Independent Women

"Why were you so scared of me?" he said, "You know this feels good..."

He lightly rubbed his thumb against her nipple, waiting for a response. After a delay, through her nonplussed face, she said: "No protection..."

With his left hand gripping her back, he was running his hand up and down her abs and cleavage, "I'm clean as a whistle...you mean to tell me you've been shacking up with Thad like a flower child for three months and you're not on anything?"

Her head slouched as she humped into him, doing her duty.

"We made a mistake..." she whimpered. It was almost confessional.

I know she had torn my heart out and abandoned her son, but I still felt a tinge of sympathy.

"Ooohhh, how naughty," her lover said, "You look a little too old for all that business. And what'd you do with your mistake..."

She stammered a bit to get the words out..."Got rid of it."

"Aawww," he grovelled, "Poor, poor baby."

He snorted a laugh and traced her abs with his hands. The nerve on this guy...

As she quickened, he put his thumb into her mouth and pleaded with her to look him in the eye. Eventually she relented. She was humping into him, staring into his eyes, and sucking his thumb, but she couldn't have looked more despondent.

"Do you want my cum in you?" he asked.

He removed her thumb and grabbed her ample tit.

"No..." she said defiantly.

With aggression, he took both tits in his hands and tugged on them hard. A passerby glanced at the act and looked over my wincing, degraded wife for a second before walking away.

"Tell me you want me cum in you..."

She winced in pain, "Get the fuck away from me..." she said through gritted teeth as she tried to unlock his hands, which had returned to firmly grasping her rocking hips.

"Cunt...if you didn't want my cum then why is my cock inside you..."

I assumed he was going to hurt her further when Thad walked into view of the camera. With a wide smile on his face and a cocktail in his hand, he walked up behind my wife and put a hand on her back as she rode up and down on this horrendous man.

"Ya'll having a good time?" he asked. She leaned her head back and her expression instantly brightened. Thad leaned in for a kiss and their tongues laced over one another as her lover increased his pace. Thad's presence seemed to calm her anxieties. Taking notice of the proceedings, Thad nuzzled himself into my wife's hair and half-whispered something to her as she unconsciously ground into her lover. I rewound the video a few times to make out what he was saying.

"Wait for it..." he said, my wife half smiling as her eyes closed and sweat rolled off her forehead. Thad peeled away the towel, allowing me to see the man's cock as it entered and exited her at a furious pace. "Wait for it..."

Her lover dug his palms into her hips and grunted as he thrust forward.

"Jack's a huuuge," Thad said loudly, "Yuuuugee Trump supporter."

Thad laughed and ducked away, clapping his hands enthusiastically as if he'd played the prank of a lifetime. The sound my wife made was like a car accident of a grunt: terror and disgust washed over her face as she tried to push the man's hands off of her hips. It was to no avail. He was ejaculating over and over again, pumping her full. Jack was now a part of her deepest memory, forever, dug into her carnal spirit, a place where she would deeply resent his presence for the rest of her life. Perhaps, even, he would be yet another father to a child that would grow inside her. The obese, arrogant degenerate held her in place as Thad returned to her side.

"Got you good!" Thad said, laughing. My wife couldn't even fake her complacency as she seemed to sulk and sob a bit, her hands clutching those of her lovers on her hips with futility.

Thad walked out of frame and she pushed off of the man and hurried away. As she moved, a thin line of his cum fell out of her and traced a line along the footrest as she staggered up from her perch. Her new lover took the beach towel and wiped sweat from his brow and cleaned off his flaccid cock. Thad came up to him and handed him a drink.

"Thaddeus," the man gloated, "Thaddeus...something like six months ago I saw a photo of that woman on your mantle. Three months ago she started living under your roof. Today, like you promised, I enjoyed her. There's something magical about the way you deliver on your promises my friend."

Thad waited to finish a gulp of his drink before speaking, "Anything for you, bro. No fish is too big for me to net."

The man shook his head, "There's something about them at that age...some women hold on to that special something right until they hit forty....it's like, when you fuck them, you're breathing in the last of their magic before their tits turn to raisins and their faces crack. It's my favorite type. You're telling me that woman's never had a child?"

Thad nodded, lying, "Not until three weeks or five minutes ago!" he said, laughing. Even his comrade in deception seemed put off by the cold, abhorrent reference.

"That's the only way you can keep an incredible body like that, let me tell you. Is she going to be cooperative? I don't have to worry about anything, do I?"

Thad shook his head, "Sally knows how to do the talking my man."

Jack nodded, his hands at his hips and his gut protruding, "Good, good. I have feelings for that one. Body like a fucking stripper...and that Suzy Homemaker face. A real diehard feminist, huh?"

Thad patted him on the back, "She has the same problem as my wife...they think they can see the forest from the trees, but all she sees is wood."

They had a hearty laugh and the video stopped abruptly.

I wiped tears from my reddened face and inhaled deeply, trying to disengage from the madness I had witnessed. I didn't know what to make of it, but I knew someone who did.

--

"There he is," Kate said, furiously scrolling through Google, "I found him."

From my vantage point in bed, I had a great view of her cleavage bursting out of her nightshirt. It was a sight that still electrified me. Calling her, and her husband Michael, two days after our visit to the club was the smartest decision I had ever made. Give the openness and alternative lifestyle they enjoyed, these two people were more than qualified to help me unravel the nihilism of my wife. Over the weeks since, Kate had surely acted as the most intelligent, patient, and kind woman I had ever met. And, with Mike's blessing, I enjoyed an overnight with her once a week while he watched my son, and I returned the favor when he enjoyed a dalliance. Waking up next to her filled me with a great joy, and somehow the fact our children got along so well made me even more warm towards our new relationship.

I glanced at the headline of the article.

"Jack O'Donley, owner of Veritis Investment Corp., agreed today to invest $40 million into the private equity fund of Darvin and Associates"

"That's Thad's firm..." I muttered.

"Here's a picture of them...."

I scooted over and peered over at the tablet she rested on her legs. Thad and Jack were heartily shaking hands, posing for a business reporter. It all started to make sense.

"That's the timeline..." Kate said. I could see the gears churning in her head. "Jack sees her photo at Thad and Sally's house, is smitten, pushes Thad to find a way for them to be together. Some kind of test before the big deal."

"Nobody is that much of a sociopath..."

Kate widened her eyes and nodded, "I worked in venture capital, trust me, this guy is about mid-level on the evil scale. I've seen worse."

She tapped the tablet, "Maybe Sally is tired of pretending that she cared that Thad slept around, maybe she isn't. Either way, they see his shake of the deal: ten, maybe twenty million dollars. Sally knows all of Rachel's vulnerabilities. Knows everything about her."

I nodded, "They talked every minute of every hour, since they were schoolgirls."

She sat up, "Maybe she really thinks she can fund some kind of feminist group or initiative with the money. Maybe it's just some "noble" wraparound for her gree. She starts to lay the seeds...knows Rachel is impressionable, knows which of her past boyfriends she preferred...knows the true feelings Rachel has about marriage and motherhood...things she was too afraid to share with you or things she had hoped would improve over time. Sally sets Thad up to be her dream escape, and is more than willing to share."

I gulped, "You're right. I wish you weren't, but you are..."

"And then...videos, literature, discussion...all about feminism. Feeding off her fears and her white hot activist angst..."

"Wait," I said, as Kate banged away on her tablet, "That can't be everything. Nobody abandons their son because of gender politics."

Kate shook her head, "No, they do it for huge sums of money, and because their first love or their first crush was an aggressive, frat-boy bro that broke her heart. The feelings she has for this guy are irrational beyond reproach. When Sally framed him as her spirit animal, an emaciated man with unlimited wealth and amazing sexual prowess...it's so fucking ridiculous..."

On my elbows, I stirred, "She never talked about her first boyfriend much. They dated through high school and college."

Kate nodded, "You don't stay with someone for that long, at that time in your life, and not have it be special."

I cleared my throat, "But Thad practically raped her in that club...she was so fiercely angry..."

She turned her head, "Rape fantasies are the types of things you share with a best friend. Sort of like how you share your views on polygamy...though a good, honest spouse shares them with their significant other. This is all her fault."

What could I say? She was right.

"And being used like a kleenex by this Jack character..." Kate continued, "A woman with an infatuation with a man and a thirst for money and comfort...she's enamored with Thad so she'll debase herself to no end. It would be different if there was a way out, but she's abandoned everything..."

I nodded, "Even her mom and dad called...they told me how sorry they were..."

Kate nodded, "Of course they did. Again, none of this is your fault."

I sighed. "I was the safe guy after the first boyfriend...she never talked about him. He was embedded in her mind, in some deep place, all these years...she let the water build until the dam burst."

She reached out and rubbed my hair, "I feel so bad for your little boy..."

I nodded, "I never thought it was in the human soul to sacrifice contact with your own son for a man and some money."

There was a heavy, silent pause, and then she continued, "Do you want to see something you don't want to see...?"

Mentally I felt strong, especially with the truth finally connecting the dots in my soul. I leaned over and leered at the tablet. A photo of Jack, with two model-esque women at his side, sitting in a cabana on a Mexican beach greeted me. My wife was in the background with three other women...wearing a generous, oversized two piece swimsuit and large, obfuscating sunglasses. She was covering something...perhaps changes to her body? Or maybe, trying to preserve whatever was left inside and keep from enticing her new master. I looked away.

"I really don't know who that person is any more."

Kate gently shook her head, "It's the years of denying herself what she really wanted, out of spite from a trauma. If you think about it, all these decisions happened over twenty four hours, some of them over the course of minutes, when she was full of booze...Sally is the puppeteer in all of this."

I gulped, "She was with us when our son was born. She was family."

Kate smiled, "Family is what you make of it. A family can move into the newly constructed ranch house down the street, for example..."

My heart shot through my throat and I smiled, "You can't be serious."

She laughed, "I talked to Mike about it. I knew you were going to be a part of my life the night we met."

"Won't he be jealous..."

She cocked her head in disagreement, "Mike likes college-aged girlfriends and the occasional mid-40s ex cheerleader. We both have the overlap of our needs and emotions your wife sought...you can try to find love and lust elsewhere so long as you never lie to me. But my husband is just not committal with his others. I am. In this case...very committal."

I blinked a few times, "I felt so worthless all these months. Why me? You're so sultry and beautiful..."

She took my chin in her hand, "You're the real thing. Your eyes are always on your personal truth, and you don't hurt anyone. I could listen to you talk for hours..."

"Mike is amazing, but he's a man of few words..."

She rubbed my shoulders, "And what about you...?"

She smiled nervously, waiting for me to find my courage. Should I mention that I still masturbate to the video I took of my wife in the club...the one where her anger melted and she first felt lust for Thad that bubbled over into her eyes as he forced himself inside her? Does Kate need to know I still sleep with my wife's robe under my pillow, and talk to her in the morning while sipping coffee in any empty kitchen? That I have a reoccuring nightmare where I'm sitting in Jack's living room, holding a dead baby, sitting next to my crying wife as Thad, Sally, and Jack laugh hysterically? Or, that if she showed up on my doorstep, I don't know if I'd wrap my arms around her or strangle her to death? No. Not now. Maybe never. I needed this "new beginning." Even if, in my monogamous heart, it might not be sustainable. Because without it, I wasn't sustainable. I was as good as dead.

"I love you," I said, for the first time.

I saw her flinch in reaction. "I love you too."