All Comments on 'Know Thy Self, know Thy Enemy'

rest of the story was silly

the wife was an ego centered taker. she was entitled to have her affair? the husband gave ample warning but no one listened. the seducer believed himself above the fray.

lots of pithy dialogue. but

switching to a narrator at the very end made no sense. the speaker concluded by telling us how broken and sad the husband was. much like a morality play. but there is nothing offered to support that concept. the cheater lived and died in fear and terror. the wife will now be looking over her shoulder for the rest of (what is left) her life.

he fled? no he took the money, retired to the south pacific, and lived happily ever after.

@gatorhermit This story shows the big problem the most of the non cuck husband stories stop at the sad lonelly ex husband. The solution is new hub where the nob cuck non wife sharing stories should transfer and the new stories contain the future of the ex husbands (and the ex wives). The solution is the long life spin stories, but the good flash stories would have place in the new hub.

I used to check Lit every day when writers like HDK, Ohio, JPB, DQS, Rehnquist, PapaToad, Winterfrog, qhml, the Stangster, Slirpuff, the Phila Mafia, and several others were writing. Then LW morphed into Cucky Haven and I stopped checking - boring giving out all those one-star ratings day after day. [My theory is that the cucky guys are closet gays but are in denial, hence the cucky fantasies. BTW I don't care if you are gay and/or have cucky fantasies - just no interest on my part.] The other piece of this is that it is very difficult to come up with something new, interesting, and original, as the talented people mentioned above have pretty thoroughly explored the landscape as to how to one could respond to a cheating spouse situation. [Took the Stangmonster years to exhaust the psychotic first wife theme!]

However, glad I checked today - this story was interesting and had clever dialogue along the lines of how Lit writers used to write. Thank you TCct!

A very good read sn d I enjoyed the banter of the ex husband with the dectives, very witty, very enjoyable.

....this proves a story can be well told without massive quantities of (or any) graphic sex (not that there's anything wrong with that).

That the "perp" always seems one step ahead of everyone else, suggest a certain diabolical bent to pre-planned retribution.

The last few lines beg a sequel where our now institutionally criminalized protagonist exacts retribution on his ex-wife for her arrogant, insolent, disrespectful, blatantly open, obvious and egregious destruction of their marriage. His response was a bit mild, in my opinion.

The fast money is betting she suffers from extreme narcissistic disorder and never loved him, being unable to love anyone but herself. That same betting block is betting she'll start getting diabolical messages and vauguely frightening notes and cards, before a spectacular self destruction.....or maybe just an overdose of sleeping pills....or maybe even her car running off an overpass in falling into oncoming traffic in the highway below. Already nearly bankrupt, since he stripped everything from their house, lives and accounts, there isn't much else he can do but terrorize her.....something he's obviously learned how to do very well.

That pushes the story from a 4 to a 5.

A read.

BTB and then some - frigging awesome!

I've learned long ago never to assume what reaction people will have when wronged. Fortunately I've never done nor had done to me something this disrespectful, but there's a reason temporary insanity has been a defense that exists in our justice system. When the other half of our selves wins out crazy shit happens.

Solid story, well written, and clever conversations. 4*s

He destroyed himself, he got revenge on the seducer. Now the ex wife is fair game. A hardened criminal. All characters in this story have no appeal to be liked. All over a dumb pussy .

“I had needed Dan, wanted Dan and Jim would just have to accept it. I was surprised by his dislike of Dan and resented him for trying to get in the way of our friendship and later affair." – That sounds like she expected Jim to be a willing cuckold?!

“my extensive collection of designer clothes, purses and shoes!” – Oh, dear!

@lance_spearman, I guess everything is relative, but she lost her share of their assets, not knowing her income, or how much debt he left her it is hard to say for sure, but I would say that given HER standards she was in pretty poor financial shape. Also, I have no knowledge of the cost of living in the Marshall Islands, or his employment opportunities, or how far from tapping into his retirement he is, but with wise investments and frugal living that 1.2 million might just last a while!

Would definitely like a part two with Kate's fate!

"Hell of a price to pay for a piece of ass and some strange cock."?

Hell to pay for belittling and trying to humiliate a man, for destroying his life and marriage (illusory though it was) more like.

Dan and Kate decided to become the enemies of Jim.

They did not know him well enough to do that successfully.

I like it. Good story. A very stupid woman, arrogant boy friend and an angry and disrespected husband.

Inviting Dan to BBQ. Showing up at his office event. Immediately got what they deserved. The ongoing impact of what they got, is their own fault. It is surely dark tale...but sometimes life is dark.

As for the inconsistencies pointed out by others, I am not so sure I agree. For example, financial well being is a relative and subjective thing. No more house, no more belongings, now paying rent, use to a $1000 bucks in toiletries alone. I can see her FEELING worse off.

I wouldn't mind seeing a follow up story on the ex-wife "progress". What happened after the beat down? Did Dan dump her, did she dump Dan. Did she still "need" Dan or modify her selfish and stupid ways?

really liked the story and the possible outcomes here. good writing I'm saying!

I prefer less sad BTB stories. He sent Dan to suicide his ex wife to poverty, but he is not happy with it and he want more punishment. he is too vengeful for me. Sometime the cheating changes spouses to too wrong direction. 5****

to be the moral of the story. This guy is very unstable.

No doubt Jim did have many friends; but by the comments here, there wouldn't be a willing cuck or adulterer among them. I have to laugh when I read their pitiful criticisms. I can see the piss puddling around their feet and smell the shit in their drawers when they read about a man who will not fail to give them what they deserve.

Lacking self control, he spent a long time in jail and obviously was never able to move

on with his life. That made obvious by the postcard to his ex-wife and the last sentence of the story. Not a pretty life to lead. Full of anger and hatred. The kind that eats away at a persons soul. In the end, this was a story of violence and hatred. And while it was well written it simply wasn't any fun to read. The real weak point was the complete cleaning of the house. So he had a lot of friends. Those friends still needed a substantial amount of time and a truck to remove everything. Someone would have seen something. That part of the story just didn't track. And yes, I know it's a fictional story made up from the wisps of the imagination. I just found that particular part to be implausible. I realize I'm just picking nits, but hey! That's what the comments section is for, right? I've enjoyed some of your stories in the past. Maybe the next one?

TCct tells with obsessive repetition. His wife (and Dan) really did a job with his head.

Everything is done. This is a recitation of events. It is like reading a newspaper of what happened. That takes the drama out. And for most of the story, you just had a couple of cops talking about a case and not doing anything.

Still, it was the one offering I read today, so take that as a compliment.

Liked it, a very different take on the cheating wife story. Using a combination of documents and interview to tell the story is a different twist, Plus the suicide question vs. possible crime.

Form a behavioral sense does not make sense if you understand about various behavioral issues from a DSM perspective - but it's a story.,

No doubt the BTB crowd is happy.

for the same reason fags like you think being cuckolded is so sexy. There is nothing sexier than a slut/dog paying the price for fucking over their spouse. So why don't you wake up your wife's lover, fix him some breakfast and take your punk ass to work like a nice little cuck.

Because even sex itself is too stupid to write about without the emotions that surround and run through the act. As a byproduct, sometimes you get stories that are only about the emotions. Which is the greater part?

Okay - "potential" crime scene - the body is described as "prone" (facedown) on the floor and "slumped back" in the chair. IMHO, that makes a big difference. I found the story generally engaging, but I had the biggest problem with the wife's incredible stupidity in assuming she had married a complete doormat without testing the situation. She obviously thought she could flaunt the affair with Dannyboy (and had told poor ol' Dan the same thing) in front of her husband with no negative consequences. What's missing here is any kind of buildup to that - we got " we had a good marriage and then the mrs decided that she deserved to have an affair" - not quite from her perspective, but even in her story she never tested her "doormat" assumption - she only evaluated whether he was committed to her, not whether he was slavishly devoted to her.

I thought this was a good read and I disagree with the Unoriginologist in that I don't think the author wanted to depict the husband as a hero and in my mind he didn't. The marriage may have been weak, it may have appeared strong, we just don't know. I guess it is a BTB tale but I read it more as a story concerning how a man who THOUGHT he was in a good marriage, finds he isn't (whether that makes him an idiot or simply human we could debate - we've all been fooled by people before and no one plans to marry a cheater so by TUO's definition there are a lot of idiots out there) and how he reacts tragically to that reality. TCCT never asked us to like the husband, the wife or Dan but we sure end up disliking the situation. Infidelity kills marriages (good ones and bad ones) and changes people - sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Thanks for sharing!

At first I didn't like the police interview with the wife until I read the interview with Jim and realized you were so fired up to do that interview that you were letting it slip into the wifes tale and that's why she turned the keys etc. One commenter wrote that he could not do much with 1.2 million to live on for the rest of his life but good investment in a business or due to the destruction of his character a criminal approach to finance and he would be all right. all in all five 5 big stars as this site only goes that high.

and you would be wise to heed the fantastic advice given. The story left me flat overall. Got me engaged, but the villain and the wife I had no deep feelngs for, the marriage the same, so the unraveling was a bit of a ruined one.

3 stars.. always glad to read about cheating wife getting her due

She loved that he loved her, loved that he made great money....

We made about the same amount of money and had about the same saved in retirement accounts, we didn't have any kids so no custody or child support issues to be worked out.

Her affair with Dan and Jim's subsequent actions had left her in very poor financial shape.

The first 2 sentences make the third one so inconsistent the story becomes meaningless. Besides which, $ 1.2 M would not be enough to live comfortably for a lifetime anywhere in the world.

There were a few grammatical errors. I often wonder how people can mix up, "their", "there", and "they're". However, there's no one in the story to identify with, no one to like, and no one to feel in the least bit good about in the end. Think the story might deserve a fairly high score for originality and writing, but I just could rate it that high because I wasn't enlightened or entertained. I just felt empty when I finished it.

Good take on a cheating wife / revenge tale. As good as any I've read lately. Even though it cost him being incarcerated, it was a very public display of retribution. Do the crime do the time. Most stories have been the anonymous assault type. But we've read that before. So this is a different twist. More like psychological warfare while Jim was in prison. A promise is a promise. Very nice. 5 stars.

Enjoyed the story...thanks for sharing.

Okay, so this guy was either too caught up in himself or too uninterested in love to notice that he was wasting his life on a woman who loved what he provided, not who he was (her words). I can never tell if BTBers play that card because they think it'll make her a stronger villain, or what, but it just makes him look like an idiot. Frankly, he seems like someone who NEEDED a wake up call because they are wasting their life pretty willingly.

Then, when he found out about the affair (which should have come as a relief given how it provides an excuse to leave what comes across as a loveless relationship), he reacts by giving her and her lover another three years off his life. Still like an idiot. "Oh, you've stolen from me, so...uh....here, have some more!"

At the end of the day, a hero is limited in how great they are by the scope of their villain. You can't make Superman look super by putting him against a kid graffitiing a bus stop. You can't show his strength by having him handle a pop top lid. In fact, if you wrote a 12,000 word story about that, the readers who didn't get bored would be upset. Why is he spending so much time on this kid, when murders and rapes and evil schemes are happening elsewhere? Superman would begin to look petty and dumb.

So a strong villain...but a villain requires something to be at stake, and they cannot destroy a good marriage where none exists. So by making the wife a caricature/moron/user, the BtB crowd is constantly making their male characters look weak and clueless when their intention and concern with manly men appears to revolve around doing the opposite.

All anyone post on here is Married Gay men wanting to eat cum. Your story is refreshing , well thought out and very entertaining. Thank you for posting. Thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to your next story.

Sorry, I don't read detective stories. I did reach the guitar string metaphor, though, and it puzzled me. Why mute the string in a sound proof room? And such a sound would not carry poorly, it would not carry at all. Too deep for me.

been better to eliminate the wife first

"A once happy, loyal, non-violent, hard-working citizen was transformed into a hate-filled, vengeful man capable of extreme violence and incapable of empathy or forgiveness."

Not too likely, people don't change that much for the better or for the worse. He lived up to his character. He kept his vows/promises and he expected others to keep theirs. Had she been honest, told him she wanted out, and got a divorce - all the pain could have been avoided. She lied, she let a creep into their marriage and he did what his nature told him to do. On the other hand, 15 years, no kids, and a shitty wife - not really worth 3 years in prison. Just cut the old slut loose.

I agree with @kdcee79...A dark tale, but with a flow that kept the readers interest from the first word to the last one...A dark tale that deals with feelings and dark and selfish actions that can change for the worst those feelings...Thank you...4* +.

with a little time and patience. TK U MLJ LV NV

A very deep tale. I can appreciate our betrayed man's transformation as it can happen to anyone who was deceived like this. The need for revenge can change the best of us. Now does the cunt get hers? Actually I know she does but it would be nice to read about it.

Five Stars

A dark tale indeed, you really brought this to fruition here; congrats, I'm sure that's what you hoped to achieve. I really enjoyed the meeting between the 2 detectives & Jim, priceless. An excellent job all round. 5 *****

Love the word.