"I'll see You in the morning."

Linda came in from work on Friday, she was fuming. She stormed up to me. "I got pulled over by the police. My car insurance has run out. Why didn't you renew it?"    

"Why would I, why should I do anything for you after what you did to me? Get used to it." I growled at her. "And you will have to pay the fine."    

"I got let off with a warning as long as I did it as soon as I got home." I just snorted at her and walked away.    

The next visit to the counsellor was a bit up and down. He asked how we were getting on and how our feelings were. I told him I was trying but I was having flashes of anger. I mentioned we'd had visitors to help me out and I had restarted work which made life easier, not only financially but mentally. To be busy was a help. I hadn't told him my plan to leave her as soon at Sean reached 18 or when he left home, which ever came sooner.

Linda admitted she could see I was trying. But then she went on about how I hadn't renewed the insurance on her car and she got pulled over but let off. She glared at me.    

I leaned forward and looking at Doctor John I said, "She probably only got let off because she's the girlfriend of a local football hero." Other things were going around in my head, the one about her being an easy lay or a hot wife. But I decided to keep them to myself, for now. But I could see she was taken aback, that hadn't crossed her mind.     

I didn't let up. "The bizzies were probably fans of his hoping he gets the team into the Premier League next year. I gather the young ones think he's great, the older ones are not so keen."    

Right time for some more home truths. I looked at her. "We were supposed to have lunch with your parents last Sunday but when I didn't go, what did you tell them?"    

She looked down into her lap, "Just that we'd had a falling out. I didn't say anything else because the children were there." She went very quiet after that. I don't think that was the whole truth.    

Doctor John looked at her and said. "We can talk about that later." I knew she was seeing him alone to help her out.     

Neither of our parents were into computers so social media was alien to them, thankfully. The session seemed to naturally wind up there and we made to leave.

As we got to the door doctor John said to me, "Jim please don't do anything else stupid. There are some things we can't protect you from." I sort of muttered a reply about being careful in future. I don't know if he knew the truth, or if he had just put two and two together and come up with four.    

That evening after the children had gone to bed, I said to her, "So you told your parents we had a 'falling out'. Did you tell your parents what falling out was about?"    

"No, I told them we didn't agree on something. But I didn't tell them what it was."    

"Well, I bet they took your side on that didn't they?" She just nodded her head.    

"So, you told them we'd had a bit of a falling out, but you didn't tell them what the falling out was about. Why not, were you ashamed?"    

"YES!" She shouted at me    

"But not too ashamed to let me take the blame for it, you told them I didn't see your side of the argument; no shit Sherlock."    

With that she got up, grabbed her handbag, her car keys and walked out the front door. I heard her car drive away. She came back an hour later in tears. "I've just told Mum and Dad the whole story. I don't think they're talking to me. And I don't think Dad is impressed with you for not fighting for me."    

I felt sorry for her, and I relented, I walked up to her and gave her a cuddle. I think it was the first time I'd touched her since that night. She cried into my chest. But when she tried to put her arms around me I called a halt. She went to bed. I went for a run. I was not taking the blame for this.    

I took my phone, it was only 20 minutes to her parent's house at a steady pace, I phoned them and told them I was on my way. I didn't give them a choice.

I wasn't sure if they were glad to see me when I got there, it was obvious her Dad was not impressed with me. I liked them both, but I wasn't going to take the blame for this. Her mum came in with the tea and I played my rant from the first visit to the counsellor. As it played through, I could see her Dad's face change. I didn't get the chance to fight for her. People kept on getting in my way.    

Her dad offered to drive me home and I accepted. A bit of a peace offering both ways. And it probably wasn't wise to run after two cups of tea and a large piece of fruit cake. It wasn't far and we didn't talk on the drive over. When we got there, he came round to my side of the car and gave me a hug. "Sorry son, if there's anything we can do let us know." I think he had tears in his eyes as he left.    

After Linda came back for her latest solo visit with Doctor John, she seemed very withdrawn, like she was thinking about something.     

Saturday came round, I got on with the usual weekend household jobs. I spent some time playing ball with the kids and sometime in the home gym. I was considering popping out for a beer later, there were a few pubs on the far side of town I probably wouldn't be recognised in. And to be honest, the insults had died down, but you could still see the odd smirk when someone recognised me.     

Linda said she was taking the children to see my parents. She told me she'd bring them back later that day. I'd spoken to my Mum and Dad, they were aware of what was going on. They took my side, but they loved Linda and would do anything they could to help. But they pretty much stayed out of it, releasing this something we would have to sort ourselves. They, like Linda's parents, offered to take the children anytime we wanted some time together. I personally didn't see the need.    

It was around 1:00 o'clock when I heard the ice cream van down the road. That was not the joyful sound it used to be. Then I got a text message from Linda. 'Please watch the ice cream van'. I replied instantly 'NO!' What was she trying to do? The phone rang this time, and it was Linda. I suppose one way to find out what she's doing will be to answer it, so I did. "WHAT?"    

"Please, please do this one thing for me, I'm begging you."    

Well, now she had intrigued me. "Okay."    

There was no fucking way was I going to stand at the window and watch another display of her antics. But I could watch her on the camera that was pointing out the front of the house.    

The ice cream van turned up and then there was soon a queue. Then the front door of the van opened and somebody got out. They appeared to be wearing a sack. They got down on their hands and knees and started to crawl towards the house. There was a sign hanging around their neck on a piece of string. I zoomed in, it was Linda. I went to the front door and opened it. It looks like she'd cut a hole in the top and the sides of a sack and there was a rope round the middle holding it together. She was crawling on her hands and knees past the very crowd that she had walked past when she came back from her night with that twat. Then the insults started, 'Slut', and then the other women in the queue started on her as well it was mob mentality. 'Home breaker', 'Whore'. Somebody threw an ice cream at her, and it stuck in her hair. The sign hanging round her neck may have given the crowd a hint because it said 'I'm Sorry. I was wrong. A whore slut.'    

All the phone cameras were out.    

But she crawled on her hands and knees until she got to me and then she prostrated herself in front of me. I put my hand out to help her up and put her indoors. The cameras were still rolling.    

I stormed up to the queue and shouted. "If I see any of that on the internet, I will be coming for you, have some bloody decency. Haven't we put up with enough?" I stormed off.    

I recognised most of the women in the queue, but there was one or two that I didn't, I think it was one of them that started the abuse. I don't think she lived around here, but she looked vaguely familiar, I was certain I'd seen her somewhere before. The hair was all different, she dressed differently, but I had definitely seen her before. I just couldn't work out where. Never mind I had other problems at the moment.    

I helped Linda inside, I sat her in an armchair and fetched her a towel for her hair, and some tea.    

I looked at her and said, "Just tell me why?"    

"I don't know." She said, "I was caught up in the moment, a famous handsome young man wanted me, of all the pretty women there he wanted me, and I knew you would forgive me. You'd built me up all night, I could do no wrong." She looked down into her lap at her hands. "But I was so wrong, you didn't forgive me, and when you ranted at me in John's office I can completely understand why. The shame and the hurt I put you through. You didn't get a chance to defend yourself. And turning up at home like that, I'm sorry I didn't even see the ice cream van." She lifted her head and looked at me. "I'm sorry about the kiss on the cheek, but he wanted to do it on the lips but I wouldn't let him, so I turned my head at the last second." She looked down into her lap again and whispered. "The same as I didn't let him have me in the morning, I wouldn't bring you sloppy seconds." Her whole body was shaking with the sobbing. "If you want to divorce me, I won't fight it, but we will have to have joint custody of the children. But I want to get my own back on him, I must take a large slice of the blame, I should have been stronger, I shouldn't have let him seduce me. But John has told me some of his history and this is a sport for him. Seducing married women in front of their husbands, but then not giving them a chance to fight back. It wasn't me he wanted, it was a power game for him and you were his target, I was just a pawn in his game. I'm not that pretty after all."    

She looked at me. "I want to hurt him for what he has done to our family." She was growling as she said it.    

I thought to myself, "How come the counsellor knows his history?"    

She carried on. I wish she didn't, but I think she wanted to get it off her chest. "Yes, I came, but he just rolled over and went to sleep, I laid there awake. I may have orgasmed, but I didn't feel satisfied. It felt empty. Then I realised what I'd done, well not all of it until you ranted in John's office. I'm sorry sweetheart."    

"Then why didn't you just come home?" I pointed it out to her.     

"I was ashamed of what I'd done, I didn't know how to face you. And I didn't know where I was, I was so enthralled to be with him I didn't see where we went, and I had no money."    

"You had your phone; you could have called me."    

"I didn't know where you were, or if you would even come for me after what I did."    

She seemed to have run out of things to say after that, just sat there sobbing. I think that was when I gave in, I'd seen the humiliation she'd put herself through. And she realised the total effect of what she had had on our lives and seemed to be totally remorseful for what she'd done.    

I held my hand out to her, "Come on, let's get you into the shower and cleaned up before I fetch the kids."     

"They're staying at your Mum and Dad's tonight." She took my hand, and I led her upstairs to the shower.    

We touched that night, in fact, I held her all night. I think she slept, but every now and again she'd shudder and sob. Forgiveness was creeping in. I didn't sleep much, I thought about what she'd done earlier, that was not a spur of the moment thing. That would have taken some planning for her to arrange that humiliation.     

The house was a much different place the following morning. I checked social media. It was her pages, not mine. I got rid of mine a couple of weeks ago for some reason. There were no posts, you could see several had been retracted.     

We didn't talk much, it was almost as if we didn't know what to say. We pottered around, doing jobs, she cleaned the toilet, put some washing in the washing machine. She made a couple of cups of tea, but she kept on walking past me touching me. It was almost as if she wanted to reassure herself that I was still there. I didn't shy away from her touch like I had in the past. I did some work on the cars that had been neglected over the last couple of weeks. I got dirty and went upstairs for a shower.

She was making the bed when I came out. She touched me. I don't know who started it but all of a sudden, we were both naked on the bed kissing and holding each other. I don't know how it got into my head, but I said. "We can't." She looked at me quizzically. I saw a light bulb come on in her head, she leapt off the bed and ran downstairs. I heard a clatter all the way down the stairs like a fairy elephant and then back up again, I'm sure two steps at a time.

She had a piece of paper in her hand. "I'm clean, I got tested that Monday." She looked down, "I didn't trust him." I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back onto the bed. It had been weeks for both of us. It didn't take long and after we'd finished, she just hung on to me. After that I think we had the best couple of hours of sleep that we'd had for weeks.    

I was rudely awakened by the front doorbell ringing. All I heard was, "Oh shit the kids." With that she grabbed a bathrobe, mine I think and ran downstairs. I looked at the bedside table clock, it was past 5:00 o'clock. I assumed that was my parents bringing the children back. I thought I'd better go and say hello, so I grabbed the other bathrobe and went downstairs. I wasn't really thinking but seeing my mother's mouth open wide and her hand fly to her face, and my father standing there with a big smile, I think they had put two and two together and realised what had been going on.     

Mother started to cry.    

Embarrassingly I asked them if they wanted some tea. Fortunately, they declined. They told us that the kids had been fed and were shattered, they had kept them busy all day.    

It wasn't all sweetness and sunlight in the house, I was still having fits of anger, but they didn't last long. And I was managing to control them. She was still touching me every time she walked past.     

Things did get better and it became known that I was no longer banned from the pub. I still didn't go back. People at work commented on how much happier I was. I must have been a real grumpy bastard before then.    

For once I was almost looking forward to visiting Doctor John. It was interesting and I learned a little bit more about what Linda was thinking now. She had alluded to it after the ice cream van incident.    

As we walked into Doctor John's reception, I suddenly recognised the receptionist. I was pretty certain she was the woman that started shouting abuse at Linda at the ice cream van, she may have even been the one that threw the ice cream, but I couldn't be certain. It stood out because she was one of the few that didn't have her camera out.    

We didn't wait long before Doctor John called us into his office, he could see there was a difference and there was a huge smile on his face. For the first time we actually sat down next to each other.    

He started the conversation. "I believe something has happened since we last met, would you like to talk about it? Linda, would you like to go first?    

I realised he would have had the whole story from his receptionist.    

"Can you tell me and Jim why you did that?"     

She pulled herself up and looked at me with that determined face that I'd not seen for some weeks and said. "I cannot take away your humiliation, I can't take away what I did to you coming home that Sunday afternoon. However, I could join you in your humiliation. That was what I decided to do." She lost her composure a bit. "And to show you how sorry I am."    

"It was as bad as I thought, I wanted to get up and run, but I made myself crawl past those people who saw me on that Sunday. I hadn't been humiliated that day, but the humiliation started there for you."   

Doctor John looked at me. "And what do you think about that Jim? That must make you feel better?" That was unfair, two questions in one and the second one was that leading question.    

I had to think about those questions. "I'm not really sure what I think about it, but it was a brave thing to do, that's for certain. It does show how sorry she is if she puts herself through that." However, I was still confused.    

Doctor John said to me, "You managed to stop people putting the incident on social media. Why did you do that?"    

"I know the shame and the hassle it caused me; she probably couldn't have prevented that happening to me, but I could for her, I didn't want her to go through the shit that I did." I paused, "who came up with the idea?"    

Doctor John replied, "It came out of the discussion we had about the humiliation you suffered. And then Linda wanted to reduce it. We realised that would not be possible. So, she came up with the idea of getting down to your level. To suffer the same level of humiliation that you did. She didn't tell me what she planned to do. But I do know she recruited my receptionist to help her."    

That confirmed what I thought, it was her I had seen in the ice cream queue. She made herself look different by changing her hair.    

Doctor John carried on. "What you didn't see after you left was how all the women turned on the one that threw the ice cream, it appears that was a step too far. And your comment on. ' Haven't we suffered enough' may have hit home."    

I'd taken to having a short session with Doctor John during the week. If anything was bothering me, sometimes it would just be a phone call. And sometimes he would give me a call. I thought it strange that he always had time for me. It helped me control my anger, well most of the time.    

"Jim, I've asked Linda if I can share this. She's sort of okay with it. I know Linda wants revenge, not just on Vale. But on Edward, David and their wives as well after what they have done. She didn't realise what they had done until your rant on the first meeting with me."     

Linda took hold of my hand and squeezed it, "My Dad was right, you would have fought for me. And I think, I can't be sure, but if you had turned up in front of me, I might have changed my mind." She was crying again, "But we will never know, you didn't get the chance because they stopped you."    

Doctor John carried on. "I suspect you may have already started down the route of revenge on the latter, as your counsellor I must ask, please don't do anything else that might land you in prison. That would not help Linda at all"    

I smiled at him and said, "I'll be careful."    

She'd told me that she wanted to get revenge on Vale, but nothing about the others. I already had a plan and was gathering stuff together, discreetly, that I needed to complete it.    

Monday evening Stephen and Denise called round our house, Stephen was very apologetic that he hadn't been more supportive enough over the past few weeks and that they should have done more on the night. Denise was with Linda in the kitchen making coffee, but they had been there a lot longer than it takes to boil a kettle. He told me that he and Denise had fallen out with the other four. In fact, they've not spoken to them since that evening. And didn't expect they would anytime soon.    

"Look, I know you like a round of golf, but you haven't been since this kicked off. How about I do a round with you early in the morning before most people get there? I don't play well but I could keep you company."    

"Thanks, mate, but why?"    

"Because I feel guilty, I may have been able to help you if I'd been quicker to see what Dave and Dee were doing."