One Voice

Anita and I shared the most heartfelt hug I'd ever experienced in my life as she left the house with my three in tow.

My first task was to disable the camera in the office where I would be spending a lot of time. Since I didn't have to worry about anyone in the house overhearing conversations being played back over my speakers, I turned the audio up loudly enough for me to clearly understand every spoken word. I skipped over irrelevant passages. I wanted to see and understand her seduction and hear everything said about me by them once he'd conquered her. What I learned was eye-opening. I never knew that my wife was a gold-digger. Pierre had lavished her with praise and flattery at every opportunity which she readily accepted. She constantly giggled at his accent and blushed at his intimate remarks. Then he began showering her with gifts of jewelry and clothing, none of which she had shown me. Next, his French custom kisses soon evolved into real French kissing as their ardor heated up. Her defenses, if she had any, quickly collapsed as she freely gave to him what I had previously believed was shared only with me.

I was astonished at my reaction. I had anticipated anger and rage but the eeriness of watching him and her together with my identical twin was like watching myself. The only difference was his voice. I viewed their first time together on Tuesday as they heavily kissed and made out. I'm convinced they'd not had sex yet because she fucked me exhaustively Tuesday night. I'm now certain he was the object of her desire as she pretended my body was his.

Wednesday, he took Chelsea to his spare bedroom and spent several hours making slow, passionate love to her, pushing her every button and ringing her bell multiple times. It became clear to me that this was the reason she avoided eye contact with me Wednesday. She felt guilty for betraying me. She had the kids watching 'Frozen' over and over again in their bedroom as she surrendered herself fully to him.

Thursday and Friday, while I was at work, Pierre was at work also on Chelsea as they had uninhibited, relentless sex on my bed. She instinctively knew his body intimately, having toured mine for many years. It was weird watching her demonstrate her oral skills on him exactly as I'd taught her for my maximum pleasure and seeing his superlative orgasmic response was almost gratifying in a sick way. There was no way that I would ever be intimate with Chelsea again. And as much as I hated the anticipated fallout on the kids, there was no way I could remain married to her either. Divorce was assured. He could crush me with all his wealth so I had to be very careful how I went about it.

Listening to their conversation sealed my resolve. Pierre assumed that money could buy anything, including me. Wednesday afternoon after their prolonged lovemaking session, I heard them discuss me.

"So how do you think we should tell Paul about our newfound love?"

"Mais, non. I don't think it wise for him ever to find out about us my sweet pet. He's the only living blood relative I have and I wish not to cause him any emotional discomfort. Can you live with remaining married to him while being with me every chance that we can make time for ourselves and our happiness together?"

"I suppose I could, Pierre, but my heart belongs to you now. You have swept me off my feet and I am completely yours. I still love him. A part of me always will. But YOU. 'You light up my life' as the old song goes. I am enthralled with you in ways that Paul would never understand. He may be your identical twin but he's not half the man you are, Pierre."

"Thank you my pet for saying that ma Cherie, but I feel a bit guilty for taking your love from my brother. I need to compensate him for the loss whether he realizes it for what it is or not."

"What do you mean, Pierre? What are you gonna do?"

"Every man loves sports cars. I'll give him the finest French sports car I can find on short notice. And this house. Do I understand correctly that you only recently made the purchase?"

"Yes, that's right, something over a month ago. We still have boxes we haven't unpacked yet."

"Perfect my pet. Yes, that will compensate him nicely for my invasion of his wife. I'll pay off your mortgage in full and present that and the sports car to him tomorrow. It will keep him off balance and ingratiate me more into his heart."

"Wow. You'd do that for us?"

"For HIM, my pet. My gifts to you are much more......intimate," he chuckled.

Well, that explained the car and mortgage. He felt guilty yet still conspired with Chelsea to continue their affair behind my back. I guess that makes Chelsea one of the highest-paid whores in history. She may be worth $1,375,000.00 to him but to me, she's nothing more than a worthless whore. I caught another conversation from the doorbell camera. They talked as they languidly rocked on the front porch holding hands.

"I'm sorry, my sweet pet, but I must return to France this weekend. Business, you know. Do you think you could persuade Paul to bring you with him to visit me there at my home for the next week or two? He and I could continue growing closer and you and I could take each other to new, wonderful highs."

"To France? With you? How wonderful! I've never been there but have always wanted to visit Paris. I'm sure that, between the two of us, we could talk him into going. He has unused vacation time. We were saving it for a family vacation but he could use it for this."

"Magnifique! I have another thought. What if I could arrange it so you and I had the first three days alone together? He would join us later and spend much time with me."

"I don't have a clue how you could arrange such a thing, Pierre, but I would love it if you could make that happen. You are such an intriguing man. Yes. Yes, I'm completely on board with that."

"Leave the details to me. I believe I can make it happen so he will be detained at work, then join us later."

So Pierre arranged for me to have to work on Monday? He must have somehow arranged for Carl Reid and Francine Walsh to take FMLA leave which forced Greg to compel me to work Monday and delay my flight until Tuesday morning. All so he can have more alone time to fuck Chelsea. I guess he wants to get his money's worth out of her. Well, he can have her forever as far as I'm concerned. Wait a minute. How would he have carried out such a plan? He was at my house fucking the brains out of my wife Thursday and Friday all day. So he had to have had someone make the arrangements FOR him. And who is it that makes all his arrangements? His girl Friday! Helena Moreno! The wolf in sheep's clothing. This puzzle was now completely formed.

Even as Pierre expresses his unbounded love for me, his new twin brother, his predilection for seducing married women trumps his concern over family loyalty. He simply assumed I could be appeased with his generosity should I ever learn of his betrayal. He will soon discover how wrong he is about me! It was 2:30 in the afternoon when my doorbell rang. Since I was still sitting at my computer, I pulled up the doorbell camera system and saw Helena standing there. She was dressed to impress, not only to impress but to seduce. Right now, she could be Cleopatra in the flesh, and she would never capture my interest. Instead of inviting her into the house, I stepped outside to meet her on the front porch.

"Hi, Helena. I thought you understood that I'm taking care of the kids until Monday. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear."

"Hello, Paul," as she clasped my hand in both of hers, smiling from ear to ear. It's so good to see you again. May I come in?"

"The kids aren't even here right now, so you came all this way for nothing."

"Oh, I wouldn't say my being here is for nothing, Paul. I have something I'd like to show you. Will you please invite me inside?"

"Why not show me right here on the front porch, Helena?"

"Oh, I couldn't do that," she reasoned. "It wouldn't be.....proper."

"Well I don't think it would be proper for me to be alone in my house with you dressed as you are, so if that's all, you can be on your way."

"What? I don't understand. I thought we had a connection, Paul. Please let me inside and I'll show you what I mean."

"So this must be the point of demonstration where you said you'd do anything or anyone for Pierre. Is that about the size of it, Helena?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Paul."

"Oh, no? Well, why don't I clear it up for you? Pierre's security guy came by yesterday and activated my security system so it's live and online now. Roland passed that tidbit onto Pierre. How am I doing so far? She simply gave me a stoic look. Pierre knows I sent you away until Monday and he's unhappy with you. Why? I believe he wants you to seduce me and he wants the evidence of your whoring performance with me captured in high definition. And here you stand before me dressed as a saucy seductress. Does that about sum it up, Miss Moreno?" A single tear escaped one eye as she tried to contain her composure.

She pulled on my hand and said, "Please take a walk with me, Paul. I promise no harm of any kind will befall you."

Her apparent sincerity won me over. I locked the front door and we began walking down the street. She made a few clicks on her cellphone and slipped it into her purse.

"Paul," she began, "I owe you an apology and that's why I'm here. At the same time, I'm presented with a career-ending dilemma, so this is not an easy choice for me to make."

"What are you talking about, Helena?" An Uber suddenly pulled up beside us.

"Good, our ride is here; let's go somewhere we can talk privately," she offered.

She asked that we be taken to the local shopping mall. We walked to the commons area where there was a large food court. We each ordered the confection of our choice and as we snacked, she began.

"Your intuition is spot on, Paul. You surprised me this afternoon. I wasn't expecting you to be so insightful. But I imagine that there are some things that you do not know and it is my goal to assist you in filling in some of the blanks."

It didn't escape my notice that everyone who walked by us couldn't take their eyes off of the raving beauty seated across from me. I had difficulty myself. "Helena, I may know more than you think. But I won't reveal my hand to you right now. You're in my brother's employ and you've made it clear that your first loyalty is to him. I have no idea what it is that you hope to accomplish today.

"You were right about everything. I was supposed to stay with you this weekend helping out with the children and work on getting you between my legs. Pierre was advised that your security system is now up and running. He has seduced your wife and instructed me to do whatever it takes to seduce you in your home so that they can use our liaisons as evidence against any reprisal. He feels that if you are unfaithful to Chelsea with me, then how can you complain about her infidelity with him?"

"I already know the details of Chelsea's seduction and betrayal. You can tell your boss that I'm a clueless moron for rejecting your advances. I assume Chelsea knows about his offering me this hall pass?" Helena nodded in confirmation.

"That makes her every bit complicit in his betrayal as well. I expected as much. Why are you telling me all this, Helena? Won't your disclosures today cost you your job?"

"That's why I suggested this could be a career-ending situation for me. On one hand, Pierre doesn't know that I am telling you all this. When he later watches the video from your front porch, he will surmise your recalcitrance to my seduction induced me to take you somewhere that I could get you to see reason and eventually submit to my charms and wiles. He may assume that afterward, we'd return to your home where the action would be gloriously preserved in the cloud."

"Yet, here you are coming clean and unexpectedly being honest with me. Why would you do that if it may cost you your career?"

"I admit that I have performed this service many times before on Pierre's behalf with the unsuspecting husbands of his many conquests. However, in every case, the husbands were either already cheating themselves but not caught, or treating their wives like property to be used and discarded at will. In each of those cases, I felt that I was helping to liberate the woman from her prison without bars. But your case is markedly different. You and Chelsea had a happy marriage with three young children depending on you both. After Pierre's research, we believe that you have never been unfaithful nor likely would be. The only thing Chelsea would be liberated from by Pierre's intrusion would be her wedding vows and her responsibilities to her family. I strongly disagreed with Pierre's decision to seduce her but that may have only served to make her more desirable in his eyes. If he could win such a pure specimen as your wife, then he would still maintain his zeitgeist, believing that he is God's gift to all women, not just impure specimens."

"From my perspective, Helena, he utilized his wealth, status, and French accent to turn her head. It didn't hurt that he is also my identical twin. What he's done is despicable, single-handedly destroying my happy family simply because he can. Does he honestly believe I would accept this situation?"

"He intended that you never uncover the truth. To salve his conscience, which I've never seen him do before, he gifted you the car and mortgage. In his mind, he's only borrowing her for a short while, then he intends to return her to you intact. He cluelessly believes that you Americans have the same laissez-fair attitude toward sex and openness where Chelsea's pursuit of her interests in him are similar to Europeans," she added.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I fully intend to divorce her and then she can pursue her dreams wherever in the world they take her."

"But how can you say this, Paul, with only suspicions? With a man like Pierre Dumont, you require hard evidence."

"Apparently Pierre was unaware that my security system was already up and running on the first day. The absence of the security key only prevented it from being accessed but the database was accumulating from day one. I have clear unedited high-definition video of nearly everything he's said and done to Chelsea."

Helena suddenly put her hand over her mouth in shock as she had a sharp intake of breath. "Are you sure? No one, I mean no one has ever collected concrete evidence of his trysts. This evidence could make you a very dangerous man to Pierre. Does he know you have them?"

"Not yet. That's what I've been sifting through all day today. I had just put it all together. I haven't seen an attorney yet but I'm going to divorce Chelsea for certain."

"Oh, no. Pierre definitely doesn't want you two to divorce. He views his tryst with her to be nothing more than a bump in the road of your marriage that he has more than amply compensated you for. Once he's done with her, he'll cast her aside for his next conquest. He wants you to remain married and get to the point where you can joke about it one day. After all, you're his only blood relative, his only brother. He believes in the adage, share, and share alike."

"I no longer have a brother. I have a sister that I love dearly but no brother. He's dead to me now and forever more. My heart will never be open to him again."

"Are you serious, Paul? This will KILL him! I'm sure of it. I knew his philandering would be his downfall one day."

"Kill him? I hardly think so, or he wouldn't have ruined my wife, my family, and my life. I'm nothing more to him than a gnat on his windshield."

"That's not true, Paul. You don't know him as I do. I have never seen him so interested in anyone other than himself until you came along. He will be devastated."

"I'm sure I'll still have to deal with Chelsea on a fairly regular basis until the children become adults as we share custody. But I will turn my back on Pierre and anything to do with him other than trying to wreak havoc in his life as he has already done to mine."

"But what can you do to him? To him, you're an ant and he's a giant. He'll step on you and squash you if you try to go after him. He has limitless resources."

"Don't worry about me, Helena. I'll get by. But if he discovers that you helped me in any way, he may come after you too. As you mentioned, this could end your career with him. What would you do if that happened?"

"Like you, Paul, I am at a crossroads. If you file for divorce, which you seem committed to doing, Pierre will STRONGLY appeal to you to change your mind. If you make your case public and embarrass him, he may write you off as his brother and come at you with his considerable resources. I have seen the results of violence against those who dared to go up against him. Countless injuries have been strewn in his wake but nothing ever points back to him. I have been unable to seduce you as he wanted me to. He may try to induce me to lie and say that you and I have been intimate while your wife is out of the country, my word against yours, muddying the water and he still wins. Everyone else I've done this to deserved it. You do not. Your integrity, character, and strength of will are in very short supply in this day and age. You are a rare individual, Paul Blaylock and I don't say that lightly. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm curious about something, Helena, and if you don't wish to disclose details, I will understand."

"What is it, Paul? I've already revealed most of what I know."

"This past Thursday, when all of us were in the limo and the three of you were fluently conversing in French, what was the nature of that conversation?"

Helena winced at the thought of answering my question. "I didn't want to paint Pierre in a worse light so I didn't mention it to you. But since you asked specifically, he was openly regaling how he had fucked your wife and taken her wantonly in your own house, cuckolding his unsuspecting twin. That's why Gerald was eyeing you condescendingly as he did. I was objecting to Pierre's disgusting treatment of his own flesh and blood. He blew me off saying that you were more than compensated for it with his gifts and for me to keep my big mouth shut about it to you. He said I would enjoy fucking you soon to keep you in your place about it. He chose the seductive outfit I am wearing right now and had me send him a selfie taken in the mirror immediately before going to your home this afternoon. I'm sorry, Paul, but that's the truth. Taking other men's wives is a power trip for him. To him, cuckolding another man is better than the sex itself. It is his drug of choice."

"I need to know, Helena. It is your decision but you're going to have to come down on one side or the other from this moment on. Look me in the eye and tell me, are you still with Pierre and therefore my enemy? Or are you my friend, perhaps the only one I have?" She looked me directly in the eye for the longest time and I saw something there I had never seen before. Was it compassion? Resolve? I couldn't tell.

"I have been unhappy with Pierre for a while now. He has treated me fairly and compensated me very well but I feel as if I have been slowly selling my soul one piece at a time. I haven't quite reached the amount I wanted to retire upon but it is close enough. If I am going to separate myself from him, you and I will have to coordinate our timing and work together because if he suspects my defection to your camp, he will stop at nothing to get his way. But if we both lead them on a bit, for now, it will buy us both some time to make transitional arrangements going forward."

"I don't know why but I believe you, Helena. I know this is as much of a life-altering decision for you as it is for me. I have several things I'd like to accomplish over the next week and I'll need your help to allay their suspicions that I know what's going on. It's a given that we can't talk in or around my house because it is bugged. Why don't we pick up a couple of prepaid cellphones here at the mall and then use them to communicate? If you need to talk to me and I'm at home, let it ring once and hang up. I'll go outside to the backyard where I can talk freely. It will help us coordinate our efforts."