Lost Lives Ch. 01

If this story seems familiar, you may have come across it on another site and in a different format from a couple of years back. It has been re-named and re-edited for this site. No Sex in this Chapter.

I'd given no thought at all to the possibility of Steph stepping outside of our marriage. There had been no indication that I'd seen that she was unhappy with our relationship, we at least talked about things that irked us and in all cases we found, one way or another how to correct or live with what ever that problem was. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Stephany Gallagher was the only child of Professor Marcus and Willamina Gallagher. Marcus is the Head of Department for English Literature at the university where we are both employed. More so he is also my mentor and friend. I have the greatest respect for Marcus both as an educator and expert in his chosen field. I have worked under and latterly beside Marcus in his department since I'd started in my internship eighteen years ago.

I met Stephany and fell in love with her when she was just a freshman and after two years of dating I asked her, at eighteen years of age, to marry me, something not universally accepted in the Gallagher family, when it came to Willamina. Steph said yes and now fifteen and a bit very happy and in some cases challenging years on we find ourselves at this juncture, if that is the circumstance, in our lives.

Stephany is slight in stature, not too thin just nicely proportioned, definitely not busty or wide hipped. The gift of the finest of facial features, slightly higher set cheek bones, permanently-pursed full lips and deep set big brown eyes. She stands but five feet five inches yet appears taller, She has a very pale white skin colour, her hair long and dark, contrasts and sets off her beauty.

We have a daughter together, Janine who at fourteen years old is starting to find her own way in the world and has always been a kid whom exhibits a strong character, studious, opinionated - definitely, sometimes headstrong but with her parents intellect and her Mothers inquisitiveness and beauty. She stated recently she had met and was friendly with a young man who she had common interest's with. She had him over and I'd met him, Neil seemed a nice kid, I think we hit it off.

I have no firm evidence that Steph actually has stepped out of our marriage all I do have are the drunken ramblings and rather revealing appearance of my wife when she arrived home from her night out.

Stephany is a senior administrator at one of the university's student services departments, student admissions to be exact, and she works with two other junior administrators, Chelsea and Dwight. I've met both, socially, and I found both of them friendly Dwight maybe a bit of a poser, a little bit on the arrogant side but given his age - mid twenties, and single, not unusual. Chelsea is about the same age, blonde, busty and a little bit of an airhead, like I said though neither were unlikeable. It is these two that Steph goes out with, on their nights out. They normally go to one of the clubs in the city and over the last year they frequent one club in particular, 'Night Moves'. It caters too the 'twenties singles set' and is popular with a lot of the more 'upwardly-well-heeled' young generation so the likes of the 'poorer' hard-drinking students are not the normal custom. Steph had actually asked me out with her group on one occasion and although I'd enjoyed it I'd decided it wasn't going to become the norm and I had no real problem with Steph letting off steam on a monthly or fortnightly basis. Some nights she would come home, happy drunk, not falling over drunk, and horny enough that she would demand a damn good seeing-too. Lucky me.

Anyway that all changed when she came home last, I heard rather than saw her arrive as she was drunk enough to stumble and then fall over one of her large and expensive Alibaba floor Jars (my name for it, not hers). Both She and the jar ended up falling over. The neck of the jar contacted the edge of a glass coffee table which promptly shattered, so the noise was significant. I was awake quick enough after that and raced to the lounge to find Steph sliding around on her ass and side in amongst broken jar bits and the frame of the once proud coffee table, cursing to herself about 'that damn-mother-fucker coffee-table' in amongst 'shhh's and giggles'. Added to that was a loud comment about 'being such a whore tonight'. She had managed to not cut herself so I half dragged her out of the danger of doing that and let her sit there til I could get my arms under her upper-body and lift her onto a seat.

If she hadn't been sitting on the floor with her legs spread I probably wouldn't of seen that she wasn't wearing any underwear. She picked up on what I'd seen as I stared, my temper flared instantly, ignoring the fact she spread her legs further so now there'd be no doubt. The look, the expression she gave was with an ear of arrogance, as she held her gaze and I returned my pissed-off stare her hand moved to her pussy, her long fingers rubbing along it's folds.

Those fingers went to her mouth as she moistened them and then returned to her sex. The smirk had morphed into a eyes-glazed-over grimace as she worked away on herself, and I knew if I didn't walk away right now I was going to choke her to death with my bare hands. Breaking the stare I turned to walk away, before I did I reached down and grabbed the wrist of her hand that was manipulating her pussy, I must have come close to wrenching her arm out of its socket going by the yell, her forehead wrinkled her eyes big as saucers now showed a mix of fear and pain. No words were passed by either of us, looking in her eyes, she was coming to the realisation this wasn't going the way she thought it would, if she knew what I was thinking a few minutes ago she definitely knew what I was thinking now, I threw her arm back down and she winced, that and the slamming of the bedroom door was all I needed to say. Tomorrow was going to be interesting, it was 3a.m. sleep eventually came.

Some investigation needed to be done to see if my suspicions were valid. I wasn't going to escalate things with Steph, especially if some solid proof weren't evident, and despite last night's revelations our relationship was, I thought, going very well at the moment, something I didn't want to jeopardize if I didn't need to. However I was still pissed over how Steph had treated me so I guess my attitude in the morning must have been obvious to her that things weren't completely peachy between us.

I was sitting eating my breakfast as usual, Janine got her cereal's and sat with me as we do normally in silence till we're both ready to talk which as a rule is around about five minutes. "Dad."

"Yes hon."

"Are thing's good between Mum and you? You know as in relationship wise."

"I guess, about as good as possible honey. Why?"

"Er, oh, no reason, what time did Mum get in this morning?"

"Um late, ah, early, I don't really know, I remember her coming to bed but I don't know what time."

I tried to not be obvious but when I looked at my daughter she was staring at me and had a questioning look on her face, when I found the last bit of food I'd eaten was hard to swallow, and I'd grimaced as I'd shifted uncomfortably, I didn't have to look at my daughter to know her thoughts, she must of heard her mother when she came home.

"Morning you two, any coffee left?"

Janine and I kind of grumbled, neither of us looked up at Steph and after a second she decided that was all she was going to get, she turned round and walked to the kitchen. Two minutes later she was back and sat at her place, waiting her chance to talk to us. Janine had her head buried in her phone with ear buds now fitted to her ears, and I was writing in my notebook. "So what's on the agenda today?"

I knew she was asking me but she'd have to try harder than that. "Mitch, so what's on the agenda today?"

I never managed to start my reply, as if she had intended to make the most poignant of non-speaking statements she could, Janine bounded to her feet, noisily picked up her plate and spoon, pushed her seat so it screeched across the floor and under the table walked to the sink, dropped her plate and spoon in, walked back to her seat picked up her books and scurried her way to the back door, "Bye Dad."

"Bye honey, have a good day."

"You too."

My wife finally spoke, "Hang on young lady don't I......" BANG! Door closed. ".....get a good bye?"

Damn, Janine must of heard it all when Steph got home. I could feel Steph looking at me, I took the opportunity to appear even more focussed on my writings. "Mitch, look if I could interrupt your musings for a moment?"

I looked at Steph. My look told her I had her attention, if I didn't have to speak I wasn't gonna.

"You saw what your daughter said to me, or rather didn't say to me, didn't you?"

I shook my head. "What, have you lost your tongue or something Mitchell? I just asked you what's going on with Janine?" She was getting pissy, and she called me Mitchell. Well tough shit. I picked up my plate, knife, stood and pushed my chair under the table and as I moved off I stopped and said to her, "Actually I don't think there's anything wrong with Janine, she's still our Janine like she's been forever, why? what do you mean by what's going on with her?" I'd moved away as I spoke.

"Did you not see how she treated me? It was like I wasn't even here, total disrespect! If she keeps this up, we are going to have words. I'm not putting up with that kind of ignorance. You know what's going on don't you Mitch?"

I had my back turned to her and I had no intention of telling her what I thought unless it served a purpose, for me that is. "You probably need to think about what you've done, maybe to upset her, if Janine is upset with you. Maybe it was something you've done, or said or have said when you thought she wasn't listening." This was damn near therapeutic.

"What the hell are you talking about Mitch? I have no idea what you're on about. I haven't talked or done or accused Janine of anything."

"Well I don't know Stephany, For all I know, when you rolled in this morning seemingly pissed to the eyeballs you may of yelled out about having a debauched fucking little romp or turned into a whore when you were out last night, ... for example, I don't know!!"

She looked sick her eyes quickly cast down and she wasn't going to look at me again. I knew what that meant, I still needed the evidence though. I wandered down to wash and finish getting ready to go to work, eventually, I had some things to do first.

I came back into the kitchen, "Mitch, I'm sorry I, I didn't mean to get all nasty, I'm just worried about Janine and I don't know why I got all defensive and things. Look let's just forget it and you know I'll have a word with Janine tonight, okay honey?"

"Oh and tonight honey, I could do with some down time, I'm planning on us having an early...."

"Ah no, actually you missed your chance last night, I've got a full day and tonight I've been asked if I'd meet with some Canadian Lecturer's that are here. A few of us have got to take them out on the town to show them the night-life believe or not so don't know when I'll be finished, don't wait up."

It wasn't a lie, we had twelve Canadian Lecturer's here, they were with us for a week, not all in the same field and the plan was to do exactly as I'd said to Steph, the only difference was I wasn't expected to do the smoozin' with them, in most cases it fell to the younger of our staff or in the case of senior visitors they stayed with Senior Professor's, or Deans. As I walked to the door I couldn't resist one more dig, "Actually I could take them to the bar you guys went to last night, what's it called, I know where it is I just can't remember the name, Night something. What is it Steph? Night?"

She looked like she was going to throw up, pale, "Moves, Night Moves, but there's no point taking them there it's mostly couples and younger people, so they're going to be right out of place."

"But you three go there and you're married and coming up thirty-three. Seven of the girls are in their late-twenties. I think they'll fit in well, oh and most of the guys are married or actually have bought their partners with them as they're using the time to tour around."

"For chrissake Mitch, what are you doing trotting women lecturer's out on the prowl, AND without me being there, I don't like that idea at all, surely there's enough younger associates that could do that, I'll give Dad a call..."

"No you bloody won't, firstly have I ever done anything to have deceived your trust in me! .... Well!"

The pain was etched across her face, "No, but it still.."

"And have I ever refused you your nights out with your friends, even when you've got home at three a.m."

She wanted to shut my argument down but based around what I'd already bought up she knew it was a lost cause. "No, you've never said no. I ...."

"And besides I know that if I screwed around on you, you'd do the same to me as I'd do to you, divorce your ass or my ass depending on the circumstances."

She really didn't want to be in the room now, I thought she was going to own up, but she was having trouble just staying up-right let alone stringing sentences together that would report her infidelities.

"And as if you need another reason, and this is the most important thing, finally, tonight you will have the opportunity to sit down with your daughter and find out what it is that's putting a block between You and her."

Defeated, the fight had gone out of her, she had a bit to think about. I had a few phone calls to make one of which was to my daughter to give her a 'heads up' about what she would be walking into if she stayed home, in a way I suspected that she was prepared to play this little game out with her mother and at the moment I was feeling comfortable in my fourteen year old daughter being in my corner. I opened the door, "Bye." I wasn't after a reply.

I had two things I had to do. I had to get myself installed in the welcoming party even if I was only given one person to look after, I needed the excuse to case the club and see what goes on there. First thing was to make contact with the College Visiting Staff Co-ordinator, who I didn't know, until I went on the staff and faculty page on the college website, well that was the first shock of the morning it was Virginia Poole. Virginia and I go back to well before I got married. In those day's She was a young administrative team member who was going places. She had a good head on her shoulders and no matter what she just 'got it done'. Yes we had history and I would hope that she learnt as much from me as she had taught me -- enough said!

She married one of the locals, lived in the town and I'd lost touch with her over the years as she had left the job and stopped working, now she was back and secondly she had dropped her married name, either that or it had to be the biggest coincidence for someone to have the same name.

The irony was her office was in the administrative wing of the college, her office straddled two other departments, Staff services and Admissions(Steph's Department). All of a sudden Virginia Poole was someone I wanted to get back in touch with as soon as my legs could get me to her office, I was hoping I may have found another ally.

I arrived at Staff services main desk at 08:30 and one of the staff was already there, we knew each other by sight well enough that an informal approach would work fine, I sneakingly looked across at the desk she had come from and saw her name-tag, "Oh good morning ma'am, it's Sally isn't it." It caught her unawares and she stuttered her way in response, "Oh yes, you're Mr .. Doc ..."

"Just Mitch, Sally its good to see you again." I actually didn't want to say my surname, the likely-hood was she'd click as to who I was immediately seeing Steph worked next door, I continued, "Sally, I was just dropping by to catch up with Ms Poole about the Canadian Lecturer's who are visiting, do you know what time Ms Poole comes in at all?"

"Mitch, look she won't be far off, she likes to get an early start. Would you like to wait in her office and I'll tell her you're here when she arrives? I know she hasn't got any early appointments."

"Thank's Sally, I'd appreciate that, I'll wait if that's okay?" A friendly smile and gesture sealed the deal.

Virginia's office was raised up higher than the main floor with a promenade and steps the full length leading to all the offices, I guess so the bosses could watch their peons working. Admissions had a front desk, work-stations. Steph's area had a easy chair and a couch, for their clients. Virginia's office was at a height were she could look down at Steph, in fact Steph's work-station was below and forward of Virginia's office, but they could not see in her office. The office also had the benefit of light colored vertical slit blinds and opening windows at both ends of the office. It was 08:40 and Steph normally arrived at work at quarter to nine, that was their start time, they could help with problems before classes started at nine. Looking around Sally was ensconced at her desk and other than me there was nobody else around.

The window nearest to Steph's work-station was open so I quickly cracked it open a bit more, now I was hoping Virginia might be late, just in time both Chelsea and Dwight arrived. They were in a jovial mood and I noticed something about Dwight that I'd never seen before, not that we'd had anything really to do with each other anyway, he appeared quite free with his hands around Chelsea, and I guessed, an 'area' he was reasonably familiar with going by the body language. A minute later my Wife walked in past the main desk, she seemed to completely ignore the other two, walked abruptly to her desk and started preparing for her work day. At first the other two just stood looking in Steph's direction, after quiet prompting from Dwight, Chelsea approached Steph's desk first. Dwight stood watching, the smarmy look hadn't left his face and as Chelsea approached she looked back at Dwight, the push gesture and head nod he gave Chelsea didn't go unnoticed.

"Excuse me Mitch."

SHIT!! I nearly crapped myself on the spot!

"Mitch, I just got a ring from Virginia, ah, Ms Poole She is a little late and when she found you were here waiting she asked me to see if you could wait for her, I'm meant to make sure to try and stall you, Mitch, I don't know how but if you wouldn't mind she'll be about ten, fifteen minutes."

"No problem Sally, I'm not due anywhere for an hour anyway." That seemed to satisfy Sally and she left.

Shit, I'd missed a bit of what was going on between Chelsea and my Wife, so making sure the blinds would not give away my presence I moved closer. Steph appeared agitated about something, I could hear her talking, I couldn't hear Chelsea though, she was asking questions of Steph.

What ever question she just asked Steph got a loud nuclear response, "Chelsea, I FUCKING SHOULD OF.." I watched as both Chelsea and Dwight grimaced and went 'Sssshhhh..' at Steph,

"Don't you shush me, you're both to blame, I wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't started it, I'm fucking telling you, If my marriage is toast because of you two, you're both going down with me, one way or another. So don't even try to manage me, you got that Dwight? And you Chelsea, my so called friend, last night is the first and last time you get this pussy, and Dwight, a finger-fuck is all you'll ever get, same goes for your sleazy barman mate, from now on we are working professionals and that's it, no more drinks on Thursday bullshit, it's over, got it. Oh and what the fuck was in my drink Dwight? Yeah I know your little game I was just about going to go and get a tox screen, I should of, only problem is I don't know what the fallout from that would be, and I don't mean for you two assholes either, I mean for my relationship, FUCK YOU! Now both of you get to work, I don't want to hear you, or see you, for the rest of the day unless it's work related."