Author's notes; the sex in this Romance may be minimal for some and it's a long first Chapter as I'm establishing a brief history of Mary and Aaron and how they met. Some might not like it and lose interest it for its lack of vicarious luridness.
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Her name is Mary...Mary Susan Brown to be exact. Mary is a good and charitable woman. She was born and grew up in a small coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania. Her father was a dentist and her mother his dental assistant. His dental office was located in their spacious brick home.
An only child, Mary lived a happy and tranquil life, perhaps a somewhat sheltered life with parents who loved her. She adores music and dancing and the theater and she is an accomplished pianist.
She was a grade school teacher when she married and lived comfortably in an upper middle class neighborhood. She gave up the job at her husband's insistence when they moved to Bedford Hills, New York. At that time her husband landed a much sought after job as the art director for an upscale art gallery in New York City. She became involved with her church and did charity work to occupy her time. Mary is again using her maiden name of Brown after being betrayed by her husband.
Mary was 35 years old when her problems began and was reasonably content aside from her romantic need for touching and affection. She wanted a little adventure in her life and like most of us she has unrealized sexual fantasies. She was a virgin when she married and for her husband it was a marriage of convenience for he wanted a beautiful trophy wife and nothing more.
Mary's ex- husband Randall Q for Quincy Sheppard isn't a particularly affectionate man, while in fact, Randall is a back stabbing, manipulating dirty polecat as described by Myra. Myra suspected him before he showed his true skunk colors when he fooled everyone and they thought he was dedicated to the Art Gallery. However, as Myra, Mary's best friend and Matron of Honor from her home town predicated to her husband at Mary's wedding. "Randall is married to his job and money is his mistress".
Mary has a beautiful singing voice. She was the music and choir director at her church. She scheduled a Classical Music Concert featuring a quartet of strings in the Sanctuary because of the stone church's marvelous acoustics and she was to accompany them on the piano. That Sunday's concert was the culmination of the 150th Anniversary celebration of the church's founding. Unfortunately because of printing delays, Mary's memorial gift wouldn't be shipped for two more weeks.
To add to her bad luck, and minutes before the concert begin, she was detained in the Sanctuary by two detectives investigating her husband.
The detectives arranged for a local television station mobile camera crew to be there when she was arrested, patted down and handcuffed. They reporter followed her out pushing his microphone in her face for a statement when she was escorted and placed in their unmarked dark sedan. She had nothing to say to the reporters while the detectives had plenty. Everything was tactically choreographed to embarrass and scare her.
Mary arrived at the police station, distraught and confused. She was fingerprinted and photographed before being placed in a poorly lighted and dingy interrogation room for questioning by the detectives and long time partners. If successful this bust and subsequent prosecution guaranteed them both promotions.
They considered Mary the weak link of the operation. They were betting she could be manipulated and cowed and they made her wait in the windowless reeking of cigarette smoke integration room for an hour before they talked to her.
Mary's was dressed tastefully yet elegantly feminine for the concert in a navy blue tropical wool jacket and matching skirt. She was wearing a white ruffled silk-linen blouse. She chose taupe pantyhose and black heels to complete the look. Her silky and thick mid-back length auburn hair was swept up in an elegant French twist and her makeup was minimal and refreshingly natural.
She was wearing her wedding band that she never took off. She was wearing her grandmother's South Sea Pearl earrings, one-of-two cherished pieces of jewelry she wore or cared to own. The other piece of jewelry she was wearing was a intricately detailed 18kt gold Celtic cross on a gold chain underneath her blouse that was a gift from her parents.
The detectives started with their usual by talking quietly as they sat across from her keeping out of her personal space. They gave Mary a yellow legal pad and a pen and asked if she would like something to drink, such as a cup of coffee or tea perhaps, and she asked for a bottle of water. They questioned her for approximately two hours pretending to be sympathetic and understanding while trying to coax her into writing a confessing and giving her husband up.
When she asked to use the bathroom they
deliberately delayed letting her use it.
They claimed the single stall women's bathroom on the floor was in use each time one of them left the interrogation room to check. They were lying and the questioning continued until she was uncomfortable and fidgeting in her chair with gas pains and cramps. The female detective escorted Mary to the bathroom as if she was doing her a favor. She stood in front of the open stall glaring impatiently at Mary and made inappropriate comments about the disgusting smell.
They changed tactics when she returned from the bathroom by standing close and menacing on either side of her. They leaned forward and got into her face and loudly accused her of being involved in stealing original paintings worth tens of millions of dollars and replacing them with forgeries and then selling the originals to private collectors. They pounded on the desk and kicked her chair demanding the names those private collectors.
They assured her they had hard evidence she was guilty and involved in everything, a bluff, when in fact she wasn't at all. She has no idea what they were talking about. They told her when convicted she would spend years in prison.
They told her a privileged white woman like her will be raped and forced to perform cunnilingus or worse by the hard and violent streetwise women incarcerated with her. They told Mary she will be bought and sold to the highest bidder or merely passed around. They said her pretty face will be cut and disfigured with "bitch scars" if she resisted their advances or snitched to the CO's. They promised her a lighter sentence in protective custody or the witness protection program if she cooperated, although they had no such intentions or authority.
What evidence they actually found was a USB drive taped under the spare tire in the trunk of her Lexus 460 Sedan. Their computer technician discovered coded text hidden in the EXIF information of the family photo album for closed bank accounts where large sums of money, deposits and withdrawals were shuffled back and forth over a five year period to offshore accounts of unknown origins.
