All Comments on 'Erasing Julie Ch. 03'

This was a very interesting concept that was way too short. The climax was rushed and the amazing potential to read about what Gus talked about during therapy to get to the release point was skipped over. This could have been so much better

Or wrote this story after having a wet dream (with two Hollywood Director and Producer, where he accepted as the Screen Writer for a shitty Chick Flick, for the wonderful service he provided. So he tried, sometimes dreams come true, right?). Anybody from Hollywood reading this story? What are you waiting for? Chicks all over the world are gonna go crazy...

...Was that he was a wimp. All the bravado of "erasing" his cheating wife from his life and refusing to have any contact with her was really his way of running away from her, what now seems to him to be ghosts and reincarnations is really his continued suffering at her hands. She's still in his life because he never truly got over her, and it was totally avoidable, because everything he did to her he could just as easily have done in person.

Never run away from a cheater. Stand your ground, burn the cheater and be there to look her in the eye and gloat as she goes down in defeat. Only then will you be able to really let go of your suffering and let your hate resolve itself into indifference, which is really the true opposite of love.

chapter two was good. chapter three is sewage. this author has to be a certified

wacko.

1 star, only because can't give less

it was quirky, well written and unexpected- the bitch got burned, but she is going to get another crack at him- i like it when an author writes a story that doesn't fit in the typical template

Well done, I enjoyed this tale immensely although it dragged a bit in parts. I thought it was a clever idea & well written. # 5

This ending needs a definite rewrite? Anybody out there?

Great twist on including Julie's ghost. But the story feels incomplete. He does need to forgive, and perhaps an exchange between the two of them at the time of Gus' impending passing, would be a way to wrap it up.

You only can grasp the deeper meaning of the story if you understand the true meanig of foregiveness and karma.

Foregiveness has nothing to do with the offender, but only with the feelings of being misserable and hurt of the target of the abuse. As long as the "victim" hangs on to his negative feelings, he/she will be suffering. Foregiveness frees the victim of these negative emotion and removes the blockade, prohibitting to move on with your life. The offender may or may not care less. So with foregiveness you do only yourself a (big) favor.

The karma principle is nicely demonstrated here. In the long run every (emotional) debt has to be repaid, if not in this life then in another next one. The nasty consequence is that each next repeat gets more painful, until the life lesson is learned and you do it right around this time.

Very well done, for stars: 5 plus. Thank you.

Don't quit your day job.

Having her get killed feels like a cop out... like you suddenly felt like you couldn't write the end the way it should be written...

You took a woman who had few redeeming qualities for her husband and family and basically FORCED us as readers to accept their forgiveness of her.. forced THEM to forgive her... reality is they wouldn't have forgiven her for some time (since she made them unknowingly complicit in her affair) and she'd have had to do some major work in order to get their forgiveness...

Then you force HIM to react differently to her than she deserved... You turned what should have been a reasonable attempt to remove all traces of her from his life into an almost psychotic "Fuck you!" from him to her. Even the breaking everything and selling everything and showing her pictures of it wasn't unreasonable... it was a simple expression of what she had already done and making it manifest as well as making it clear how badly she had hurt him...

He could have and should have had the opportunity to heal from that - and you stole it from him. Tsk tsk...

Here are some off the wall thoughts.

1) Why is it unreasonable for her to desire a better life? If my cable provider was only giving me 70's soap opera reruns in the channel selection, would I be an evil person to want to switch providers?

Now, the moral issue is, she was illegally stealing the other channels! And that is something to be angry at. Men fall out of love. Women fall out of love. It is the circle of life. Some are able to rekindle it. Some don't want to bother.

So her motivation: "Gee, he has a bigger cock, a bigger bankroll, he does more interesting things, AND he is socially important." Why the fuck WOULDN'T she want to make it permanent? It actually speaks well of her that she tries to think through the ramifications of this because on it's face, it is an incredible no brainer!

The Mexican drug gang thing hides the fact that if Greg had NOT been a scumbag, she should have gone with him.

I don't mind the supernatural elements (much). I feel it hit us a bit out of left field. I wrote a story where the elements crept up on the reader (if they were paying attention) So it would be hypocritical to do so. I would mention that fucking Julie is now trying to drive a wedge between his daughter and Gus. When will she ever end? Why does she keep doubling down on this crap?

My original comments on her message about forgiveness are still, alas, germane. Forgiveness brought on by blackmail or force is not true forgiveness.

That being said, I would take it as a very good compliment that Katami was able to create such an engrossing and emotional build up in his story that people felt so let down. You raised the bar very high with each chapter. That you didn't clear the last bar does not remove what you accomplished in the first two.

She lied about not being able to lie and just continued from there. This is so bad and completely illogical even to its own internal logic. Another way of saying this is just full of plot holes. Try to keep internal consistency.

First of all, the ghost story line was too out there for me.

Why, once he had his "release", was she back haunting him again? Hasn't she made him suffer enough?

I have no problem with her timely (untimely?) death, but even without forgiving her, why not go to her death bed for the sake of the kids?

Why such a problem with the baby's name? Unless I missed something (quite possible!), his wife's name was Julie, not Juliette, and it's the baby's MIDDLE name in any case, which is rarely used.

.... until the posthumous bullshit towards the end.

It was certainly the end for me - thanks for wasting my time.

1/5 because I couldn't give it 0/5.

A good story totally fucked by a lousy ending!

These type stories want to push through the throat of the male readers the husbands have to swallow everything from the wives or exwives is mandatory against what the wives did. Yes there are life situation when the forgivinness may be a role (but not the reconcilliation) after the divorce when the ex husbands are the level of the neutrality to the ex wives, for example the ex husbands live with second wives in happy marriage with newer kids. However the forced forgivinness is not honest...........by suprenatural is mainly.

Duna

FD45 was very kind. I say let the bitch burn. I thought the insert when he pissed on her grave was cool. The story was OK until the psychobabble crap started. The utter disrespect and back stabbing shown by the slut earned her the end she received. Cheers! c29

is a hard man on allowing newcomers to cross. TK U MLJ LV NV

Call Sam and Dean Winchester......

Gus turned into a male version of Julie in that all that mattered was how he felt....and... you went into the eastern philosophy/karma bullshit. Yes, I said bullshit.I hate psychobabble even psychobabble thinly disguised as karmic debt.

You should have killed the story awhile back and not proceeded to the post-Julie death scenes.

2*

or at least as bad.

She's supposed to be his lover and friend, his wife and companion. And yet she lied to him for years, cheated and denigrated him. The only good thing she could think about him apparently is that he was faithful.

What she did was the equivalent of parking in a handicap zone or driving in a carpool lane by yourself or identity theft. She pretended to be a faithful wife and stole the life of the man who was faithful because that's what SHE wanted. But that was the only thing she wanted from him apparently. She said things about him, she thought things about him, she considered throwing way her whole life to be with a man who excited her but who she knew could not be faithful to her. The excitement and sex was more important than a lifetime of faithfulness.

Bizarre thing is, she was putting off answering him about leaving her husband for him because there was something she couldn't figure out. But that "something" was NOT whether he would cheat on her - she already knew he would - and it wasn't a deal breaker until later.

Maybe what she couldn't figure out was that she was a cheating bitch who was in the midst of destroying her marriage every time she saw him or thought about him or thought negatively about her husband.

"I made a mistake. Forgive me?"

"No."

"Please, forgive me?"

"I said no."

"Please please forgive me?"

"Hell no."

"Pretty please forgive me?"

"Well ok, since you asked so nice."

Bullshit.

You cheated us out of her suffering for her actions and made him have to suck it up "or else..."

And THEN?!? You saddle him with her again...? She failed to do the right thing and now SHE gets some form of do-over...?

Just ASKING a person to forgive you should not REQUIRE that person to do it. You want forgiveness from a person you should HAVE to do penance. She lied to him and cheated on him and humiliated him for years - the fact he just NOW found it out should have no beating on that - she used her children to allow her to cheat...

She should live a LONG time without ever being able to contact him and her children loving her - because she's their mom - but not liking her, trusting her, or forgiving her for many years for what she tricked them into doing.

what the author did cheated him worse than his wife did, I don't think that what she did was the equivalent of parking in a handicap zone. What she did with her infidelity and the manipulation of her children and husband was the equivalent of clubbing baby seals. Who do children trust the most in the world when they are growing up? Their mother of course. So she used that trust to club them in the head just as surely as if she actually had. Now, what she did to the husband was worse. All of their married life she looked on him as a loser in bed and only stayed with him because he was a faithful drone and a good worker bee. The fact that he was gone 7 weeks at a time is probably all that kept their marriage together as long as it did. She started to panic when he started talking about retiring to an even more boring existence, at least for her. If she had had any sense of honor or if she had cared for him just a bit more than as a safe harbor in her life then she would have divorced him sooner and let him move on. But he existed for her use and pleasure, not sexual of course. That was far worse than having a dick up her ass in Seattle.

The story was written well and had flashes of letting him have his balls back for a bit and that is the only reason I stayed with this saga. I kept waiting and hoping that the author would allow him to maintain a small iota of testosterone, but it was not meant to be. And that karma crap at the last was just out of the blue, nothing before had prepared us for that. We didn't know that either one of them believed in that so were unprepared. 2 stars because I didn't absolutely hate it.

Good read. This ghost shit was part of the story, but it screwed it up. Good writing, but unrealistic end. Cheers!

stupid fucking idiocy!!!!!!! divine retribution? ghosts? what a waste of time!!!

really? karma? he HAS to forgive her or she will keep haunting him? after all she had done, with not a hint of remorse? yeah, right! fuck you very much. 1*

Yes there is a Hell.

Yes there is a Heaven.

Get real! Ghosts? How many ghosts have you seen?

Parts 1 and 2 ok. But this part sucks!

After being accused of so many deus ex endings, this author signs off of Lit with a real ghost ending to drive the knuckle draggers insane.

Especially like the anony below insisting the ghosts aren't... can't be real because no one has seen one... but of course heaven and hell are.

A really good story until the ghost bit. Why?

it was going to be a schizophrenic thing like in Beautiful Mind where apparently real people keep on talking at the Russell Crowe character until banished; oh well, at least this was different.

Ghosts? Karma? Really. Bullshit!

and a metaphor, folks. Lighten up, it was both funny and revealing, a gentle poke pointing out the consequences of not letting the past go.

Do ghosts exist? Yes, just as much as any of the other fictional characters in this or any other story. Sheesh!

This is where the wheels came off for me. Combining a kidnapping, drug arrest, car accident, and a ghost in one story is simply doing too much. Brilliant start. Poor ending.

This author went too far in building a case for her infidelity. She wanted him back? Why on earth? That might be the hardest thing to buy in this tale.

Strange the way the mind works, isn't it? I can tell you from experience, that this can happen. My ex-wife had 4 separate affairs, one long-term. I divorced her. She wanted me back. Long after the divorce, she said "I thought you loved me, I thought you'd fight for me. I thought you would never go through with it". But I did, and now I'm married to a woman who can keep a job, helps out around the house, and who gave me 3 wonderful kids. And my ex is living in a run down crappy apartment, working the drive-thru at McDonalds at 50 years of age to pay the rent. Ah, Karma. How I love you.

'Guess other nonnies were looking for more erotica and less metaphysics, but I thought this was a great ending.

The only karma that occurred was the truck running over Julie! The ghost aspect was stupid. As a Scot, we take are hatred to the grave smiling. The doctor should never have taken his wife back after her affair. She never regretted her affair when she told her husband. Marriage is made up of love, respect and trust. If the marriage doesn't have respect then the marriage is fractured. Julie had no respect for Gus as she stated many times to her lover. Her ghost should never have appeared since she killed the marriage! Gus owed her nothing.

It started out great. I have to admit that the drug cartel/ghost thing didn't really float my boat. I thought the hook of erasing someone was more than enough. That being said, it was fantastically written, the pacing was spot-on and the characters were all true to life EXCEPT for when he made his daughter's wedding all about him. No bride would put up with that...:D

Five Stars

Chapter 1 - 5*, Excellent buildup, well told.

Chapter 2 - 4*, That drug business cartel stuff damaged the story.

Chapter 3 - 2*, ghosts, reincarnation...sci fi shit.

If karma in the story was real Julie would not be reincarnated as his granddaughter.

She would come back as a rat.

That is what happens to vile people.

Great story Katmai. And you got all the details right...except for City Diner. I think you have a hard on for Qwennie's. That's ok. Not the place it used to be.

You got it all right tho...sometimes your story bordered on the profundity of simplicity and often simplicity is never easy. Forgive...forget...release. None of them are easy. Your choice to chose and be happy is far easier said than done and sometimes the trauma of an event will simply not allow forgetfulness. PTSD for example. One can, with help and after a while become pretty functional. Forgiveness...? May often be easier to forgive others. Self forgives involving trauma can be way hard. Especially if one suffers a a psychotic break. Release does work some and does free one up to some degree.... but in the end it pops up from time to time and haunts. Time helps some but Shelly was wrong. It doesn't heal all wounds. I guess at best it makes them bearable...at least for a while.

I have become a big fan of yours. You write well with a good pace that builds. Wish I could do as well. 5*. 907 is a great place. You should have seen it 50 yrs ago!

Thought she was getting just deserts. Never like people like Julie or Greg so find these such stories only worth while when they are humiliated and broken

Facebook profile of dearbornmt@yahoo.com serial cheating wife like Julie

Except her husband stays with her

You had a great story in part 1. Part 2 was far fetched, but still OK. This one jumped the shark. It wasn't terrible, I just didn't feel it belonged with the other 2,. Thanks for the story.

This one lost me when the dead wife's ghost popped up in the car and told her (ex)?

husband he wouldn't live to see his second grandchild unless he forgave her. That's when I realized how much time I had wasted reading a story that turned into a big

steaming load. I promise never to click on anything again that has this author's name

on it. 1 star.

It's laudable that this site publishes stories by the mentally disabled.

It made the left turn into the Twilight Zone. At least her selfishness and hypocritical behavior carried through to the end. Otherwise a totally disappointing ending.

Did you take a hit of acid when you wrote this shit!

You had a decent story and then...WTF!

Yeah, I will give this one a miss

Smoking plastic cigars is a bad idea before writing. Usually...

Seems like the author ran out of good ideas when he started on that ghost BS.

I really enjoyed your story but the ending felt out of character to the rest of your story. Keep up the good work.

another illiterate WHORE posting cuck shit.

and it would be a great story. Doesn't need the Mexican cartel, doesn't need Julie's ghost.

I enjoyed reading it, the ghost was quite an original ideam though I think she should be in hell suffering for her sins and in that karmic shit that seemed to be punishing him for something he didn't do it.

Nice take about letting go the anger and the pain.

However something was missing, though I can't point out exactly what it was. The whole story didn't work for me. Maybe, as someone else pointed out you tried to write too much things insteand of focusing just in one and develop just one idea.

5* , The Ghost part was great.

The Ending. Where Julie say's Hello Gus and the Baby having her eyes and Name.

It's too bad you do not follow up on this as a After he dies. Does he see his Ex and does he have too do it over until he gets it Right.

It's starting to get really really good. don't make us suffer, k?

A ghostly ex-wife who may have reincarnated as his daughter from his new wife.

effin' brilliant!

:)

You just had to screw up the ending with the Ghost of Julie visiting Gus.

If you re-read it, you'll find that it wasn't Gus's daughter with Shelly, his new wife. It was his first GRANDDAUGHTER from his son Josh and Linda's marriage. Julie appears to have re-incarnated into his granddaughter, following the Karmic rules that unless forgiveness was truly given, that they'd have to keep coming back until they got it right...... Just sayin'. I guess the " Moral of The Story " is don't let anger and hate continue to rule you through out your life and learn from your past. If you don't you'll be doomed to keep repeating it until you do learn. Goes hand in hand with the old saying " Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. "

Great writing. 5*****'s

This was the first and last story I’ll ever read by this piece of shit author. You couldn’t give Gus a fucking break, huh, cuntflake? 1 star

Loved it. Different take on the old theme.The ghost of the ex was a brilliant gag.

Quite a story. *****

You ruined it in the last chapter. You just had to add her "ghost" as a character in a the story.

The ghost was a interesting twist. I enjoyed the entire story.

Closet cucks liked the ghost theme.

After releasing Julie, she is still attached to Gus but he can no longer see her. She watches as Shelly teaches Gus about true love and open up his desires through countless incredible encounters. She enjoy him for the next decades and he gets the best revenge, a life lived well.

Let's look at all of Gus' faults:

1. He leaves Julie (and the young kids when it started) for 36 weeks out of 52 for 15 years straight for his job. For those saying well he has to work, he could have gotten another job and been around for his wife and family. When the kids leave the house then she is completely left alone.

2. He is boring and doesn't take any steps to make himself more interesting for Julie. Let's look at the sexual side. The poor wife even brings up some variety in their sex life and because of his ego (he doesn't know what to do) he turns her down. So with him for 24 years there is no oral sex and only missionary. You have a woman who had had a great lover in Greg in college who now has to put up with shitty sex for 24 years. And at that every ten weeks she gets that shitty sex 3 times. She says in her email she gets it once a week in the 3 weeks he is home. So in a year she gets shitty sex about 16 times. How many men would put up with that from their wives for 24 years of their marriage and not cheat or leave her?

3. Even when he was home 16 out of the 52 weeks in a year he was boring and he had a boring expectations for their future. From everything they wrote it was about his working and saving as Julie said so that when they got old they could retire around old people (in their early 50's) and basically hanging around waiting to die.

4. Gus was extremely selfish. He never bothered to learn what pleases his wife sexually. He had no experience, well he could have read books. He could have experimented with her and asked her questions. He had 24 years to learn to please her but fucking her missionary 3 days every 10 weeks missionary was plenty for him. He got enough out of it so fuck Julie.

With Greg the 5 weeks she was with him (and she spent 35 weeks with him in 2 years- seven 5 week trips) he spent almost everyday with her doing exciting and fun stuff and fucking her almost every day they were together. Greg cared enough about joy and about women in general that he learned what they enjoyed sexually.

Between Gus and Greg it was a no brainer for Julie to pick being with Greg. EVEN if he was going to fuck other women. And that was really not cheating because she was very aware of it. He made life exciting, he cared enough about pleasing Julie not to fuck and just get off, but fuck her where she really enjoyed it. The author took the easy way out with the drug cartel and not giving Julie a choice.

Gus' appropriate match was a homely woman who couldn't get much of a man and who was a homebody. Julie was an attractive woman which gives her choices in a mate. It's not a choice between a good and faithful man who is boring or a sucessful well educated man who is exciting, fun and knows how to fuck.

And all those guys totally putting Julie down and calling people and can understand Julie's frustration and calling them cucks, fuck you! You are obviously pathetic losers that know nothing about women, are misogynist and expect a woman to give 100% while you only give 30% because that's all you are capable of.

Sorry a good story ruined with the ghost figment of your imagination

This is an extremely clever and thought provoking story of man so wedded to hatred and revenge at his wife's infidelity that he eventually goes insane.

Julie may be a selfish, unfaithful wife, but at least she is all too human in her frailties. Gus is a monster. A callous, self-righteous, hypocrite wallowing in his role of innocent victim. Refusing to acknowledge any contribution that his extended times away or refusal to consider any of his wife's sexual suggestions may have had in his wife taking a lover. His attempts to 'erase Julie' from his life are not the actions of a rational mind. Yet no-one - especially his children - seemed to recognise his madness or the vile specimen of humanity that lurked beneath his victim's cloak.

LA

I'm usually on the BTB bandwagon, but I'm honestly not sure how much I blame Julie here.

He's gone 7 out of 10 weeks. He's not really there for her for all of the other 3 weeks, because of the need to recuperate from the job. He seems to have an incredibly low sex drive, and his desires are so narrow that she couldn't even get him to go as far as trying oral sex.

For all that he says he lives for his family, it sounds an awful lot more like he lives for his job, with his wife being pretty far down the list. This isn't even a "We're really just friends and roommates" situation; he seems even less connected to her than that. He seems so incurious as to how his wife is living her life or what she cares about that, if I had someone like that in my life, I'd be hard-pressed to consider them a friend.

So, yeah, obligatory "She should have just filed for divorce rather than cheating", but I'm more shocked that she waited until the kids left the nest to explore her options than that she cheated (and the fact that husband preached to his daughter about the importance of communication is pretty funny, given that "So, what are you going to do with your life now that you're done raising the kids?" or "Is it more important for you that we have a few million dollars by the time we're 50 or that we enjoy life now?" seem like pretty basic conversations to have had). If there was ever a cheater that could use the "I was just sharing parts of my life that you didn't care about, without you missing out on anything you did" excuse, it's her.

So, yeah, she shouldn't have cheated, but if there's ever a guy who deserved to have a wife leave him for neglect, it's this one.

Gus was a simple minded man with 1950's values that expected his wife to just go along with his plan while he totally ignored her needs and desires. Gus was portrayed as a selfish and hateful man that was destroyed when his wife decided that she couldn't take it any more. Sad ending to see a neglected wife destroyed and a simple minded man go insane. Interestingly enough I gave all three chapters 5* ratings for creativity. Yes she should have divorced him but she didn't have alternatives for a life being stuck in the "tundra" without any job prospect and made bad decisions. Too bad you didn't write about her lover being made into a sissy in prison to one bad ass bubba - he deserved the "love".

he should have gone to her death bed if for no other reason than the kids but as soon as the story went Patrick Swayze "Ghost" I checked out. No excuse for her slutting around. Period. Dumb and cheap ending.

Garbage ending.

What the fuck is it with authors like this? Why can't they let the cheated men move the fuck on? The writer's obviously a cunt, like Matt Moreau. 1*

Marriage vows mean forever even if the other person is away, if not, do not get married.

A reasonable story with quite a twist at the end. She really should leave him alone.

... spoiled a good story for me. 4* until the ghost arrived on the scene!

but ended up in the twilight zone and that was a shame.. Three stars.

You ruined a good story with this last chapter!

Last chapter really sucked, what were you thinking??

Damn good story until the last chapter. That ending really fucked up a good story.

you had a good story until the last too bad you ruined it come on ghosts i don't think so

This author is a fucking troll. Only a complete asshole would end a story like this. Fuck you, Katmai

A good story ruined by the.last chapter, and especially the ending. Julie deserved no one's forgiveness. She died as she lived, completely self centered and in denial. Thought you had a winner here, but you dropped the ball.

Decent story totally ruined by a plot ending that would be considered stupid, unprintable, and unbelievable by Mad magazine or National Lampoon.

The fact is that ghosts ain't real!

It was a perfect story...............then out pops the ghost crap. Even the shit on the headstone!

And this "You must forgive to free yourself" I haven't even considered forgiveness, my life is just too full of nonstop REVENGE! I have a great life and a wonderful hobby of pissing off "my loving wife" and knobrot! With luck they have another 20 years of never knowing when the other boot will drop. My family have no idea that I'm such a bastard! Just a soft old man who loves his kids and grandkids.

You blew it again with this ending. You have such great talent as a story teller but don't seem to understand how to construct a realistic ending. I am done reading you.

Very boring, a hard read, a terrible ending, not at all entertaining, just a waste of time

Just a stupid ending, when did it move from "loving wives to Sci fi?

That LW authors can't write about "religion", which is really metaphysics. Virtually every time the subject is touched on, profound ignorance and bad faith rear their ugly heads. This "wonderful" story wanders off into Hinduism, the creed of the Aryan tibes that invaded the Indian Subcontinent. What a ridiculous plot device - karma, reincarnation...Boo!

A story consisting of 85% fiction and concluding with 15% fantasy will never work. You ending completely ruined what was otherwise a reasonably good story.

I really don't get all the negativity related to this story by the readers. Come on folks this is just a story to entertain the reading public. Nothing more nothing less. I enjoyed it just as entertainment. Of course this is just my opinion. It was a decent enough story to keep me interested to the end even with the somewhat weird ending.

(maybe some of the dark force) :>)

Julie messed up her life so she gets reincarnated to try again and learn from her mistakes.

he needs to kill the baby

2 interesting plot that could have been interesting if you would have been true to either or hell both. But it seems like you can't do that so it appears like a train wreck. It almost seemed like you gave up with the story and just mashed the ending on like a punctuation. Would have been nice to see a BtB ending, but have a sequel in the horror or incest vane, hell you could have had it with him losing his mind. But alas you got nothing, no satisfaction.

if he doenst forgive her he dies

he has to forgive her before he dies as only before death can you make amends, and why does he have to apologize to her?

if you dont make amends before you die you are forced to live the same shity life

but she died before making amend

and even though by the rules you set up she should be condemned to another shity life of being a cheating fuck slut, she is instead reborn as her own grand daughter with all the knowledge of her prior life AND psychic powers

3 stars from going from a btb to the Twilight Zone

1 star for violating the rules you laid out not half a page later

First and foremost, WAY too much time was devoted to describing what the cheating slut was doing, thinking, experiencing the entire time she was away from home. The reader is not meant to like her, so why was so much time spent giving us even more of a disgust of her? Similarly, way too much time was spent describing sex with that fucking asshole Greg. The only thing I can think is that the author was trying to appeal to closet fans of cuckold writing or people who are titillated by general cheating sex. In and of itself that's fine, just not in this story where the main focus is how destructive her selfish cheating really was. Make up your mind, author, are you condemning the destructive nature of infidelity or glorifying it? Most of that content between Julie and Greg was entirely unnecessary.

The next things wrong with these chapters was the fantastical and paranormal elements. They were so out of sync with the overall atmosphere of the rest of the story that their inclusion was jarring. She gets captured and gang raped by members of a Mexican drug cartel? Really? I get it, you wrote yourself into a corner by making life with Greg SO MUCH more appealing that you couldn't find a way to make her want to return to Gus, but there had to be a better way than this nonsense.

Don't even get me started on the ghost bit. Was it a cute idea? Sure, but, once again, not in this particular story. It's far too dark and gut wrenching for such an airy-fairy twist. And, also, as in previous stories by this author, the really tough parts in which Gus worked through his hurt, anger, and hatred were never described, they were just summed up through the magic of therapy! Cue mystical sound effects. It all boils down to yet another poorly conceptualized attempt to make the two reconcile even though it was basically impossible, so Gus is FORCED to forgive his wife's betrayal to save himself. I guess years of therapy, love from his children, friends, and beautiful therapist, and deep introspection are too realistic a cure.

In the end this whole story is basically a distasteful mess. Making me want to skip large portions of the content due to disliking one of the main characters is poor writing and trying to give it a quick magical fix where everyone winds up happy and loving and forgiving just isn't feasible after how much this woman had selfishly disrespected and hurt everyone in her family. Having her reincarnate as Gus's granddaughter and still being able to talk to him in his mind was just too ridiculous to bear. I'm guessing it was meant to be a funny twist but it just felt repellent. He spent years getting rid of her memory and she comes back to keep disturbing him? Disgusting.

Unless you enjoy very weak male protagonists e.g. cuckolding, humiliation, etc., I'd suggest you avoid this writer.

As to this story, it was his best by far until it transitioned from an LW to Fantasy in Ch. 3. The Mexican cartel scenario in Ch 2 was over the top but lead to Julie losing her lover, the lover going to jail, her husband of 25 yrs erasing virtually any evidence of their 25 years of marriage and disappearing from her life, her finding out she's pregnant by her now jailed and ruined lover, and finally dying without every seeing her husband or being able to beg for his forgiveness. I only wish it ended there.

But this writer loves to dump on husbands. So he creates a ghost of the dead wife to harass the husband! The writer just had to allow the husband's agony to continue as the ghost continually intrudes on his life badgering him to forgive her if he wants to get rid of her. What????

With that ending my rating went from 4 to 2. Just stupid.

I love every chapter of this story.

Gus gives the rehearsal dinner speech:

“... you are the only one responsible for your own happiness. You and only you. It's easy to be a victim and give up responsibility for your happiness to someone or something else.... take back the responsibility for your own happiness. Stop being a victim!"

Isn’t this what Julie was doing? She wasn’t happy with the sex with Gus. She tried numerous times to spice things up just a bit, but Gus was adamant on vanilla sex only. So she put up with it for years. But finally she took back responsibility for her own happiness — by finding another sex partner.

The cheating wife wins in the end??

What a silly ending, achieving what exactly??

Nothing good I can think of.

This story was running between either a 3 or 4 out of 5 until the silly ending.

Now it rates 2/5.

Came back for a reread.

Still as messed up as the first time I read this. Karmic? LMAO!!! Not the way that works. Reincarnated with knbowledge? Like that will allow growth ... not! Too much wishy-washy in this tale too make it a good story.