Wife Commerce Act

"How much?" Matt asked.

"For her, I'll give you $100,000. Or you can take your chance at the wife auction."

Despite how legal it was for a man to buy a wife from another man, the cost of buying a good wife was a reason why the sale of wives isn't as widespread as most people think it is. If you wanted a very beautiful wife who has a lot of skills that could be useful to the marriage, you'd have to expect to pay a lot of money. You could pay less for a cheaper wife, but then you'd have to prepare for the fact that you're paying less for a reason. Wives who cost less to buy don't turn out that good.

Matt had to think about it for a moment. It was a good deal, but after he gave Joyce her share, he would only be left with $65K. It was enough to get him out of some of his debt, but not all of it. He felt he could get more from her on his own.

"I think I'll take the chance on the wife auction for a little more. But if you can give me a better offer, I'll consider it."

Peter looked perplexed. "I think that was a pretty good offer. You may risk getting much less for her at the auction. There are plenty of stories of great women who should've gotten more but were offered far less than they are worth."

"Yeah, but Joyce still has to approve the sale. She'll want to be offered more money, and if she doesn't, then she'll hold out until the next auction or whatever bigger offer she's willing to accept."

Section 8 of the WCA says that the wife who agrees to be sold before the 7-year waiting period ends can approve the sale to the potential husband who wishes to purchase her. This can make things very difficult for the husband, who wanted to sell his wife, but the government felt the wife still needed some rights in the sale to make the process more humane.

"Ok, well, good luck to you," said Peter. "I hope she doesn't end up killing you for this."

"You're joking, but I'm afraid she might."

Later that evening, he went home and found that Joyce had come up with a new chicken recipe. It was delicious, and he took his time eating it to savor every taste. After they were done, Joyce began talking about how she planned to use it as part of her menu for the restaurant they would someday have. Matt realized now was the time to let her know about the financial problems he caused them and the only way he could think of to get out of it.

He told her everything, not holding out any details. She was becoming shocked more and more as he told her all of his financial problems and all the lies that he had told her. By the end, she looked like she was going to go insane.

"You piece of shit!" said Joyce. "You mother-fucking, worthless piece of shit!"

"I'm very sorry about this."

"FUCK YOU AND YOUR SORRIES!!!" She yelled. "I don't know which was worse, the financial disaster you caused or how you lied about your vasectomy. You assured me you wanted kids."

"I thought I did, but I was worried I was going to be a bad father."

"You definitely would be a bad father; I can see that now" she snapped at him. "This explains why I wasn't getting pregnant, and why you refused to see a fertility specialist. I feel like such an idiot."

"You're not an idiot, I am," he assured her. "But I think we have a solution to all of our problems."

Matt laid out his idea of how he could sell her off at an auction and how, because he didn't wait seven years, with her permission to do it early, she could come out of it with more money from the sale. He explained to her all the benefits she could get from agreeing to be sold sooner, including the idea of finding a man who could give her children.

"You want to sell me? That's your solution?"

"It's the only way out of this for the both of us," Matt replied.

Joyce started crying a little. "Everyone warned me that I should've made you sign a sale waiver. Why the hell didn't I do it? I must be insane."

"I know how bad you feel about this, but it's the only way out of our predicament--"

"You mean your predicament, the one you got us into," she reminded him.

"Yes, you're right. But if you think about it, it's really the only way out of it."

"Not for me," said Joyce. "I could still petition the WCB for a traditional divorce."

Section 11 of the WCA allows women to petition for a traditional divorce proceeding if the husband fails in his duty to provide for or care for their wife. This could be a series of issues such as being unable to financially support the wife, neglect, abandonment, infidelity, abuse, and so on. This gives women the chance to get out of marriage and not be sold to anybody, as long as they can prove the problems in their marriage. This section forces men to be more respectful to their wives during their marriage, even if their intention was to sell her later on.

"You could do that, but even with a good lawyer, a petition for section 11 could take months. And even after you divorce me, with my financial problems, I don't know if I could give you alimony."

"Oh shit," was all that Joyce could say.

"At least with an early sale agreement, you can get a bigger commission on that sale and you can choose to turn down the man who wants to purchase you, so you can choose who to marry. In a way, you're lucky that this is happening now. If it was after the 7-year waiting period, I could've sold you off without your permission and you would've gotten very little out of it."

Joyce was furious. She stood up from the dinner table and stormed out of the dining room.

She told him, "I'm going for a walk to clear my head."

"Who's going to clean up?" Matt asked, referring to the dinner table and the dishes.

Joyce couldn't believe how selfish he was being right now after the conversation they just had.

"You do it, and it better be done before I get back!" she yelled at him. "If you want me to say yes to your stupid idea, you better make me happy starting now."

She grabbed her coat and stormed out of the house. Matt began to clean up the table and wash all of the dishes. He hated doing housework, but he sucked it up to make Joyce happy so she would be more agreeable to selling her. He made sure he did it perfectly too, not missing a single spot, so she wouldn't have any reason to be mad at him.

Joyce came back a few hours later. Matt was in the living room watching the news when she grabbed the remote from his hand and turned off the TV.

"Fine, asshole, I'll do it," said Joyce, with an angry tone. "I'm not happy about it, but after all of this, I'll agree to an early sale if it means getting away from you as soon as possible."

"Oh, thank you," said Matt, feeling very relieved. "I'll get the paperwork started tomorrow and schedule an appointment with an appraiser."

"An appraiser?" Joyce asked.

"The auction houses have appraisers they need to send out to assess your market value. Not only does it help determine how much the bidding can start on you, but it lets the men who want to buy you to see your value as a wife."

Joyce looked so annoyed by hearing about this. She was aware of how sexist wife sales were, but now she was hearing that she was being valued like an antique car. She could see it would only get worse for her from now until it was all over.

"Fine, I'll deal with a stupid appraiser. But just out of curiosity, do you know anyone you can sell me off to for some decent money. Maybe we can avoid the auction all together and get this over with faster."

"Peter did offer me $100K for you," Matt revealed.

Joyce thought about it for a moment. He was a nice guy, always made her laugh, and was very good-looking. She would get $30K, which isn't bad, but after everything, she figured she could try for more money. If she was going to go through this, she might as well try to get as much money as she could out of it.

"Let's see what we can get at the auction. Also, remember that, by law, you're responsible for all the fees related to the sale. So don't think you can get me to pay for anything. I deserve every dollar I can get from this."

"Don't worry, I won't try anything like that," Matt promised her.

Joyce continues to say, "And remember, because this is an early sale, I still have to approve the sale. So, if a guy offers me a high price and I don't like him for some reason, I can still turn him down and go for the next highest offer. And I will keep going down until I find someone I like, no matter how much they are offering."

"I am fully aware of that and I'm willing to take the risk. Although I'm hoping you won't have to turn down too many offers."

"I'm just making sure you are aware of all of this. Despite how incredibly sexist these sales are, the Wife Commerce Act still gives me some rights in certain situations, and I will assert any one of them when I have to."

"I fully agree, and thank you," said Matt. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, from now until this is all over, you're sleeping in the guest bedroom," she told him. "I'll continue to cook and take care of the house, but there's no way I'm having sex with you anymore, and I deserve the master bedroom."

Matt had to protest. "Oh, come on, I agree, you deserve the master bedroom, but do you really want to stop having sex? You have to admit, the sex between us has always been amazing."

Joyce thought about it for a moment. She admitted to herself that he was right; the sex between them had always been good, and despite how mad she was at him, she wasn't sure if she wanted to give that up right away.

"Ok, fine, we can still have sex occasionally," said Joyce. "But not tonight because I'm pissed off at you, and when we do have sex again, we're going back to our separate bedrooms."

"I can deal with that."

The next day, Matt got the paperwork for Joyce to sign, agreeing to be sold early. They then spent the next week preparing for the appraiser to assess how much Joyce would be worth. It was a vigorous process, and not everyone is happy about the outcome of it. When it's determined that the wife isn't worth that much, the auction house would never accept them. She could still be sold through other means, but that would most likely lead to her being sold for a much lower price. Joyce had to get a complete physical to present documentation of her health. The document also determined her fertility level for men who wanted to have children with her.

The appraiser was a middle-aged woman named Margot. When she first met Joyce, the first thing she did was verify her health documents to certify that she was completely healthy and fertile. She then asked Joyce to remove all of her clothes so she could personally assess her physical attributes. Joyce did not want to do this, but she felt she had no choice in the matter. She took off her clothes, and Margot asked her to stand up perfectly, with her arms spread out, and began noting details about her body.

Margot then had to completely go through her background, which included any form of legal trouble, criminal or civil, as well as her social media accounts and sexual history. She also had to give Joyce a standardized test for her to determine her intelligence, such as math skills, grammar, knowledge of history, science, politics, and so on. Joyce knew two other languages fluently, and Margo said it helped in her appraisal.

Margot then had to go through the entire house to assess her housewife skills, and she had to watch Joyce prepare a meal to determine her cooking skills. The fact that Joyce went to culinary school and was already a professional helped her appraisal.

She then had to determine the accuracy of Joyce's sexual history, something that Joyce did not want to get into. She told Margot everything she was willing to tell her, but Margot let her know she was able to find out anything else she wanted about her sexual past. Joyce still didn't want to tell her everything, taking the chance that she wouldn't find out everything.

Joyce got to see the basics of her auction profile, which read:

Name: Joyce Medley

Age: 35

Height: 5'4"

Hair: Brunette

Eyes: Brown

Weight: 135 lbs.

Measurements: 34D-25-36

Breasts: Natural

Body Tone: Average

Languages: English (Primary), French and Spanish (Fluently), Italian (Intermediate).

Education: Bachelors

Skills/Trade: Culinary chef

Children: None

This would be followed up by a complete appraisal summary of Joyce to be presented to potential buyers.

By the end, Margot was able to determine Joyce's market value, at least for what the opening bid would be on her at the auction. They were sitting down in the living room drinking tea while Margot went over everything with them and gave them Joyce's market value.

"$75k," said Margot.

"What? That's it?" Matt asked.

"I went through everything and that's the value I have to submit for what your wife is worth," Margot replied.

Matt and Joyce were very upset. They were hoping Joyce would be worth more. At the very least, it would create a good opening bid at the auction house so they could eventually get more money. But with only $75K, they would be lucky if the auction ended at $100K. Matt considered again whether or not to just take Peter's offer.

"What's wrong? I thought everything was going well," said Joyce.

Margot continued, "You did very well in your appraisal in many areas, but there were other underlying issues. First of all, although your cooking skills are perfect and you got a top rating for that, your housewife skills were only rated at an 85%. You could do better at cleaning, organizing, and laundry."

"Fuck you, this house is perfect," Joyce snapped at her.

Joyce didn't want to say it, but even she knew Margot was right about her laundry skills, it could definitely use some improvement. But she was for sure she was great at everything else.

"Then there's your age. You're in your mid-thirties. Most men at the auction look for a younger wife. Then there's your weight--"

Joyce had to interrupt her, "I have an appropriate weight for a woman of my height and body type."

"But for the men looking for wives at the auction, they want someone... skinnier."

"This is such sexist bullshit," Joyce snapped at her.

"Sweetie, the whole system is sexist, you should know that by now," Margot replied.

"Is there anything else holding back the price?" Matt asked.

"There's also her sexual history."

Matt looked perplexed. "What about her sexual history? She hadn't been with that many men. She has only been with three men, including me, which is pretty low for this day and age."

Margot looked at Joyce. "Do you want to tell him or should I?"

"What's she talking about?" Matt asked Joyce.

Matt noticed how silent and nervous Joyce actually was.

"Joyce, what does she mean by that?" Matt asked again.

"I may have lied about how many men I slept with," Joyce replied. "Some men overreact when I tell them the real number."

"How many?"

Joyce was nervous about telling him, but she decided it was going to be out of the bag soon anyway.

"Seventeen," she revealed.

"SEVENTEEN!" Matt screamed. It was a lot more than what he expected her to say. "Does that include me?"

"Oh, then it's eighteen."

Matt was shocked; he didn't know how to respond. He obviously didn't think she was a virgin when they first met, not at her age, but he liked knowing that she hadn't slept with that many men.

"And since we're on the subject, I might as well tell you that I also slept with seven women," Joyce revealed. "So, all in all, I had twenty-five sexual partners."

Matt was even more surprised. He didn't care that she slept with women; he often imagined her with another woman when he jerked off. He just wished she had told him about it.

"Why didn't you tell me about that part?" he asked.

"I was afraid if you found out I was bisexual, you would try to convince me to bring other women into bed with us," she replied. "I've had that happen before when men found out I was also into women. They would beg me for it, no matter how many times I said no. I just didn't want to deal with it again."

"I didn't know you were bisexual; I can't believe I missed that in my research." Margot started tapping away on her tablet, where she was assessing Joyce's value. "I can now increase your value to $85K now since you will be in higher demand."

"Higher demand? How?" Joyce asked.

"Besides the perverted nature of some men who love that sort of thing, there are lesbians coming to those auction houses looking for wives as well. So, your demand will be higher. That's assuming you don't mind being married to a woman."

"I don't have a problem with that."

The truth was, Joyce preferred a man because it would make it easier for her to get pregnant. But she was still willing to use a sperm donor if she ended up marrying a woman.

"Excellent," said Margot, with a big smile. "There could also be a way to increase your value if there was proof of your sexual skills, but Joyce says she doesn't have any visual proof to verify it. Is there another way to verify how well she can satisfy a potential suitor?"

Matt looked at Joyce sternly; he knew the answer to the question, but thought she should be the one to tell Margot about it.

"Joyce, I don't like it either, but you know what we have to do," said Matt.

"Fine," Joyce said, feeling annoyed. "Actually, there are some videos Matt and I made together that prove how good I am in bed."

"I understand why you didn't want to tell me about it; I get that all the time," said Margot. "But if you show them to me, I promise I will only watch them at a professional level. And you both could be in the same room as I watch them to make sure I'm not doing anything inappropriate with those videos."

"What do you mean by inappropriate?" Joyce asked.

"There have been incidents where an appraiser would masturbate while watching the videos or secretly get a copy of the recording. But we have cracked down hard on that, and we haven't had an incident like that in several years."

Joyce had to think hard about that one. She didn't like the idea of a stranger watching a video of her having sex with her, no matter what the reason. But she wanted a higher price value; if she wanted to get away from Matt, get a better husband, and get some more money for herself, she would have to put up with a little more humiliation.

"Fine, you can see them," said Joyce. "But I insist on being in the room as you watch them."

"Of course, I completely understand."

Joyce took Margot to another room where she had her laptop set up. She opened the file where she kept the homemade sex videos and sat next to Margot as she went through each one. As promised, Margot only watched it for the professional nature of her job. Afterwards, they both met up with Matt back in the living room.

"First of all, kudos to the both of you," Margot said, with a large smile. "What I just saw was quite impressive."

"Were they that good?" Matt asked.

"Better than some of the porn I've seen," she replied. "I can now raise Joyce's value to $95K. But between us, I'll just raise her housewife skills score and get you guys a little extra, so she'll be worth $100K at the auction."

Matt and Joyce were both very relieved to hear this.

Margot continued, "There is one other thing you can do to get it just a little bit higher. If Joyce could lose 5 more pounds in time for weigh-in on the day of the auction, she could go up to $105K."

Joyce was furious. "Weigh-in? Are you serious? I'm not a fucking giant tuna being caught at sea."

"Men don't want fatties, my dear. If you lose 5 pounds by then, your value goes up. Just remember that."

Margot collected her appraisal payment from Matt and left the house.

"For the record, I think your weight is perfect and she is crazy to think otherwise," Matt assured her.