Bob, Mily and Marie

Mildred greeted me with a hot kiss and told me how much she had missed me. From Marie I got an "Hi Dad." I wanted to say "Fuck you bitch" but I had to pretend to still be a loving husband and father so I said:

"Hi Sweetie; come give daddy a hug."

I could tell her heart wasn't in it, but she did come over and give me a half-hearted hug. She might prefer her 'other daddy' to me, but I'd bet the farm he wouldn't buy her a car for her seventeenth birthday. But then, given all that I'd found out, I'm not going to give her one either.

Which reminded me I need to call Bob Flanigan at O'Brian's Ford and cancel the Mustang convertible I'd ordered. Then again, maybe not. I wouldn't mind giving up my Explorer and moving into a Mustang convertible. Plus, I could always let Marie know that it was supposed to be hers until I'd found out how she really felt about me.

That night Mildred (notice that I don't call her Milly anymore) wanted to make love and I wasn't going to say no. And it would be making love. I'd loved the woman for over eighteen years and, regardless of what some might say, you can't just turn it off. Besides, I'd heard her tell Dave that she loved me and intended to grow old with me.

And while I couldn't just turn off my love I could walk away from her and take it with me. I knew it would fade in time, but there was no way I could live with her after finding out how long she had been cheating on me with Dave.

Thinking of that I decided that I needed to check out the rest of the tapes. I didn't need to watch the fucking, but I might learn something from the pillow talk.

The story I pulled from their pillow talk was that Mildred and Marie had been having lunch one day and Dave saw them and came over to say hi to Mildred and explained to Marie that he and Mildred were schoolmates from college. Marie had invited him to sit down with them so he and Mildred could talk about old times and catch up on what was happening in their lives.

Dave found out what school Marie went to and somehow managed to get together with her somewhere. He told her he had gotten Mildred pregnant; they'd had a big fight and split. Before he and Mildred could patch things up and get back together she had married me and that Marie was really his daughter.

Marie called bullshit and Dave said he could prove it with a DNA test. He got Marie to give him something to use and a week later he showed her the test results that showed he was Marie's father. Marie went to Mildred with the information and Mildred said no way and Marie showed her the test. Mildred went to Dave and the end result was Mildred being blackmailed for pussy to keep Dave from seeing to it that I found out Marie was his and not mine.

Learning that changed nothing as far as I was concerned. The facts were (as I'd overheard) that Dave was fucking Mildred during our engagement and during the first two years of our marriage.

That was the killer. If it weren't for that I might, just might, have been able to work through Mildred's being blackmailed. And I could have maybe done that because I knew whatever it was that Dave had shown Marie had to be bogus.

About ten years earlier I had been reading about DNA testing and how your DNA could show your family's origins back for hundreds of years. I got curious so I sent a sample of my DNA in to see where my family had come from. At the same time I sent samples of Mildred's and Marie's DNA. I had the bright idea of maybe framing the results and giving them to Marie on her eighteenth birthday. It would show where her where our families had come from and it would be something she could share with her children. One of the things that Marie's showed was that she was mine. Ninety-nine-point ninety-seven percent sure.

Looking back I suppose I could have sat Marie down and explained things to her, but her mother's betrayal had poisoned my mind at the time and when I saw her behave toward Dave in a way she had never behaved toward me I saw it as a betrayal every bit as bad as her mother's.

Over the next month and a half I made several business trips and met with certain people who had knowledge in the areas I was interested in and the final result was my company was now owned by a corporation out of Delaware and I had two off shore bank accounts that held all the excess funds I could scrape up.

MDM Holdings (whimsically I had it using the initials of Mildred, Dave and Marie) had taken over the company when my company's debts exceeded my ability to pay. The had kept me on in a management position at a salary that was slightly less than what Mildred made where she worked.

Of course Dave moved into my house while I was gone and I had audio and video of every one of his visits and on one of them I had hired a private investigator to follow Dave when he left and to get as much information on him as was possible.

I was going to sue Dave for sixteen (going on seventeen) years of back child support for Marie. I knew she wasn't his, but Mildred, Marie and Dave thought she was. It would cost me a few dollars and I doubted I'd get anything out of it, but just fucking with him would make me feel better. I was hoping he wasn't smart enough to get a DNA test, but if he did get one I could just imagine how Mildred and Marie would take it.

I come out the winner either way.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I had all my ducks in a row one day when Mildred was at work and Marie was in school I moved out.

I had some movers come in and by two in the afternoon I had everything I wanted out of the house.

I left a package on the kitchen table addressed to both Mildred and Marie. The package had my wedding ring sitting on top of it and contained copies of all the videos I had of their hosting Dave while I was gone on my trips. I left a note telling them to pop some corn, get some soft drinks and sit back and enjoy the show. Hopefully it would prepare them for the copies of my last will and testament that they would soon receive in the mail.

I shut off my phone and moved into a condo close to work and then told Darla, my secretary, that I'd left Mildred and to not take any calls from her. Darla smiled and said:

"Does this mean I might get a shot?"

That surprised me because in the two years that Darla had worked for me I'd never seen a sign that she might be interested in me.

"It might" I said. "But it won't be for a while. I have a divorce to get out of the way first and they have been known to take as long as a year. I won't do anything until I'm divorced. I won't give Mildred anything she can use to counter sue."

"We can still have lunches and dinners together and get to know each other better. See if we even want to go farther after your divorce."

"I guess we can do that, but it all has to be out in the open and in public. Nothing behind closed doors."

"Can do. Lunch together today?"

I said yes and we got to work.

Two days after I moved out of the house I ha Dave served with the papers suing him for Marie's child support. My attorney, given all I has was the three of them talking about him being daddy, didn't think I had a chance in hell, but I told him it didn't matter. All I wanted to do was drop a bomb on Dave. He shrugged and told me it didn't matter to him and it wouldn't have any effect on his fees.

What was important was my fucking with the asshole. And I would know if I was successful. I still owned the house and once or twice a week I would swing by when Mildred was at work and Marie was in school and check on the video feeds.

The feeds were interesting and in some cases brought big smiles to my face. The section where Mildre came home and found the package I'd left her made me both happy and sad. Happy to see her suffering, but sad because of what could have been.

She loved me. She really loved me. She opened the package, saw what was in it and then broke down and cried. Marie asked her mother what was wrong and Mildred wailed:

"He left me. My Bobby left me."

"Good. We can call daddy and he can come live with us now."

"I don't want him! I want my Bobby! Only reason I had anything to do with that deadbeat is he was blackmailing me."

"He threatened to tell Bobby that you weren't his daughter."

"Well I'm not."

"I don't know if you are or not, but it makes no difference. Bobby raised you. You were the light of his life and he did everything for you. Who made it to all of your soccer and field hockey games? Bobby or Dave? Who was at all of your piano recitals and other school events? Was it Bobby or Dave? That man treated you like the princess you were to him.

"What has Dave ever done for you? All he did was somehow get to you and convince you that he was your father. Let me ask you something. Whenever Dave visited did he ever bring you anything? What did he give you for your sixteenth birthday? What has he ever given you? In case you don't remember I'll tell you. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

"Bobby gave you his all and for the last year you have treated him like he was nothing more than a next-door neighbor."

"Come on mom; he is my biological father whether he gave me something or not."

"We don't know that. In fact I very much doubt it. When I got pregnant I went to him and said we needed to get married. He said not to blame him, because he was sterile and had been since he had chicken pox and mumps when he was a kid.

Bobby was the only other boy I'd ever had sex with and so when I told him he stepped up."

"I don't understand. You were having sex with both of them at the same time?"

"Your mother at one time was not too bright sweetie."

"Care to explain it to me? If for no other reason than to keep me from making the same stupid mistake?"

"I met Dave before I met Bobby. I was going steady with Dave when I met Bobby. This is the bad part. I liked Bobby more than I liked Dave, but Dave had something going for him that Bobby didn't. Dave has a huge penis and I was hooked on it and not Dave.

"I met Bobby and broke up with Dave, but Dave kept sniffing around and I did miss that huge penis and I got stupid and saw him and Bobby on the same time. I finally got my act together and cut Dave loose. Six months later I got stupid again and let Dave get close toe again. The whole time I was of again on again with Dave I was with Bobby. Bobby was a keeper and Dave wasn't.

"It was during the on again period that I got pregnant. I went to Dave first because of his size, lengthwise I figured he was able to get farther into me than Bobby and therefore had a much better chance of getting to my eggs. Understand me here Marie; I didn't really want Dave as a husband, but I really thought you were his until he sprang that sterile business on me.

* "You cannot believe how happy I was to know that Bobby was your father. I finally got my head out of my ass and cut Dave loose for good. And then he convinced you that you were his daughter, started coming around and then I let him blackmail me into having sex with him again to keep him from going to Bobby and ruining Bobby's life as it pertained to you."

"So what do we do now?"

"Sign the papers and mail them back to Bobby's lawyer. Find a place where we can afford to live on what I make. Learn to budget. Try to live a life without Bobby in it."

"Not that. How do we get him back?"

"We don't. Bobby doesn't want me and if he doesn't want me I love him enough to let him go."

Marie shrugged and went to her room. Mildred just sat there and cried and I turned off the machine. I left the house, stopped by the post office and mailed them their copies of my lst will and testament.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two days later I heard Darla say in a loud voice "Wait! You can't go in there" and my office door opened and Marie came in. Darla was right behind her and said:

"I tried to stop her boss."

"It's okay" then to Marie I said "What brings you here?"

"My peace of mind."

"Care to explain?"

She opened her purse and took out two Q-tips and handed them to me saying:

"I need to know the truth and I figure the only way to find it is to have a DNA test done."

I dropped the Q-tips into the wastebasket, pulled my briefcase up onto the desk, opened it and handed her the test I'd had done and told her to save her money. She took the report, read it and then looked at me and said:

"You knew? I've seen the CDs you left for us to watch; you knew what was going on, you had this and you didn't step in and stop it?"

She shook her head in disgust, stood up and said "What an asshole" and then she turned and left the office.

It caught me by surprise and she was out of the office door before I managed to get my shit together, get up and beat her to the elevator. I got in front of her so she couldn't get to the buttons and asked:

"Why am I an asshole?"

"If you were a real man you would have fought for what was yours."

I took her by the hand and led her back to my office and pointed to a chair. She sat down and I sat on the corner of my desk, looked at her and said:

"Fight for what was mine? Just what was mine Marie? It sure wasn't you. The way you behaved around Dave showed me you were his as far as you were concerned. You certainly behaved around him in a way you never behaved around me.

"And your mother sure wasn't mine. She had no problem replacing me with Dave. So what did I have to fight for?"

"Mom was never Dave's. Yes, she did submit to his blackmail, but she was never his."

"You forget that I saw the videos of her and Dave."

"So what? Just because she enjoyed what they did did not make her his. I've no experience in that area yet, but I've been led to believe the act itself is enjoyable as long as it isn't forced. And you can't believe in what she might have said on those recordings. Don't forget she was doing what she was doing in order to keep him from talking to you and that included saying things she knew he wanted to hear. Didn't mean they were true.

"And don't forget that I saw the recording where she told him she loved you and not him and that she intended to grow old with you."

"See? That is the problem. She is letting him blackmail her. You know what the best defense against blackmail is? It is to say "Go ahead and do it." You can't blackmail anyone unless they let you. Your mother says she loves me and not Dave, but she didn't love me enough to trust me. Trust me enough to know I'd be there for her when the chips were down.

"Would I have been happy to hear it? No; but I would have known she loved me enough to place her trust in me. But she didn't do that. She just said "Okay Dave" and rolled over onto her back."

"That may be, but you know what a real man would have done? A real man would have gone after Dave and made sure he would have stayed out of our lives. And what about me? What about your "Little Princess?" I'm not worth fighting for? Especially since you already know that I'm yours? And don't give me any of that bull about the way I was on the videos. I'm still a kid and not all that wise and when a man comes up to me and tells me he is my real father and my mother doesn't deny it what am I supposed to think? How am I supposed to behave?

"Put yourself in my place. Your real dad, who you'd never known or known about comes into your life. Wouldn't you be just a bit giddy and trying to make up for lost time? And don't give me that I should have come to you bull. Why would I even consider it when mom accepted it? Bottom line is you had the proof. You had a way to end it for both me and mom, but you sat on it and instead of doing the right thing you sat back and planned on how best to screw over us. Now I don't have a dad at all. I know Dave isn't my dad and you are in the wind. So yes, that makes you an asshole."

She got up and walked out only this time I let her go. I sat down at my desk and thought about what Marie had just said. She had a valid point. I should have confronted Mildred and I should have clued Marie in. Whether or not it would have made a difference or not where Mildred was concerned I don't know, but Marie should have had the facts where she was concerned.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next day was Saturday and I showed up at the house a little before ten. I got there just as the mailman walked away from the house. I saw that both letters I'd sent were in the days mail and I put them in my back pocket. I could always re-mail them later if I saw fit.

I debated ringing the doorbell, but decided that the house was still mine at least until the divorce was final so I opened the door and walked in. Both girls saw me at the same time, but both reacted differently. Marie said "What the hell do you want" and Mildred ran to me and wrapped her arms around me.

"At least someone is happy I'm here. Let's move this to the kitchen. Is the coffee hot?"

"No" Marie said, "But I'll put a pot on" and she said it a little less belligerently than her initial greeting. In the kitchen I sat down at the table and asked Marie if she'd filled in her mother on what she'd found out. She turned from making the coffee and said:

"No; I've been waiting for Dave to show up so I could hit them both with it at the same time."

"Tell me what" Mildred asked.

I ignored her and asked Marie "Why would you do that?"

"So I could see both of their reactions. I wanted to see if mom would have gone after him with a butcher knife and castrated him."

"WHAT ARE THE TWO OF YOU TALKING ABOUT!" Mildred asked.

looked from Mildred to Marie and said "You have the floor Marie."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"You were the grownup who stormed into my office and wanted answers. You got them so share them with your mother."

"DAMN IT! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"

Marie gave me a nasty look and then told her mother about yesterday's session in my office. How she demanded a DNA test and I showed her the one I'd already has done.

"He is my real father."

Mildred looked from me to Marie and then back to me and then she got up and ran crying from the room."

"Now see what you've done" Marie snarled at me.

"Don't take that attitude with me little girl. You're the one who bitched to me about how I should have confronted your mother. You think the results wouldn't have been the same? Now sit your butt down and tell me how the real asshole in this farce managed to convince you that he was your father."

"He came up to me at one of my soccer games. Told me he was proud of me and when I asked him what he was talking about he told me he was my real father. Then he told me how mom came up to him when she got pregnant and how he blew her off with a bullshit story about being sterile so it couldn't be his.

"It was a lie. He wasn't sterile at all. He just felt he was too young to be tied down with a wife and kid. He told me how sorry he was that he had been so young and immature and how he had always regretted what he'd done. He told me he had always been around. He'd been at my soccer games and finally felt that he just had to introduce himself. I told him I didn't believe him and he told me to just ask mom. He gave me his phone number and told me to give him a call if I ever wanted to talk.

"When I got home I hit mom with it. She broke down and cried and said something about how the asshole just couldn't stay away and not screw up her life. We talked, I gave her his number and suddenly we were getting together whenever we could. Then you found out and my life turned to shit. I want to kill that sonofabitch and you don't want anything to do with me. Not that I can blame you."

She got up to leave and I asked her where she was going.

"Some place where I can cry and feel sorry for myself."

"Sit your butt back down. We aren't done here."

She sat and I said "You haven't lost me yet. Your mother said it in one of the videos I watched. You were my little princess and I loved and treated like one for sixteen years. It isn't something I can turn of and forget. I'm not at all happy with the situation, but I'm willing to try and work through things if you are."