Her Teddy Bear

He made a few calls and found one near the Opry, away from their home and her work, that would let him come. He spent Saturday and Sunday sparring and working in their gym. They were good workouts and he felt pretty good about his current level of ability.

He would text Joan and she would text back. He could see her car at their home, and the cameras showed that she was there alone on Saturday, but apparently Eva visited her on Sunday. That made him sad. He was about to lose his family. He didn't anticipate losing the kids, but with the upcoming divorce, their family unit would be no more. After a few minutes, his sadness changed to determination. He thought, "Oh, well. I guess you have to deal with what life gives you," which is what he was planning to do.

______________

On Monday morning, Pete received an unexpected phone call, from Brian.

"Pete, I needed to give you a quick call. Joan called Miriam last night. She asked her if we would float her resume to our investment advisors because she felt it was time for a change. Miriam said she would look into it. What do you think? I realize this doesn't excuse the affair, but maybe she is trying to get away from the asshole."

Pete thought a minute. He thought about his family, what he planned to do and how his life was likely to play out. While she would never be his wife again, it would probably cause fewer problems with the children if she could get away from Andrew. "Yeah, go ahead. The damage has already been done, but I think that might make life easier on everyone."

Brian replied, "I understand."

By Monday afternoon, Charla had the divorce papers prepared and Pete wondered if the liaison at his house would happen soon. Joan called him that night saying she missed him and loved him. He tried to return the affection.

Donnie called him, too, and they had a good chat. He suspected that Eva had some idea of what was going on, regardless of his protestations. But Donnie? Unless Eva told him, and she probably had, he was going to be blindsided by all of this. "Damn you, Joan," He thought. Pete didn't sleep well that night.

Pete worked from the hotel on Tuesday morning and around lunchtime was alerted by the GPS on Joan's car leaving her office going towards their home. They could ride together, but that might seem risky, so he suspected they would take their respective cars.

His home security cameras alerted him to two cars pulling into his driveway. He made preparations to drive home. He wasn't in any hurry. He expected them to take several hours.

Around 2:00 pm, Joan said, "We should be getting back. People will begin to look for us."

Andrew replied, "Don't worry about it. I own the company. Nobody will question me."

"True, they won't question you, but they might wonder about me. I don't want anyone telling my husband."

"Why? You don't think he would divorce you. Do you?" Yet another confirmation that Andrew had no real interest in her beyond sex.

"I don't know. I know he wouldn't want to. He might get by a one-time mistake, but if he knew how long, I don't think he would forgive me."

Andrew said, "You've kept him in the dark for three years. I think you can manage."

"Yes, well maybe I can, if we only see each other once a month or so like we used to. The last few weeks have been dangerous. I'd like to keep it so that nobody but us knows, which is why at least I should get back to the office."

Andrew smiled thinking about Ricky knowing, and maybe participating sometime soon. Joan was a good employee, but not irreplaceable. Her future with the firm could be tied to how she behaves going forward. He thought he had her in a good place.

She couldn't make waves at the office because it would eventually get back to her husband. The same thing went for her potentially accusing him of sexual harassment. Even if she tried that, accusations were one thing, but proving it when the affair had been going on so long would be extremely difficult, so he felt like he had the power and control over the situation.

Pete had parked down the street, out of sight of the house. He had been there for an hour listening to their fucking and conversation from the Wi-Fi cameras that were streaming all movement and noise to the cloud. He heard the comment about three years and thought himself a fool. Rather than getting down, he used that to fuel his fire.

He checked his home security system on his phone app to make sure no alarms were set and that there would be no chimes when he opened the back door. He snuck in, and quietly climbed the stairs.

Once at the landing he heard Joan pleading, "Come on, Andrew. I need to get back to the office."

Pete stepped into their bedroom and said, "That means get the fuck out, Dickhead."

Joan was stunned to see her husband standing there. She pulled the sheet to cover herself and exclaimed, "Pete! I thought you were in Savannah. This...this isn't what it looks like."

Pete leaned against the doorframe and replied, "Now Joan, normally you are a fairly intelligent woman, but that has to be the stupidest thing to ever come out of your mouth...well, except for that dipshit."

He could see his wife's face and neck flame red at that comment. "Good," he said. "At least you have some shame."

Andrew said, "Well, well. The little pussy bear decided to come and see how a full-sized man takes care of your wife. Don't worry. She says she only loves you, but we both know that she loves my big cock more."

"Shut up, Andrew. That's not true, Pete." She sobbed out, "I only love you."

Pete replied, "Apparently not enough to stay away from this lard ass." To Andrew he said, "Well, I seem to recall it was your stupid baby boy on the ground the other day struggling to get up when I beat him with my bare hands. Maybe I should go give him another lesson for your fucking this slut, or would you care to take your best shot at me?"

Though deserved, that comment hurt Joan. Pete had never said an ill thing about her.

The other statement surely got Andrew's attention. "I'm going to beat you to death in your own house, in front of your slutty little wife. She wanted a bigger and better man than you, and she got one."

"Yeah, yeah. Get your shorts or pants on and meet me in the back yard. I don't want your ass naked after I call the ambulance to come and collect you."

As Andrew stood to retrieve his pants, Pete started laughing at Andrew, pointing at his dick. "Joan, you traded me in for that? Good God. You can say that you wanted a taller man, but you definitely weren't interested in his being bigger." Actually, Andrew was a little bigger, as Joan described, but no man is ever in a good mood when someone laughs at his dick, and Pete wanted Andrew angry. Pete left the room, not waiting for either of them.

Joan was crying even harder now. Seeing Andrew advance after husband got her moving, though. She had to put a stop to this. She didn't want her husband hurt. She lunged for Andrew, but only managed to scratch the top of his shoulders and back with her fingernails. Surprised by her actions, Andrew, instinctively, turned and backhanded her, hard, which knocked her back against the headboard of the bed, hurting and stunning her to the point of near unconsciousness.

Pete was already moving quickly down the stairs and, lucky for Andrew, didn't hear Joan being hit. He didn't want his home destroyed during the upcoming altercation, because Pete had no intention of this ending quickly, nor did he have any intention of vacating his home.

Pete inserted a mouthpiece, just-in-case. Then he sprinted into his backyard as if he were being chased, in full sight of his new security camera facing his back yard. Andrew wasn't far behind him.

Andrew said, "I'm going to enjoy beating on you, Pete. After I'm done, I'm going to bring Joan here and fuck her on one of the chairs by the pool so you can watch."

Speaking around the mouthpiece, Pete said, "I don't care if you fuck her or not, she doesn't matter to me anymore. What I'm doing here is teaching you not to fuck married women. I expect it to be a painful lesson for you."

In the backyard, Andrew smirked and walked up to Pete, hoping to simply grab him and beat the crap out of him. He thought that his superior reach should be a big help in the fight.

As expected, Andrew at least showed a little more experience than Ricky and had his hands up in a typical boxing position. With his shirt off, Pete could see that Andrew had huge arms and shoulders to match his frame. Clearly, he spent some time in the gym, but the flab around his midsection suggested that he spent most of his time on the weights and had very little cardio, well, except for fucking Joan.

That would give the advantage to Pete in a longer fight and also suggested that his midsection could be soft. As long as Pete could avoid those big meaty fists from getting too close, he should be okay.

For the security system's recording, Pete had his hands up as if he didn't want to fight. When he hurt Andrew, he wanted to make sure it looked like it was self-defense. He only planned to release the video if Andrew tried to make up a story or file charges. Hopefully, nobody would ever see the video.

Andrew rushed at Pete, throwing several jabs and trying to grab him. Pete easily stepped backwards avoiding them. Andrew paused for a moment, and with Pete's hands up, Andrew appeared to again be the aggressor. Pete was just waiting for his moment.

Andrew would rush throwing punches, and Pete would move out of the way or parry the punches with his arms. From the camera, Pete still looked as if he was trying to stay away from this much larger attacker. As long as he was careful, Pete could do this all day, but he could already see Andrew breathing hard. After a few minutes of this dance, Andrew's big right-handed haymaker came, as expected. It looked just like Ricky's, though from a stronger opponent.

Just like he did against Ricky, he hit Andrew hard in his right kidney. While Andrew did bend over in pain, he didn't go down. That was no problem for Pete. Since Andrew wasn't recovering quickly, Pete jumped up and when he descended, delivered a vicious elbow down into the kidney area, with a loud 'thunk.' Pete was hoping that the 12th rib was fully floating now after that strike.

Andrew did go down this time onto his hands and knees. He wasn't trying hard to get up, because he couldn't. His side was on fire. How did that little shit hit him so hard?

Pete stood, waiting for Andrew to stand. With this being recorded, he needed Andrew to continue to look like the aggressor, though that was becoming harder to do.

Eventually, Andrew stood and put his hands up like he planned to box again, but Pete could tell that he wasn't moving well. Now, Pete was enjoying Andrew throwing punches. With his rib hurting, the jabs weren't very hard. They almost looked more for show. He knew each punch thrown had to be excruciating; especially for someone not used to being hit or in pain.

With Andrew moving more slowly, Pete could now return jabs, but each jab was purposefully to the side that was hit earlier, or to the kidney area on the opposite side. With each blow, the grimaces turned to anguish on Andrew's face.

Andrew realized he wasn't going to win this fight. He hoped he could get close enough to the smaller man to rush him and grab him and take him down to the ground because he realized he simply wasn't fast enough to hit the speedy guy. Also, his side was killing him, and he was starting to have a hard time breathing.

Back in the bedroom, after regaining her wits, Joan threw on a robe to hurry down the stairs. On the way out of the bedroom, she grabbed her phone, calling 911 saying that her husband and her boss were fighting in her backyard and to send an ambulance. She froze as she went by her husband's home office, and quickly ran inside.

The next time Andrew tried to rush Pete, it was more of a lumbering, and he was off-balance from the pain. Pete tripped him up, and when Andrew landed on his hands and knees, Pete pretended he was the kicker for the Titans. He wound up and got in the crushing groin shot he had wanted. Andrew's reaction was to cry out and curl into a fetal position with his hands trying to protect his balls. Too late. Andrew wouldn't be getting up without help; nor was it likely he would be getting 'it' up anytime soon. Pity.

Pete said to a moaning Andrew, "Who's the pussy bear, now, dickhead? I'm a fucking Kodiak compared to you. You're lucky I don't drag your ass into the pool and drown you."

Pete sat on the ground about ten feet away listening to Andrew whimper and moan in pain. Normally, he would have hated to see anyone hurting that badly. He felt nothing for this man, except maybe that a little justice had just been served.

He was waiting for either the police or ambulance to arrive, hoping that Joan had called them. He was surprised that he hadn't seen her. Where was she?

What happened next stunned Pete; Joan was running out of the house with the shotgun in her hands, and a black eye beginning to show. She was going towards Andrew, pointing the gun, necessitating Pete to jump up and calm the distraught woman. She was yelling, "You will not hurt my husband. I'll kill you. Do you hear me? You will not hurt my husband."

Not much chance of that happening.

Pete hugged her to him, causing the gun to point down towards the ground, and he gently eased the gun out of her hands and set it on the ground away from them.

Several minutes later, when the police officer arrived and approached them, she was still repeating, "You will not hurt my husband. You will not hurt my husband." It seemed she was coming undone.

The officer removed the shells from the shotgun and then checked on the injured man. Speaking to dispatch, he heard the ambulance was only a few minutes away. By now, Andrew was coughing up blood, which surprised the officer, because the only visible marks on him were on his sides which were red, and it looked like some early bruising was setting in and some deep scratches on his upper back.

He saw the forming black eye on Joan and spoke to her first. "Ma'am are you okay?"

That stopped her murmuring and seemed to rouse her. She replied, "He, he..." then she sobbed for a moment and pointed towards Andrew. "He raped me. When my husband showed up, Andrew chased him."

Pete was bewildered by the response. Raped? It was purely consensual.

The officer asked, "Ma'am, you need to get to the hospital so the abuse can be documented."

"Okay. Can my husband take me?"

"Sure, but you need to go as soon as possible; right now would be better. I'll stay here by the attacker until the ambulance arrives," replied the officer. He looked Pete up and down and said, "You look unscathed. Let me guess, you're a black belt or something?"

Pete shook his head, and said, "Or something. I know how to protect myself and my family, but I can promise you that I'm much more damaged than you can possibly imagine."

The officer nodded, and Joan wept on her husband's shoulder knowing that it wasn't Andrew that had hurt her husband. She was the one that had damaged him.

_______________

Pete took Joan inside to put on some clothes to go to the hospital. She asked him if he would come with her to help her change, but he shook his head 'no.' He didn't want to go with her upstairs, because he didn't want to see the bedroom where she had been with her lover.

Joan looked like she had aged ten years as she descended the steps. The ambulance had arrived, and as they walked past the officer, Pete asked, "Can we have his car towed away? I don't want it here when we return? Joan doesn't need to see it." Not that he was that concerned about Joan. He just wanted it gone.

The officer said he would take care of it.

In the car, they drove in silence until almost half-way to the hospital.

Joan said, "Speak to me, Pete. Yell at me. Scream at me. Call me a fucking slut, again, but tell me what you are thinking."

Pete continued to drive. After another minute he said, "Rape? How are you going for rape? Everyone will know it was consensual. I won't lie for you."

Joan's face fell. "I would like to use this as a chance to keep him away from me. He was becoming too controlling, and I had planned to leave him and his firm anyway."

"So, I've heard." She looked at her husband with surprise. "Just because I'm short in height, doesn't mean I'm short in intellect."

She whispered, "I know."

He said, "I would ask you why you did it, but I already know."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"The sad thing is I would do almost anything for you. You know I would, but one of the few things I cannot change is the thing you held against me all these years. You should have never married me, Joan."

"Please don't say that. I made a horrible mistake. We've been so good together. We have a great family, a great house, and good jobs. We have a really good life."

"Well, except for your long-buried addiction for taller, larger men."

That was a direct hit.

He continued, "Besides, you should have thought of all of those wonderful things and decided an affair wasn't worth the risk. As a portfolio manager, you should know all about risk."

"I know. I was so stupid. Can you please forgive me?"

Pete shook his head. "Maybe one day, but not any time soon."

She asked, "So does that mean there is a chance we will stay together."

"No. That isn't going to happen."

"But...but, why?"

He scoffed, "Why do you think?"

She replied, "Because of the affair? We can go to counseling. We can overcome this."

"Joan, this wasn't just an affair. His little shit of a son sent me a link on Friday to a cloud account where the fuckfest you and Andrew had Thursday and Friday was recorded." She gasped at that revelation. "I don't know if Andrew set it up or Ricky. Either way. I heard you. You won't have to worry about wearing high heels around me any longer. It never bothered me before. I wish I knew that it always bothered you. No longer will you have to worry about people thinking your short husband is an easy target to attack. Do you still think Eva made up the story about Paris?

Joan's shaking her head 'no' was almost imperceptible, but it was very clear.

"Oh, also, just so you know... When Ricky emailed me the link, in his message, he said that Andrew had agreed to find a way to let him fuck you, too. No wonder he came into our back yard as if he owned it. He had no respect for me, nor for us. Why should he, when his father didn't either? And who disrespected our marriage first? That would be you, Joan!"

She was devastated at the realization that she had disrespected Pete first. Also, she was appalled at the idea of Ricky thinking he could have sex with her. She didn't like Ricky. Now she knew why he had been hanging around so much. She couldn't believe she had fallen so far.

"Pete, I...I...I don't know what to say, except to keep saying that I'm sorry."

"You may be, but sorry isn't enough. You lost faith in me. You lost respect for me. Even though I'm a better man than him in every way, that just wasn't enough for you. Was it?"

Joan looked out the window as the tears streamed down her face.

She asked, "What now?"

"I had planned to give you divorce papers today. I'll hold off a little while on those depending on how the next few days go. We are still getting divorced but giving you the papers on the day you were supposedly raped probably wouldn't look good in family court." He asked, "So how do you plan to pull off rape? And what was with the shotgun? Do you plan to send an innocent man to jail? I wanted to send him to the morgue, but you are just as guilty as he is, so..."