Pride Comes Before a Fall

I would like to thank Wifethief. I read a story he wrote called 'How Much do you Think I Would Bring'. I asked if he would allow me to use the theme of his story in one of my own. He agreed and so this story was born.

My thanks also to Hal1 and to all the people who contribute to my writing. You are all the best and I wouldn't be able to do this without you.

I placed this story here because it skips over a couple of genre. That and the fact I seemed to have got carried away again. Please enjoy your read and as always, any mistakes are mine and mine alone.

*******

I still had my coffee cup in my hand as I walked to the end of my lawn and opened the mailbox. Bills of course, a couple of fliers and a birthday card. I smiled; it was still unopened when I tore it in half before tossing it back into the mailbox. I was just about halfway to the house when the black sedan that had been parked at the furthest corner of the road passed me on the way out of the dead-end street I lived in.

This would be the third time I've moved in just shy of eight months. I had perfected the art now; travel light, well, as light as anyone can who has so much computer stuff that needs hauling can travel, I suppose. It was mostly symbolic. I realized that after the first time I moved, she knew within days of me moving where I was. Heck I had only just got the internet connected before she knew on one of my moves.

Shame that it was a one-way street though. The process server said they wouldn't be able to find her because I didn't have an address for her, so I'm still married to her.

*******

I thought we were the perfect couple, met at college, the glue that joined us at the hip made our friends do that sticking their fingers down their throats motion, often. We never got each other's virginity but I had her love and she had my soul. I would always seem to wake in bed with the morning's rays starting to turn the curtains light and watch her for as long as I could before something in her woke her because she knew what I was doing.

Holding hands was a given, I managed to hold the rest of her behind closed doors and every time my hands touched certain parts of her skin, I was as hard as steel. When I went down on one knee in front of both families, I thought it was going to be forever. Ah, the naivety of youth and the stupidity of man. Well, this one anyway.

Kathrine wanted to teach and I supported her, but my course finished eighteen months earlier than hers so I took a couple more computer courses that kept me at college. Both in a field I never had an interest at the time, but that changed when I walked into the classroom. Nano technology: it's amazing how small you can make things and what they can do. The added bonus of course was the friends I made while I was there. So, we finished college the same day, to the smiles of both our parents.

She walked into the first school that took her and loved it there. I worked for one of the big computer companies. My thinking was that it would help me to learn the business from the inside. Not thinking things through was my own fault, I realized all too late that I should have also taken a few courses in business management. Now, I quickly realized how much of this upper middle management knew nothing about computers, but sure knew how to take advantage of those that did. I think my resentment was centered on the end of any project they sent down to us; management made sure they got covered in the glory and bonus checks, and we got a thank you, wow.

When Kathrine and I were visiting my folks, my dad and I talked about the place I was working. He caught me in a more unguarded moment and told him of my resentment. He was still staring at me five minutes after I had finished.

He got up and said. "Let's take this conversation into my office."

Mom and Kathrine stopped talking and looked at both of us, all I could do was shrug my shoulders. Dad was already sitting in his office chair in what we all referred to as his man cave.

"You sat out there and vented, I understand that, so now I'm asking what you're going to do about it?"

I thought about it for a moment before replying. "Work there until I have enough experience to get my own design company started."

Dad stared at me for another minute, then nodded his head and turned to his desk. He pulled open a draw and got his checkbook out, scribbled for a moment and then handed me my life back.

"That's your inheritance so don't come to our funeral with your hand out because you'll be greatly disappointed."

I held my father tight that afternoon, then I sat him down and told him something that I should have said from the very beginning. That within a year of going off to college, I had started working for Alexander Philips. My dad's features hardened and I knew why, it was also partly why I never spoke to him about this. Alexander Philips was actually Uncle Alex. Mom's brother and the one man my dad loathed and would have nothing to do with, almost from the day he married mom.

Dad assumed that I worked for Alex using my college education, but Alexander Philips gave me the job of special projects and I kept that job along with finishing my college education almost up until the day I married Kathrine.

Through gritted teeth my father asked me if I still worked for him. "No dad, I wanted a clean slate when I married Kathrine. Plus, I know how you feel about him and why, it's the main reason I kept it quiet and also quit just before I married."

I again confirmed that Alexander Philips was nothing more than background noise to me now. My life was centered on Kathrine and although I had enjoyed my time there, it was a means to an end and that end came in the proposal to my now wife. My dad harrumphed a couple of times and then slapped my arm and smiled.

So, life for us was going well. We held off on children for a few years to stabilize our marriage and life; financially we were well off. My wife loved her job and I finally had enough so I resigned from my job and had made out on my own as an independent for the last two years. I had a group of companies that were loyal to me as I was to them. Then the viper in the grass came out and made friends with Kathrine. She was a school teacher as well, so they talked and socialized through the day. They even had the odd evening out as well.

The change was so subtle that it was only when I looked back on those months, to a year, that I picked up on the subtleness of it all. They both started to attend a gym and Kathrine lost that couple of pounds that I used to love as we play-fought around the king size bed. Her body started to tone up and then the hairstyle changed and I had to admit, it complimented her facial features really well.

In my opinion, she went from a perfect ten to a hot twelve on the 'hubba hubba' scale. On top of that, I was married to her and got to plunder that body of hers as often as we could both manage.

*******

I started to call it, 'blindsided Thursday'. The name stuck in my head like the lead into a new chapter in our lives and was also that big red ring around the day on the calendar that marked the demise of our marriage. Kathrine came crashing through the door with Viper in tow. She needed her as well, judging by the number of bags they both carried, all with names of famous clothing houses and designers printed on them.

She's shopped before but never been this much into designer stuff. Viper stayed around long enough to deposit all the bags in our room and with a quick nod in my direction, made an exit. I never did see what she had bought until a couple of weeks later. By then of course, she had all her ducks in a row and I finally understood it all.

Kathrine had that serious face on when she asked me to come out of my office for a chat. She sat on the couch and patted the space next to her in a silent plea that I join her. I had seen that look on her only once before. When both my folks were killed in an auto accident eighteen months ago, I just lost it. She held me up throughout the funeral. When the curtain closed around both caskets and everyone started to leave the building that face came out again and didn't leave her for a couple of days.

The loss was felt by us both, but it was Kathrine that was forced to make some hard choices. I was two steps short of totally useless for a while. I tried to make it up to her. When life pulled my sanity back, she sat me down and reminded me that I was alive and had a marriage and a life to live. She just hugged me and told me I was welcome, and also welcome back to the land of the living.

To me, I had taken my eyes off the ball, as I mourned the loss of both my folks. To Kathrine, she stepped up to the plate because it was the thing to do when the one you love, is hurting. My wife was making all the hard decisions for us both until the zombie in me had left the building, as she so eloquently put it.

She patted the couch again, almost in a summons for my presence. I pissed her off when I sat across from her. In one sentence she not only put me on my guard, but I just knew that for some reason, my marriage had gone south and it was looking like there was no way of getting it back.

"You know I love you, right?"

I had hoped my reply was going to at least make her take a step back from what she seemed to have planned. "To be honest, up until maybe a week ago I would have agreed with you. Now, the second you said that, I not only have my doubts, but I just wonder what I did to make you love me less."

I thought I saw a flicker of my wife come back to me just then. Her eyes closed and then re-opened and I just knew that she had killed that flicker.

"Perhaps I should have been more honest with you before now." She took a deep breath. "Please let me get this out before you go all caveman on me."

Now this sure looked like it was going to get interesting.

"When I met you, it was love at first sight; I wouldn't change anything we have done together. But finding you when I was so young meant that I've never got to experiment, to test life and to find my freedom."

I wasn't wrong, it seems I'm now the albatross around her neck. Oh, she put it more eloquently, but that was the gist of it all. I've stifled her happiness and her chance to see things. She didn't seem to want to mention what we've done together in the years since we had left college. The traveling we had done both for my business and holidays, the sights we had seen, and the sunsets from hotel balconies and even sand dunes, as we sat and realized that right about then, that we had it all.

None of that got a mention in the pre-rehearsed speech she was giving me. She held out her hand, expecting me to hold it while she administered the punch line.

When all I did was stare at it and then her, she got a little prissy about it.

"I want you to give me a year."

The exact length of time worried me and set a small alarm bell off, way in the back of my head. "To do what?" I asked.

My mind had already started to wait for her to say that she needed to find herself. I eyed up the waste basket, wondering if I could make it there before barfing over the floor if she did. I would give everything I owned that she wasn't going to say what I suspected she had in mind right now.

*******

The Viper sure had been busy, I underestimated the bitch. Kathrine was introduced, via Viper, to the auction of the rich and bored.

"I get to see the world Martin, and all on someone else's dime."

"You'll get to see it on your back, dear wife."

That face came to the fore now and she spent the next twenty minutes telling me, not asking, but telling me what was going to happen over the next couple of weeks and also at the auction.

Twelve of the richest individuals in this country came together and, among other things, formed The Auction. It seems Viper wasn't a teacher; she now headed a company that's sole job was to recruit women for The Auction. Kathrine had her head filled with Vipers interpretation of what would happen to her for the entire year.

"Martin, I get twenty percent of what the winning bid is, all tax free. Yes, I get to stay with him, or her for that time. But it's only a year Martin, that's like a blink of an eye for people as young as us. We can afford to retire on what I've been told is the average bid."

I just stared at her as she rambled on. Viper had done a wonderful job on her and I didn't even see this coming. In the end she paused, waiting for me to say something. I figured now would be the best time to test the waters.

"As your husband I'm asking you not to do this. As hopefully your best friend, I'm asking you to kick Viper to the curb and come back to this marriage so we can figure out what's going wrong here."

That face thing was surely being tested today.

"I hate it when you call Charlotte that."

"Kathrine, I would be more surprised if her real name is actually Charlotte, so can we skip the pretense and just stay with Viper."

The conversation went around and around for another hour. Neither of us budged, because in our heads, we were right and the other one needed therapy and lots of it. In the end I went for a little shock therapy, because even I had come to the point that I figured I had nothing else to lose. This conversation had obviously been rehearsed between my wife and Viper. Reluctantly even I was impressed with the amount of information Kathrine knew of The Auction, and yet still looked on it as an adventure.

In desperation of trying one last time to pull those rose-tinted glasses off of her face I said. "I'm not happy about this. I've spent the last hour telling you I'm not, and neither of us are budging, so I'm going to beg you, one last time. Walk away from this and come back to me. Kick this woman to the curb and let's get on with our lives together and not with this hanging over our heads. Any way you look at it, it's not going to have a happy ending for us, please Kathrine."

My wife seemed to think she sensed victory and got out of her seat and sat on my lap. Her arm came around my neck and she held on tight. The kiss to my temple felt like a mercy kiss.

"It's a year of our lives Martin. We're going to have so many stories to tell our children when we start making them when I get back. I just know you're going to nail my ass to the bed when I get back with all that pent up and unused sex."

It was perhaps that one statement that mentally made me wave this growing charade of a marriage down the river. So, in her eyes, I was expected to keep it in my pants while she was nothing but a sex toy to some super rich guy, or even girl.

I made to get up. This discussion had been fruitless from the very beginning, and quite frankly, I had things to do. Kathrine watched me as I stopped halfway to the front door and turned.

"Just to finalize this farce, I will ask you one more time. Kathrine, there is still time, even now to stop this. Please walk away from her and this auction."

She bit her lower lip and my heart seemed to pause in its beat.

"I can't. I signed all the forms today and took my medical this afternoon. In three weeks, the auction house will have all the results back, and since I know all will be in the green, I will be standing on that podium sometime that evening."

She may as well have hit me with a two by four. The man in me felt I had to reciprocate, so I said. "I seem to remember you signed a contract that should supersede that one and you did so in front of almost a hundred of our family and friends at our wedding."

She had the decency to wince when I said it, I left the house and drove to our local bar. I had no intention of drinking. I hadn't since the day of our wedding, and even that was in sips to celebrate the speeches. Those same speeches that ran through my thoughts for the next hour.

I still loved the crazy-assed bitch, but this hair brained get rich quick scheme of hers and Viper's just didn't work for me. More so when it was dumped onto my lap as a contracts were already signed and I can't do nothing about it. In my book, if I'm being blindsided like this, then these people have some sort of ulterior motive for all this time and effort. I'm just damned if I could figure out the reason. Well, not without a little help maybe.

Her shadow came a second before she sat across from me, her face as neutral as I have ever seen it.

"I can usually sense the ones that are going to be trouble, but Kathrine says you're going to be okay with all this by the time we leave. My own internal trouble-meter is still fluctuating around you, so that makes me undecided."

I smiled, something I hadn't done for the last few hours. "Can I get you a drink Charlotte?"

"She's going to be safe Martin. Every man and woman at that auction are tested before they are allowed to bid. These are the super-rich Martin, and what she earns from that twenty percent will set you both up for life."

I took a sip from my glass, placed it back on the table, and leaned back on my chair. "I'm not part of The Auction, Charlotte, I don't need your sales pitch. My wife recited your pitch almost verbatim, I may add."

Using the pause in the conversation, I asked Viper what her involvement was in all this. She was cagey about it and I could see why. All she would tell me was that this was her real day job and had been doing it very successfully for the last couple of years. Once she found a possible mark she could spend up to a year gaining trust and opening the wife or girlfriend or even single woman up to the idea. Once they were on board, the husbands, boyfriends or family didn't take long to fold and acceded to the woman's suggestion that it was only a year out of their lives.

"I must say Martin; your wife was the toughest nut I've had to crack. I had thought to just walk away, but I had nine months' worth of work invested in your wife and once she agreed, the rest seemed to go like clockwork, except for you."

Starring into the darkest eyes I've ever seen in a woman, I took one last sip of my soda and placed it back onto the table.

"I give you my word on this Charlotte, I will be by her side right up until the hammer goes down on her at The Auction. My marriage will be over then. In her heart she knows it, but it seems your conditioning has made her think it won't. You also have my word that I won't cause trouble, I will be too busy mourning the loss of the woman that I thought loved me."

Viper sat and stared at me for a moment, then seemed to nod her head and stood. "While she's away, you can play Martin, remember that."

She walked to the door and a mountain on legs detached himself from a chair by the bar and followed her out. I smiled, trust but bring backup. In her own way, Viper was an interesting woman indeed.

I tried calling the one person who could make some sense out of this, Alexander Philips is still my uncle. We didn't discuss our personal relationship when I worked for him and never made it public to anyone but my father. Alex likes the money he makes and I can't blame him, after all he is one of the richest men in America. But I take after my father; I prefer friends over wealth.

As I sat nursing a new soda I mused at just how the hell I got into this mess and why I couldn't get out of it without revealing to the one woman in my life, why I have spent so much time and money covering up my past. Alex was either on his boat or away on business. His secretary took my messages but I never did hear from him that evening, or for some time to come either. For those few remaining weeks, I had my eye on only what was going on in front of me now.

For the first week she tried so hard to get me to not only share a bed with her, but also her body. After that week she stopped asking, so I just had to test a theory. Two days into the second week I suggested we have an early night and most definitely a shower afterwards. The smile was wider than the Grand Canyon, then slowly disappeared as her cheeks turned a cute rosy color.