leave and play whatever. Older in Vietnam (21) One 19 the others 18. WAR IS HEL as said by many. Firmly believe in mandatory service for all as Switzerland etc and no congressman should be allowed to vote for conflicts unless they have served.

Dont put ads for your next story at the end of others. It is distracting and annoying to the reader.