Liars, the Lot of Them!

My thanks to blackrandl1958 for her invitation to participate
and her editorial work and my beta readers plus my thanks to Literotica for being there for us authors. Incidentally, Esq is the correct term for all lawyers in America, male or female

Learning that your entire life of the past 20 or so years was nothing but a series of big, fat lies and that all of the people who mattered to you in your life had either participated in the lies or condoned or tacitly agreed with the lies would be a tough burden to bear, right? As it was for Andrew Masters.

Andy was sat at his desk in his office feeling let down and a little sorry for himself. Justifiably, really, because he was supposed to have been in the middle of a very special luxury December and Christmas cruise with his wife, their two daughters and his wife's parents. But the week before the flight to the embarkation port his father-in-law, Marvin Monk, had called him in for a meeting in his plush executive office.

"Look, Andy I'm obviously aware of how much you are looking forward to the cruise with the family, but some workplace matters have come up and I really need you to be in the office throughout the whole month of December.

"Of course, it'll make the family cruise less of a family event without you being there, but please rest assured that I will make it up to you in your remuneration, plus there'll be a special luxury vacation organized for you, Katy and the girls sometime during next year, which the company will entirely pay for, of course."

Andy argued with Marvin but the older man seemed implacable for some reason and Andy spoke with his wife and daughters that evening over their meal at home.

"Oh, no!" said Katy. "Dad knows how important the Christmas vacation is to the family. It just seems so unfair that you'll have to miss out on it. Do you want me to have a word with Mom, see if I can get her to change his mind?"

He shrugged, "Well, yeah, that'll be helpful, honey. Thanks."

Their twin daughters, Cassandra and Emily had piped up: "Yeah! Please, Mom! We can't have Dad missing out on the family Christmas vacation! That wouldn't be right!"

Although Andy regarded Cassandra and Emily as his own daughters They had been barely two years old when he had met their mother, Katy, a then recently divorced single mother. She had still spoken well of her ex husband.

"Bill wasn't, isn't, a bad man. Not really. It's just that we probably married way too young and I think we both had wildly different aspirations. We drifted apart and he went off to photograph and paint wildlife in different parts of the world on a two year assignment and we decided that divorce would be a better option for us. I didn't want alimony and he paid his child support regularly, so all was good."

At the time Andy had met Katy he had just received his MBA in management and business communications and over a dinner conversation with Katy's father, Marvin, he had stunned and impressed the latter with his in-depth knowledge of business and especially Marvin's own industry.

By the end of the evening Andy had agreed to have a meeting with Marvin the next morning to discuss taking up a position working in the C Suite of his rapidly growing business empire.

Andy continued dating Katy and found himself loving the twins as if they were his own daughters.

After a year of dating he proposed to Katy, she accepted, they married and Andy continued working with Marvin, eventually stepping up into the role of Marvin's Executive Assistant.

He was the perfect employee, the perfect husband and the perfect father figure to the girls and the perfect son-in-law to Marvin and Claire.

He, it was, who dealt with the monsters under the beds of the girls and the monsters in their closets, took turns in getting up in the night and comforting them when they were ill. Helping them with their homework, commiserating when dates didn't go to plan, etc. He made sure that he treated the girls as if they were his princesses and their mother as if she was his Queen.

Katy didn't work, she was heavily involved in several charitable organizations funded by GWS the company operated by her father. She was quite the Queen of the local social scene.

Sixteen years later he suddenly felt as if he were a dinosaur in one of the cartoons as the dinosaurs are pictured, food dropping from their mouths as they look up, astonished, and watched as the six mile wide asteroid known as the Chicxulub impactor shrieked and burned its way through the sky, ending life as they knew it.

It was December, several days before Christmas and he was missing his wife and daughters terribly. He was grumbling to himself about having to remain at work whilst they were all enjoying their month-long Caribbean cruise with the rest of his family. He wasn't sure why he'd had to remain at work and the bed at home felt mightily big and empty and the house echoed with the silence. For want of a better expression.

His own personal Chicxulub impactor came crashing down on his hitherto perfect life when the Personal Assistant of Marvin, Julia Weston, nervously knocked on his office door. "Andy, can I have a moment of your time, please?"

"Of course you can, Julia! Please shut the door and take a seat. You seem a little anxious. Is there anything I can help you with?"

At that point Julia began crying. It was then that Andy noticed she'd come to his office armed with a packet of tissues which she was using to dab her eyes.

"Thank you, Andy. That's so kind of you. About what I'd expect from a wonderful, stand up guy like you. But I'm coming to you not with a problem that relates to me but with information with a problem that relates to you."

"Please go on," said Andy, knowing that whatever she had to tell him, he wouldn't be liking.

"That family month-long December and Christmas cruise that you were apparently excluded from at the last minute?"

Andy nodded, silently.

"I helped Marvin book the cruise, I never realized what was happening with it, until he told you that you were being excluded at the last minute. Andy, the truth is, you were never booked on that cruise in the first place. Your place was already taken by Bill Baxter, your wife's ex-husband. He's listed as sharing a luxury cabin with her. I'm so sorry to be the person to tell you this."

Andy felt devastated by this news. He thanked Julia for her help by giving him the information. "Why are you telling me this, Julia? And I don't want to sound like an asshole, but do you have any proof, please?"

"I have emailed the booking paperwork to you. Also, why did I do it? Because I know what a great person you are, I have seen how much you love Katy and the girls. I knew that there was no way I could allow them to do this to you. Allowing Katy's ex-husband to take your place on that cruise was nothing short of an asshole move by all of them.

"I've worked with Marvin for 25 years, known Claire, Katy and then the twins, since I left college and I'd never for one moment thought of him as being capable of being so duplicitous and, for want of a better word, so damned evil."

"What are you going to do, Julia?"

"I'm taking immediate early retirement from GWS and I'm moving to Florida to live with my daughter and son-in-law. They're launching a business and I'm going to move my 401k plan to their newly-formed corporation. Since my husband died 10 years ago I've become increasingly restless and with my daughter and Dan often asking me to go live with them and with how Marvin crapped all over you, I thought: "If Marvin will pull a shitty stunt like that on his own son-in-law, what chance would I have if he decided to pull something like that on me?"

"I see what you're saying, Julia, I really do. However, please reassure me you're not not just quitting because of what's happening with me?"

Julia shook her head. "It's certainly helped me make my mind up, Andy. But no more than that."

They both stood up and he hugged her. "Thank you for putting me in the picture. Obviously my so-called family is up to something rotten. I'll let you know what's happening. We'll keep in touch."

She left his office and Andy realized that he had a lot of thinking to be doing. After what Julia had told him, Florida seemed to be a good option, he thought.

Several days later on Christmas morning he was sat, alone, in the house he had shared with Katy and her girls. He realized that the way he thought of them was changing. "The house he had shared with them, but now no longer shared with them" and Cassandra and Emily were no longer his daughters Cassandra and Emily, they were now relegated to "her girls.'' Was this why Katy had always balked at the idea of adoption, he wondered? And what he had thought of as "home" was now merely a house., if that.

Even before he had known that he was being replaced by Bill Baxter, Andy hadn't been too keen on the idea of finding someone to spend Christmas Day with. But now he knew about Katy and the girls taking a fucking month long family cruise with her ex-husband, he realized he had no stomach for socialising with any of the friends he had made after he got together with Katy and the girls. After all, most of them were Katy's friends first, then Andy's friends afterwards, so how many of them knew that he was Katy's Clown, or Katy's cuckold? No. Best keep away from them.

He had been an only child and his parents had died when he was relatively young so he had no family of his own to visit, so he had decided to not celebrate Christmas at all that year.

He'd thought about getting some Christmas dinner foods in. Walmart had an entire range of instant Christmas meal items from Kraft Deluxe White Cheddar Easy Microwavable Macaroni and Cheese Cups to Stouffer's Roast Tender White Turkey Frozen Meals.

He realized that if he'd bought any of them, he'd have looked like the world's biggest loser, so he decided to avoid anything that even reminded him of a Christmas meal.

And then, on Christmas morning, his phone rang. It was showing up as Katy's phone. He decided to take the call. "Happy Christmas, Daddy!" It was Cassandra using her mother's phone.

"Happy Christmas, Cassandra and to Emily and Katy" he replied, evenly.

"Who are you celebrating Christmas Day with, Dad?"

"Nobody. In fact, I'm not celebrating Christmas at all. After all, Christmas is a time for people with families. And as I don't actually have a family, I decided to not bother."

Katy interjected "Oh, you're feeling neglected, honey? I'll make it up to you when we get back. Plus Daddy told me the company will arrange a nice vacation for you, me and the girls sometime next year."

"That's a nice idea, Katy, it really is. But what would your man, Bill Baxter, think of that? After all, you and he are sharing a luxury cabin on the cruise, presumably as husband and wife?"

Katy gave out a gasp and said: "Who told you that? It's not what it seems. Really, it isn't."

"Don't worry, Katy. I have no idea what I did to make you and your daughters and your parents treat me like this, to hate me this way, but don't fret. By the time you get back from your Christmas vacation I'll be long out of the house, and please tell your father that he can move Bill into my old job as I'm quitting the company."

He clicked the phone off.

Panic ensued in the stateroom of the ship. "Oh, no, Daddy!" whined Katy. "I've worked so hard throughout all these years to keep Andy and Bill separate but equal husbands in my life! How can I fix this?"

Claire, her mother, had a sour expression on her face as she interjected. "I warned you! I warned you, Katy and you Marvin, that this idea of separate but equal husbands was a stupid, dangerous idea."

Marvin spoke in unctuous tones "But it's worked so well for the past fifteen years. If only Andy hadn't found out. I wonder who told him?"

Claire shook her head. "That's not important, right now. He sounded despondent on the phone. And why shouldn't he? As far as he is concerned his wife has left him for another man, her first love. I hope he doesn't do anything to hurt himself."

"Don't say that, mother! I don't wish any harm to befall him. I love him!"

"Well, I think at this moment Andy almost certainly doesn't feel any love from any of us," said Claire.

And she was right. Andy felt unloved, slighted, reviled and ridiculed. And all by the people who he had wrongly believed were his family who had, he had supposed, loved him as much as he had loved them.

Andy had always envied the Brits and other Commonwealth nations with their celebration of Boxing Day, or St Stephen's Day on December 26th. But now on the morning of December 26th he was glad that, in general, American offices considered December 26th to be just another ordinary working day. Though sometimes tinged with the regret of a hangover.

He made an early call to the law firm of Cascade, Northern and Whyort, although the only person he really wanted to speak with there was Mary Northern who he had known from his college days as he became fairly close to her brother Jake.

Because of who he was, his call was put through to Mary's personal number with a minimal delay. "Hi, Andy, happy holidays! What can I do for you this morning?"

"Happy holidays to you too, Mary. Unfortunately this is going to be a business call, sort of. I need the services of a divorce lawyer."

"Oh, no, Andy! What's she done to you?" That response interested Andy.

"It looks like she's left me for her first husband, Bill Baxter."

"Damn! Do you have proof?"

"Yeah, they're on a family cruise together, so not only is she cheating on me, but the whole fucking family are in on it." His voice nearly broke at that point.

"Oh, baby, that's dreadful! The whole family, including the girls? Shit. Look, I will deal with this personally for you. In fact I'll clear this afternoon for you, if that's okay? One PM?"

He agreed and at just before one PM he was escorted into her office.

"How do you want this to go, Andy? Reconciliation or divorce?"

"I'm leaning toward divorce, Mary."

"I can see why, to be honest. But what if this was a new thing, them being together on the cruise?"

"Yeah, that's a good question. However, her playing house for a month with her ex-husband on a four-week family Christmas cruise with her parents and my step-daughters with her, with them all knowing she was putting the fucking horns on me? I think that's bad enough, but if it's a culmination of months or even, God forbid, years of cheating... well, there's no way back from that, is there?"

"I wouldn't think so, Andy. No way. Sometimes I suggest counseling but this cruise thing is so out there that I doubt it's recoverable from. Unless she has a damn good excuse, that is?"

Mary gave Andy a small bottle of water, took one for herself and began taking notes using an expensive looking reMarkable electronic pad.

"Tell me everything that's happened recently, please, Andy?"

He told Mary about the meeting in which Marvin Monk had told him he was no longer invited on the family cruise but would have to stay at home and work at the office. But that there had been no valid reason for him to have remained in the office.

He then told her how Katy had told him that she would speak with her mother to get Marvin to change his mind. But that he now believed this to be a lie to shut him up.

He faltered as he told her about how Julia Weston had come to him and informed Andy that he had never, in reality, been a guest on the cruise that his place had already been taken by Bill Baxter, his wife's former husband and the father to the twins.

"That's the part of this that hurts so bad. The girls knew, must have known the truth, yet they went along with the lie that they'd try to get Marvin to change his mind."

"Yes," Mary nodded. "That must have hurt."

He gave a shrug "Yeah. It did. Until now I'd always viewed the girls as my own daughters, but now I realize they are only my stepdaughters. Well, not even that, really. I was always a little hurt by the face that Katy never allowed me to adopt her daughters, always fobbing me off with excuses. Now I know why. Clearly she never considered me as her real husband or as being a suitable father for her damned brats."

"Don't do this to yourself, Andy. I know you've been treated badly but don't let this twist you up inside. I have a list of therapists if you need one."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"Andy, you really should hire a private investigator. We always recommend a company we use, called Jenner Investigations. Doug Jenner, the principal, is a former Detective Inspector with the city police force. He's not cheap, but he's very good."

He nodded and agreed to her suggestion. She texted his contact details to Andy. Much less dramatic than slipping people business cards but so modern, thought.

At the end of their meeting Mary stood up, hugged Andy and said: "I'll get the paperwork drawn up ready to have her served. In our state we have fault or no fault divorces. Do you want fault or no fault?"

He nodded. Fault, I believe."

"Also, what do you want to do about your employer?"

"What do you mean? What can I do?"

"Sue them for constructive termination. If your employer made you miss a family vacation by making you work through it whilst your wife, his daughter, was with another man, then the professional relationship between you and he really can't be sustained and you can sue for constructive termination. Would you like me to do that?"

"Yes, please. I hadn't thought of that, thanks for telling me."

He went home and packed several suitcases, a gym bag, gathered up his electronics, and booked a hotel apartment at a Marriott in the city center. He Ubered over there and within 60 minutes he was settled in. It was funny, he thought he might cry, but it was as if he was numbed to everything.

He took another Uber to the offices of GWS and once in his office he asked Julia to meet with him. He told her what had happened and advised her that he was quitting with immediate effect. They hugged and Julia kissed his cheek. "You're doing the right thing, Andy. If my husband had done anything even half as bad as what your so-called family are doing to you, I'd have gladly shot him and done time for it! Though Davis was a good man, I doubt he'd even have thought of being an asshole like Katy."

He emailed his resignation to HR and arranged for his last salary and other monies owed to be paid to him. He dropped off his office keys and his ID badge with the staff in HR.

As part of his remuneration package Andy had always been very well looked after. Of course, with his new knowledge Andy wondered if the size of the package was as a result of feelings of guilt on the part of his erstwhile family.

He phoned his broker and immediately liquidated the entire portfolio of shares in his employer. $10 million was not to be sneezed at.

He had opened a new bank account at the Mercantile and Savers Bank and they seemed quite thrilled when he deposited $10 million in his bank account. Of course, they'd have to notify the authorities due to the size of the deposit but he'd expected that and wasn't overly worried about it.

He then returned to his hotel suite and made a phone call to Doug Jenner who had an opening at 9.30am the next morning.

He ate a light meal from room service, drank a bottle of IPA, watched some documentary on BBC America and fell asleep at 10pm. For some reason Andy had never been able to stay up late whilst traveling by himself and staying in hotels.