Bob, Mily and Marie

"You mean it? You really mean it" she squealed and jumped up off her chair and ran over and threw herself at me. She held me tight and started crying. Her face was pressed into my chest and she sobbed and kept repeating "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over. All I could do was wrap my arms around her and say "There there baby; it's going to be all right."

She finally settled down and tearfully asked "What about mom?"

"What about your mother?"

"If you can forgive me can't you forgive her too?"

"Totally different circumstances baby. You were conned into believing his lies. She, on the other hand, went along with the con job. She even helped the asshole to pull it off. And there is also the fact that I have her on video admitting that she cheated on me with him during our courtship and the first two years of our marriage let alone what she did with him during her so called blackmail period."

"Yes, and we need to talk that" I heard and turned to see Mildred standing there."

"You need to go to your room sweetie" she said to Marie. "I know you think you are a grown up, but you are still too young to listen in on this talk."

"But I�"

"No buts young lady; go to your room."

"Can I stay daddy? The outcome of this talk is going to have an impact on me."

"No baby; your mother is right."

"It's not fair!"

"Maybe it is, but you are old enough to learn that life is not always going to be fair, but you are still too young to sit in on this conversation."

She didn't like it, but she left. Once she was gone I said "Okay Mildred, the floor is yours."

"You know the story. You learned it all from the videos. It should have been plain to you that my love for you and my desire to live the rest of my life with you was right there for you to see. I know you Bob and I knew what learning that Marie wasn't yours would do to you and I could not, just could not let that happen so I gave in when Dave said put out or he would tell you that Marie was his and not yours."

"Forget that part Mildred. The killer is that you were fucking him during the time we were dating and supposed to be exclusive. And then there is the fact that you were fucking him for the first two years of our marriage. You weren't blackmailed into doing that."

"Yes I did and it isn't something I'm proud of. Dave had something going for him that I just couldn't make myself give up. I did finally accept that I had to let it go or it would eventually kill our marriage."

"And so it has."

"But why? Haven't I done my absolute best to spoil you rotten our entire marriage? I knew I was doing you wrong and I worked damned hard to make up for it. We've had a damned good marriage Bob and it doesn't have to be over. I love you Bob and you know it."

"I do know it and I love you and most likely always will, but while you might love me it wasn't enough for you to place your faith in me. All you had to do was come to me and tell me what was going on. To trust me. Would it have upset me to find out I wasn't Marie's biological father? Of course it would, but so what? I might not have been her father, but I was her daddy and had been since she drew her first breath. That was not going to change. And I've already said this to Marie. You can't blackmail someone unless they let you. All you had to do was say no and then come to me. We would have worked it out and gotten by it."

"It is easy for you to say that after the fact, but at the time I wasn't going to gamble my marriage on it. You know I love you! The videos made that perfectly clear, that and the fact that I fully intended to grow old with you. Cut me some slack here Bob; I was doing it for you. I did not honestly think you could handle finding out you weren't Marie's father."

"Doing it for me? I doubt that. You want my take on it? You had a chance to have Dave's big cock again and you took it all the while hoping I'd buy the blackmail story if you got caught. Don't forget I watched the vids before I gave them to you. I know all about you pushing him away, taking him back, pushing him away and taking him back again. My take is that you got another chance and you took it. Maybe planning to push him away again after a bit, but caught before you could do it.

"But you know what hurts me the most? The fact that you have such a low opinion of me as to believe that if I caught you I would buy your blackmail story and say "That�s okay dear; everything will be okay." That I would treat your cheating on me all through our courtship and the first two years of our marriage as no big thing, shrug it off and ask "What's for dinner."

"By the way, the detective I put on Dave found out that besides you he is fucking four more women, two of them also married. I've had myself tested and I'm clean so he hasn't given you anything yet, but if you keep on fucking him the chances are good he will catch something and pass it on to you."

"I'm done with him. Now that you know he can't blackmail me anymore."

"He might not be able to do you much good anyway. I sent copies of my PI's report to the husbands of the other two married women he is doing. They just might decide to take some sort of revenge on him. One can only hope."

"So you are saying there is no hope for us?"

"That about sums it up."

And it did.

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

The divorce went through its many stages and in six months I was a single man again.

Marie, being over sixteen, was given a choice of which parent to stay with and she chose her mother. I didn't hold it against her. Even I knew a teenaged girl needed her mother.

I was given ample visitation and when we were together Marie always worked on trying to get me back with her mother and I kept telling her I'd think on it. And I did. I really did.

And while I was thinking on it, I learned that the husband of one of the other women Dave had been doing (and the I'd sent the PI's report to) had taken a baseball bat to Dave and had put him in the hospital. Two days after he got out the other husband I'd sent the report to put him back in. When he got out that time I heard that he packed up and left the state.

I got some satisfaction on hearing that. Not as much as I'd have gotten if I'd done it myself, but I didn't want to end up in jail like the other two husbands did."

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

It was three weeks before Christmas and Marie was spending the weekend with me and over dinner on Saturday night I asked her what she wanted for Christmas.

"Something I can't have."

"How could you know that pumpkin?"

"I've been asking for it for almost a year and haven't come close to getting it."

"Oh, that."

"Yes, that. It is the one thing I want more than anything in the world."

"You have no idea of what you are asking of me."

"Oh yes I do. I know she hurt you, but she is hurting too. She goes to work, comes home and stares at the TV only it isn't the TV she is staring at. It's your picture that is sitting on the top of the TV. She hasn't gone out of the house except to go to work since you left.

"Twice now I've seen her hugging your picture and crying. She cries herself to sleep most nights. That�s what I want for Christmas. Make her stop crying. Make her smile again."

"I just wouldn't know how sweetie."

"It is simple daddy. All I have to do is ask you to come to Christmas dinner and have you say yes. Then I go home and tell mom and then you make it happen."

I thought long and hard on it and in the end I told Marie I'd do it. In her plea to me Marie said her mom hadn't left the house except to go to work and the truth was that I hadn't either. I'd stopped on the way home for a drink or two now and again and I did eat out a lot, but I hadn't dated. I hadn't even tried. I may have been divorced from Mildred, but I hadn't stopped being in love with her.

It may sound corny to say it, but the truth was she was truly my other half. My soul mate and I missed her as much as Marie said Milly was missing me. Did I just call her Milly? That�s the first time I'd called her that since I found out about her and Dave.

As I'd promised Marie I was there on Christmas Day. I rang the doorbell and a minute later the door opened and when Milly saw it was me she threw herself at me, her arms went around me and she hugged me to her as she started crying. Her face was buried in my chest and I held her as she sobbed over and over:

"You came, you came, you really came, you're here."

I don't know how long we would have stood there if Marie hadn't come and pulled us apart saying:

"Come on mom; we've got a dinner to get done."

Milly reluctantly left me and followed Marie into the kitchen. I followed along and took a seat at the kitchen table an watched the girl's work. Milly got a beer out of the fridge and brought it to me.

"Still no glass, right?"

"Some things never change Babe."

"Babe" brought a smile to her face and Marie, who was standing behind her and heard it turned and gave me a thumbs up.

A little later when Milly left the kitchen to go to the bathroom Marie came over and hugged me, kissed me on the cheek and said:

"Thank daddy. She's been on Cloud Nine since I told her you were coming. For my birthday present maybe you could take her out on a date."

"You don't want much do you?"

"At least I'm taking baby steps instead of going full bore after what I really want."

"And that is?"

"You two back together again. I want my family back."

"I don't know pumpkin. What your mother did isn't just something that can be swept under the rug."

"Pardon my French dad, but didn't you ever fuck up?"

"Many, many times."

"Bad enough to need forgiveness?"

"A time or three."

"Did you get it?"

"Mostly."

"Then grow some stones and step up."

Before I could reply Milly came back into the room and Marie said she would go set up the dining room table. As soon as she was out of the room Milly asked:

"Any chance you being here might indicate a thawing in our relationship?"

"It's something we can talk about, maybe over dinner sometime next week."

"You mean it? You really mean it?"

"I'm going to have to do it to get your daughter off my back. For some weird reason she seems to think we need to get back together."

'I always knew that girl was smarter than the average teen."

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

And so it came to pass.

I took Milly out for dinner and drinks. Three days later it was dinner, drinks and dancing. Then three more 3 D dates (dinner, drinks and dancing) with the third one ending up at my apartment.

One month and several dates later I was moved back into the house.

It has been six months since then. Milly hasn't made any mention of marriage, probably because she is afraid it might upset the apple-cart.

Our original wedding anniversary is in three weeks and next week I intend to ask her to marry me. If she says yes to my proposal I intend to have a civil ceremony on the same date as our original vows were taken. Look on it as a new beginning.

Postscript:

I didn't cancel the Mustang convertible I originally ordered for Marie's 17th birthday. I took delivery and drove it for eight months before I moved back in with her and Milly. Marie promptly claimed it and it doesn't look like I'm going to get it back.