Law of the Heart—Alternate Ending

Based on: Law of the Heart by Headhuntertales

Headhuntertales stated at the beginning of Chapter One of his story that, "I decided to try something new, a story with several alternative endings. These ending will vary quite a bit, from the romantic to the hardcore. I know the set-up is long, but it needs to be, for all the various possible endings to make sense.

"Also, any authors out there are invited to write their own ending!"

Premise: Husband asserts himself after seeing his wife being unfaithful at law school reunion

Author's Note:

There is probably no stronger emotion a man can feel than the love/hate conflict inside himself when he finds out that his wife has been unfaithful. I like stories with well-developed characters, extensive dialogue, strong emotion and contention

This is one of the first stories I started for Literotica. I will try to make it as well written and grammatically correct as possible. I admire the prior submissions by the original author of this story, as well as those who have submitted alternate endings. This is my alternate ending.

I will start with a synopsis of what has happened so far, so that this stands as a complete story. I urge all readers to start at the beginning with the original story and read all of the other alternate endings.

This version of Law of the Heart presupposes a number of slight changes to the original story. The alterations I will make to the original story are these: Jake took pictures and videos with his I-phone of the events that happened at the reunion. Also, as well as his placing Jill's wedding rings in the wedding album, he also placed the boarding pass for his flight to Miami. Finally, Jake picked up the blue sarong that Jill discarded during her erotic dance with Juan at the Luau and hid it under his shirt.

I also like to think that Jake could afford something better than a room at the YMCA. I choose to believe that he rented a one-bedroom efficiency suite in one of those hotel-like companies that rent by the week.

What has bothered me most about the ending of the original story and the other alternate endings is that: (1) the appropriate type and amount of revenge has not been exacted from the antagonists: Juan, Hector and Sally. (2) Jake has not been able to regain his total inner self-respect and (3) If he loses Jill, the antagonists win.

As always, special appreciation to my editor, BlackRandl1958.

Characters:

Jake Martin: Lawyer, public defender for the city of Boston

Jill Martin: Jake's wife and a corporate lawyer

Sally Campbell: Jill's roommate in law school and longtime friend

Bill Allen: Fellow law school classmate who hooked up with Sally for the reunion

Juan and Hector Mendoza: Twin brothers and law school classmates--both handsome and charismatic as well as wealthy through their Cuban family heritage. Jill had briefly dated Juan during law school.

Steve and Meredith Carter: Best friends to Jake and Jill. Steve was best man at Jake and Jill's wedding. Steve organized the reunions and served as the unofficial host.

Paul Evans (New Character): Jake's original law partner before Jake was hired away by the city of Boston to become a public defender.

Girard Giadino (New Character): Big time real estate investor. Client of Paul Evans/Jake Martin law firm, who are defending him for arson of a waterfront warehouse.

Henry Williams (New Character): Retired fireman and contract employee of Girard Giadino.

Synopsis:

Jake Martin, a lawyer and Public Defender in Boston, thought it was fortunate that he was able to wrap up a case in time to join his wife, Jill, at their annual law school reunion outside Miami. He arrived just in time to see Jill associating provocatively with Juan Mendoza, one of two wealthy twin brothers who Jake disliked with a passion. Rather than interfere with Jill's un-wifely deportment, he decided to watch and photograph what happened. He saw her spend the day with Juan, his brother Hector, Sally and her escort Bill Allen. After the barbeque and around the bonfire, Jill and Juan and Hector and his wife Maria participated in an erotic dance in which Jill threw off her blue sarong and danced in an unseemly way with Juan. The sarong was blown over to where Jake was standing, he picked it up and put it under his shirt. Later in the evening, Jill, Juan, Maria, Hector, Susan and Tom were in the resort hot tub on the beach patio of the resort. The women were topless and the men kissed and caressed their breasts. Toward midnight, Jill allowed Juan to escort her to her bungalow. Jake, watching from a hidden location nearby, saw Jill give her hand to Juan and invite him into her room. Brokenhearted, Jake made the decision to return to Boston in the early morning.

When Jill returned home on Sunday evening, Jake could hardly contain his anger. He asked her leading questions about her activities. Jill never admitted to anything. She didn't make the connection between her activities in Miami and Jake's hostile demeanor, not even after Jake said he was moving into the spare bedroom.

Jake challenged Jill as to the whereabouts of her wedding rings. Jill stated that she had left them with Sally for safe keeping. In reality, she had taken them off in Juan and Hector's 70-foot luxury power yacht, The Seductress. Jake found them during a period of time after it had docked and the partying participants had disembarked. At that time, he took his own wedding ring off and tied it to a leather lace around his neck. He told Jill that he would put his ring back on when she puts her rings back on.

That same evening, Jake heard Jill on the phone talking with her best friend, Sally. He heard the phrase, "Yes, it was amazing". He interrupted that to mean that Sally knew of Jill's infidelities and that Jill had agreed with her that the sex was amazing. It hurt and hardened Jake even more.

Jake, still reeling from the knowledge that his wife had cheated on him with his worst enemies, became more distant and made the decision to move out of the house and into an efficiency suite near his office. He was torn in half. He missed both his child, Little Jake, and his wife, Jill, but he could not reconcile the betrayal he felt with the love he had for Jill. He threw himself into his work. He avoids seeing Jill even though it also means he does not get to see his son.

The Story continues:

The story picks up when Jill comes to visit Jake in his office building, claiming to have found her wedding rings.

Onward...

I didn't go home over the weekend. I slept at the Marriott Suites and spent the rest of my time in my office. I didn't have any other place that I wanted to go. Plus, the deserted building kept me from having to interact with anyone else. In my own way, I was beginning to accept the situation. I was able to keep my anger under control and address the situation in a more methodical manner.

Late Sunday afternoon, my office phone rang. I was using the day to catch up on old case files. There were tasks that I had been putting off for months. Without thinking, I answered the phone.

"You're there!" was Jill's brief reply to my "Hello".

"Yes, I'm here," I sighed. I was not depressed, but rather, for the first time, I was calm.

"Ahhh, ummmmm," Jill stumbled. Finally, she said, "Jake, I'll meet you in the lobby of your building in twenty minutes. Please meet me there. okay?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Please. Meet me there. Please just be there," she seemed to plead and then hung up the phone.

I stopped by the bathroom to make sure my hair was combed and I didn't look too bad. I had become pretty casual about my appearance. I hadn't shaved in two days. I needed a haircut. I had lost weight.

I was sitting in the marble lobby of the County Office building. Only the security guard and I were there on Sunday evening. We both turned our heads with a start when we heard the door open and the sound of heels on marble. I saw Jill walking toward me.

I turned to the guard. "Joe, I'll be escorting this visitor while she's in the building, okay?"

"No problem Mr. Martin," he replied. "Is she a public defender like you? She sort of looks like a lawyer."

"Yeah, she's a lawyer but she is not a public defender. She works for a big law firm."

I met Jill halfway across the lobby and escorted her to the elevator. She looked tired and frightened. She was wearing jeans and had on her heavy winter coat. Her hands were jammed into the deep pockets of her coat.

We were silent as the slow elevator creaked up to my floor. Once in my office, Jill finally unbuttoned her coat and flopped with a sigh into the one worn chair that faced my battered institutional green metal office desk.

I looked at her expectantly. She finally spoke.

Another Alternate Ending begins here.

"You will be happy to know," she said, "that I have my engagement ring and wedding ring back."

Jill took her left hand out of her pocket and held up it up to display her rings.

I was surprised and confused. Did that mean that she had finally looked through our wedding album and found them? I wasn't sure, because if she had she would have found the boarding pass to Miami I had left with them. Her demeanor didn't seem to match what I thought her attitude would be if she realized that I had been in Miami at the time of the reunion.

"Where did you find them?" I asked as I feigned a happy smile.

"Sally had them all the time. I had given them to her for safekeeping when I was on the tour boat," she explained.

I knew she was lying to me--again. First of all, I knew that she did not take the tour boat with her other classmates, rather, she had been on Juan and Hector's yacht, The Seductress. She hadn't given the rings to Sally, either; she had left them in the cabin of the yacht.

"Now maybe you can put your wedding ring back on, come home to Little Jake and me, make love to me and we can get on with our lives as a family."

I nodded as if agreeing with her, and reached under the unbuttoned collar of my shirt and pulled out my wedding ring that was still tied to the leather lace. I initially gave Jill the impression that I was going to take it off the string and put it on my finger...but then I stopped and asked, "Can I see your rings, please?"

Jill was hesitant at first, but then offered her hand to me so I could look at the rings more closely.

"These are fakes," I announced. Jill withdrew her hand quickly.

"What are you talking about, Jake?" she protested.

"They aren't fakes, but rather they are duplicates. Why would Sally send you duplicate rings? They must have cost her thousands of dollars."

I continued, "Is the wedding ring inscribed with our initials and our wedding date?"

Jill tried not to look guilty and quickly withdrew her hand. She protested further, "Of course they are mine. Why wouldn't they be?"

"I don't know, Jill. I just know that those are not your original engagement and wedding rings. Why would Sally try to mislead you?" Then, I got more pointed. "Or is it you who is trying to mislead me? And for what reason?"

Jill stifled a sob and fired back, "How do you know these things? How can you say that? I just want you back. I don't know why you are so upset just because I misplaced my rings."

Jill still hadn't made the connection between my anger and estrangement and her extramarital interlude with Juan. She felt that there was no way I could have learned of her activities between Friday night and her return to Boston on Sunday afternoon; therefore, my mood change could not be the result of anything that she had done.

Over the month that I had been out of the house, I had had a chance to do some thinking that was less influenced by my anger. I knew I was still deeply hurt. I felt the loss of self-respect that goes with the knowledge that my wife wanted to fuck someone other than me. I felt the embarrassment of knowing that other people, a few at least, knew that I was a cuckold. I recognized that I had lost all trust in Jill, not only because of her night with Juan, but also because she continued to lie to me. I knew I missed my son. He and Jill had been the center of my universe. Just because I lost one didn't mean that I had to lose the other.

I also knew that I did not want to be the victim of this event.

Finally, I was aware of the fact that I could not afford to live on my own forever.

I studied Jill for a few moments and then said, "I am going to move back home. I miss my son." I left out any reference to missing Jill, although I did.

"However," I continued, "I will sleep in the guest room for the time being."

This decision seemed to partially placate Jill. Perhaps she thought that it meant the beginning of normalization between us as a couple, as husband and wife.

"I will move back home on Monday evening," I said. "I will see you then." As if to dismiss her, I said that I had to get back to work.

Jill saw that I was finished with our discussion and stood up to leave. "I'm happy you will be home with us where you should be." However, she mistakenly thought that we might embrace and kiss with the decision. She stepped toward me and I withdrew. "You haven't touched me since I returned from the reunion," she noted with a tear in each eye. Then, she turned and left my office.

I sensed that Jill's mind had refused to associate my anger with her infidelity. Maybe it was some sort of defensive mechanism or denial. Maybe it was just a form of deceit.

I did return home on Monday evening. I moved most of my stuff into the guest room. When I did have to use the master bedroom to access my closet and the bathroom, Jill was good enough to give me my space.

I spent the majority of my non-working time with my son, Little Jake. When together with him, Jill and I presented a united front on his behalf. Jill and I were verbally affectionate toward one another, even though we never touched.

When Jake was not present, or after he was put in his bed at night, I was indifferent to Jill and often withdrawn and silent, although I was no longer moody and I didn't make innuendos as I had done when my anger was near boiling over.

It had been three weeks since our meeting at the office. I was at home for my son, but that was all. As far as Jill was concerned, I was at home in body, but not in spirit. I had been sleeping in the spare bedroom.

I was devoting most of my home time to my son. I had always known what an amazing little boy he was, but in the last few weeks I had come to appreciate him even more.

Jill and I had come to a peace agreement of sorts. We actually worked together to make the logistics work. She stayed out of my way when I went to the master bedroom to get clothes or shower in the attached bath. I picked up and kept her office clean so she could do her part-time work in her office during the day.

We were surviving. Well, I was. Jill looked like she had lost a few pounds and her spirit seemed to be gone. I, on the other hand, was reveling in the time I was spending with my son.

One day, Jill said in a monotone, "Sally called me yesterday."

"Good old Sally," I rejoined with some anger in my voice. "Did you tell her to go to hell?"

"No, Jake. Why should I? She wants me to visit her in Atlanta.

"That is probably better than her visiting with you here in Boston, since I really don't want to see her," I replied.

"She wants me to visit her, Jake, not us.

"I almost said something derisive about Sally getting Jill into more trouble, but thought better of it and remained silent

"I want to see her."

This time I couldn't keep quiet. "Want to talk about old times in Miami?" I said sarcastically. I was pushing her further and further away but I couldn't help myself. The pain of her betrayal became fresh again.

"I am sure that the reunion will come up. But I would like to be able to talk to her about us, Jake. She is my best friend, but I won't say anything if you don't want me to."

I was surprised that she asked. "Sure, go ahead, if you think it will help. I doubt that it will," I continued. "I don't think you know Sally as well as you think you do."

Over the next week or more, we worked together in an uneasy truce to make our lives tolerable and to make Jake's life as normal as possible. I knew what I had to do, and I formulated those steps I knew that I had to take to regain my self-respect and honor. I knew that I loved Jill with all my heart, but I also know I could not live with a woman that was unfaithful to me.

About a month after the reunion, I was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. It had become our custom that Jill would make dinner and I would clean up the dishes afterwards. I was drying a wine glass when I heard a lamentable wail come from the living room. I stopped what I was doing and stepped into the living to find Jill sitting on the sofa with our wedding album open on her lap. When she saw me come into the room, she held up her wedding rings and my boarding pass in her hand. "You knew," she said with tears in her eyes. "You knew all the time," she cried.

She was obviously genuinely upset. She was sobbing beyond being consolable. She saw me and buried her face in her hands. "I can't look at you," she said. "Don't look at me," she continued.

I sat down in a living room chair opposite her and said, "Yes, I know everything. I was there. I saw it all."

"I put it out of my mind," she said between sobs and gasps for breath. "I pretended it hadn't happened. I wanted it to go away."

"Maybe it did for you," I said, "but not for me. I see it over and over again. I even have pictures."

"Pictures?" she cried. "You have pictures?"

"Yes, I took pictures of everything that happened. They are on my iPhone."

"No, no, no," Jill cried. "I have to see them," she said.

"Are you certain?" I said. "They are explicit. Besides, you know what happened."

Jill replied, "I have to know what you know."

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, opened the picture file and flipped to the file of the night of the reunion. "They start here," I replied as I gave her the phone.

Jill took the iPhone and began to scan the photos. The pictures covered the time from when the Mendoza yacht landed at the pier to the point where she invited Juan into her bungalow. She looked at all of them. Some of them were blurry and indistinct, but, nevertheless, proved that I was there and had seen everything that had happened.

Jill threw the phone onto the sofa beside her and cried even louder. "I am so, so sorry Jake. I would do anything to change what has happened, anything." she said as she continued to cry.

"But you can't, can you?" I said almost impassively. You pretty much fucked me over, didn't you? You fucked the two men that you know I hated the most in the world."

It took Jill a few moments to understand what I had said. "What do you mean, 'two men?'," she said between sobs.

"Did you know that you fucked both Juan and Hector that night?" I said, almost matter-of-factly.

"What are you talking about?" Jill responded, still crying.

Let me tell you what happened that night, Jill," I said, and I started to recount that night from my point of view.

"I watched from a distance when you returned from your cruise on the Mendoza yacht. It surprised me that you were topless, much less that Juan Mendoza had his arm around you without your objection. Immediately, I began to wonder how far you would go if you thought that I was not around. So, I decided to see what you would do without me.