Natural Selection by BumblingFool..,
Disclaimer: My apologies to those who attempted to review my first story expecting a quality masterpiece. I am a fledgling novice with only two stories now to my tally. I have no narcissistic illusions of grandeur. A better writer, I am told by many, could tell my story in a much better and abbreviated version. Of that, I have no doubt. If you eschew long tales, please skip this one. I did include chapter markers this time as requested by several. To those of you who offered this bumbling fool helpful, encouraging, or kind words of praise for my first attempt, I express my sincere humble and heartfelt gratitude.
As before, no willing cucks here. In addition to the requisite cheating wife, this story has brief elements of handcuffed non-consent, interracial and mature components and hopefully some drama along the way. Expect a foundational character buildup. Sorry, no reconciliation this time.
Prologue:
Vance Rayle had been told all of his life by everyone he admired and whose advice he respected that if he worked hard, kept his nose clean, was honest and loyal, it would pay off. What a fool he was to ever believe such tripe, he thought. If he had only told some lies, cut corners and taken the easy path instead of nearly working himself to death, he honestly believed that he wouldn’t be in jail right now having lost everything that was important to him and facing the bleakest of futures.
Just a couple of weeks ago, everything he had worked for his entire life seemed well within his grasp. He had a lovely, loving wife, a burgeoning and most promising career and a guaranteed profitable future in the bag. But now he had come to believe that he had a wife who not only cheated on him, but betrayed him in the absolute worst way possible, complicit in the charges he was facing which landed him in jail. His bail was set at one-half million dollars. It might as well have been a billion. He was going nowhere. He’d had plenty of time to think about how he landed here. That blonde-headed bitch MUST have something to do with this, he thought. She had always been the rudest person he had ever met and he didn’t even know her name. But curiously, he had never seen the blonde-headed bitch a single time since he and his wife had arrived in the big city.
He wanted nothing more than to extricate himself from this mess, but every piece of hard factual evidence proved him guilty of all of the charges he faced. It was basically an open and shut case. Hell, if he didn’t know for certain that he was one hundred percent innocent in every way, he’d convict himself based upon everything he’d been told. Even though he hadn’t seen her in over nine months, he just knew that blonde-headed bitch must have had a hand in his downfall. Vance contemplated his hard road to ‘almost’ success and his dismal crash and burn.
Desperate not to surrender to the morass of depression he was staving off with the last of his collapsing will, he repeatedly listened to one song over and over again using the one luxury afforded him in his jail cell, his MP3 player. Martina McBride was singing her song ‘Anyway’ as if she were singing it just for him. It inspired him to hang on by his fingertips. He thought back to the time the blonde-headed bitch first entered his life as he desperately sought clues as to how and why his life was turning out to be an abysmal failure and whether or not she could be the driving force behind his demise.
Chapter 1 -Nine years earlier….
Vance Rayle was an average to below-average student graduating from the eighth grade in his junior high school and was all set to go into high school in the fall, grades nine through twelve. He was a popular athlete, having done very well in football and basketball. Being top dog of the in-crowd, most of the girls swooned over him and wanted to go out with him. His conservative parents, however, would not allow him to date until he turned sixteen, so group activities were the only way for him to sneak kisses from a girl. He was too young to settle on any one particular girl anyway.
His parents seemed unusually happy to see him achieve this early milestone in his life, but for some reason, seemed distracted while he was informing them where he would be with his graduating class so they could search out the best seats. He was thinking that perhaps they were just relieved that he’d made it this far. He’d pretty much skated through school, even taking advantage of a few nerds to ‘help’ him produce some of his project papers just to keep his grades barely up to average.
His parents, Carl and Mary-Beth Rayle were very supportive and wanted the best for their only child, just as any other loving parents would. They were frustrated at times during his junior high school years because he never seemed to apply himself, as if just barely getting by was good enough. They applauded proudly when he received his diploma and afterwards took all the requisite pictures. His dad was driving as they left the school together for the last time. Summer was about to begin and Vance was telling them about all the time he was planning to spend at the community swimming pool and hang out with his buddies. Then he noticed that they were not going home. Home was west and they were definitely headed north.
“What’s up dad? We’re not heading home? It’s too early to go out to supper isn’t it?”
His dad chimed, “We’ll tell you all about it when we get there, son. Just be patient.”
“When we get where? What’s goin’ on?”
His mother turned around in her seat and put her hand on his, giving him a nervous smile. “It’s gonna be okay Vance. Please, no questions until we get there.” She said comfortingly.
Vance was puzzled. His parents had never been so cryptic except at Christmas and that was six months away. Then he got to thinking that perhaps they had arranged some kind of special graduation gift for him and they were taking him where it was and his excitement rose. Five minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of a luxury hotel and pulled up near the entrance. Once parked and all was quiet, his dad and mother both turned around to face him in the back seat. But instead of the appearance of excitement, their faces wore concerned expressions.
“Vance, your mother and I have some very serious things to tell you today and we want you to listen very carefully to every word we have to say. This could very well be one of the most important days of your life and we want to do everything in our power to encourage you to make the right decision today. Please don’t let us down.”
“I won’t dad. I promise. I want to make you and mom proud of me.”
“We know you do son. We both want you to know that we love you no matter what happens today. You do know that don’t you?”
“Of course I do, and I love you guys too.”
“Okay, well here’s the thing Vance. There’s a woman here in one of the hotel meeting rooms and she wants to meet you. Your mother and I provide for you the best we can. We’re not wealthy by any means but we both work hard and have managed to keep you in clothes, feed you and put a roof over your head. Our home may be one of the smaller ones in the neighborhood, but your mother keeps it clean and bright and we’ve always done our best to provide the best loving environment possible.”