“So you must think I’m an idiot as well, because I’m a big part of the program.”
“No, my love. I married you because you’re brilliant. You’re brilliant, beautiful and so many other wonderful things. I want the best for you, even if we don’t stay together.”
“Am I… am I still your love?”
“Forever. Walk away from the Firstens. Come back into my arms. We’ll get past this.”
“I… I can’t.” I sat down on the floor and broke into tears.
Caroline and Kevin both came to look. “What’s wrong with mom?”
Arnold sat down beside me. I rested my head on his shoulder, drenching his shirt.
“I… I…”
“You can tell me, my love. I will always protect your heart.”
“I… Not this time. Not with this news.”
He looked at me, his eyes twitching. He turned towards his children, his mouth silent but open.
“What is it, dad? Mom?”
He stood and glared at me. “Who?”
“Albert.”
Arnold nodded. “Kids, go to your rooms.”
“We wanna–”
“Go to your rooms. Now!”
He sat back down on the floor beside me. “We had decided that we didn’t want more than two children in our family. Now you’re adding a third.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I can’t accept that. You should move out; the sooner the better. I agree to your terms.” He stood up and got some boxes, which he threw down the basement stairs. “I’ll send the kids to help you pack when you’re ready.” He went into his office and shut the door.
Thomas was in a grand mood when I arrived at the office the next day. One of the major pharmaceutical news magazines had a nice article on our company and planned IPO. He showed it to me and said “let’s get a room and celebrate.” I fled to my office and locked the door. I jammed a chair in front of the door to the adjoining office.
Foolish. It was a swinging door. Albert pulled it open and approached. “Tell me.”
“Arnold said he loves me and wants to protect my heart. He said we’ll work past our problems.” Albert’s face sagged a little at that news.
“That’s wonderful, Sarah. You’ll be able to save your marriage.”
I spoke so quietly I could barely hear my own words. “I told him I’m pregnant.”
“What did you say?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Albert took a step back. Moisture started to form in his eyes as he stared at me. “That’s wonderful, Sarah. He has to stay with you now.” The tears rolled down his cheeks.
“He’s not the father.”
“What do you mean?”
“Arnold had a vasectomy after Kevin was conceived.”
“Then who is…”
“I’ve only had sex with one other person since Arnold and I got married.”
It didn’t take Albert long to figure things out. I could practically touch the joy that was infusing his body. “I’m sorry, Sarah. It was my first time. I didn’t even think about the possibility of pregnancy. You know I will do whatever I can to take care of whatever our children need.”
I didn’t miss, but didn’t respond to his use of the plural.
“He wants me out of the house.”
“We’ll make sure you have a place. We have extra rooms at our house, but that may not look good for your divorce.”
I checked with Julia. She said the no-fault divorce was going to go through, no matter where I was living. Albert told his father that if I moved in with them and he harassed me, then Albert would quit. Thomas laughed. “Where are you going to go? How are you going to support yourself and our new family?”
“If you want to be part of your grandchild’s life, you better behave when you’re with his mother.”
Thomas promised.
Arnold made sure everyone was out of my old house on Thursday when I met the movers to take my stuff. There wasn’t that much. At my insistence, I had legally renounced my right to a share of our joint property, though Arnold insisted that I hold onto the house key. I took some keepsakes; pictures of the once-happy family, the family that I destroyed. Albert stayed by my side the whole time I was at my old home and brought me to my new, hopefully temporary abode.
I was given the guest suite at the Firsten’s, consisting of a bedroom, sitting room and kitchen. The bathroom was huge, with every modern amenity possible. My suite had its own front door, but Thomas told me not to bother; rather to use the main entrance.
They had an invisible housekeeper; a woman who came in, cooked, cleaned, and disappeared. Her duties included my suite, and she increased the amount of food she prepared.
Thomas sat with me as I got ready for bed. “Tomorrow’s the big day.”
“Today was pretty momentous for me.”
“The end of one phase of your life. With the launch tomorrow we begin a new and glorious phase. Nothing will be beyond our reach.”
I nodded. Arnold’s warning about the IPO played in the back of my mind. “I’m scared.”
I was actually trembling lightly.
“Lie down. I’m going to get rid of your tension.”
“You have some secret, reassuring news?”
“I’m going to give you another massage. Do you remember how good it made you feel?”
“Yeah, but…”
“I’ll go get Albert. I’ll be right back.”
I pulled my nightgown off and lay down on my back. I had enough experience at whoring to know what was going to happen next. Thomas soon came back into the room and stripped. Albert sat on the other side of the bed, looking uncomfortable.
The massage was as good as the last one as one orgasm blended into the next. It ended with Thomas holding me like a bowling ball: his thumb in my ass, a couple of fingers in my vagina. He withdrew, rolled me over, spread my legs, and went to wash his hands. Albert move into position and entered me. I could feel the warmth of his love more strongly than the heat of his passion. “That’s the last time my father does anything intimate with you,” he whispered. A wave of joy from his words and body washed through me, cleansing me. I soon fell asleep.
Launch day. There was nothing to do at work but sit nervously at the office. Everything was on auto-pilot to bring us multiple millions of dollars. Thomas and I went for lunch at our usual venue. He insisted on sitting next to me and kept his hand inside my thigh the entire time. Albert took the day off to look after some unspecified chores.
“At your age, you should be with someone older than my son. You’re robbing the cradle.”
“I was with someone my age, but you ruined that.”
“I suppose; it wasn’t on purpose. Did you enjoy your massage last night?”
“You know I did. Did you enjoy giving it?”
“Yes, but it left me with blue balls.”
I giggled, something I rarely do.
“Can we go into the bathroom so you can service me?”
“Service you? In the bathroom? Thomas, I know you’re a lech, but this is going too far, even for you.”
“I can wait till we get back to the office.”
“Okay then.” I wondered what Thomas was expecting. Whatever it was, I was thinking far less. It turned out to be even less than that.
Arnold agreed that I should spend the coming weekend with my children: Saturday with Caroline, Sunday with Kevin. It wasn’t easy. I took my daughter shopping, offering to buy her a whole new wardrobe with my company credit card. There wasn’t one thing she liked. I took Kevin go-karting. He used to drive aggressively, to the point that I was afraid. This time he just slowly circled the track.
I understood. They knew what I had done. They played a large part in Arnold learning what was going on and couldn’t let themselves enjoy their time with me. In their minds that would be a betrayal of their father. Maybe they were right.
I didn’t expect Albert to disappear, but he left the house Saturday morning, not returning till Sunday night. His father assured me he was okay, that it was something he sometimes did. I wanted to call, but Thomas said he turned his phone off when he vanished like this. He advised me not to ask about it when Albert returned. Thomas kept mostly to himself the entire weekend, not even parading naked in front of me as he was often wont to do. I wanted to help him calm down, but all my words were ignored.
Albert returned late Sunday evening and immediately came to my suite. I was taken aback by his loud greeting: “Hey, gorgeous!” Usually, it was a quiet “hi.”
“Hello, handsome.”
“I missed you, Sarah.”
“So don’t leave me.”
“I never will. You’re stuck with me.” He put his hand behind my head and gave me a fierce kiss. “How was your time with Kevin and Caroline?”
A person with poor social skills, a person on the spectrum would not ask such a question unprompted. I knew Thomas had set me up with his son, but how much of a setup was it?
“They made it clear they would rather not be near me. They were with me, but not their hearts.”
“Yeah, I figured that would happen, but didn’t want to say anything. Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I’m not. It’s empathy.” Albert’s face twisted in frustration. “Look, my father likes to pretend I have no insight into other people. That’s not true. I only became afraid to talk to people after my mother was hospitalized. The doctors first said she would never be sane enough to come out, but when I visited her this afternoon, she seemed normal. I think you get a lot of the credit for that.”
“Me? How?”
“My father hounded her constantly about me. Nothing I did was good, and it was all her fault. When I started to clam up, she started to freak out. Dad tried to help in his own stupid way, putting pressure on her to be a more effective mother, telling her she wasn’t living up to her capabilities. He thought that was encouragement. She finally snapped, and I went into my shell.”
“How am I helping?”
“The last few times I went to see her I started talking about you and how close we had become. She was thrilled when I told her how comfortable… how happy I was, and that you seemed happy with me. When I told her you were carrying our child she was over the moon with joy. Would you like to meet her?”
“I’d love to.”
“I’ve applied to have her guardianship transferred from my father to me. I asked the psychiatrist in charge of her file to do a complete review of her current status. Hopefully, I can get her released sooner rather than later.”
“Won’t Thomas help with that?”
“I don’t know. He has a lot of guilt about what happened to both of us. I think he had good intentions, but no idea how to execute them. He messed up my mother, and I coped by putting a shell around myself. Then he messed up your life, ruining your marriage. I don’t think that he wanted to hurt any of us but simply didn’t bother considering what other people thought or needed. He focused on a goal, and everything or anyone else be damned.”