Gang Aft Agley

With tears running down his face, he turned on his shocked mother, "I hate you! You destroyed our family from the beginning. DAMMIT, YOU PLANNED IT ALL OUT. How could you? and for what? Money? Love? What was it MOM.....Answer me!"

Ian came towards Ross, and Ross turned on him. "Don't you dare get within my reach. I swear I'll KILL YOU! YOU BASTARD!"

"Don't you talk to me that way my boy!" Ian said as he back peddled away from Ross' reach.

"I'M NOT YOUR BOY, ASSHOLE! NEVER REFER TO ME THAT WAY AGAIN OR YOU'LL REGRET IT!" Ross cautioned. "You MAY, and I stress the MAY, have been the sperm donor who fertilized the WHORES egg, but you aren't and will never be my DAD. We all BETRAYED HIM."

Ross turned and started up stairs to pack. He looked at his sister and in a calmer voice said, "Cindy, I'm leaving to stay with Grandpa Herb. I'll call you when I get there so YOU know I'm okay. As for you two," Ross looked disdainfully at his mother and Ian, "I'm taking some of the DVD's and this tape you've been hiding with me to show to MY Grandparents. I hope to clear MY Dad's name and prove to them how long you two have been involved. If I was you, Ian, I'd start packing now. Grandpa is gonna skin you alive for making him into your fool with your lies." Turning to face his mother, Ross continued, "YOU might be safe mom, you ARE his daughter, but if I know Grandpa you're in for some serious trouble. Don't call me, I won't answer." and Ross went to pack.

When Ross came down, Debbie had fallen to the floor crying from what Ross said to her and was still there when Ross walked around her without a word and left. Ian looked a little green around the gills, but tried to put up a good front. And Cindy just looked at them both with an expression that couldn't be missed...... disgust, pure and simple... complete disgust.

(Cindy)

Thirty minutes later Cindy got a call from her Grandpa Herb. "Hello Grandpa." she answered.

"Hello Cindy. Ross just got here and he's a mess. Is what he's saying true?" He calmly asked.

"Yes Grandpa, I found the proof earlier today in the safe, and we saw everything on the DVD's and some tapes from years ago. It's terrible what they did and tried to do to my Dad, Grandpa." Cindy replied with a shaky voice on the verge of tears.

"Sweetheart, pack a bag, I'll be there to pick you up soon. You're coming here for a few days until we sort things out." Herb could hear the pain in his granddaughter's voice and it angered him extremely. Still he maintained his composure from years of police training and calmly said, "Now, let me talk to Ian please."

Cindy walked over to Ian and with a sneer, handed him her cell phone, "Grandpa wants a word, Ian."

She watched as Ian took the phone and trying to remain calm said, "Yes, sir. How can I help you?"

"Right now you just listen. If what my grand kids are saying is true, you had best not be there when I arrive shortly to pickup Cindy. She'll be staying with Hertha and me for the next few days while I view the DVD's and tape that Ross brought over with him tonight. I'm not going to view anything right now as I'm afraid of what I might do to you if I did. Are we clear here?"

"Yes sir, but..." Ian tried to respond.

"There is no 'but', asshole. Do what I say. Leave as if your life depended on it. You can come back tomorrow, but don't be there tonight. Now give Cindy back her phone." Ian paled and handed the cell phone back to Cindy.

"Yes Grandpa?" Cindy asked.

"Cindy, dear, bring everything you found in the safe with you so I can evaluate all the evidence. If what you say is true, why didn't Ron kick her to the curb with nothing?" he wondered out loud.

"Because of us Grandpa. Me and Ross. Dad loved us so much he didn't want us to know he wasn't our biological father. So he made a deal with the judge for the divorce settlement to be in chambers behind closed doors so we wouldn't know the reason for the divorce or the terms of the settlement." Cindy answered now crying loudly.

"What! Ron's not your father?" Herb shouted. This was all news to him as Ross was so distraught all he could say was they had had a fight with Debbie and Ian about some DVD's proving they'd been having an affair all along. Now Herb guessed that the 'all along' Ross had referred to was all their life which inferred that Ian was Cindy and Ross' real father. So Ian and Debbie were cuckolding Ron for the entire marriage. This made Herb really angry in addition to being really disappointed in his daughters behavior.

"Cindy I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm leaving now. Let your mother know I'm on my way and I expect to speak to her as soon as I get there. Tell her I said don't leave. Okay honey?" Herb emphasized the 'don't leave'.

"Yes Grandpa. I'll tell her right now. See you soon. Bye Grandpa."

"Bye sweetheart." and Herb hung up.

He was glad that Hertha was busy calming Ross down and didn't hear the end of his conversation with Cindy. It was going to be bad enough later when he had to tell her their daughter was a cuckolder as well as a slut and an adulterer who had had another man's children and made her husband, Ron, believe they were his for sixteen years before Ron found out the truth and divorced her.

Herbs anger increased as he remembered how he had treated Ron during and immediately after the divorce. But, this anger was directed at himself for not giving Ron the benefit of the doubt and asking Ron the real reason for divorcing his daughter. He felt he should have known better than to swallow the lies that his daughter and Ian were feeding him.

After hanging up the phone Cindy went upstairs and knocked on her mother's door. It wasn't locked, so she entered and saw Ian packing a bag getting ready to leave. She looked at her mother sitting on their bed wiping her tear stained face. She got up and looked to be starting to pack a bag also, so Cindy said. "Mom, Grandpa said he's coming over right now and he EXPECTS to talk to you tonight. He specifically said to tell you NOT to leave. If I was you I don't think I'd want to piss him off any more than he already is, do you?"

Debbie stopped packing a bag and sat down on the bed. "I guess not." she answered her daughter.

Cindy said, "Okay then. I'm going to pack a bag and go with Grandpa to spend a few days with them while all this shit you two have created gets sorted out." Cindy went to her room to pack. She took with her all the files, tapes and DVD's they had found in the safe to pack as well. While packing she could hear Ian and Debbie talking and decided to record it on her cell phone.

As Debbie watched Ian packing she got the distinct impression that this would be the last time she'd see Ian. She asked "Is this the end then?"

"Yes, I think it is. We went too far with everything. Pushed our luck and have lost it all." he replied.

"We're almost broke, we've lost our business, couldn't take over Ron's business and are stuck with this huge house and the two B's to raise. What is there here for me to make me want to stick around?"

Debbie thought 'Well ME you asshole' but didn't say it. Instead she whined, "I just don't know where we screwed up. The plan was perfect and we were so close to completing it that I just don't know where it went wrong."

"I guess you never watched those dvd's Ron sent us then did you?" he asked.

"No, I figured we were caught by then so what difference did a few fuck tapes make." she answered.

"Well, you should have. Remember that trip Ron took a few months before he served the divorce papers? Well, those dvd's began right after that trip. My guess is that Ron came home a day early and caught us passed out in his bed that weekend. I knew we were pressing our luck and then to get so drunk we passed out like that. Stupid! Just stupid."

"No, If Ron had found us like that, he'd have done something that night. I'm sure he would." she said.

"But he did do something Debs. He hired a PI firm to gather evidence. He left us a message telling us he needed another two weeks out of town to complete his business to allow us to feel at ease screwing each other at will. This allowed his PI firm time to wire the house and tape every time we screwed. I think we literally screwed each other as we screwed up our plan. Think about it. He knew exactly what steps to take to easily stop my hostile take over plan. He knew the kids weren't his. He knew you loved Ross too much to want to hurt him in the divorce so you'd accept his settlement terms." Ian stated.

"Yes, I think you're right. It was such an excellent plan though. A shame it didn't work." she said.

"Seems I recall a Robert Burns poem about a mouse and man, something about 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men often go wrong' (gang aft agley)" remarked Ian.

(Ian)

"Quoting Scottish poets now, are we?" Debbie idly commented. Her mind on other more serious matters, primarily 'How was she going to save her relationship with Ross?'

Ian didn't answer, he was deep in thought himself.

'Well the crap hit the fan for sure now. If Herb is getting seriously involved, and he sure sounded pissed off enough to, then it won't take him long to figure out the whole plan and how long it's been going on. Once he realizes that Debbie and I had been having an affair prior to Debbie even meeting Ron, he'll know it was all a setup. It's time to cut and run.'

"Debbie, I've got to leave now before your father arrives. He's as much as told me my life might depend on not being here when he gets here. I'll go to the Hilton and call you later with my room number and we'll get back together after you deal with your family." He said matter-of-factly.

Actually he had no intention of sticking around and was already thinking of how he was going to empty all their accounts, leave the country and abandon Debbie to face the music alone. He knew he'd need to get his laptop computer from the den and his passport from the safe without Debbie noticing. She may have been dumb enough to be easily led into marrying, cuckolding and robbing Ron, but she was not a complete idiot. If she saw him getting his passport, she'd know he was leaving the country.

When Ron had them arrested for adultery and, at the same time, ruined Ian's company and stopped his plans to takeover Ron's company, apparently with ease, Ian almost left then. Debbie talked him into staying as she knew Ron would not turn them over to law enforcement because of the harm it would do to the children and, even if he did, her dad would stop any investigation into his daughter as long as he was unaware of the depth of their betrayal.

Now that Cindy and Ross had discovered the truth, Ian knew he had to get out of Dodge before Herb arrested them both on fraud charges. He knew he might be able to get off on the fraudulent parts of the takeover plan. That was not the real problem as that fraud had never really been completed, nor had he intended to complete it. But the fraud they perpetrated against Ron personally was complete and that could net them decades in federal prison. Add to those charges the fact that Debbie's daddy was a police officer first and a father a very close second, let Ian know that Herb would stand by his daughter no matter what, but he would not allow them to get away without consequences for their actions.

Leaving Debbie sitting on the bed, Ian went downstairs into the den to get his laptop and passport. While in the safe Ian had the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something important, but couldn't think of what it could be. As he passed Cindy watching TV the feeling got stronger, but he still couldn't figure out what it was, so he left the house and headed for the Hilton.

Just then Debbie came downstairs and picked up her cell phone and called Ron's number. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that the only person she could call for help in saving her relationship with her son Ross, was his father Ron. Cindy listened to her mothers side of the short conversation enough to realize her mother was talking to her Dad. When Debbie suddenly hung up and ran upstairs to her room crying, Cindy grabbed her cell and redialed the number. She had to apologize to her Dad.

(Herb)

As Herb was driving over to his daughters small mansion, his policeman's mind kept going over what Ross had said when he arrived and what Cindy had told him over the phone. He was slowly putting everything together and he didn't like the 2 plus 2 equals 4 conclusions he was forced to admit as the only viable explanation. He was going to have a serious heart to heart with his daughter as soon as he arrived, but he knew he had to calm down as an emotion filled confrontation would do no one any good.

Driving up to the front entrance, Herb sat in his car for five minutes forcing himself to control his anger and his disappointment before seeing his granddaughter and confronting his daughter. Finally he got out of his car and walked into the house as if he owned it. Finding Cindy softly crying in the den he walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her and held her close allowing her to lean on him for the support she obviously needed.

"Cindy, sweetheart, it'll be okay. We'll work through this as a family." He said.

"I called Daddy. I'm so ashamed, Grandpa. We treated him so badly since the divorce and he didn't deserve any of it." Cindy sobbed. "You know he's been seeing a therapist since he discovered their betrayal, even had thoughts of suicide." and she cried even harder.

Just then they heard a cry. "NO!" cried Debbie. "He wouldn't kill himself."

Herb looked at his daughter and calmly said, "I'm not surprised at all. If half of what I think you and Ian did to Ron is true, I'm sure he would think of suicide. Of course, he would consider it as a means of escaping the pain and heartbreak you two inflicted upon him."

"Daddy, we never wanted anyone to be physically hurt. It started out as just a college class assignment." Debbie whined.

By now Cindy had sat down on the couch and was looking at her mother with shocked, unbelieving eyes.

Debbie continued, "Then later we decided, as a joke, to try to figure out how to really implement the plan. Jesus, we got an A on the paper from Mr. Graham so it had to be a good plan."

"Deborah," Herb began, "Are you out of your ever loving mind?" She knew she was in deep shit as her Dad only called her Deborah when he was extremely mad or disappointed. "Mr Graham? Who's he?"

"He was our sophomore year economics teacher in college." she answered.

"You mean Hyram Graham, that ass who was convicted of fraud years ago for trying to complete a hostile takeover of Syntech International? That Mr. Graham, Deborah?" Herb asked.

"Oh, my God. I didn't know that. That was the company we used for our paper. You mean he actually tried our plan out and failed?" a shocked Debbie asked.

"Yes, so let me get this straight. You and Ian were a couple in college. Right?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"You two wrote a paper on how to hostilely takeover a multinational company and decided to try it out yourself? As a joke? Even though you knew much of it was against the law?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"How did you choose Ron and his company as your victim? Flip a coin? Or did he just walk in front of you sometime so you decided to pick him?"

"Oh no, Daddy. Ian knew Ron as a supplier for Ian's company. I researched it and found that Ron's company was set to go international in a few years, so we settled on him. Just didn't think it would take so long to be profitable enough."

"Really? So WHOSE idea was it for you to marry Ron, cuckold him, have Ian's children and make Ron raise them, and then set him up for divorce to get as much of his money as you could?" by the time Herb got to the end his face was red with his anger, but he tried hard to keep his temper in check and his voice low and controlled. He didn't want the tape he was making to show him as anything but professional.

"You make it sound so calculated and underhanded, Daddy." Debbie whined.

"That's because it was, Deborah. Now whose idea was it? It'll make a difference."

"Ian's Daddy. It was Ian's idea to maximize the profit." Debbie was beginning to see where her father was leading her and she didn't like that it was showing how big a bitch and a slut she was toward Ron from the beginning.

Deborah sat down next to her daughter on the couch only to have Cindy get up, turn to her mother and slap her face as hard as she could. "YOU BITCH!" she screamed. Then Cindy picked up her bags and turned to her Grandfather.

"Grandpa, I'll be in the car waiting. I can't stand to be near her anymore today. I think I'm gonna be sick." Cindy finally said as she went out the front door.

Herb turned a sad face to his daughter, "Deborah, I should probably arrest you now and take you in, but I have a feeling there is more to the relationship between Ron and Ian than you are aware. Think for a minute, there was no need for you to marry Ron at all if the main goal was simply the hostile takeover. And there was certainly no reason once you had married Ron to have Ian's babies to rub in Ron's face. That was cruelty just for the sake of being cruel. This whole thing stinks to high heaven as being more about destroying Ron than about taking over his company."

Debbie sat there thinking of what her father said and coming to the same conclusions as her father. There had to be more, but what?

Herb continued, "Deborah, you better get a lawyer, you're gonna need one. You've already admitted to several fraudulent acts that can carry hefty prison terms. I'll do what I can for you, but I can only do so much. Ron has an extremely strong case against the two of you and with him having to see a therapist he has an additional case for mental cruelty."

Debbie was now crying for a completely different reason than earlier today. She was beginning to feel some of the pain she and Ian had caused Ron. She was also starting to question why Ian talked her into marrying Ron and the rest. If Ian truly loved her, that didn't make any sense at all.

Before he left Herb turned to his daughter, "Debbie, honey. If I am right you had better secure your finances as I'm fairly sure Ian's headed out of the country without you or the kids." Then he left to take Cindy home.

When they arrived at his home, Herb helped Cindy carry her bags inside. "Cindy, honey, let me have all the material you found in the safe." Cindy gave her grandfather everything from her mother's safe and headed on to bed, while her grandfather went to his study to review the evidence.

Meanwhile, Debbie went into the den and checked her safe to find that Ian's passport was gone along with all the DVD's and VHS tapes that Ian had stored there. She looked for Ian's laptop and when she couldn't find it, she knew he father was right. She got her cell phone, logged into their bank and changed all passwords to every account she and Ian had there including their debit cards. She also contacted her credit card companies and froze all accounts claiming the cards were stolen. This she learned from Ron's lawyers when they went through their divorce three years ago. She thought 'Try to leave me now you asshole. We're in this together.'

The next morning Ross looked in on his grandfather to see how he was doing. "Quite a mess isn't it, Grandpa?" he asked.

"Yes, son. It sure is. I can't believe your mother went along with all this shit. She's smarter than that." Herb said as he reached for the last VHS tape.

Ross noticed the tape he was picking up and said, "Grandpa, that one doesn't have anything to do with Mom and Ian. It's just a tape of some accident. I don't know why Ian kept it."

"Oh, really. Well it must mean something so let's see what it is then." and Herb put it in the player and hit play. "This is a security feed from the front of some business." Herb said as the tape began, Just then the tape showed a red corvette sideswipe an oncoming car and speed off leaving the scene. The other car veered off the road, hit a telephone pole and burst into flame. It was certain there would be no survivors. The original tape ended and was followed by several screen shots of the corvette, obviously enhanced from the original feed as technology improved. The final shot was a clear picture of the corvette's license plate.