Assumptions

Better off without her

I don't want to be cold about this fictional character's demise but all signs pointed to marriage ending sooner then later. I'll assume that she had some life insurance coverage through bank employer. At least Doug can afford that big house now.

He was a sick man...

He was a sick man...What have his dead wife to forgive him? For thinking that she had cheated and run away with the lover? When he thought that she was already dead!!! From a car accident!! Being dead for sure she didn't care about what he thought!!! For sure his new wife soon will put him in a hospice...He must be already mentally hills in the first marriage, he only didn't show it yet...1*

ending sucked

1*

1*

Weak premise. Lame protagonist. Plot holes. Shitty ending.

Damn...

Damn Steve, what a story...

Wow! Pretty stupid plot.

If Sandy loved him, she would be comforted to know her husband found love again after her death. All her death did was change the reason why she was gone. Him never following up with the bank concerning Sandy and Thornton was just too lame to believe. You really insulted your readers with this story. Thanks for nothing.

Needs a ending

Alice needs to get him help.
Doug loves Alice and can't change wife's death.
They need to heal together and move forward.
Doug waited over six months to start a new relationship.
For all doug knew sandy might have been going to pub to leave him over finances.

Assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

Fucked up

Matthew Thornton was SO busy with taking care of his parents that he was unable to telephone his employer AT ALL? Really? And the note Sandy left is hard to interpret the way the author wants us to (at the end).
The story is well written, but these holes in the plot are large. And the last paragraph is out of nowhere. I appreciate the effort, but the ending is weak.

Odd ending. There was nothing really to literally flagellate himself over.

His wife left an ambiguous note, and then disappeared. He didn't jump into bed with anyone. It was months later, after no word he moved on. That was the info he and anyone else had. In no way could he have saved her. Most importantly, if he'd actually known she was dead, things might have progressed in a similar path, though perhaps with more of a gap for grieving (or perhaps not.) I'm sure he'd always feel twinges of guilt (as we often feel guilty when people die... it's a side effect of the loss), but you took it to the point where he was clearly mentally unhealthy and likely had been all along.

Flogged himself. Too weird and painful for my taste.

I gave you a # 3 for effort but as a story line it kinda sucked. Totally downer.

Contrived

Oh come on!! He never notifies the police about a missing person, never looks for her in the hospital, just assumes she left with not even a word to anyone. And imagine the coincidence, her coworker dissapears after another accident at the same time. He disappears with not even a call to his employer, just because he decided to live elsewhere.... Really??

Some rough edges,

but a quite satisfactory dish for us.

Well writen but sad

It belongs here in LW. There was a loving woman actually 2 but the story is so sad. Life is sad sometimes. Liked your writing and it sure succeeded in creating emotion.

Well done

Awful, depressing story

Between him, the Bank, her friends and family no one thinks to contact the Police? He never thinks about her GPS? He assumes she left him but left all her clothing and took none of their money? And why would he get over her leaving so quickly and re-marry that fast? Also, the last time I looked, when you file for a divorce using abandonment, it takes a lot longer than 6 months and you have to jump through all types of legal issues before the Courts will grant a divorce. Badly conceived, poorly written and depressing as hell. You do know this is a porn site and NOT a literary guild site? Not good. Not good at all.

4 star

Sad for Sandy i suppose, but as was layed out, she was a psych bicth toi often, controlling etc.... so the marriage was circling the drain anyhow. Why is the hubby so sad now? Didnt care for the over the top remorse, her driving into the lake wssnt his fault

Sad and depressing story

Did not see the twist coming at the end. I was not his fault that she had the accident - he and Alice need to grieve and go on.

Good Read****

Thanks for sharing.

Blah!

First some thoughts from before the ending:

“We want a family, but the little house we're in just won't support another person.” – I find that INCREDIBLY, if not impossible, to believe! Even a small house must(?) have two bedrooms!

And how is Matthew going to be the big success she predicted if he walks away from his job?

“maybe she and lover boy went down in the Caribbean to rent boats to tourists.” – That doesn’t sound like the “go-getter” life she was fantasizing about!

Not to be negative, but to pay off Alice’s mortgage before they’re married could be a mistake.

Re: The Deus ex machina ending: It's a stretch to read the "our paths may cross" to mean coming and going to the bar! And it's a REMARKABLE coincidence that the co-worker she was so infatuated with JUST happened to leave the exact same day she crashed, and couldn't even make a 1-minute phone call while waiting to board the plane?

The twist in this tale was just awful like those dreadful who dunnit's from the 80's. Like so many other have posted no calling the cops, no contacting her family and friends, no following up with her job, the bank and the alleged fuck buddy not calling his job in all that time is just bullshit.

Assumptions

Decent story, and plausible.
Mr Brooks seems to differ, but shock is shock and one might not contact an employer. Especially if life for him sucked at the bank.
Even with a police report, it's unlikely her car would have been found.
But it's ASSUMPTIONS...expecting one thing when it's something else. That's what usually gets our asses in a crack.

So ...

Where is the adventurous wife?
I would like to be refunded the time I wasted in reading this Anti-Erotic tale!

A tale that should not be told ...

What a downer. *

It was a good story.

All because it did not have some bimbo wife cucking her husband while telling him how much she loves him has all the folks complaining it was a downer?.... it is a story and quite different from the run of the mill loving wives that cannot resist a BBC and being a cum slut....while the husband wants her to have sex with every swing dick he can find..... it actually was a breath of fresh air for trying to be different...

I rather read this fiction than the repetitive crap that gets called loving wives.

50% of mariages end in divorce, the

other 50% end in death-so he made out....

Nice tale, I thought a different ending and I did not expect your finale.

Well done, thanks for posting

What happened to the info Alice had that he didn't want to hear when they were throwing her stuff away

Shit happens

In the middle of an argument he leaves, to cool off, always going to the same bar. She thinks about the reason for said argument, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, running to rekindle their love, bad driving, crying, emotional mess. Lost control of auto, crashed, no airbag, drowning... . shit happens. Good story, Life goes on.

4*s

Very realistic emotional roller coaster. That's what I consider good entertainment!!
I was angry. I was glad for him. Finally, shocked, sad. I am really glad this is fiction.
Thanks for the good story.


AMerryman

Interesting

Interesting story. That he would beat himself up when he had obviously found a much better wife and life situation though is just not right. So he misunderstood the situation with his first wife, shit happens, and from the information given in the story they were probably heading for a divorce anyway. The guy should suck it up and thank God for his new wife and his new life and move forward.

Sorry...but did not like this one at all!

Usually really enjoy your stories, but this one...the guy ended up better off...and would have had to deal with her death if he had known right off...made his less of a person.

Methinks thou dost protest too much.....

.....in an effort to dramatize the emotional roller coaster our protagonist rode, I think you made me on much of his agonies and too little of his....joy.
No doubt he would have begun to think the worst of his wife under those circumstances. In a vacuum and over a long time, don't we all? So while his guilt would have been pretty severe initially, I believe he would have "talked himself down" from that rooftop, as his now more stable and satisfying life occupied much, much more of his attention. I believe that would have been a matter of a few weeks, unless he was clinically depressed.....then he should be seeing a doctor and a therapist or counsellor.
But overall, pretty good characterization and a good read. Please carry on......oh, and I feel that this story has not "told itself out" yet.....there is more to come....well, I hope so, anyway.

Look, with the title as 'Assumptions"

The reader OBVIOUSLY knows that they are in for a shocking surprise twist.

Yes, wait for it; wait for it....

and then BAM!

Here, the twist is that completely out of place ending scene with the him going insane.

My thing is that Alice, still freshly in healer mode, should/would have been a better buoy (even with the revelation of the ex's death). They had teamed up well and would have been even better equipped to continue to move from this together.

See, I had predicted her death early on. But I thought that either Alice was a hubby stealer turned murderess, or that HE did it in some way, using the Bar as an alibi, because he needed her out of the way to pursue Alice.

She was his first phone call, after all.....

I'm not sure if either of my versions would have made for any better reading, but I have to agree with most of the comments stating that this ending was just a little ...."off"

Still I gave four stars

Too bad.

I wish the author had found a different way of making his point about assumptions without working it into such a depressing story.

Thanks.

Interesting story. You probably knew, as you posted it, that you weren't going to pull high review numbers but I liked it & gave it high marks. Storytelling is tight, psychology is right and you obviously paid attention to the craft part (word use, spelling, punctuation et cetera). I am not too bothered by the pessimistic ending - your character was in the throes of grief and it can be a very dark night. But joy comes in the morning. Thanks again.
DOUG out

Heavy.....

Thought provoking....

She would have died anyway, he moved on and now is punishing his new wife

What a waste to blame yourself when nothing would have brought her back from misconstrueing her intention.

He's hosed no matter what

Actually a more realistic story than those in which he would have been suspected of killing her and all the hoopla that comes with that. But he has to live with either the pain of supposed betrayal, or the pain of misdirected assumptions, his whole life. Well written, but kind of a downer.

Pathetic

Just pathetic. "Get busy living... or get busy dying". I guess he chose to get busy dying. His pathetic choice.

DNA Test

The unanswered question of who the father was of the baby.