Family Destroyed

"OK, so here's the info. Tim is still alive, but he has a new identity now. He lives several states away, is married, and he has three kids. Timmy is going to try and get an address from Jeff. Even without that, we shouldn't have much trouble finding where he lives. Now, the question is, do you want to see him?"

"Of course, I do. Why wouldn't I want to see him?"

"Well, it's been 25-years. You two have been divorced for 23-years. He has a new life and a whole different family. He never once reached out to us, so he most likely doesn't want to see us. And there's that whole running off with all the money and destroying our lives thing."

"I still need to see him. Let's see what we can put together as far as money goes to drive there. Who knows, maybe we can just move there and try to rebuild some kind of life where nobody knows us."

Mike (formerly Tim):

I can't say this was unexpected, unwanted for sure, but not unexpected. The only real question was when it would happen. I figured that it would take a week minimum. I gave it a three-day window after that. I had planned for it, but I sure as hell was not looking forward to it.

My oldest son had met a girl at college. He was really attracted to her, and she was apparently in love with him. He had texted my wife and I a couple photos, but he hadn't yet brought her home to meet us. There was something kind of familiar about her, looking at her photos, but I couldn't place it. They were first going to her mom's place so he could be introduced to her family.

After that weekend, Jeff called home to tell us all about it. I started to get a really bad feeling when the first thing he told us was where her family lived. That nagging feeling in the back of my head got louder as it was beginning to dawn on me why her picture seemed familiar. My horror increased when he mentioned that her mom lived with her mother and father-in law, as well as her sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their families. Then, he told us their names.

"OH FUCK!" I yelled out. Seriously? What were the fucking odds of that!

"Dad, what's wrong." My son asked over the phone.

"Is she there with you now?" I asked.

"No. I'm at the frat house. Oh, by the way, her older brother Timmy is also in my frat. In fact, that's how I met them."

"Jeff. I need you to listen to me very closely. I hate to do this to you, but I need you to listen and do what I tell you to do."

"Uuuuummm, sure dad. You know that I'll always listen to what you say."

"OK son. I need you to do a couple of things. They will be difficult, but it is exceedingly important that you do them. First off, you need to break it off with that girl."

"What? Dad, I really like her, and by that, I mean REALLY like her. I could actually see myself marrying her."

"No Jeff. That is absolutely NOT an option. That simply cannot happen."

"But why, dad? What's the problem?"

"Look, it just can't happen. Also, you can't disclose my name or where we live to either her or her brother. You need to make sure that they do not have any information about us. Do what you need to do but break it off with her before it goes any farther."

"Dad, you can't just have me break up with a great girl that I'm pretty sure that I'm in love with for no reason. You need to tell me why. Besides, Timmy is one of my best friends here, and he already knows your name and where we live."

"Fuck. That's not good."

"What's the matter?"

"Jeff, have you slept with her?"

"Well, yeah. We've been going out for a few months now."

"Fuck. You need to stop. Break up with her and for God's sake, don't ever have sex with her again."

"Dad, what the hell is going on?"

"She's your fucking cousin! Having sex with her is incest. It's illegal to marry her."

"WHAT THE FUCK? I DIDN'T THINK WE HAD ANY RELATIVES ON YOUR SIDE OF THE FAMILY! YOU SAID ALL YOUR RELATIVES WERE DEAD!"

"They sort of were, in a way. They were all dead to me."

"What happened? Why did you tell us that?"

"I can't do this over the phone. Come home this weekend, and I'll tell all of you the whole story. And, for God's sake, DON'T BRING HER WITH YOU."

Well, that couldn't have gone any worse. That was on Monday. I had called all the kids and told them to be home Saturday afternoon. My wife, Katie, knew the story, but that's because I met her about six months after I arrived in this town. We had to wait almost two years before we could get married because the slut waited forever before finally divorcing me. I checked the legal notices in the newspaper from our hometown every day watching for it. Finally, I saw it. When everyone was gathered in the livingroom, I told them the whole story.

Changing my identity meant that I could no longer use my Engineering license or get a new one. My new identity was only on paper, and I would be discovered if I tried to use my transcripts, previous employment, or anything else with my old identity on it. I had enough money to live for several years, so I enrolled in a community college and began taking computer courses. I was then able to transfer to the local university and complete my degree in computer science. Using that, I started up my own business that became very successful. No one looked too deep into my background, so I was able to live well for the last 25-years. I also made quite a few really good investments. Now, it looked like things were going to fall apart.

"Dad! Someone is at the gate!" My youngest daughter, Brianna yelled. No, I didn't name her after the slut. I just always loved that name. Fuck off.

One week and two days. Right smack dab in the middle of the window I guessed. I looked at the security monitor and saw not one, but two SUVs sitting at the gate. Fuck! They brought the whole tribe. As mentioned earlier, I had a shit-pot of money when I left, and I now had a very successful consulting business and 25-more years of investments. My house was on about 5-acres. The house itself was just over 6,000 Square-feet. The property was surrounded by a block wall, and there was an electronic gate across the driveway.

"Well, no sense in prolonging it." I mumbled to myself. Pressing the button, I opened the gate. I didn't need to ask who it was; I could see their faces in the camera.

"Bree, better let your mother know that the company we expected is here." I said as I moved to the front door.

I watched through the window as the cars pulled into the circular driveway. I watched as the occupants disembarked and huddled together for a moment. Yes, I noticed that Tammy was with them. She must have taken time off from school. Jeff had mentioned that Timmy had told him that she left for home shortly after their break-up. Things were a bit strained between Jeff and Timmy right now, so they didn't talk much. They finally broke their huddle and began moving towards the front door.

"Well, I guess that you might as well come in. Let's go into the livingroom, and I'll have some coffee and tea brought in." I said after opening the door for them. Katie and Breanna were already sitting there when we trouped in. Jasmine, our -- well, maid seems a bit derogatory, but she was more than just a housekeeper (Not that, you perverts) -- went to brew a pot of coffee and a pot of tea.

Jasmine was originally hired to be a nanny, but she eventually began doing more than that. When the kids no longer needed a nanny, we just couldn't let her go. She transitioned to housekeeper, maid, cook, chauffeur, and a lot more. She was kind of like a member of the family now. We still paid her a good salary, but she did a lot to keep the house going. Maybe a Super Maid?

Anyway, she went into the kitchen to get coffee and tea going.

"Well, fuck-it." I said. "I need something more than coffee for this."

It was mid-afternoon, so I didn't feel bad about it. Katie got up as I did and walked over to the wet bar with me. She went to the wine fridge as I pulled a bottle of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon off the shelf. I was just reaching for some tumblers when Jasmine walked back in with a tray containing tumblers, wine glasses, and an ice bucket.

"I figured that coffee wouldn't be strong enough for this conversation." She smirked.

Drinks poured, we sat and looked at each other for a few minutes without speaking. As it turned out, all the guys had bourbon, while the women had the wine -- typical. The lone exception was that Tammy had decided on the bourbon instead of the wine. Probably because she was more emotional than everyone else.

"Tim.." Bree began.

"It's Mike now." I corrected.

"OK -- MIKE." She began again. "Since you know most of us, perhaps you can introduce us to your family."

I let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. This is my wife, Katie. My youngest daughter, Brianna." I saw my ex-wife's eyes light up at that. "No, I didn't name her after you. I just always loved the name Brianna. It has nothing to do with you. Jasmine is our housekeeper/nanny/maid. Jeff, you already know, and he's not here. I have another daughter named Faith, who is also away at college."

"Thank you." Bree responded. "You know most of us, but this is my youngest daughter, Tammy. Her older brother is still at school. His name is Timmy. Yes, I named him after you. Over there is Donna's oldest. Her name is Lydia. Next to her is Thomas, named after your father, and her youngest, Timmons, also named after you." She then pointed to two identical twins. "The twins are Josh and Kim's daughters. The one on the left is Macy, and the one on the right is Marcy."

I saw a look of anger on the girl's faces. "Aunt Bree, I'M MARCY!" The one on the left corrected.

"Shit. You would think that after 19-years I'd be able to tell you apart. Sorry." She apologized, then continued. "And that's their younger brother Dennis." She concluded.

I looked around and there was one person missing. "Where's Tom? I would have thought that he would have been here to." I asked. My former mom Linda was here.

"Your father died 4-years ago." Linda sobbed. "We were looking for you throughout the funeral, but you never showed up. He was your father! You could have at least had the decency to be at his funeral and pay your respects!"

"First of all, I have no respects to pay to him. After what you all did to me, you lost any modicum of respect that I had for you. Second, I had no idea that he died. After I finally saw the notice that my slut of an ex-wife finally divorced me, I stopped caring about the lot of you, so I stopped checking on what was going on in your lives."

"Do you still hate us that much?" Donna asked.

"Truthfully, no. I hated you for a long time, but I finally decided that my hatred was negatively affecting me. Now, I simply do not care. I am completely indifferent to all of you. Whatever happens to you affects me just as much as when I read a news story about some random person that I have no idea about in a country on the other side of the planet."

I think that really hit them hard. If there was hatred, that would have shown some emotional connection that could be worked with. The opposite of love is not hatred. Hatred is a small step across a thin line from love. Marriage counselors work with this all the time. As long as there is hatred, there is a chance to step back across that line and save the marriage. The opposite of love is actually indifference. When there is true indifference, there is absolutely no chance. Sure, I was married again. I don't think that they actually thought that there was another chance for Bree and me to get back together, but they thought that there was still a chance of reviving their family relationship with me. When they learned that I simply had no feeling for them whatsoever, it finally dawned on them that they would never have any sort of relationship again. To me, they were nothing more that old acquaintances.

"So, there is no chance at all of reconciling?" Linda asked.

"Not a chance." I replied. "You all were betraying me ever since I first started dating Bree. You continued even after I proposed and all the time we were married. I listened to you talking as you fucked in the livingroom. All I was to all of you was just a meal ticket. You never cared about me. I loved Bree with everything I had, but you all fucked her behind my back. Even worse, you introduced me to her simply because you wanted me to marry her and have her give you my money to support your worthless asses. How has that worked out for you these last 25-years?"

"It hasn't." Bob replied. "You destroyed our lives when you posted those videos and sent the links to everyone. We were all fired and haven't been able to get decent jobs since. If you must know, we spent every penny we could scrounge up to come here and beg for your forgiveness. God only knows what we will do now. We're completely broke. Our vehicles are almost out of gas, and we have no money to buy food. All we have are a couple of tents that we can set up in a park to sleep in. If you wanted to destroy us, you succeeded."

"So, how are you going to get home?" Katie asked.

"We aren't." Donna replied. "There's nothing left for us there. We can't get jobs because of our reputations. We were renting the house and existing on government assistance. We drove all the way out here to see if we could reconcile, but regardless of that, we decided to stay here where nobody knows about us and try to make new lives for ourselves."

Shit, shit, shit, shit! I knew the look on Katie's and Breanna's faces. Fuck!

"Michael..." Katie began.

I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and let out a big sigh. I knew what she wanted. Fuck! Finally, I lowered my head again and looked at my former family.

"Fine!" I let out. "Go to the Holiday Inn. I'll text you the address. I'll have my PA book you five rooms for a week. After that, I should be able to find you a house to rent for all of you. I know a few people that have some jobs available that you can get. You fuck me over on this, and you have no idea how much you will regret it."

"Mike, Dennis and Timmons are really good with computers. They are both wanting to go to college, and they could use a part time job. Do you think...."

"Yeah, yeah." I was losing badly here. Katie's look told me all I needed to know about what I needed to do if I was to get laid again within the next six-months. "Be at the office at 8:00 tomorrow morning."

"You know, Michael." She only used my full name when it was something that I was REALLY not going to like, but she REALLY, REALLY, wanted me to do. Two REALLY's beats one REALLY every time. I already lost again. I signaled my surrender by downing the rest of my second bourbon. "It's a really nice day, and we haven't barbequed in a couple weeks. How about if I send Jasmine to the market and have her pick up some nice steaks and corn-on-the-cob for you to barbeque. I'll make my famous potato salad, and Jasmine can make her wonderful spinach salad. They have been driving for three days. I'm sure they're hungry, and it sounds like they could really use a good meal."

My head was bowed in defeat by that time. I simply looked up at Jasmine, nodded my head, then shook my empty glass at her. She smiled, refilled my glass, and said she would be back shortly. Yeah, I fired up the grill. Jasmine brought T-Bone steaks. They enjoyed the pool as I was manning the grill wondering what the hell just happened to me. Eventually, they left and stayed two weeks at the Holiday Inn before I could get them moved into a house that would fit all of them -- on the other side of the town.

I managed to get jobs for them as well. Surprisingly, they turned out to be very good employees for their companies. Dennis and Timmons actually were really good computer nerds. Katie turned the vaginal wrench again and got me to pay for whatever the scholarships that the kids got didn't cover to get them through college. Katie continued to invite them to our house for dinner about once a month. I never could tell Macy and Marcy apart. I think that they would purposely lie to me about which was which just to screw with me. I'm also pretty sure that they delighted in sneaking into a bedroom and switching clothes a few times to fuck with my mind again. Bitches.

Yesh, yeah, yeah. I know. I should have just kicked them back to the gutter. I was actually thinking really hard about doing just that. There were a couple of problems with doing that. First off, it wasn't the kids fault that their parents were cheating whores and backstabbing assholes. The kids were just innocent bystanders. Should they have to pay for their parent's sins? Second, even though I gave them some help, I could easily afford it. Besides, it was a LITTLE help. They were never going to be wealthy. The third problem, you should already know about -- Katie. She was a very kind soul. She told me that I had punished them enough. Besides, giving them a little help wasn't really letting them off the hook. Yes, my sweet wife knew how to turn the vaginal wrench and adjust my attitude when needed. At this point, she really didn't even need to use it, just the subtle suggestion that it might be taken out of the toolbox was enough. If doing this small thing for her makes her happy, I can do that for her. Besides, it's been 25-years. The hatred I had has been banished. They spent the last 25-years in poverty and misery. I think that's punishment enough. To me, they are still not family. I refuse to let them call me Brother or Son. I do not recognize them as my family. To me, they are simply acquaintances of my wife. Let them have the rest of their lives financially stable. They know that I am still not their family. That continues to hurt them. Katie is working on that, but we will see how that works out.