The Nuclear Family Pt. 04

If my brother could be spitting on the courtroom floor at that point, he would, the disgust in his eyes having to admit that.

"When Dad put Georgia and Robbie together, it ensured that Robbie never went anywhere and kept things working. We left them alone for a year. Then, a few months after they married, Dad told me to seduce Georgia so we would have another way to control Robbie if needed."

Brad then looked at Georgia. She must have been staring at him because he again smiled that big crooked smile as he looked at her. He looked over at Dad, who, for some stupid reason, after all the revelations, also had a maniacal grin on his face. I could not figure out why he would be happy at my fuckwit of a brother spilling the beans like this in open court.

"It was easy to take my brother's wife. Dad sent him on a trip to visit a client, trusting that his wife would be looked after by his family and along with a few glasses of wine and a concerned older brother to look after his wife, I woke up in his bed the next day having taken his wife away from him.

"For the next three years, I slept with her any time Robbie was away, and sometimes when I knew he was working at the office sorting out my sales quota for me. Sure, my sister found us in bed early on, but Dad and I made sure that Mum and my sister said nothing. They knew that if they did, the gravy train they were riding would end."

I stared at my brother, pissed off at what I was hearing. He had been out to put the hurt on me since we were kids just because I was smarter than him.

The cadence in his voice when he laughed caught everyone in the room; it was not the laugh of a mentally healthy man. "I must admit I didn't see that Dad was the one that got the slut pregnant. She was so out of it with what we gave her. I doubt she knew we double-teamed her a number of times..." he drifted off for a moment. No one said anything; we just all sat there. Suddenly he was back, though, looking at me, grinning like an idiot. "But hey, it wasn't golden boys, so fuck it."

Brad laughed, "We all agreed that she needed to pass it off as my dimwit little brothers. I was over the moon. Robbie thought he was going to be a father."

Brad's smile faded.

"But then, he came home early from that trip and messed everything up.

"He found me in bed fucking Georgia's ass and loving it. Physical threats didn't work because he was some amazing fighter, and I wasn't. Even my parents couldn't make him see reason. He walked out on us, quit, and everything went to shit.

"After that, we all had to work, but no one," he said sarcastically. "could do it as well as Robbie. Then we saw him after the brat was born, and he put me in the hospital. I wanted to sue him, but Dad still wanted him back and convinced me to let it go. Then I saw him fight that guy, and I tried to shake him by smirking at him while feeling up Georgia, the woman I had taken from him, and he ended up pounding the guy to the ground. After that, he just dropped off the face of the planet and turned up almost a year later married.

"We tried several things, suing him, but his lawyers were better. I tried to hire a P.I. to follow him but turned up nothing. It wasn't until we found him at ALRO Homes that I knew I would just have to bide my time. But it was hard to find an angle. I was going to destroy his marriage and make good on Dad's threat to see him homeless on the street.

"But then he started taking our business, and that fight happened where Mum turned up, and he was suddenly the hero of Australia, and we were the abusive family that had driven him away. Fucking Cinderella he was."

It was evident that he had become unhinged, my brother was digging his own grave and admitting to things that no one in their right mind would, and he was doing it with a smile. I shook my head, and he caught the moment, his eyes bright, thinking he was getting to me.

"Robbie knocked us once again when Mum died. None of us got to attend. The media were hounding us day and night. I don't know what happened to my sister, but she and my Dad had a fight, and no one has seen her since. I'm betting it was Robbie that made her disappear. Joanna always did what she was told, even letting her fiancé fuck my wife, ha!"

Several people were murmuring now in the room, and the defence lawyer sat there staring. He just didn't know what to do.

My insane brother kept going, "Before Mum died, I found Georgia masturbating to old pictures of her and Robbie. I took the phone, copied the pictures and used an old email address from Georgia's address book to send the photos to Amy. I hoped that seeing the pictures, she would throw him out. I figured if I could screw him over with one sister, then it would be easy to screw him over with another."

He again lost the smile and got serious.

"I didn't think they would figure it was me sending the pictures. But then again, I'm screwed either way, so I might as well go down in a blaze of glory and get my five minutes of fame. Perhaps even get a book deal in the future."

And then he shut up, crossing his arms and letting us know he had finished his story.

No one knew what to do. My brother had not only admitted to the crime but had implicated himself and my father in several crimes that, while perhaps not quite criminal, showed a history of abuse towards me, then Georgia and even Mum and Joanna. Yet he appeared proud of it, not remorseful. If we peered into his mind, I would say that finding out his own father cuckolded him made his mind take a long walk off a short cliff.

Several people in the room knew who I was from the media stole glances at me. Even the judge gave me a look or two. I just looked angrily at my older brother and tried not to look at my father.

The prosecution lawyer cleared his throat and looked at Brad's lawyer.

"Your witness," he said and sat down.

"No further questions," the defence said, defeated.

In the end, Brad was found guilty of the privacy violations and then charged further for spousal abuse. The judge used his power to dissolve the marriage between Brad and Georgia on the spot. The paperwork would be processed post-haste, and Georgia would be free. Brad was sentenced to five years in a medium-security prison.

On the way out of court, I looked for Georgia. For the first time, I wanted to find her. Amy and I caught up with her in the car park.

"Georgia wait!" I shouted as the two of us came up behind us.

I saw Georgia's shoulder shrug before she took a breath and turned to us.

"Robbie, please don't," my ex-wife groaned. "That was hard enough today without you further rubbing my mistakes into my numerous wounds. I am done. The only reason I haven't killed myself is my children. Your mother was my only friend, and now she's gone."

I did the last thing that she expected. I dropped Amy's hand strode toward Georgia, pulling her into a hug. For a moment, her body was stiff; then, I felt Georgia throw herself into me, and she just melted. Huge body-wracking sobs came over her. Right there in the carpark, she wailed as I held her. I looked at Amy, and she was crying too. I wasn't ready to forgive Georgia, but I knew I could, give her empathy at that moment. I might not like my ex-wife, but I didn't want her to kill herself.

After a few minutes, she pulled back and wiped her eyes.

"Thank you Robbie, and thank you Amy, that was more than I deserve," Georgia said quietly.

I smiled sadly, "I know, Georgia, but I'm not entirely without a heart. What you did today was honestly the bravest thing I have ever seen you do. I know how hard it must be to say what you did."

Amy again took my hand but lent in towards Georgia, giving her an arm of compassion, the first touch between the girls in several years.

"We never had a chance, did we, Robbie?" she asked a moment later, the sorrow on her face easy to see.

I shook my head. "Of course we did, Georgia; we had every chance in the world. It didn't matter that my family was out to hurt me, hurt us. I don't care that it was Dad who put us together to try and control me. But it was your choice to fuck my father and my brother and then keep fucking them that killed us. That was your choice, and I heard the words you said as you joined in belittling me the night I came home from Melbourne, it was your choice regardless of the forces at play.

"If you had come to me and shared your concerns. Perhaps, even if you came to me after telling me honestly what happened the first time, there might have been a chance for us. But you chose to cuckold me. You chose to hide the affair and try and pass your son off as mine when you knew he wasn't. That wasn't just my family; yes, they may have influenced you, but that was your choice. You had hours, days and weeks alone with me when you could have come clean, but it took me finding you with Brad for you to understand I wouldn't take that shit from anyone."

She nodded her head, straining to keep her tears in. Amy looked sympathetic but didn't move to comfort her sister past the arms touch.

"Where are you and the kids staying?" Amy asked quietly.

"We're staying with Ruth and her family at the moment," Georgia said. "Ever since Hattie died, I just haven't known what to do, Ruth took the kids and me in, and while she's not exactly happy, she's looking after us."

We nodded our heads.

Georgia sighed, then looked at me again. "Did you read the letter?" she asked me.

I had forgotten about the letter Georgia gave me in the hospital as Mum lay dying. She asked me to read it when things settled down. I shook my head.

In return, I got a wan little smile, "Would you be able to read it soon? It's not anything but an apology for everything. I know it doesn't fix anything, but my therapist asked me to write it and, if possible, one day give it to you to read."

"Okay, Georgia, I will read it," I told her.

Georgia looked lost but looked up at my wife. "Amy, please look after him. If anything good has come out of this mess, it's that you found Robbie and made him happier than I ever could."

What that Georgia got into a beat-up old Kia Rio and drove away.

"I feel a little sorry for her," Amy said, leaning on me as we watched her drive out of the carpark.

"Yeah," I replied.

"What, you feel sorry for her?" my wife asked, looking at me like I had grown a third arm.

I shrugged. "A little, but I meant what I said. She could have talked to me, not hid it from me. I don't know that I will ever truly forgive her."

We spoke more about the merits of forgiveness and the day's events on the drive home. When we climbed into bed, we kind of just held each other and fell asleep.

The following day I went and got coffee for Amy and myself before anyone was up. I saw the news in the coffee shop, which had highlights from the trial, including excerpts from what my father and brother had done. A reporter was standing outside the coffee shop looking for me, but the locals all got in his way, giving me an escape.

When I got back, William was watching Bluey, and Amy was sitting on the balcony nursing Sarah. She smiled as I put her coffee down, placing Geogira's letter on the table in front of me.

"You going to read that?" she asked.

"Yep, I told her I would." I gave a tight smile.

As we all sat in different spots, I opened the letter and began reading.

My dearest Robbie,

I know that I don't qualify to call you that anymore. However, despite everything that has passed between us, that is still how I see you, my dearest. These last few years since you found out about Brad and I, along with other things I hope you never hear of, have been the worst of my life, and if I am honest, it's been going downhill since the night that I first slept with Brad. You should know I have loved the young operations office and amazing martial artist since I first met you. You were fit, handsome, bright, and always knew how to solve a puzzle. Well, except for the deceit that your family and I worked on you.

I will go to the grave regretting what we did to you. We destroyed you, me more than most, as I was supposed to be your wife, best friend and most trusted advisor. But I betrayed you. The hindsight of years and the therapy I am doing has shown me that as bad as I feel for what I have done to you, you have most likely felt worse. It will come as no surprise that your brother has been cheating on me for years, but somehow I know what I did to you was worse.

Robbie, This letter is an apology to you for what I did to you. It is my heartfelt feelings of remorse and sadness that I have lost my best friend. I am sorry, Robbie, I am sorry I broke you, I cheated and lied to you, I am sorry that I went along with your family rather than talking to you. I know you would probably still have divorced me, but I think my soul would not be as black as it is today.

I'm writing this the day after I heard Hattie was about to pass, and I plan to give this to you the next time I see you. You should know that your mother loved you very much, and we would often cry about what transpired. From what we saw in the news and that your father kicked your mother out, I hope that you have had some type of reconciliation.

There is a saying with cheaters where the wife cheats on her husband called 'Burn the Bitch' Robbie, your parents once told me you wanted to go nuclear on your family, on me. Well, we're burnt. We thought we destroyed you, but we did a much better job burning ourselves. With your Mum gone, Joanna looks like she's leaving, your Dad is calling for blood, and your brother will follow him into whatever hell your Dad comes up with next. I am not going to be here for it though.

I am leaving Brad and divorcing him. I have honestly never loved him. He was just there when you left, and I felt being with him was part of my punishment. But I can no longer stand the cheating, the lies, the abuse and the way he treats the children. Ruth has agreed to let the three of us move in with her and her family for a few months until I can get myself together.

The only thing I take solace in is that you have found love with Amy while I am suffering. She is everything I am not, dedicated, hard-working, loving, and beyond everything, loyal. From what my Mum told me, Amy and you have a child and a second on the way. I wish you all happiness, cherish your family and never make the mistakes that I did.

I know that you hate me, and you have every right to. I hate myself, and I know that there will be no reconciliation, but if you ever could forgive me, I would be forever grateful, and perhaps it will help you as much as it helps me.

Live your life Robbie,

Love always

Georgia

I read the letter a second time, then put the letter down on the table. Amy looked at me contemplatively, Sarah now nursing on the other side.

"So?" she asked.

I looked out over the water to the pacific ocean.

"It was certainly an apology, she explains a few things that I think we already heard in court yesterday, but her regret comes out a lot in what she wrote."

"Would you mind if I read it?" Amy requested.

I handed her the letter, and she read it. When she finished, Amy gave my daughter to me, and as I burped her, Amy reread the letter.

"You're right, and it's a good apology. But your not too emotional about it, are you?"

"No, a lot of my emotions have just been overused in this scenario. I feel sad for her. Georgia was used and abused by the family, but am I emotional about it after all this time? Nah." I told my wife.

Amy nodded, folding the letter and putting it back in the envelope. We both then stood and went inside. I picked up my phone off the bench and texted Ruth.

[ Hi Ruth, Can you let Georgia know I read the letter. Tell her thank you for the apology and that I hope she finds her peace. ]

I hit send and showed the text to Amy, who nodded.

"That's still not forgiveness," Amy told me.

"No, but I no longer wish her ill. I'll take that as a start," I replied.

The news that morning had a couple of excerpts from the trial. Photos of Brad, Georgia, Amy and I were shown. The coming week's articles "Bastard Brother Gets What Coming to Him" and "Nuclear Family Melts Down" can be found online. In most cases, the articles were firmly in my favour that they had treated me like shit and deserved everything that was happening to them. My father got even worse scathing reviews than my brother. Then again, after yesterday's revelations, that wasn't surprising.

A few weeks later, Toni gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Carla. She had her mother's eyes but her father's mouth and adored being hugged by everyone. If she wasn't sleeping, she was crying if someone wasn't holding her. The only exception was when we put both Carla and Sarah together. It started a friendship that would last a lifetime. Those girls were closer than sisters and got each other out of trouble almost as much as they got into trouble together.

Darren and Toni spent a lot of time with us, having quite a large place, and Darren spoke to me about retirement from fighting. I agreed, but noted that I would like one last fight, see if I could stay the champion. He would reach out and see if it was possible.

Three days later, I had an offer. A Russin MMA fighter, Stephen the Magnificent, was willing to travel to Brisbane to get in the ring with me after seeing my other fights. We set the bout for six months, and everyone got to training. The media picked up that this would be my final professional fight as it was time to focus on my family and business, not beating the crap out of people in the ring.

Darren trained me harder than I had ever been trained before. I was training if I wasn't working at ALRO Homes or with my family. My diet was highly restricted. I got Sunday mornings off, but that was it. I was almost, and I do say, was almost too tired to make love to Amy, but my wife is a sexual powerhouse and could turn me on even as I felt broken by Darren's training regime. Towards the end of the training, my wife's sexy body was my only respite in a world of pain.

With three weeks to go, it was worth it. I was in the best form of my life. I was faster, stronger and more agile than in any of my other fights. Darren had kept me motivated, and as the day drew near, I looked forward to taking on Stephen the Magnificent. We watched his fights, and he was a good fighter; like me, he relied on speed from years of Muay Thai fighting. We would be fairly evenly matched.

Tickets had sold out weeks ago, and the week before the fight, the odds for the first time were in my favour, three to one.

Stephen and I exchanged a few light taunts the night of the fight, but of all the professionals I had fought, he was the most gracious, wishing me luck and hoping for a good fight.

Our first round was pretty straightforward, testing defences, throwing a few combinations and getting a feel for each other. Round two was in his favour. He came at me hard, with fast combinations and speed over power. I took several blows, knowing it would bruise me for days afterwards. Round three went my way as I broke his defence and delivered some big kicks that had him on the mat at one point. When the round ended, both knew this would be a close fight.

I again broke his defence in the fourth round, but he countered with some leg sweeps that kept me on my toes. The cameras around the stadium were everywhere, the crowd screamed at every punch, yelled at each kick, and the atmosphere in the room was electric.

I knew we were focused in the fifth round as we both came out and started pounding each other. Within the first minute, we had both landed some good hits. Both of us were in our element, the crowd screaming around us, sweat pouring from both our bodies. The contest of strength and strategy was a heady feeling. We were trading blow for blow when we were both distracted by another person entering the ring.