New Beginnings

Chapter 1, The middle.

It was hardly a fairy-tale start to their relationship, but Zoe and Cole were besotted. He was 27 and she was 19. Cole's divorce to his ex-wife Vicky had been an easy process since he had given her more than she should ever have been entitled to. They signed the documents and that was it. They were over and would never have to acknowledge each other again. He still loved Vicky, and Zoe knew it, but she also knew the history and there was no risk of him pining for her, besides, Zoe was all the woman Cole wanted.

They lived in a large 7 bedroom detached house on the outskirts of town, a quiet and idyllic spot away from prying eyes. They had housemates, 8 of them in total, Jim and Hayley, unmarried but very close, Mike and Sian, again unmarried but close, and James and Jayne who had recently become engaged just a few months earlier. The other two housemates were Emma and Jess.

The house was a strange set up. There were two bedrooms where the front reception rooms should have been and another in a room behind the stairs. Four en-suite bedrooms on the first floor with a family bathroom too. On the top floor there was an adult's only spa/playroom with a fully kitted out gym. Where the cellar would normally be was a modern open plan living space that covered the entire footprint of the house. It stood in an acre of grounds and over looked long rolling fields to the rear. At the rear of the house was a wraparound conservatory that made the best of those views.

The majority of the house mates were in business together in a venture which employed Emma and Jess. The gang had their ups and downs and losing Cole's wife Vicky as a partner was a pretty deep down, but when you're at the bottom the only way is up.

Zoe and Cole had met 9 months earlier when Cole and Vicky had employed her to work for them. As Cole and Vicky started to fall apart, she and Cole had started to become closer and closer. After the split they were drawn together like binary stars, constantly falling around each other, continually becoming closer. Those 9 months in this house had brought Cole and Zoe to a pinnacle and they were extremely happy with their situation. They enjoyed their lifestyle and it wasn't for anyone else in the world to judge, except for maybe four people; their parents.

Chapter 2, Sex.

Cole met Vicky when they were still in school. He was in his last year at 19 and she was 18. They met in sixth form and got on really well. He noticed the tall girl with long fiery red hair and deep grey blue eyes straight away and knew she was destined for him. He asked her out but she thought Cole was too nice. It didn't stop him asking her though. He became her confidant and best friend but it wasn't what he wanted. She told him everything but she wouldn't let him any closer.

She was a party girl and she loved men; big men, small men, tall me, short men, old men and young men. She liked Cole, a lot, but felt her lifestyle wasn't conducive to a successful relationship, so she kept him at arm's length. He would try every angle to capture her heart but she refuted his advances at every turn. The thing is, Vicky liked sex a bit too much. She was promiscuous to the point of surrealism. Her libido was insatiable. She thought she could take on the world, and tried too.

In reality she was an addict but she didn't realise it. It was this that kept her from allowing Cole into her life for so long. Cole knew it though. He was the one listening to her mad stories, seeing her actions and yet he still wanted to be with her. It wasn't because she was easy but because he was so head over heels, madly, deeply and mind bendingly in love that he was relentless in his pursuit of her. After two years of asking, begging and pleading she finally relented and agreed to be with him.

She was not a one man woman though and her libido was not to be denied. Every time she met a man while she was out in town she would get her way. To begin with Cole was clueless and maybe he would have been happier if things had continued that way but his own sense of humanity led him to believe that she would be happier if she was allowed her sexual freedom. This would ultimately be their undoing.

Vicky took the offer of freedom as an offer to humiliate him. She loved him but she was extreme. She sometimes brought men home telling Cole he had to sleep in the guest room. It was all a game that Vicky found fun. Cole accepted it as part of his relationship with Vicky. He didn't like it but he accepted it. When she wasn't with other men she was with him and that was the part he had always wanted.

They had talked about having a baby but with Vicky's activity she would almost definitely become pregnant by someone else and not Cole, so the idea was left to die. Then they met Jim. Vicky regularly looked on dating websites for new men and came across Jim's profile. Neither of them knew he would become one of their best friends because Vicky was just looking for her next interaction. When he met them he was surprised at their relationship but Cole was numb to it at that point.

Vicky started seeing Jim in a more and more serious capacity. She wasn't leaving Cole because she had nowhere else to go. Her parents had died in a car crash years earlier so her only shoulder was Cole's. They were reliant on each other but with each new man she was straining the relationship. Jim ended up moving in at Cole's request to try to stop her from going after more and more men. His reasoning was, if she had choice at home she wouldn't need anyone else, and the two of them got on extremely well. It worked, for about two weeks but then she started to stray again as extreme as ever. At least now Cole had a good friend in Jim and they could both sulk together.

Jim wasn't the first man who had moved in. She had 2 other men who had moved in previously. One was Cole's friend, Tim who was struggling after his divorce. Tim didn't mind Vicky's promiscuity since he had no real feelings for her; he was there for one thing and one thing only. He stayed for nearly 18 months.

Jeremy was the other. A man she met on a night out who ended up staying for 6 months until Vicky wanted more again. He wouldn't let her stray and was adamant he was going to keep her inline. More fool him. She went out and did what Vicky did best causing John to move out. During both of those relationships Cole was rarely allowed access to his wife for husbandly rights.

She started to sell herself and while Cole hated it he was always trying to be the hero and thought if he was somehow involved he could at least try to keep her safe. It came about one day in winter when their boiler had broken down and they had no money to have it repaired. She made the attending heating engineer an offer he was never going to refuse just to get the heating fixed. She realised she had a commodity she could make money from and so she did.

Jim lived with them for around eleven months in their little house and she would alternate between them each night. Jim had no reason to complain since he had walked into their relationship and still considered himself the outsider. Cole couldn't complain because she was still with him even if she was also with everyone else. He loved her too much to let go of her completely so letting her off the metaphorical leash was the closest he would come to giving her up.

Vicky's best friends Jayne and Hayley were both party girls too but nowhere near as extreme as she was. Jayne's boyfriend knew she played away but as long as she didn't go off the rails he didn't care. It was a similar situation to Cole's but nowhere near as wild. Hayley was married but her husband was a businessman and regularly worked away which allowed her to have as much fun as she wanted. He was a fat and balding man but he had money which blinded Hayley to his aesthetic shortcomings, anyway she had plenty of choice when he was away. She was a trophy wife in the truest sense of the term but he had no clue what she was doing behind his back.

Vicky managed to get Jayne and Hayley involved in selling themselves and it led to them starting a small brothel running from Cole and Vicky's house. Jim fell for Vicky's friend Hayley and gave up on Vicky because she had become so sex mad.

The men were in an impossible situation with the women. They loved them and they were trapped. The only thing they could do was make the best of a bad job so they started promoting the girls. They made a lot of money and decided to buy a much bigger house. Castillo de Mierda.

Chapter 3, Aneurism.

During an internal party one night things had got wild. Seriously wild! It was the 4 men and a couple of very well paying clients with the 6 girls, they were switching and swapping like a box of hamsters. They'd all been drinking heavily, and using the spa in the playroom at the top of the house. Vicky was humiliating Cole in front of everyone by taking up with all the other men but denying him. Zoe loved Vicky but hated what she was doing to Cole so while Vicky was distracted Zoe took Cole downstairs to her room where they had their own private party. They made love, and ended the night falling asleep together.

Cole woke at 5am as he did every morning to train with Mike, Jim and James but as he stood he felt dizzy and had a pounding headache which he put down to the alcohol and lack of sleep. In his dark room he was seeing sparkles and fireworks which he had never experienced before. He turned on the lamp to see Zoe lying in her bed but the bed sheets seemed to be coiling around her like a serpent. He knew he was seeing things and again put it down to the lack of sleep coupled with the alcohol. He left his room and went down to the main kitchen where he expected to see Mike preparing breakfast as he did every morning. He said "No Mike, weird" and as he walked out he saw Jim and James. He stopped and told them Mike wasn't there and he was going to find him.

Cole walked up to the first floor to see if Mike had slept in. Mike was a very disciplined ex-military man so it was out of character for him not to stick to his routine. As Cole passed Mike and Sian's room he knocked on the door but there was no reply so he entered. The room was empty so he continued up the next flight of stairs. As he popped his head above the floor level he could see movement and carried on up. The room seemed to become misty as he was looking around. Suddenly a hand gripped his ankle and Cole shouted out "WHAT THE FUCK!"

He looked down and saw Jayne who seemed to be seriously injured and covered in blood. He Knelt down and held her head and concerned he asked "What happened?"

She didn't reply so he told her he was going to get her out of there and started to drag her out of what seemed to have become a swamp in the upstairs playroom. He saw another dark shape and recognised her to be Vicky. He placed Jayne's head down and stood as Vicky's face rushed at him in the darkness, then the world fell over and hit him in the head. He woke a week later with no feeling in his left hand or left leg. icky and Zoe were there but when he tried to talk he couldn't make proper words. It was like his tongue was upside down and stapled to the top of his mouth.

A doctor came into the room, saw Cole was awake and started to tell him about what had happened but Cole couldn't understand what he was saying. The doctor sounded like he was speaking Russian but Cole couldn't understand why he was in Russia. He tried asking Vicky and Zoe to help him understand but he was unintelligible and the girls were speaking the same language as the doctor. He was scared. He thought he had fallen through to another dimension. Eventually sleep caught him and dragged him down.

He woke another 2 days later with Zoe sitting next to him holding and kissing his hand. She saw his eyes open and asked "Cole. How are you feeling?" His head still hurt like a grenade had gone off inside it but at least Zoe was speaking English again. Cole tried speaking but nothing was working together, there was no choreography between his jaw, lips and tongue so he spoke pure gibberish. Slowly he realised that if he spoke slowly he could get them all to work together but it was a struggle "m y h e a d h u r t s."

Zoe looked into his eyes and told him he'd had a brain haemorrhage and would be in hospital for a while. Vicky walked in with the doctor, laughing with him about something. She saw Cole was awake and asked "how are you feeling?"

Cole replied "I ' m f I n e,, H o w I s t h e b u s t h a t h I t m e?"

It took a couple of weeks for Cole to regain his speech but it took practice. His arm and leg were another matter. The gang took him home to Castillo, put him in the back room under the stairs and looked after him, none more so than Zoe who had cut her clients so she could be with Cole. He noticed though that Vicky was rarely around. Jayne and Hayley would visit a few times a day and as Cole began to get back some feeling they told him about Vicky's activity.

Jayne said "Vicky has been seeing a doctor from the hospital you were in. While you were unconscious she was cheating on you."

It was no surprise to Cole that Vicky had been with yet another man but what stung was she did it while he was at death's door. He called the gang into his room, all apart from Vicky who had gone out with the doctor. "I want to know what you all think we need to do. I think my marriage to her is coming to an end but I want to know, is she staying or is she going?"

They all decided that she was still working for the business so they would keep it as it was. Cole's feeling was slowly coming back in his arm and leg so he started doing some physio with Mike up in the Gym. He was pushing himself hard to try and become himself again but it was tough.

They decided to have a party to promote themselves to new clients and it would happen after another two weeks so the girls started getting the party organised while the men started getting the word out to prospective clients, that there was a party to showcase the girls. Cole and James weren't exactly into the whole idea since they were dragged into the business with their partners but Jim and Mike were fine with it because they didn't get involved with their partners until after the girls were already into the business.

Cole was doing great with his rehab and was progressing well. He was having panic attacks now though so if something set him off his blood pressure would raise and he needed to be careful.

On the night of the party the gang warned him that attending the party may not be the best idea since it was likely to be quite full on. He disagreed and said he wanted to be there. It started off quite pleasant and the girls would take a prospective client to their room and take care of them quietly but as the drink flowed into the men and the girls it turned into mini orgy. He did notice that Vicky was standing next to one man all night and wasn't getting involved leaving the rest of the girls to deal with the large gathering of men. The night wore on and he watched his wife as she took no part in the promotion but saw her walk to a corner with the man. She coupled with him and was solely with him for the rest of the night. Cole got up and left.

Zoe came to find him in his room at the end of the night. They spoke about Vicky and it hadn't gone un-noticed by the gang that she hadn't pulled her weight. Then Zoe dropped the bomb "The man she was with tonight was the doctor from the hospital."

Cole didn't recall his face but now it made full sense. She had let her friends do all the heavy work while she was with a new boyfriend. She was doing to them what she had done to Cole with Tom and John. He shook his head and said "we need to call a meeting tomorrow. She's overstepped the mark."

Zoe slept in Cole's bed with him to make sure he was ok that night. 5am the next morning Cole gave Zoe a nudge and told her it was time for Mike's breakfast. They went across the hall and sat down for breakfast. Cole spoke "Hey Mike, How come the day of my haemorrhage you didn't get up to do breakfast?"

Mike replied "I was up. I was in here when you walked in. I asked you if you were ready for the day and you replied 'no Mike, weird' and walked out talking to someone that wasn't there. I followed you upstairs and saw you knock on mine and Sian's door then open it. Sian was surprised to see you and asked if you were alright but you closed the door and walked up to the playroom. There was no one up there but you thought you saw Jayne and were pulling at a bean bag. Then you stood up quickly and fell."

Cole was surprised at Mike's recollection of events since his own was entirely different. They ate bacon, egg and beans to start then toast, pancakes and waffles with plenty of orange juice. These breakfasts would make an inactive person fat but they worked hard twice everyday so they needed the protein and energy of these big breakfasts. At 5:30 they made their way up to the gym but they were not alone in the room. Vicky and the doctor were still coupled in the corner and made no attempt to conceal it.

The group worked out for 90 minutes and weren't exactly quiet about their own presence but it didn't stop Vicky and the doctor. At 7am the group went downstairs to get ready for their day. Cole was the last one to leave the playroom and before he did he looked over at Vicky who was still coupled with the doctor. Her face was showing utter pleasure but her attitude said 'fuck you!'

Cole just walked down the stairs to the first floor and as he got to the top of the next flight he paused. He could go into the main bathroom on the first floor which was right next to him or he could ask Zoe if he could use hers. He knocked on Zoe's door and when she answered he asked if he could use her shower, she said of course he could and asked him in. He entered her bathroom and put the shower on. Through a crack in the door he watched as Zoe undressed. She was another level. As she finished undressing she walked over to the bathroom. Cole got in to the shower and she followed him. They spent some time washing each other and exploring each other but didn't make any attempt to take it further.

Cole got out and dried himself in Zoe's room. His mind was making connections that had never been apparent before. Zoe saw him with a vacant stare on his face and asked "everything ok? You're not going to fall over on me are you?"

Cole replied still deep in his head "no I'm just realising some things."

Cole walked down to the kitchen and saw most of the gang. He asked them "could you find the others and ask them to come here. Not Vicky. She's busy in the playroom, but I want to speak to everyone else."

The gang assembled in the kitchen to hear what Cole had to say "Did any of you notice that Vicky wasn't doing much work last night?"

They all nodded and there were some vocal acknowledgments. Cole continued "I think we have come to the point of enough being enough. Would everyone agree?"

There were more vocal agreements so Cole got up and walked to the kitchen door then turned back to them, said "what happens today is for the good of the business" and walked out into the hall.

Mike helped him up to the playroom. It was 8:30 and Vicky was still very busy. Cole walked over and said "Vicky, we're waiting downstairs for you in the kitchen. Doc you're welcome to leave."

The doctor stood up and confronted Cole "Excuse me? Who the fuck are you to tell me to leave?"

Cole took a deep breath and said. "I, my dear sir am the husband of the woman you have been fucking for the past 4 months, and while I was unconscious in a hospital bed. I am the man who has the vote from the partners of this establishment to tell you in no uncertain terms that you are no longer welcome in this building."