The Clint Cartwright Story

"It hit her pretty hard. I understand why her husband filed, but I'm still pretty angry about how he did it. It would be like someone walking into your house without your permission and emptying their bowels onto your living room floor. That store is MY house and Fallon is MY family and she may be in the wrong for whatever she did, but I take what he did and how he did it personally."

"She loves Engstrom's and she thinks very highly of you and your brother," Karen said.

"I think it best that Fallon takes a leave of absence for a few weeks. She needs to concentrate on herself and her family right now. Her job will still be waiting for her when she's ready. Now that you're here, I'm going to head out for the airport. Here's my card if I can do anything for you." Darren handed Howard his business card, shook hands with them both, and walked out the exit.

Howard and Karen sat and began their wait for their daughter; a daughter that they had come to realize, they didn't even know.

+++

Sunday afternoon found Clint and the girls driving home. The visit to Kemah had been a rousing success and the girls had over-eaten and over-indulged in every food and treat offered on the Boardwalk. They were exhausted and sleeping in the backseat as Clint pulled into the driveway of their house. He pushed the visor button to open the garage door and was relieved to not see Fallon's Mercedes in the garage.

Clint picked up the girls, one at a time, and carried them into their bedrooms. He got them settled and the suitcases put away before pouring himself a glass of Milam and Greene Very Small Batch. After finishing his Whiskey, he poured himself another before pulling out his cell and tapping the screen to call Howard Harper, Fallon's father.

"What," Howard said abruptly as he answered his phone.

"I'm just checking on her," Clint said.

"She's destroyed," Howard said. "You destroyed her. You couldn't have done a better job of ruining her if you set about doing it on purpose."

"So, I'm at fault here? This is all on me? Is that what you're saying?" Clint asked with a hard edge to his voice. "Because I've seen videos and pictures that tell me something else."

Howard sighed deeply. "I know Clint. I know. I'm just so angry. I'm angry at her; I'm angry at you; at your brother. At the situation. She blew up her whole life, family, and marriage. I get that. She gets that too. I have two women who have been crying and weeping all weekend. I've never seen two people more distraught than my wife and daughter. And there's not a damned thing I can do to fix it and that makes me feel helpless. And Fallon... Fallon keeps waiting for you to ride in and save her because that's what you've always done. White knight Clint rides in on his white horse and saves the day. She can't grasp the fact that in this story, she's not the damsel in distress; she's the evil witch."

Clint took another sip of whiskey after disconnecting with Howard. At least Fallon was with her parents and would be looked after. He knew that Howard was right. Fallon had always had Clint to ride to her rescue. He had a fierce and total love for his wife. There was nothing he would not do for her and until Terry Cobb had shown the videos to him, he would have said Fallon felt the same way.

+++

After dropping the girls off at school on Monday, Clint went back to the house and started packing. He loaded a good amount of clothes, personal items, and electronics into his Bronco for his move to the Fenix condo. He would eventually find a permanent residence and make arrangements for the rest of his belongings, but this would get him and the girls by for a few weeks.

After unpacking at the condo, Clint sent a text to Howard that he had moved out and that Fallon could move back into the house if she chose. Howard had replied that they would give it a few days because Fallon was not yet in any condition to be by herself.

Kent, Clint's brother had yet to be served. An attempt was made on Friday, shortly after Fallon was served, but he was not at home and the process server could not wait. Today, they would try to serve him again. Darejan, Clint's attorney had discovered that on Monday mornings, Kent was the teaching assistant for a women's study course at Central Texas State University on "Empowering Women to Re-think and Re-take the Patriarchy." Clint read that course name a couple of times. The words were in English and he understood what they meant individually, but strung together the way they were...Clint had no idea what the fuck that class could even be about. He just shook his head as he thought about his brother. Overeducated Dumbass.

That afternoon, Clint received a text from his attorney:

Darejan: Your brother was served.

Clint: OK. Let me know what comes next.

Clint noted that Darejan Sullivan was that rarity; a person who texted in complete sentences instead of idiotic abbreviations. He sat back and waited for the fallout.

He didn't have long to wait.

Thirty minutes after being notified of Kent's service, Clint's phone rang.

"Hello mother," he said in as flat a voice as he could manage.

"What is this nonsense about suing your brother?" she shouted at him

"Did your son tell you what he did?" Clint asked.

"He said there was some sort of misunderstanding and that you were overreacting."

"Stay on the line, I'm going to send you a video to watch. You tell me if I'm overreacting."

Clint pulled up a copy of a PostItt video and sent it to his mother.

"I'll hang on while you watch the video. Then tell me what you think."

Clint could hear his mother fumbling with her phone so he assumed she was watching the video. After a couple of minutes, of no sound, he realized that she must have disconnected the call. When he tried to call his mother, the phone continued to ring without going to voicemail.

His mother had blocked him.

That afternoon, Clint picked his daughters up at school and took them to Cane's for chicken fingers and to explain to the girls how their lives were changing. He pressed the record function on his phone before he began. He didn't want any future false accusations concerning this conversation.

"Girls, your mother and I love you very, very much, but we are going to stop living together. I know you both have friends whose parents are divorced so you understand what is going to happen. You'll spend part of the time with your mother and part of the time with me."

The girls were not happy and started crying.

"Does this have something to do with those men?" Chloe asked.

"What men, baby?"

"Those men that leave when we get home from school. Sometimes Uncle Kent is with them."

Clint bit down on his rage and did his best to remain calm in front of his daughters.

"That's part of it. Do you think you can talk about that with the nice lady that's helping Daddy?" Clint asked. Truthfully, he didn't know if Darejan would even be interested in this revelation, but he vowed to bring it up to her.

+++

It was two weeks before Fallon moved back into the marital home. She was still on leave from Engstrom's and was suffering from depression. Her parents had found a divorce attorney for her, scheduled the appointment and picked her up to take her to the consultation.

"What is it that you are wanting out of the divorce?" Shelly Gore asked. The woman sitting before her was a beautiful woman but her appearance was haggard and unkempt. She was obviously depressed and not in a good place. She was accompanied by her parents who sat close to her.

"I don't want a divorce!" Fallon cried. "I want my husband back." She wrung her hand and sobbed.

"Tell me about why he filed for divorce," Shelly said.

This question led to a fresh round of tears and ugly crying from Fallon. Shelly looked to Fallon's parents for an answer.

Howard Harper sighed. "Clint found out she was doing things on a website. Having sex with other men. People paid a monthly membership to watch her do it."

Fuck, Shelly thought to herself. So probably a shit ton of evidence.

"Well, that's not good, but I've seen people recover from worse. Were the men strangers? Friends?"

Howard sighed again. "Most of them were black guys who seem to make a living having sex with wives on FapFans. But one of the guys was her brother-in-law."

FUCK! Shelly thought to herself.

"Her husband's brother?"

All three of the Howards nodded their heads yes.

"I'll do what I can to make this as painless to you as possible, but I gotta tell you...This is probably not going to have a happy ending for you. Right now, it's all about damage control and what's best for your daughters."

Fallon continued to wring her hands as she sat weeping in front of her attorney as her parents looked on helplessly.

+++

Fallon stood at her kitchen counter listlessly stirring a cup of coffee. Her attorney had requested marital counseling but the request had been rebuffed by Clint with the comment that neither he nor the marriage was broken; she was. Fallon could not dispute that.

She had insisted on speaking to Clint when he dropped the girls off to stay with her for a few days. She explained the desperation that drove her to post on FapFans. She purchased her Mercedes for $125,000 plus her Engstrom's store card had a $75,000 balance plus she still had almost $200,000 in student loans to pay off. Retail sales were down everywhere thanks to online competition so her bonus had dropped to almost nothing. She was desperate.

"Why didn't you turn the Mercedes into the dealership?" Clint replied. "And why didn't you discuss any of this with me to help come up with a solution?"

She had no answer. Pride? Maybe that was part of it. Arrogance that she could fix her own mess? Again, part of it. Embarrassment that she had pressured Clint to buy a house that they didn't need and that her decisions were going to negatively affect him and their marriage? Yeah, that was a big part of it too.

"How did you think I would react when I found out about what you were doing?"

"I didn't think you would find out. You don't spend any time on social media and you don't watch porn. I didn't think you would ever know about it. I would get my bills paid down and then shut my site down. I thought worst case, you would be furious with me and Kent but that you love me enough to get over it."

Clint looked at her in disbelief. "You think my divorcing you is a sign that I don't love you? Was fucking other men your idea of showing me how much you love me? Was letting my asshole brother go down on you showing love? I don't know if you're delusional or flat-out insane, but none of this is my fault. I loved you with every bit of my soul. It is destroying me to divorce you. But it would destroy me even worse to stay with you."

Fallon thought back to that last conversation with Clint as she poured herself a cup of coffee as the doorbell rang. She cinched the belt to her robe and squinted through the door's peephole.

Kent.

Great. Just what she needed now.

Fallon opened the door for Kent, turned, and walked back to the kitchen.

She poured him a cup of coffee and sneered at him.

"I'm surprised you have the balls to show up here. I thought you'd be hiding from your brother."

"I'm not afraid of that asshole," Kent said. But he knew in his heart that he was not fooling anyone. Clint could tear him apart with his bare hands and Kent knew it. He was actually very afraid of his brother.

But he had to shoot his shot.

"You know how I've always felt about you, Fallon. You deserve someone who is going to take care of you and worship you the way that you deserve to be worshipped. I know Clint's a little better looking than me..." He paused and looked up as Fallon snorted at his comment.

"...but I am so much better than him in almost every other way. We can be so happy together. You just have to give us a chance."

"And Chloe and Emily? What about my daughters? Are you just going to take over as their dad?"

Truthfully, Kent had not even thought about his nieces. He had scarcely said a half dozen words to them in the entirety of their existence. He had just assumed that they would go off somewhere with Clint and everyone would leave him and Fallon alone to live their own lives.

"We can talk about that later," Kent said as he took a step toward Fallon.

She had stopped drinking her coffee and was idly pushing the wooden kitchen knife block from right to left in front of her. She seemed to be deep in thought and Kent thought that boded well for him. He took another step towards Fallon.

Fallon said, "You know, letting you overhear my conversation with the bank was the worst mistake of my life. Allowing you to talk me into earning money on FapFans is all on me, but you were the snake in the garden. I hate you."

Kent took another step towards Fallon and wrapped his arms around her as he ground his erection into her ass. She turned towards him and lifted her arms up as if to put them around his neck. He smiled. Kent did not see but rather felt the steak knife as it plunged into his back. He called out in shock and surprise and took a step back. Fallon calmly plunged the knife into his chest and Kent fell to the ground. He scrambled backward as blood spurted all over the kitchen floor. He crawled into the pantry and blocked the door by bracing his back against the shelves and jamming his feet against the door. He fumbled his cell phone out of his pocket as his blood-slicked fingers searched for 9 on the keypad.

+++

Clint's eyes were full of unshed tears as he sat in Michael Sullivan's office. The police had just departed after meeting with Clint to advise him that his wife had been arrested for the attempted murder of his brother. His children had arrived home while the police and ambulances were present. Child Protective Services had been notified and a police car was dispatched to inform Clint that he needed to get home.

"Take as much time as you need," Michael said. "I know that I have said that before, but I really do mean it. You are valued here. You just let me know what I can do."

"Can you call Darejan and update her?"

"Of course. Consider it done. She'll get in contact with you."

+++

Kent was going to survive and recover. Clint had mixed emotions about that. On one hand, he would have gladly pissed on his brother's grave. On the other hand, he didn't want the mother of his children locked up for murder. Attempted murder was bad enough.

There was not enough equity in their house to use as collateral for Fallon's bond so her parents pledged their home in order to bond out their daughter. Her bail was set at $250,000, but they still needed to come up with ten percent of that in cash so they had to dip into savings. They were also crushed when Fallon advised them of how much debt she had incurred.

Clint's attorney had separated Fallon's debt from marital debt. The Mercedes went back to the dealer as a voluntary repossession. Engstrom's clothes that still had tags on them were returned. All her other clothes went to a consignment store.

There was nothing to do about her student debt. It was what it was.

The divorce went through with ease. Given the grounds and the attempted murder of her sex partner, Clint was granted one hundred percent custody and was named the custodial parent. Fallon was granted limited supervised visitation. Clint was okay with Fallon's parents being the supervisors with the visitation to be at their home.

Fallon reached a plea deal with the Travis County district attorney's office. In exchange for her guilty plea, he offered her eight years imprisonment to be served at the Hilltop Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Gatesville, Texas; a little less than one hundred miles from her home in Austin.

+++

Fallon was in the second month of her sentence when she was notified that her ex-husband wanted to see her. She had seen Clint and the children the previous week so this sudden appearance was unusual and Fallon grew increasingly anxious as she awaited Clint in the visitation yard.

She rose to greet him but made no attempt to hug him. He had made it clear to her that he wanted no touching or intimacy.

"What's wrong Clint? Since we saw each other last week, I'm assuming this is important."

"I didn't want to talk about this in front of the girls because I was concerned about your reaction. We, that is Fenix, have purchased a British automotive F&I company. I've been offered the chance to move there and integrate their operations into ours. It's a vice president's position and comes with a huge jump in pay. I'm going to take it."

"But what about Chloe and Emily? Are they going to be staying with my parents?" Fallon asked.

Clint shook his head. "They're moving with me."

Fallon's eyes opened in shock and she started shaking her head, "No, you can't do that. I won't allow it. That means I would never see my daughters. No, they need to stay in Austin."

"Fallon," Clint said gently, "I'm not asking your permission. I'm the custodial parent. I'll bring them by before we move so you can see them, but this is happening. We need to be in London by the end of next month."

Fallon sat hugging herself and rocking back and forth saying, "No, no, no, no." The guards soon appeared and led Fallon towards the infirmary.

+++

Chloe and Emily were upset about leaving their mother. There were tears on the last visit and Clint promised to get back at least once a year so that they could visit their mother.

Howard and Karen, Fallon's parents, were disconsolate. In just a few months, their happy lives in retirement had unraveled and been laid to waste. Their daughter imprisoned for attempted murder after being revealed to be a sex worker. Their granddaughters moved to England with their father.

+++

Clint and his daughters quickly adapted to life in London. The girls were not opposed to the uniforms they were required to wear to their public school. It took Clint a while to become accustomed to referring to their school as a "public" school. In the USA, they were called private schools but not in the UK. Whatever you called them, they were head and shoulders above what they had in Texas. No dipshits banning books are telling teachers they could not teach something because some old racist in the Austin statehouse disagreed with the subject matter.

The girls were thriving in school and had made several friends. Being cute and American was definitely helpful in that regard. Their nanny (Clint could not believe that he could afford an actual nanny!) was a cute Polish girl who was fluent in English, Polish, Italian, and French and was teaching the girls different languages.

Clint was, if not happy, at least content. He received a great deal of satisfaction watching his girls thrive in London. He preferred his old life, but that life was over and done with. His parents and brother were dead to him after his final conversation with them.

His father had called him out of the blue one day asking Clint to meet him in Kent's hospital room. Kent was out of the woods but not ready to be released. Fallon was still in jail and had not yet been bonded out.

The meeting was a shitshow.

If Clint had expected an apology from his brother, he was destined for disappointment. Kent had been mocking towards him.

"It had to have torn you up to see all those big black cocks tearing up that pussy that you thought was yours," he had sneered. Their mother had patted Kent on his leg and told him to be nice.

"I've seen the video of you eating their semen out of her nasty vagina. They've seen it too," Clint said nodding towards his parents. Kent paled at that.