Intro from the Author
Hello everyone. This is Chapter 2 of the three-part series, “A Tangled Web.” I highly recommend you read Chapter 1 first as it provides the backstory for the characters and develops the plot.
I hope that you enjoy it. I appreciate votes and comments—even the negative ones if they include an explanation.
Legal Caveat – This is a work of fiction. The characters, plots, narratives, etc., have all been created from my imagination and are in no way intended to represent real people or situations. All characters are 18 or older.
******
Bruce had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. He had all the footage he needed to utterly destroy Dan. But he was enjoying his newly trained sexual minx and didn’t want their relationship to end just yet.
Chapter 2
******
Even though Dan had been working almost nonstop for months, he didn’t overlook that his relationship with Cindy had changed. She seemed more emotionally distant when they were together, and their sex life was almost nonexistent. He knew she resented the time he spent working, but he had hoped that his recent success and the prospect of starting their family would have brightened Cindy’s outlook. Instead, she seemed distant. Dan knew he needed to do something to reignite the spark in their relationship. Their anniversary was only a week away, so he decided to go all out, making dinner reservations at Alinea and booking a room at the Peninsula hotel for the weekend.
Cindy was excited about Dan’s plans for their anniversary, and he noticed an immediate improvement in her attitude toward him. They made love twice that week, more than they had during the past two months. Dan was hopeful this change would become permanent, especially with the conversation he hoped to have with her during their anniversary weekend.
On Friday evening, Dan left the office without saying goodbye to Eric. He knew Eric would have kept him working until he was late picking Cindy up for their dinner reservation. Arriving home, he found his wife in a stunning burgundy dress she must have recently purchased. With her hair, makeup, and nails done, she looked more like a gorgeous bridesmaid than a housewife on a date night. He honestly thought Cindy looked more beautiful than ever and was so excited for the weekend.
At the restaurant, Dan waited until after they had ordered desserts to bring up the main thing he hoped to discuss.
“Cindy, I know recent months have been a strain on you and our marriage. Please know that you are always my number one priority and that I’m doing everything possible to create a better work/life balance. But if any good has come from this, we now have the financial security we wanted to begin our family. So what would you say about you getting off the pill and us making a baby?” Tears filled Cindy’s eyes as he spoke. She wanted nothing more in the whole world than to start their family.
“Oh, Dan. Yes, yes, yes!!! I love you so much! Can we leave and start now?!”
Dan laughed despite being overjoyed by her reaction.
“Well, honey, we should probably eat the desserts we ordered. Besides, you know the effect of coming off the pill won’t be immediate.”
“I know. But we can certainly start practicing!” Cindy smiled.
Dan lost count of the positions they tried and orgasms they had that weekend. He knew he’d be lucky if he could still walk on Monday. But, more importantly, he felt like his personal life was on track for the first time in a long time.
******
After the afterglow from their anniversary weekend subsided, Cindy became racked with guilt about her relationship with Bruce. She wasn’t sure she could give him up cold turkey, but she would have to set new boundaries.
Cindy called Bruce and asked to meet him at Atlas the next day, telling him she had something important to discuss. The next day, Cindy shook slightly as they stood outside the gym entrance.
“Bruce, we need to make some changes to our arrangement.”
“Dan and I are now actively trying to have children, and I’ve come off birth control. So, unfortunately, I need you to start using condoms if you want intercourse.”
“Please also understand that I must end our arrangement once I’m pregnant. We’ve had our fun, but I will soon need to focus on what’s best for my family.”
Bruce did not like any of the words Cindy had uttered. His first instinct was that they’d had a good run, but now it was time to end his relationship with Cindy and send the video highlights to Dan and the internet. Later, Bruce was thankful that he paused a little longer before responding. He now saw new ways to fuck with Dan.
“Cindy, I don’t know that I can accept that.”
“What do you mean?!” Cindy asked, aghast.
“If I do this for you, then I need you to do something for me. I’ll agree to use condoms in the future, but I want us to spend one day fucking in your house, in your marital bed, before the effects of your last pill wear off.”
“No way! What the fuck is wrong with you! That’s sick!” Cindy exclaimed in horror.
“Fine, let’s end things now because my offer is the only way I’ll agree to use condoms.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then I guess you leave me no choice but to end our arrangement now.”
Bruce hadn’t anticipated this reaction to his ultimatum. Clearly, she had quickly immersed herself in the role of a mother hen protecting her family coop. Bruce had one last card to play, but he knew using it would change things in undesirable ways. So he’d need to broach it delicately.
“Cindy, for the sake of all we have been through together. Please give me one final goodbye if our relationship meant anything at all. I want a piece of me to remain with you even if I can’t, so the final goodbye needs to be where you live. Otherwise, I feel that none of this meant anything to you and that you’ve been using me all along. Please tell me you haven’t just been using me all along. I don’t want to feel like I need to hurt you back by telling Dan how I feel.”
Cindy gasped. “You wouldn’t!”
“Wouldn’t what?”
“Tell Dan about us!”
“Well, I certainly don’t want to. If you can reassure me that we meant something to each other and we can have one final goodbye, I promise to go off into the sunset and relish the memories of our time together. That seems fair, doesn’t it?”
“Ugh…no! Well, I guess so. Hell, I don’t know!” Cindy didn’t like his request but denying it would be too high a risk. She also didn’t want Bruce to leave thinking she’d used him. She did care for him and supposed she owed him something for their time together. After all, he wasn’t the one who just undid their entire arrangement.
“Fine. But I don’t want to risk any chance that the pill has worn off, so you better come over tomorrow or never. I’ll give you four hours from 10 AM to 2 PM, not a minute more. I’ll text you tonight where to park your car, and I’ll bring you to and from the house.”
“Thank you, Cindy. I want our final goodbye to be special and show how much I care about you. I’ll await your text this evening. Oh, and congratulations on your baby plans…I know you’ll be a great mom.”
“Uh, thanks, Bruce. See you tomorrow morning.” Cindy got back in her car with her head spinning. For the first time, she no longer felt in control of their relationship.
******
Bruce was relieved he could arrange the meeting at Dan’s home. Although he said this would be the final goodbye, he certainly hoped he could change that later. For now, though, his access to Dan’s home would provide additional opportunities to humiliate Dan. By tomorrow afternoon, Dan would be so thoroughly cuckolded that he’d probably end his life once he discovered all that had happened. Of course, that would be just fine with Bruce.
Bruce didn’t have much time, but he had a couple of things to prepare for the next day and something he needed to start gathering for the months ahead. Fortunately, Bruce had long hoped to gain access to Dan’s home and had taken steps months ago to be prepared.
Getting online prescriptions from a gender-affirming telemed provider hadn’t been hard after Bruce lied about feeling trapped in a male body. The feminizing hormones consisted of anti-androgens that would block male hormones, and estrogen and progestin to help develop breasts, softer skin, and rounder hips. When used on Dan, they would make the mild-mannered architect even less assertive and, Bruce chuckled, “a lot more voluptuous!”
Bruce also knew the delivery mechanism he’d use, thanks to his exhaustive conversations with Cindy. He knew Dan used a large tub of protein powder each morning that would last four months. Bruce would now ground up the pills into a powder, and tomorrow he’d mix the prescription powder into Dan’s protein powder, ensuring the prescription amount exceeded the dose ratio.
Bruce smiled and thought, “If he can take my clients, I can take his balls.”
******
The next morning Bruce took the day off work and drove his Mustang the 12 miles it took to reach the grocery store parking lot that Cindy had designated as their rendezvous point. Bruce was so excited at the prospect of fucking Cindy in her and Dan’s marital bed that he hardly slept the night before. The foreign location would make video recordings much more challenging, but Bruce and Cindy’s activities had already been well-established in videos. He realized photos would be enough to confirm the new location. Still, he brought a phone case with a small stand to hold his phone’s camera upright in the event he could find a good hiding spot to record more.
As they approached the house, Bruce momentarily panicked. He realized he hadn’t considered whether this new mother hen could be setting him up, with Dan waiting to ambush him. As he thought about it for another minute, he dismissed the idea as unlikely and calmed down. It was unlike him not to have considered all scenarios in advance, though, so he made a mental note that he had to get more sleep.
Cindy tried unsuccessfully to redirect their lovemaking to the guest room, but she soon acquiesced to fucking on her marital bed. Perhaps surprisingly, she held nothing back. It seemed that she also wanted a memorable farewell. Bruce had been able to hide his phone amongst some stacked towels as it recorded video on Cindy’s dresser, but Bruce had to work harder to get a couple of the photos he wanted without Cindy noticing.
In preparation for the first photo, he told Cindy that it would be disrespectful for her to wear her rings while with him in her marital bed. He helped her take them off and set them on the night table. She didn’t know that Bruce later picked them up right after he ejaculated in her. Saying that he wanted to see his cum inside her, Bruce spread open her cunt to reveal the creampie. He gently inserted Cindy’s rings just enough to coat them and carefully balanced his phone to snap a picture of the scene, with part of Cindy’s face in the background. He then recovered the rings, wiped them off, and returned them to the night table with Cindy none the wiser.
The other tricky photo required him to prop his phone up again on the dresser and set a time delay on the phone’s camera so that he could return to the bed alongside Cindy. Unfortunately, he misjudged the countdown on his first attempt. But the second attempt resulted in a very naughty photo of Cindy and him naked in the marital bed.
The last photo Bruce wanted was the easiest, but perhaps the most twisted. Bruce hoped it would support a diabolical psychological attack he planned to launch at Dan. There were two sinks in the bathroom, and it was clear from the toiletries next to each, which was Dan’s. Bruce found Dan’s toothbrush and proceeded to wipe a large glob of cum off the tip of his cock onto the toothbrush. Then he snapped a photo of his large cock touching the defiled toothbrush. After he sent the video highlights to Dan, Bruce planned to follow up by sending this photo. The accompanying message would ask if Dan’s breath smells minty fresh and tell him that, over time, he had defiled everything in Dan’s house in one way or another. Of course, it wasn’t true, except for the marital bed and the toothbrush, but the photo made it believable.
Before his visit ended, Bruce found an opportunity to go to the kitchen and mix the prescriptions into Dan’s chocolate protein powder. He took care to mix the two thoroughly. He feared getting caught more than he feared tasting a small amount of the mixture, so he mixed half a teaspoon with a glass of water to be sure the protein powder’s taste wasn’t compromised. After a sip, his best guess was that the taste wasn’t far off. So it’d be doubtful Dan would notice any change to his morning breakfast.
As Cindy drove Bruce back to his car to end their final goodbye, Bruce let her know that he was willing to use condoms and also to end their arrangement as soon as Cindy became pregnant. He also told her how much he cared for her and that he’d like to continue their appointments for the short term.
Cindy was a bit taken aback as she thought they’d agreed this day would be the end, but she was already feeling a sense of loss over their relationship. She promised to think about it. He told her he’d gladly follow any conditions she set. Everything would be on her terms, without objection.
Bruce knew he could make this offer because he already had everything he could possibly want to hurt Dan. If he could still have fun with Cindy under her terms, great. If not, he’d end their arrangements and set off the fireworks.
On his drive home later, Bruce questioned whether he was taking this all too far. He knew Jack would never have approved. Had he let his imagination run unchecked beyond reasonable limits? Just because new opportunities to humiliate Dan kept emerging, did he have to pursue every one? Did Dan deserve the level of humiliation and pain he would invariably inflict? In the end, Bruce decided it didn’t matter. Dan had cost Bruce and Foundstone a lot, and someone had to deal with the barbarians at the gate. Besides, there was no longer any way he could resist the ego boost from cucking Dan so thoroughly.
******
It took Cindy three days to call, but it was clear to Bruce that she missed her special massages. She didn’t add any new conditions but reiterated her previous ones. Bruce happily accepted the terms, much to Cindy’s delight. She realized that she had fallen a bit in love with Bruce, despite her long-standing efforts not to.
Bruce decided his new job would be keeping Cindy from getting pregnant. He figured it would take a few months before the protein powder significantly diminished Dan’s sperm count. So, he racked his brain for other ways he could discretely accomplish this task.
One of the routines that Bruce and Cindy had settled into was talking at the end of their sessions while she drank a double espresso. The appliance in his massage studio did a good job producing the drink. At first, he wondered if he could grind up the kind of birth control pills Cindy had been on, but that would require a prescription he couldn’t obtain. Still, this gave him another idea.
Bruce started driving to pharmacies all around town to buy Plan B One-Step pills that he could mix with Cindy’s double espressos. On a trial test, he found that the strong drink ensured she wouldn’t taste anything unusual. One pill of Plan B One-Step was supposed to cover anything that might have happened in the last 72 hours. He knew that until now, most of Dan and Cindy’s sex occurred on weekends, which meant his Monday sessions would be the most important.
Both to avoid unwelcome questions and to obtain all the pills he thought he’d need, Bruce had to visit twelve pharmacies across the city. It was also expensive, but he felt worth it.
He wouldn’t just deny Dan children; he’d effectively abort them one at a time.
******
Four months later, Maggie Webb found her eyes glued to her laptop, tears streaming down her face. Maggie had put up with a lot of disappointment throughout her marriage to Bruce, but nothing could have prepared her for this.
Maggie had met Bruce at a church event. He had recently started working at Foundstone and spent Thursday and Saturday nights as an Assistant Youth Minister, a position that organized and held events for teens in the congregation. Bruce cared little about religion but knew enough from years of Sunday services to fake it and secured the volunteer position. This position enabled his true passion, corrupting cute teens. Maggie hadn’t attended many evening events as she often helped care for her elderly grandmother after school. But one Thursday night, her mom encouraged her to take the night off and attend the church event. Bruce spotted her right away and was captivated. She had long dark hair, a tight body, and a smile that would melt butter. Her perky C-cup breasts and long legs were topped with a plaid skirt that looked slightly higher than the knee-length dress code permitted.
That evening’s event focused on abstinence, and the teens’ questions were answered in one-on-one discussions to avoid embarrassment. He spent lots of time answering Maggie’s questions about her virginity, abstinence, and whether masturbation was a sin. Over the next several meetings, he began teaching her just how far she could go without sinning. It turns out that was a long way. Maggie was 18 and finishing high school when she became pregnant with Bruce’s child. The hardest thing she ever did was tell her parents. They spoke with Jack and Bruce and demanded that he marry their daughter. Bruce had little interest in settling down, even though he did enjoy fucking Maggie. Still, Jack and Bruce were concerned that he could face serious charges if Maggie’s parents made a fuss and someone looked into his activities with other teens at the events. Bruce married Maggie within two months, and Maggie miscarried 58 days later. Maggie was devastated, but Bruce was secretly relieved. He knew there was still a risk that Maggie’s parents could cause problems if he tried to annul their marriage, so he figured it was safest to stay married and cheat on the side.
Bruce had always expected Maggie to be his maid, cook, and concubine, yet rarely showed any of the trademark affection he gave so freely to others. After he started losing clients at work, things got much worse. He started spending even more time at the gym and would often come home after midnight, drunk and looking for a fight. He had been physically abusive the first few times he woke Maggie up yelling. After that, she thought it best to be awake when he came home. She lived in constant fear but tried to honor her marriage vows…for better or worse.
Maggie knew Bruce was cheating on her. She figured there probably wasn’t a time during their marriage when he hadn’t cheated. She had tolerated it all, trying to preserve her sanity. Maggie’s parents were very religious and would disown her if she ever filed for divorce. However, the increasing volatility of her husband left her wanting an option to leave the marriage on her terms, should it come to that.
It wasn’t hard for Maggie to find evidence of Bruce’s cheating. She had looked the other way so long that Bruce had given up much effort to hide it. One night when he passed out drunk in their bed, Maggie opened his wallet and found a folded paper titled “Cloud Service” with a username and password. Maggie copied the information and set about the next day to see what she could find.
Maggie soon realized there are many cloud service providers, or at least resellers of cloud services, and she still needed to learn which service the username and password would unlock. So she called her niece, who was very good with computers and asked if she could give her a list of the most popular cloud services for a person to store information. Her niece said she could give her the top 50, but finding the right one might take a while. Fortunately, her niece prioritized the list, and the username and password worked on the third site Maggie tried.
As Maggie looked in horror through some of the nearly 900 videos on the site, all she could think to ask was… “What kind of monster did I marry?” She had started with the most recent videos, so the extreme degradation and humiliation of the husband of one of Bruce’s sex partners was one of the first things she noticed. Her idiot husband had organized all but the most recent videos by folders presumably labeled after the woman’s first name. Over the last two hours, Maggie had viewed portions of videos throughout the folder labeled “Cindy.” Even from the limited viewing she had done, it was clear that her husband had gradually worn down a woman until she said, and did, the most unspeakable things.
Maggie also found a text file in the “Admin” folder containing Brue’s notes with ideas he had thought of to humiliate “Dan.” One telling notation read, “Steal my clients, and I’ll steal your wife. Steal my clients, and I’ll steal your life.”
Maggie knew she needed to find whomever this Dan person was, and fast.
Maggie called her friend Nancy, who also happened to be a divorce attorney. Bruce’s father had the couple sign an airtight prenup to ensure the marriage dissolution terms, so Maggie already knew what she’d be left with. Instead, Maggie was looking for her friend’s help finding a P.I. who could identify the Dan discussed in the videos.
Nancy invited Maggie over to her house, saying that with that many hours of videos, it was unlikely a P.I. would be needed to identify the parties involved. She said she was happy to help Maggie save money by working with her to identify people in the videos. She would also help her copy the videos to another cloud service and preserve them, in case Bruce decided to delete the videos from his account. Unfortunately, the sheer number of high-definition videos would make this a costly endeavor.
That evening, Maggie stayed at Nancy’s house, texting Bruce that they were having a girl’s night. She figured he was probably having sex, or drinking, and wouldn’t even care. Thirty minutes later, she received his response…”Okay, have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! 🙂 ”
Maggie thought the last sentence was unnecessary. She could no longer imagine anything Bruce wouldn’t do.
******
By 11 PM that evening, the two women had pieced together who Cindy and Dan were from conversations in the videos. A quick google search confirmed there was a Cindy and Dan Caddel, and the internet image of Cindy matched the person in the videos. After that, Dan’s occupation and office phone number were also easy to find.
However, it took until 9 AM the following day before all videos were copied to the new cloud service. Nancy suggested deleting the videos from Bruce’s cloud service so he couldn’t do anything with them, but Maggie wanted to contact Dan first. She knew that once the videos were deleted, Bruce would realize he’d been discovered, and she wasn’t sure she was prepared for that just yet.
At 10 AM, Maggie called Dan’s office and spoke with Dan’s personal assistant, Molly. Not wanting to reveal the personal nature of her call, Maggie said she was from the Chicago Department of Buildings and needed to speak with Dan Caddel as soon as possible. Dan was at his desk, so Molly transferred the call to him after informing him of the caller.
“Hello. This is Dan Caddel.”
“Hi Dan, my name is Maggie, and I have an urgent personal matter to discuss with you. I apologize for misrepresenting myself to your colleague, but I think you’ll soon be thankful for my discretion. Is there somewhere I could meet with you briefly today?”
“Maggie, I’m sorry, but you’re not giving me enough information to know whether meeting you is a good idea.” The urgency in her voice added to her credibility, but Dan didn’t know what was going on. He thought he might even be being set up to look like he was having an affair with this woman.
“I understand, Dan. I’m sorry. Are we the only two people on this line?”
“Yes, Molly transferred the call and doesn’t monitor them.”
“Ok, Dan. I’m sorry to tell you this, but I just learned that my husband is having an affair with your wife. And I have evidence that the affair has been going on a long time.”
Perhaps in some strange measure of self-preservation, Dan’s brain didn’t initially process what she had said. So he had to ask her to repeat it. Once she did, his stomach dropped, and he felt sick.
She continued, “I need to meet with you before you tell anyone, or confront Cindy, because I haven’t even told you the worst part. There are difficult things you need to see and hear.”
“I don’t believe you. Cindy would never cheat!” Dan exclaimed, far more confidently than he felt.
“She was targeted, Dan, by a man who went to hell and back to corrupt her. And he did it because he was jealous of your success and wanted payback.”
“What?! Who is your husband?”
“Bruce Webb.”
“Never heard of him! How does he know me?”
“He’s the son of Jack Webb, the owner of Foundstone. You’ve been credited with winning many contacts he was competing for. I don’t know all the details, but I know he wants to destroy your marriage, self-esteem, and perhaps more. Again, I’m so sorry…but please trust me, we need to meet before you tell anyone.”
Dan instinctively knew Maggie wasn’t lying. Despite, or perhaps because of, the bizarre story, Dan felt it was true. He was pretty good at reading people, and all of Maggie’s vocal inflections and her pacing seemed earnest.
“Okay, Maggie. Where do you want to meet?”
“I can meet you at the Starbucks Reserve on North Michigan Avenue in as soon as an hour.”
“I’ll see you in an hour.” Dan hung up the phone before realizing he had no idea what Maggie looked like or how he’d identify her at the multi-level coffee shop.
******
Dan pulled his black Audi A6 in front of the coffee shop and entered the front door. He needn’t have worried about finding Maggie because she immediately recognized him from photos on MW Design’s website.
“Hi, Dan. I’m Maggie. Thanks for coming.” She said as she shook Dan’s hand. He looked attractive in his photo, but she discovered he was even more handsome in person. He was shocked that his mystery caller was pretty enough to be a morning TV news anchor and was disarmed, yet tentative, when responding to her greeting.
“Let me buy you a drink, and then we’ll talk.”
“Thanks. I’ll have an Americano, black.”
Bruce picked out a table in the back corner of the shop. Minutes later, Maggie approached the table with his drink and a vanilla latte.
“Dan, my husband is an evil man. I’ve known for some time that he’s a liar, a cheater, and a physically-abusive husband. But only yesterday did I discover the depths of his depravity. I found an internet cloud account with over 900 videos of women Bruce has seduced over the past few years.”
“He seems to have a place where he can perform massages and record them. One hundred and sixty of those videos feature your wife, Cindy. However, some are sort of duplicates in that they are from different cameras during the same meetings. Still, it appears that Bruce and Cindy have been meeting close to twice a week for the past year.”
Maggie paused to give Dan time to process the information she shared. It broke her heart that tears were already forming in his eyes, and she hadn’t gotten to the worst part.
“Bruce acted like a predator when it came to your wife. The videos show Bruce coaxing Cindy to do things to belittle and betray you a little more each time. Your wife resisted most of it for a long time, but eventually, he wore her down. Now they spend much of their time degrading you during sex. Based on the things he has gotten her to say and do, I’m fairly confident that he’ll look to send you and others videos of the depravity. I’m afraid of what he has planned.”
“I don’t know what to say, Maggie. I’ve loved Cindy with all my heart since we met in college. She knew an affair had rocked my family and assured me she would never cheat. I’m devastated.”
Maggie risked reaching across the table to cover his hand with hers. “Dan, I know you may or may not want to talk to others about this. So please know I’m here for you.”
“I’m going to give you the address, username, and password for the location of the videos. I only ask that we speak again before you take any action. Okay?”
“Our lives are inexorably linked now, and anything you do also affects me—to include anything that would tip him off that he has been discovered. I have a prenup, and under its terms, the reason for my divorce is irrelevant. However, I will be in physical danger and need to be prepared. I also need to reveal the existence of these tapes to my parents before Bruce talks to them, if I have any hope of saving my relationship with them.”
“Feel free to copy any of his videos to your cloud account. We can then discuss whether or when to delete the videos in his account.” Dan nodded his agreement.
Maggie handed Dan a paper with the information he’d need to access the videos, along with her cell phone number.
“Dan, how you react to the videos may be influenced by which ones you view first. You need to see the most recent ones, but I highly suggest you start at the beginning.”
“Please call me when you’re ready to discuss next steps, or if you just need someone to talk to.”
“Thanks, Maggie. I’m more grateful to you than I’m able to show right now. I will be in touch soon.”
Maggie gave him a sympathetic smile and took the rest of her coffee to go. Dan logged into the cloud service on his phone and found the “Cindy” folder. He clicked on a random video from five months ago. Fast forwarding, it took Dan less than 30 seconds to confirm that Cindy had an affair. He logged out of the site and left his untouched coffee behind.
******
Dan knew he needed time away from work to figure out what to do next. So when he returned to work, he went straight to Eric’s office. Eric’s personal assistant, Beverly, could tell something was wrong and waved Dan towards Eric’s open door.
“Eric, I need to take some time off to deal with an urgent personal matter.”
“Dan, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope everyone is okay. But listen, I can’t afford to lose you during the next two weeks as we get ready to start the big project.” Eric quickly regretted that his sympathetic words lacked any emotion, but he knew he couldn’t lose Dan right now.
“Everyone is okay health-wise, but this job is costing me my wife. I need to take some time to see if I can salvage my marriage.” Dan was embarrassed to reveal his problem, but it was clear he needed to make a stronger case, or he would be denied time off.
“I’m sorry, Dan. Truly, I am. But I can’t lose you right now. If an extra hour or two at home in the mornings would help, I could live with that. But you need to remind your wife that what you do for this company is what pays for her life too.”
“Is that what you told your wife before she died?” A suddenly furious Dan fumed. The realization of Maggie’s news was beginning to sink in and likely contributed to his sharp reply. But he also knew he’d been having much more trouble controlling his emotions recently.
‘”Or better, is that what you’d tell her if she miraculously called you from home right now? You’d say, “I think I have an opening in my schedule two weeks from now. Let’s schedule something on my calendar?!”‘
Eric recoiled in surprise. He had never seen Dan angry before and was scared of where this conversation would lead.
“It’s this job that got me in the mess I need to clean up!” Dan continued.
Recovering only slightly, Eric struggled to regain control of the conversation and settled on a response he’d regret later.
“Look, I understand working long hours can strain a relationship. But there are obviously other areas where you two aren’t as compatible as you’d thought, or your marriage would be strong enough to survive your employment.”
Dan had heard enough.
“When I said this job is costing me my wife, I meant it literally. Bruce Webb, Jack’s kid, was so jealous that I’d won jobs for you that he made it a point to seduce and fuck my wife! My beautiful, precious Cindy! The love of my life and the mother of my future children!”
“It took him the better part of a year to corrupt her. But now has done it so thoroughly that they spend most of their time together degrading and humiliating me during sex.”
“I’m utterly destroyed.”
“And you’re so devoid of feelings that you might as well be dancing on my grave. What have I ever done to you to deserve this kind of treatment?!”
“You can take this job and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. I quit!”
As Dan stormed out of the office, he saw Beverly had tears streaming down her face. Eric had not closed his door for the unexpected conversation. As Dan raced past her desk, she mouthed the words, “I’m sorry” to him. She had been with Eric since the beginning and protected his secrets, but she had also become quite fond of Dan and knew he didn’t deserve what had happened.
Dan hadn’t walked three steps before Eric regretted everything he had said. He tried unsuccessfully to reach Dan on his cell phone. Finally, he had to settle for leaving a message to apologize and offer Dan whatever time off he needed. By late afternoon, it was clear to Eric that Dan probably wasn’t coming back. Eric was racked with a level of guilt he hadn’t felt in many years. And he was again haunted by the question, “What had s/he done to deserve this? The answer was a simple “nothing.” But for the second time now, he didn’t get to provide it.
Eric knew he needed to call an old friend, but it would be the second hardest conversation of his life.
******
“Hi Jack, it’s Eric. Listen, I need to talk to you about something serious involving Bruce. Can you meet me for drinks tonight night at The Aviary?”
“What the hell, Eric? This had better be fucking important. I’ll be there at 8 pm.” Jack was suspicious of the call but knew he needed to find out what Jack was talking about. He imagined this hadn’t been any easy call for Eric to have made, so it was probably something serious.
Jack and Eric had been college roommates and were once each other’s best friends. They played the same sports, attended the same parties, and even fucked in the same room at the same time. So when Jack was starting his company, Eric was the first person he called to join him. While Jack would be reluctant to admit it now, Eric’s success was perhaps the primary reason the company survived its first few years.
After four years, Eric and Jack had an epic falling out, and Eric left his position as VP at Foundstone to start his own company. Neither Jack nor Eric would talk about what happened, so rumors were all over the place. Some of the employees Eric had worked closest with had taken a gamble and joined his new company. That list included the only employee who knew the whole story behind Eric’s departure, his personal assistant, Beverly.
What nobody else knew was that Eric had been having an affair with Jack’s wife for three and a half years and was Bruce’s biological father. Jack discovered the affair when he found his wife’s secret email account. He soon had Bruce’s DNA tested, then confronted his wife. She broke down and admitted everything, begging for his forgiveness. To say that he was devastated would understate the depth of Jack’s pain from the betrayals by his wife and best friend.
After confronting his wife, Jack’s next call was to Eric’s wife, Debra. He had known Debra since she first started dating Eric and had become very fond of her over the years. He knew she would take this news hard, but he felt she needed to know. In subsequent months, Jack would question whether he had called Debra for her benefit, or to punish Eric. One thing he was sure of, he had shared too much too quickly. As a result, Debra had, likely intentionally, run off the road at high speed and directly into a tree. Ten minutes later, medics pronounced her dead at the crash site.
Eric announced his departure from the firm before Jack fired him. Jack knew that with the sudden loss of Eric’s wife and the termination of the affair with Jack’s wife, Eric had paid a high price for his betrayal. Jack’s only words to Eric were, “Sorry to hear about Debra. She was a better wife and friend than either of us deserved.” “Please understand that our friendship and business relationship are both over. Unless it’s about donating a kidney to Bruce, I never want to hear from you again.”
For the most part, Jack and Eric had both honored that demand. Sure, there was the occasional convention they both had to attend, but they would only share an obligatory greeting.
******
Dan’s anger had already turned back to crying before he reached his reserved parking space for the very last time. He had worked hard to provide for his family and company, only to be betrayed by both. Although he was already emotionally spent, he needed time to review the evidence and think.
Bruce drove to a nearby hotel and rented a room. He figured he could use the bed to rest on and off. Of course, he couldn’t imagine sleeping, but he hadn’t been feeling well these past few weeks and often felt sore and weak. But he was primarily interested in the privacy and internet service the hotel provided.
He was opening the door to his room when his cell phone rang; the caller id showed it was Eric. He had nothing to say to his former boss, so he turned the phone off. Inside, he sat down on the bed before he opened his laptop, connected to the WiFi, and launched a VPN service.
First things first, he knew he needed to preserve the evidence. So he created a new Cloud account and started copying files to his new account. Apparently, this would take a long time, so he focused on the “Cindy” folder. After copying a few videos at a time, he used another web browser to view them. At 8:15 PM, over six hours after arriving at the hotel, Dan had seen excerpts of all the videos in the “Cindy” folder. Unfortunately, it was also the time his cell phone rang.
He saw it was Cindy calling and realized he hadn’t explained his absence. He answered the call, planning to tell her he would probably be at the office all night. Before he could say anything, an exasperated Cindy exclaimed, “Dan, what’s going on?! Were you fired?!”
“Oh, fuck!” Dan thought. He hadn’t considered word of his departure would make it back to Cindy. Clearly, this was a major oversight. Of course his departure would be huge news, and the couple had many personal friends at the firm.
“No, Cindy, I quit. I told Eric I wanted some time off so we could spend more time together. He denied me that time off.”
“Oh, no! I appreciate the sentiment, but this rash action doesn’t sound like you at all. You know our plans depend on you having your job.” Cindy realized too late that her last statement was a bit insensitive, so she switched gears.
“You’ve been acting strange recently—more emotional and impulsive. Is everything all right?”
“I’ll be fine. But I need to cool off over this work situation and wrap my head around what to do next. I’ve rented a room at a hotel and plan to stay here until I get my shit together. You don’t need an intoxicated me around you until I do. Let me call you tomorrow, and we can talk more.” Dan disconnected the call, thinking there wasn’t going to be a tomorrow. Cindy called back, but he let the call go to voicemail, just as he had with all the calls from coworkers and friends.
Maggie was right. Viewing the videos in order did show the lengths to which Bruce went to corrupt Cindy. But he still couldn’t see how she went along, and there was no excuse for her role degrading him.
“For God’s sake, I’ve got a fully-functioning, seven-inch cock, and she makes it sound like an inverted clit!” He thought aloud. “Her enthusiastic humiliation of me to please lover boy is such an extreme breach of trust that it could never be restored!”