If this happened to me I would be laughing most of the time. Brenda is like most stupid people they blame the raped and not the rapist. If she kept her husband that was her choice but she would have to live with what he had done. So she blames the wronged man for getting the revenge that he can legally be allowed in our useless civil courts. Cry me a river, your husband and my wife are subhuman scum live with it. As for Natalie if she doesn't understand then oh well she would not be the right person for me. The truth allows you to laugh at people who just don't get it. Great little flash story FD45 very entertaining but I don't think that is the kind of reaction you were expecting.
I enjoyed your story. I do not agree with 1thinkingman. He knew for six weeks, and just planned his revenge. He did not care whom he hurt. Cheating, divorce, but by sending the photos and evidence to her family and friends all he did was humiliate her and her family. So no I do not see that as a laughing matter. But hey that is just me, I enjoyed the story. It was short and well written. Once again thank you.
In divorce there is always someone who gets hurt badly. In this case it was Brenda whose husband cheated with Randy's wife. Randy found out his wife was cheating and did what he thought was best. What happened to Brenda's life wasn't his fault. It just happened.
Don't cheat
Someone innocent always pays in the end
by
Anonymous08/30/12
The wronged beaten by another wronged
That make a wright.Brenda is looking for a scapegoat-reverse psychology at the worst; anyway,she can't keep her man pants shut.Collateral damage-like they do most of the Iraqis and Afghans.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
She deserved the humiliation
So Brenda KNEW her husband was a serial cheater, her attitude was "Let him destroy other marriages, I'll keep him because he's a good father". Didn't she think she could have kept her husband by confronting his cheating, by giving him an ultimatum, or the like? Instead, she allowed him to wander around, without giving a thought to his victims.
Sorry, but her willing inaction let her husband destroy Randy's marriage and God knows how many others before it. Some day one of the wronged husbands would hit back.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
Why do you assume
that she knows he's a cheater and that he is cheating with married women? She only admitted that she knew he was a charmer. There's a big diff between aflirt and a cheater.
The splash may be fun, but the ripples go on to the edge.
A sad story - but a realistic one. Revenge is a very base emotion - the hurt husband gained his without any thought for the ripples it would cause - and that makes him every bit as much of an asshole as the cheating one. Returning a hurt for a hurt may be tempting, but thinking of the consequences rather than just considering one's own satisfaction is not only much nobler - its also the truly manly thing to do.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
I always knew FD45 was gay
this was straight out of the mouth of a cum loving fag. If she wanted to stay with the cheater, take him back. She's fucked up and deserves what she got.
Cheating husband and father destroys families of others, and wifey thinks their own should stay intact, despite knowing he's a cheater? SHE (and their kids) is collateral damage from her husband's cheating. Blame cheating hubby, not the victims.
But... This is the ex-wife of the man who was screwing his ex-wife. Both of them were being cheated on, so I would expect a little more sympathy. Instead, she is pissed because he went decided to exposed the two cheaters. I believe she has some cause to be angry, but it should be more directed at the ex-husband. This is a good story with realistic characters. Thank You.
I especially like the accurate addressing of the financial realities of divorce. Of course, every lazy revenge story on this site includes the wronged husband becoming rich by starting a business, or writing a book, or whatever. And when he reports to the other mans wife she usually already knows, and yet is so grateful to him, and she's so emotionally detatched from all of it already that they fall into bed roughly two hundred words after he shares his proof with her, etc.
This was a novel way to remind us why lazy writing is lazy writing. More and more, it seems like the more ludicrous and impossible the characters, and the more compartmentalized the dramatic impact, the more people in this genre (site specific) like it. Too bad, is my opinion.
This was a whole different angle on the revenge story. That alone would make it a good read. Thanks.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
stupid scenario, blaming the other victim, by her reasoning she caused hers to cheat
the man and the woman should have walked out on her or at least asked the restaurant manager to have her removed. The victim here is him. The villian is the exwife of the adulterer. This is almost as PC as blaming a rape victim for being raped or a murder victim for having been murdered. Granted there are a few very mentally ill people in the world that believe in that shit. I loved the part about not spending retirement money now, you do what you have to. I have spent my retirement having my wife in cancer treatments. You do what you have to do instead of blaming a victim for your problems. If he knew his wife was cheating for six weeks his wife knew for six weeks, nothing should have come as a surprise to her it should have been expected.
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Anonymous08/30/12
Huh. Seems like mis-directed rage to me
This guy wasn't the one who started the mess. He just finished it. Always remember that when you start something, you may not have any say in how it ends.
I can definately see a spouse reacting the way of this "forgotten" woman though. Most people would rather put their heads in the sand then face a hurtful reality.
What would be interesting to me is what the date thinks of all of this after the fact. His failure in the situation was his attempt at justification rather then accepting her rage as misguided and let her vent.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
Realistic
Good examination of the consequences of revenge. If the man wanted to mail his wife's family and his family that would be one thing but to send out mailers to her family was completely inappropriate. the only thing it did was humiliate the wife and children (innocent victims). As far as people saying she deserved it because being okay with him being a cheater meant she knew he was wrecking other families, I don't think that is true. She may have thought he was a serial flirter or just because he was cheating does not not mean he was cheating with married women. Also, he took her choices from her. Many women elect to stay with cheater until their children are grown precisely to avoid the adverse financial consequences that she now faced;. they are being realistic about the economies of divorce.
I can't believe that people feel she is wrong to blame him. It is one thing to let someone know that his or her spouse is cheating, it is another to humiliate them and their children deliberately. If I was Natalie, I would run for the hills.
When you consider how many stories use the revenge sex by the two hurt parties as a vehicle, this story (to me) brings out a whole new 'real world' angle that is likely the more common result of this situation. I'm sure the number of couples who can comfortably survive a dividing of their entire lives, regardless of financial ratios and the effects on children and extended families, is quite limited. Most of these stories gloss over this. In the real world, I imagine there is a real and often painful consideration to be made by both parties. This woman was pretty much denied her choice of option. In short, you showed great imagination where imagination shouldn't have been needed 'realistically', in these situations. Thanks for your work.
and so very well told. She was not angry at him for the cheating. She was angry (and rightfully angry in my opinion) at his method of revenge...a revenge that caused so much collateral damage with the packages he sent, the people he contacted. He was not satisfied with dealing with the problem...overkill was he did, and hurt to people not deserving it was what he accomplished. He was a dog....thinking only of his revenge and not at all of consequences.
carrying all the baggage and broken dreams onward, TK U MLJ LV NV
by
Anonymous08/30/12
...
ok, FD45, I get it.
As a scene from life, this story is easily possible. Maybe even probable.
But you know what? When someone finds out they have been humiliated, disrespected and betrayed, they sometimes don't think all that clearly. It's called emotional trauma and upheaval. Randy probably had it in spades.
And like you allude to yourself in this story, nobody is perfect.
However, I can't abide by the shortsightedness of the story itself. No matter how you paint it, the fault lies at the feet of the philanderers, not the victims.
Yes, families are destroyed. Yes, the only stakeholders who do well out of a divorce are usually lawyers. But without the two original badguys 'gettin jiggy with it', Brenda probably would not even know Randy existed, let alone lay fault with him for her troubles.
And when you really get down to it, Brenda is partially at fault too, because from the story, she KNEW Michael was a snake, and was hoping he'd 'man-up' and become Mr Wonderful. Doesn't usually happen in real life. So she accepted his shortcomings, his dalliances. Does that mean we ALL SHOULD accept that from our partners? She got what was coming to her at some stage in her life. Randy just happened to be the one to call a halt to the bullshit.
So she should look at her own decisions very closely before she goes throwing drinks at someone else.
Good story....I think. Too many undefined pronouns to make it easy to follow the story concept.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
i wish
when she threw the drink in his face that he would have punch her in the face. hopefully his girlfriend will see a person who will not be shit on she is a female matt moreau and that makes me sick.
He set up a revenge that hit the kids in the next generation. Basically I feel that he had no business sending the packages to her people. But this is the way revenge works, there is always another return shot coming in. There are people that hate other people for what happened a hundred years ago.
Different sort of vision of the cheating process and I enjoyed it.
Given my first post this is an elaboration. People love to stick their heads in the sand. With Brenda that is exactly what we see. Did she know her husband cheated with married women? She may have not known he cheated at all, that being irrelevant in any case. Once she finds out that he has cheated then her character is challenged and how she deals with that situation is all that matters. She is enraged because she feels humiliated that the truth(which she may have not known) is out there for everyone to see. Stop being a victim Brenda, you did nothing wrong your husband did. You now have the same two choices you had if no one else had known about the affair, one right choice and one wrong choice. Is this the asshole you want to influence your children going forward? Are you willing to live with the humiliation that he is and will continue to cheat on you? What of the medical risks? STD's are all too real a possibility is circumstances like this. Quite trying to change a tiger's stripes and don't blame others for the light of day.
Loved this one FD, this was realistic and I would be laughing my ass off with Cranberry juice on my face. Damn that was my favourite shirt. Do these stains come out? Maybe if I get it dry cleaned.
Sorry writer but I am with the man who outed the cheating husband. If someone came to me and showed me proof that my wife was cheating on me I would shake that persons hand, and say thank you. It is true that many cheating husbands are good fathers and equally many cheating wives are good wives and mothers. But the fact they cheated shows people their true character and personality. So as others have said the wife raging and blaming the man that let her know what an asshole her father of the year is misdirected.
Spurned wife is delusional and her self-denial has fed her insecurities.
Just shows some people cannot cope with infidelity like others who are also affected by it but have a better handle on their temperamental natures. They are incapable of directing the blame at the root of the problem and instead find a scapegoat to momentarily sate their malevolent dispositions.
Spurned hubby may have been a jerk on his part but his actions were based on a rational reaction to a traumatic event. Spurned wife seems to be affected not by the repercussions of her cheating hubby's dalliance's but by the aftermath of her opposite's salvo. If she could disregard hubby's actions but not identify with the reactions of someone whose pain she should be feeling, she is indeed an irrational soul.
Still, these things happen and it was good to see that it is not only cheaters who cannot think logically.
He should have sent the pictures only to her, not everybody else. But then again she is lucky the betrayed husband didn't end up killing the cheaters.
Good read.
I echo HDKs comments-what an "off the wall" story idea. And well done at that.
First I can recall that had the POV from the divorce damaged other spouse.
It was well written, and the ping pong of posters opinions- both pro and con of the "Drink throwing" wife actions show you wrote a fine "alternative" tale. (I am on the side she was shooting the messenger)
Very good story. Although I have absolutely no respect for cheaters, what the wronged husband did was unnecessary excessive and cruel. He overreached. He should have limited the revenge to the cheaters.
I can gather and accept that he wants revenge and that he also wants to inform the other wronged party of her husbands transgressions. But he should make sure he doesn’t make more collateral damage than necessary. Also sending the family and colleagues of the wronged wife those pictures was uncalled for and unnecessarily cruel and humiliating for the wronged wife... Especially sending it to the colleagues of the wronged wife – thus not even the colleagues of the cheater – is excessive. How can you keep working at that company after being totally humiliated in the eyes of your co-workers? You can’t… and thus this probably caused her to need to change work as well. Also it took away her options and left her no other course than divorce which should be her own free choice and not forced upon her by Randy’s actions. I thus can totally understand her reaction. It’s a very good story depicting the other side of anger.
Nicely done, presenting the viewpoint of someone who didn't want to see her life destroyed in the process of him getting vengeance on his cheating wife.
some of the comments are stupid, like calling what the husband did cruel. Telling everyone can't be anymore damning or cruel than cheating on your spouse. After telling the lover's wife the truth, she could have stayed with him, if she wanted. But it seems like she only misses the money or the things that had. When we read all these differents stories about the wives taking their husbands to the cleaners when the man cheats. FD45 now shows that no matter what, a man fucks up everytime. If he cheats, he's a dog and deserves what happenes to him. If she cheats, give her half and be a man about it. If he wants revenge, he's wrong because it might mess up the lover's family. So what's left FD45, she cheats and it seem like he's in a no win situation, so tuck tail an slither a way like a good little ex-hubby. Or he can just be a willing cuckold. You aren't really given a man any choices are you.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
great story
Unusual. Keep writing. For the haters, there can never be enough revenge even when it is visited on innocent bystanders. The LW Taliban insists that the right to revenge is so powerful that collateral damage is acceptable. This story is witten from the point of view of a victim, not the wife, not the husband, not the co-adulterer, the victim. He did not give her the choice to make her own decisions, he made them for her like a spoiled brat petulant littl boy. I suspect his new girlfriend will think twice about the so-called heroic husband that rides into town & shoots not only the bad guys but also the bartender, the parson & the schoolmarm & rides off into the sunset blowing the smoke off hos gun saying "Yeah, I'm the man." She should have shot his sorry ass. The jury would probably have let her off & voted her a medal.
by
Anonymous08/30/12
BENDA HAS BALLS
SHE SHOULD HAVE REIGNED HIM IN NOW FOR HER SOUR GRAPES ,MY REPLY TO BRENDA WOULD BE" TOUGH SHIT BITCH YOU KNEW BOUT HIS PHILANDERING AND YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED HIM OR WAS YOUR PUSSY WORN OR MISSING SHIMS (HILLERY SEEMS TO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM)
AT THAT TIME I WOULD HAVE DUMPED THE REST OF MY MEAL ON HER USED CLOTHES AND WALKED OUT STIFFING HER FOR THE BILL LETS SEE IF HER BALLS FIT IN THOSE PANTYHOSE.
Very well written. but the husband was an asshole for getting involved in the wife's side of it. yes send everything to his family and to the cheating husbands family, but the wife's family was a bit overboard - that shoudl have been her decision not his. but i can see the husbands side too. but he set out to prevent the non cheating wife from surviving and now he should be responsible for helping - he steped over the line and now he should pay for her. she did not fuck up his marriage and it was her decision to end hers not his.
A Herpes Simplex Pox Upon Both Their Genitalia Reigons !
Ok , that's a little harsh. Yet this is a well written story about two flawed people. They were wronged in the same way & yet went astray in different vectors in terns of their reaction to aforementioned betrayal .
Maybe they aren't so bad but are presently seen in a bad light as they work their way thru the stages of grief over the demise of their respectless and respective marriages. FD45 did a breathtaking salvage job with that TQM story ' Lost Her to the Ex '. Maybe he can salvage his own work next out and make these characters worth caring about.
I'm not quarreling with the quality of the actual writing , mind you, just the moments in time he chose to scrutinize these characters. They both have potential to be people you don't want to flee at barbecue after hearing their life stories in casual conversation. Where the hell is Ed the bartender/ sage from " I Stop Losing " when you need him ?
by
Anonymous08/30/12
The problem
The cuckolded husband did not work with the cheatd-on wife. He made stupid assumptions and charged ahead with out consultation. The woman had good reason to be angry: there might have been a better way to do the divorce so that she was not ruined in the process. In fact, she might a case for a lawsuit here. Hmmmm. Any sharks out there have any ideas?
I feel remiss in not having complimented FD45 as a male author who rarely chooses to write from a first person , female POV but when he does opt for this choice, the narrative flows without a discernible hiccup. .
Female authors often stumble with male characters from the " I " perspective. Kudos to this writer on that skillset which is one among many in his author toolchest.
Brenda, and her children, were innocent parties. It's moronic to somehow blame her for not divorcing her cheating husband. It was HER DECISION. Spouses everywhere live with husbands and wives that are seriously flawed (think alcoholism, mental illness and just being stupid pains in the ass), but they stay with them for good reasons and bad. Randy being enraged by what her husband (not HER, her HUSBAND) did, and then destroying her family, is way out of bounds.
She said she loved her husband in spite of his failings, because he was a good father and provider; he made her laugh and feel good. We must believe her, because it's the author's story and nothing in the story contradicts it. Even if she stayed with him only because he was a good provider, which was not the case, that's okay. When someone is responsible for the lives of small children, the luxury of dumping someone because of his failings is not always an option.
Apparently her husband loved her too, even if he was an asshole. The outcome of this revenge overkill tore a father, and his ability to support them, from his kids. It was intentional -- he spelled it out in his response to Brenda. Randy knew what the consequences would be and he just didn't care.
Randy deserved to get revenge on his wife. She's the one who cheated and she's the one who owed it to him to be faithful. Maybe the divorce and humiliation of his revenge was enough for her. Who knows? He deserved to get revenge on on her lover; maybe a broken nose and some cracked ribs, if possible.
Knowing the likely outcome and consequences of his plan, however, his scorched earth actions against her family were disgusting and an injustice. Like a remorseful drunk driver who claims he didn't MEAN to strike and kill someone; his excuses don't mean shit.
Of course, if a satisfying revenge is the only suitable outcome; perhaps some dark night Brenda could come up behind Randy and slip a knife between his ribs. After all, she was really pissed off.
Next you'll be getting emails about how your condoning murder. Sticking Randy with a knife in the back for him ratting out a cheating wife and her lover is a bit to extereme for this website but a knife in the back is "OK".........lol
by
Anonymous08/30/12
Eh
I didn't care for this particular story. I've enjoyed some of your older ones but I didn't agree with the premise of this story. Randy is not an asshole for hurting his wife's lover. If Brenda loved her husband as much as she claimed, then she would have stayed with him. Brenda is blaming her husband's failings on Randy and it's stupid. Sorry, try again next week.
Anon comes in a winner again with the comment about HER culpability....
...as the wife of a "horndog". If you could have turned the tables on her this would have been great. But still an original attempt is better than a repeat.
I thought this was an excellent story, technically sound with some very interesting details, like Randy knowing Michael had left town but not knowing anything about Brenda's life post-divorce and nobody mentioning Randy's ex-wife's name.
I wonder what this story would be like if Natalie, a waiter, or someone sitting at the next table were the narrator.
As to content... Michael acted selfishly, Randy reacted selfishly, and I think Brenda has some valid points when she calls him on it (in particular in the 4th, 8th, and 10th paragraphs from the bottom).
English
Made me laugh
If this happened to me I would be laughing most of the time. Brenda is like most stupid people they blame the raped and not the rapist. If she kept her husband that was her choice but she would have to live with what he had done. So she blames the wronged man for getting the revenge that he can legally be allowed in our useless civil courts. Cry me a river, your husband and my wife are subhuman scum live with it. As for Natalie if she doesn't understand then oh well she would not be the right person for me. The truth allows you to laugh at people who just don't get it. Great little flash story FD45 very entertaining but I don't think that is the kind of reaction you were expecting.
Thank you
I enjoyed your story. I do not agree with 1thinkingman. He knew for six weeks, and just planned his revenge. He did not care whom he hurt. Cheating, divorce, but by sending the photos and evidence to her family and friends all he did was humiliate her and her family. So no I do not see that as a laughing matter. But hey that is just me, I enjoyed the story. It was short and well written. Once again thank you.
Bainsidhe
Good effort in the originality stakes, but...
no, it left me cold. 3* and thanks for writing.
Fair
In divorce there is always someone who gets hurt badly. In this case it was Brenda whose husband cheated with Randy's wife. Randy found out his wife was cheating and did what he thought was best. What happened to Brenda's life wasn't his fault. It just happened.
Don't cheat
Someone innocent always pays in the end
The wronged beaten by another wronged
That make a wright.Brenda is looking for a scapegoat-reverse psychology at the worst; anyway,she can't keep her man pants shut.Collateral damage-like they do most of the Iraqis and Afghans.
She deserved the humiliation
So Brenda KNEW her husband was a serial cheater, her attitude was "Let him destroy other marriages, I'll keep him because he's a good father". Didn't she think she could have kept her husband by confronting his cheating, by giving him an ultimatum, or the like? Instead, she allowed him to wander around, without giving a thought to his victims.
Sorry, but her willing inaction let her husband destroy Randy's marriage and God knows how many others before it. Some day one of the wronged husbands would hit back.
Why do you assume
that she knows he's a cheater and that he is cheating with married women? She only admitted that she knew he was a charmer. There's a big diff between aflirt and a cheater.
That was a clever take...........
I liked it.
You throw a stone into calm water
The splash may be fun, but the ripples go on to the edge.
A sad story - but a realistic one. Revenge is a very base emotion - the hurt husband gained his without any thought for the ripples it would cause - and that makes him every bit as much of an asshole as the cheating one. Returning a hurt for a hurt may be tempting, but thinking of the consequences rather than just considering one's own satisfaction is not only much nobler - its also the truly manly thing to do.
I always knew FD45 was gay
this was straight out of the mouth of a cum loving fag. If she wanted to stay with the cheater, take him back. She's fucked up and deserves what she got.
Don't shoot the messenger. Sorry FD, no go.
Cheating husband and father destroys families of others, and wifey thinks their own should stay intact, despite knowing he's a cheater? SHE (and their kids) is collateral damage from her husband's cheating. Blame cheating hubby, not the victims.
Good Flash Story.
But... This is the ex-wife of the man who was screwing his ex-wife. Both of them were being cheated on, so I would expect a little more sympathy. Instead, she is pissed because he went decided to exposed the two cheaters. I believe she has some cause to be angry, but it should be more directed at the ex-husband. This is a good story with realistic characters. Thank You.
Fantastically
Realistic.
I especially like the accurate addressing of the financial realities of divorce. Of course, every lazy revenge story on this site includes the wronged husband becoming rich by starting a business, or writing a book, or whatever. And when he reports to the other mans wife she usually already knows, and yet is so grateful to him, and she's so emotionally detatched from all of it already that they fall into bed roughly two hundred words after he shares his proof with her, etc.
This was a novel way to remind us why lazy writing is lazy writing. More and more, it seems like the more ludicrous and impossible the characters, and the more compartmentalized the dramatic impact, the more people in this genre (site specific) like it. Too bad, is my opinion.
Re: Why do you assume
"Don't you think I know exactly what he was?"
Enough said.
I liked it.
This was a whole different angle on the revenge story. That alone would make it a good read. Thanks.
stupid scenario, blaming the other victim, by her reasoning she caused hers to cheat
the man and the woman should have walked out on her or at least asked the restaurant manager to have her removed. The victim here is him. The villian is the exwife of the adulterer. This is almost as PC as blaming a rape victim for being raped or a murder victim for having been murdered. Granted there are a few very mentally ill people in the world that believe in that shit. I loved the part about not spending retirement money now, you do what you have to. I have spent my retirement having my wife in cancer treatments. You do what you have to do instead of blaming a victim for your problems. If he knew his wife was cheating for six weeks his wife knew for six weeks, nothing should have come as a surprise to her it should have been expected.
Huh. Seems like mis-directed rage to me
This guy wasn't the one who started the mess. He just finished it. Always remember that when you start something, you may not have any say in how it ends.
I can definately see a spouse reacting the way of this "forgotten" woman though. Most people would rather put their heads in the sand then face a hurtful reality.
What would be interesting to me is what the date thinks of all of this after the fact. His failure in the situation was his attempt at justification rather then accepting her rage as misguided and let her vent.
Realistic
Good examination of the consequences of revenge. If the man wanted to mail his wife's family and his family that would be one thing but to send out mailers to her family was completely inappropriate. the only thing it did was humiliate the wife and children (innocent victims). As far as people saying she deserved it because being okay with him being a cheater meant she knew he was wrecking other families, I don't think that is true. She may have thought he was a serial flirter or just because he was cheating does not not mean he was cheating with married women. Also, he took her choices from her. Many women elect to stay with cheater until their children are grown precisely to avoid the adverse financial consequences that she now faced;. they are being realistic about the economies of divorce.
I can't believe that people feel she is wrong to blame him. It is one thing to let someone know that his or her spouse is cheating, it is another to humiliate them and their children deliberately. If I was Natalie, I would run for the hills.
Excellent
When you consider how many stories use the revenge sex by the two hurt parties as a vehicle, this story (to me) brings out a whole new 'real world' angle that is likely the more common result of this situation. I'm sure the number of couples who can comfortably survive a dividing of their entire lives, regardless of financial ratios and the effects on children and extended families, is quite limited. Most of these stories gloss over this. In the real world, I imagine there is a real and often painful consideration to be made by both parties. This woman was pretty much denied her choice of option. In short, you showed great imagination where imagination shouldn't have been needed 'realistically', in these situations. Thanks for your work.
Excellent story
and so very well told. She was not angry at him for the cheating. She was angry (and rightfully angry in my opinion) at his method of revenge...a revenge that caused so much collateral damage with the packages he sent, the people he contacted. He was not satisfied with dealing with the problem...overkill was he did, and hurt to people not deserving it was what he accomplished. He was a dog....thinking only of his revenge and not at all of consequences.
AND THE BEAT DOWN GOES FORWARD
carrying all the baggage and broken dreams onward, TK U MLJ LV NV
...
ok, FD45, I get it.
As a scene from life, this story is easily possible. Maybe even probable.
But you know what? When someone finds out they have been humiliated, disrespected and betrayed, they sometimes don't think all that clearly. It's called emotional trauma and upheaval. Randy probably had it in spades.
And like you allude to yourself in this story, nobody is perfect.
However, I can't abide by the shortsightedness of the story itself. No matter how you paint it, the fault lies at the feet of the philanderers, not the victims.
Yes, families are destroyed. Yes, the only stakeholders who do well out of a divorce are usually lawyers. But without the two original badguys 'gettin jiggy with it', Brenda probably would not even know Randy existed, let alone lay fault with him for her troubles.
And when you really get down to it, Brenda is partially at fault too, because from the story, she KNEW Michael was a snake, and was hoping he'd 'man-up' and become Mr Wonderful. Doesn't usually happen in real life. So she accepted his shortcomings, his dalliances. Does that mean we ALL SHOULD accept that from our partners? She got what was coming to her at some stage in her life. Randy just happened to be the one to call a halt to the bullshit.
So she should look at her own decisions very closely before she goes throwing drinks at someone else.
well....
Good story....I think. Too many undefined pronouns to make it easy to follow the story concept.
i wish
when she threw the drink in his face that he would have punch her in the face. hopefully his girlfriend will see a person who will not be shit on she is a female matt moreau and that makes me sick.
excellent story
You might think that many of the annoy-e-mice never read the title of the stories they comment on.
I appreciated the story.
Thanks,
Green-something
Interesting cross-section of life.
He set up a revenge that hit the kids in the next generation. Basically I feel that he had no business sending the packages to her people. But this is the way revenge works, there is always another return shot coming in. There are people that hate other people for what happened a hundred years ago.
Different sort of vision of the cheating process and I enjoyed it.
Second post
Given my first post this is an elaboration. People love to stick their heads in the sand. With Brenda that is exactly what we see. Did she know her husband cheated with married women? She may have not known he cheated at all, that being irrelevant in any case. Once she finds out that he has cheated then her character is challenged and how she deals with that situation is all that matters. She is enraged because she feels humiliated that the truth(which she may have not known) is out there for everyone to see. Stop being a victim Brenda, you did nothing wrong your husband did. You now have the same two choices you had if no one else had known about the affair, one right choice and one wrong choice. Is this the asshole you want to influence your children going forward? Are you willing to live with the humiliation that he is and will continue to cheat on you? What of the medical risks? STD's are all too real a possibility is circumstances like this. Quite trying to change a tiger's stripes and don't blame others for the light of day.
Loved this one FD, this was realistic and I would be laughing my ass off with Cranberry juice on my face. Damn that was my favourite shirt. Do these stains come out? Maybe if I get it dry cleaned.
Sorry writer but I am with the man who outed the cheating husband. If someone came to me and showed me proof that my wife was cheating on me I would shake that persons hand, and say thank you. It is true that many cheating husbands are good fathers and equally many cheating wives are good wives and mothers. But the fact they cheated shows people their true character and personality. So as others have said the wife raging and blaming the man that let her know what an asshole her father of the year is misdirected.
A good read
Spurned wife is delusional and her self-denial has fed her insecurities.
Just shows some people cannot cope with infidelity like others who are also affected by it but have a better handle on their temperamental natures. They are incapable of directing the blame at the root of the problem and instead find a scapegoat to momentarily sate their malevolent dispositions.
Spurned hubby may have been a jerk on his part but his actions were based on a rational reaction to a traumatic event. Spurned wife seems to be affected not by the repercussions of her cheating hubby's dalliance's but by the aftermath of her opposite's salvo. If she could disregard hubby's actions but not identify with the reactions of someone whose pain she should be feeling, she is indeed an irrational soul.
Still, these things happen and it was good to see that it is not only cheaters who cannot think logically.
I somewhat understand.
He should have sent the pictures only to her, not everybody else. But then again she is lucky the betrayed husband didn't end up killing the cheaters.
Good read.
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Great story idea
I echo HDKs comments-what an "off the wall" story idea. And well done at that.
First I can recall that had the POV from the divorce damaged other spouse.
It was well written, and the ping pong of posters opinions- both pro and con of the "Drink throwing" wife actions show you wrote a fine "alternative" tale. (I am on the side she was shooting the messenger)
My only complaint is I wish it was longer!
Very good story. Although I have absolutely no respect for cheaters, what the wronged husband did was unnecessary excessive and cruel. He overreached. He should have limited the revenge to the cheaters.
I can gather and accept that he wants revenge and that he also wants to inform the other wronged party of her husbands transgressions. But he should make sure he doesn’t make more collateral damage than necessary. Also sending the family and colleagues of the wronged wife those pictures was uncalled for and unnecessarily cruel and humiliating for the wronged wife... Especially sending it to the colleagues of the wronged wife – thus not even the colleagues of the cheater – is excessive. How can you keep working at that company after being totally humiliated in the eyes of your co-workers? You can’t… and thus this probably caused her to need to change work as well. Also it took away her options and left her no other course than divorce which should be her own free choice and not forced upon her by Randy’s actions. I thus can totally understand her reaction. It’s a very good story depicting the other side of anger.
Actually, this was an interesting point of view that is not usually found in the Loving Wives.
Pretty good.
Nicely done, presenting the viewpoint of someone who didn't want to see her life destroyed in the process of him getting vengeance on his cheating wife.
I find it funny
some of the comments are stupid, like calling what the husband did cruel. Telling everyone can't be anymore damning or cruel than cheating on your spouse. After telling the lover's wife the truth, she could have stayed with him, if she wanted. But it seems like she only misses the money or the things that had. When we read all these differents stories about the wives taking their husbands to the cleaners when the man cheats. FD45 now shows that no matter what, a man fucks up everytime. If he cheats, he's a dog and deserves what happenes to him. If she cheats, give her half and be a man about it. If he wants revenge, he's wrong because it might mess up the lover's family. So what's left FD45, she cheats and it seem like he's in a no win situation, so tuck tail an slither a way like a good little ex-hubby. Or he can just be a willing cuckold. You aren't really given a man any choices are you.
great story
Unusual. Keep writing. For the haters, there can never be enough revenge even when it is visited on innocent bystanders. The LW Taliban insists that the right to revenge is so powerful that collateral damage is acceptable. This story is witten from the point of view of a victim, not the wife, not the husband, not the co-adulterer, the victim. He did not give her the choice to make her own decisions, he made them for her like a spoiled brat petulant littl boy. I suspect his new girlfriend will think twice about the so-called heroic husband that rides into town & shoots not only the bad guys but also the bartender, the parson & the schoolmarm & rides off into the sunset blowing the smoke off hos gun saying "Yeah, I'm the man." She should have shot his sorry ass. The jury would probably have let her off & voted her a medal.
BENDA HAS BALLS
SHE SHOULD HAVE REIGNED HIM IN NOW FOR HER SOUR GRAPES ,MY REPLY TO BRENDA WOULD BE" TOUGH SHIT BITCH YOU KNEW BOUT HIS PHILANDERING AND YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED HIM OR WAS YOUR PUSSY WORN OR MISSING SHIMS (HILLERY SEEMS TO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM)
AT THAT TIME I WOULD HAVE DUMPED THE REST OF MY MEAL ON HER USED CLOTHES AND WALKED OUT STIFFING HER FOR THE BILL LETS SEE IF HER BALLS FIT IN THOSE PANTYHOSE.
i rate it 5
Very well written. but the husband was an asshole for getting involved in the wife's side of it. yes send everything to his family and to the cheating husbands family, but the wife's family was a bit overboard - that shoudl have been her decision not his. but i can see the husbands side too. but he set out to prevent the non cheating wife from surviving and now he should be responsible for helping - he steped over the line and now he should pay for her. she did not fuck up his marriage and it was her decision to end hers not his.
A Herpes Simplex Pox Upon Both Their Genitalia Reigons !
Ok , that's a little harsh. Yet this is a well written story about two flawed people. They were wronged in the same way & yet went astray in different vectors in terns of their reaction to aforementioned betrayal .
Maybe they aren't so bad but are presently seen in a bad light as they work their way thru the stages of grief over the demise of their respectless and respective marriages. FD45 did a breathtaking salvage job with that TQM story ' Lost Her to the Ex '. Maybe he can salvage his own work next out and make these characters worth caring about.
I'm not quarreling with the quality of the actual writing , mind you, just the moments in time he chose to scrutinize these characters. They both have potential to be people you don't want to flee at barbecue after hearing their life stories in casual conversation. Where the hell is Ed the bartender/ sage from " I Stop Losing " when you need him ?
The problem
The cuckolded husband did not work with the cheatd-on wife. He made stupid assumptions and charged ahead with out consultation. The woman had good reason to be angry: there might have been a better way to do the divorce so that she was not ruined in the process. In fact, she might a case for a lawsuit here. Hmmmm. Any sharks out there have any ideas?
Addendum to Previous Comment !
I feel remiss in not having complimented FD45 as a male author who rarely chooses to write from a first person , female POV but when he does opt for this choice, the narrative flows without a discernible hiccup. .
Female authors often stumble with male characters from the " I " perspective. Kudos to this writer on that skillset which is one among many in his author toolchest.
On Target
Brenda, and her children, were innocent parties. It's moronic to somehow blame her for not divorcing her cheating husband. It was HER DECISION. Spouses everywhere live with husbands and wives that are seriously flawed (think alcoholism, mental illness and just being stupid pains in the ass), but they stay with them for good reasons and bad. Randy being enraged by what her husband (not HER, her HUSBAND) did, and then destroying her family, is way out of bounds.
She said she loved her husband in spite of his failings, because he was a good father and provider; he made her laugh and feel good. We must believe her, because it's the author's story and nothing in the story contradicts it. Even if she stayed with him only because he was a good provider, which was not the case, that's okay. When someone is responsible for the lives of small children, the luxury of dumping someone because of his failings is not always an option.
Apparently her husband loved her too, even if he was an asshole. The outcome of this revenge overkill tore a father, and his ability to support them, from his kids. It was intentional -- he spelled it out in his response to Brenda. Randy knew what the consequences would be and he just didn't care.
Randy deserved to get revenge on his wife. She's the one who cheated and she's the one who owed it to him to be faithful. Maybe the divorce and humiliation of his revenge was enough for her. Who knows? He deserved to get revenge on on her lover; maybe a broken nose and some cracked ribs, if possible.
Knowing the likely outcome and consequences of his plan, however, his scorched earth actions against her family were disgusting and an injustice. Like a remorseful drunk driver who claims he didn't MEAN to strike and kill someone; his excuses don't mean shit.
Of course, if a satisfying revenge is the only suitable outcome; perhaps some dark night Brenda could come up behind Randy and slip a knife between his ribs. After all, she was really pissed off.
you better watch it extempore
Next you'll be getting emails about how your condoning murder. Sticking Randy with a knife in the back for him ratting out a cheating wife and her lover is a bit to extereme for this website but a knife in the back is "OK".........lol
Eh
I didn't care for this particular story. I've enjoyed some of your older ones but I didn't agree with the premise of this story. Randy is not an asshole for hurting his wife's lover. If Brenda loved her husband as much as she claimed, then she would have stayed with him. Brenda is blaming her husband's failings on Randy and it's stupid. Sorry, try again next week.
A superb story!
We rarely see the long-term results of the outing of a cheater. This was handled well.
She's an idiot, blaming the wrong person
OK, she was happy being a doormat. He wasn't. Too bad.
Anon comes in a winner again with the comment about HER culpability....
...as the wife of a "horndog". If you could have turned the tables on her this would have been great. But still an original attempt is better than a repeat.
Well done.
I thought this was an excellent story, technically sound with some very interesting details, like Randy knowing Michael had left town but not knowing anything about Brenda's life post-divorce and nobody mentioning Randy's ex-wife's name.
I wonder what this story would be like if Natalie, a waiter, or someone sitting at the next table were the narrator.
As to content... Michael acted selfishly, Randy reacted selfishly, and I think Brenda has some valid points when she calls him on it (in particular in the 4th, 8th, and 10th paragraphs from the bottom).
Good Read***
Someone always get the short end in divorces. Thanks for sharing.
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