The Second Chance

This is the fifth chapter at my first attempt at a loving wife story. I noticed that after initial success with chapters 1 and 2, chapters 3 and 4 were not well received, at least not initially. Honestly, since there are no comments yet, I'm not sure to why this is the case. Maybe over time readers will appreciate what I was trying to do. I wanted to ruin Anne's marriage without her having truly betrayed Robert. Perhaps I should have done it in another way? Did Anne seem too naïve? I sure could use an editor to give me some insight into how to accomplish my goals in some other way.

Could it have been that the use of drugs was too disturbing to the readers of loving wives' stories? Unfortunately, these so-called date rape drugs exist, and are used whether we like it or not. Maybe some of our readers of loving wives' stories think the drug is just an excuse and that a woman who allows any sex after being given surreptitiously a date rape drug really is deep down a slut? This certainly is not my view, nor the view of experts and the authorities who regard the use of these dangerous illegal substances to trick an incapacitated woman into having unwanted sex as a rape, plain and simple and a serious crime. No one should blame the victim like Anne whose judgement was impaired.

Some of my readers may have felt the preceding chapters are too dark. Was the nonconsensual sex too cruel a punishment for my young caregiver? Yes, it has left Anne in a dreadful situation. But I thought it would be interesting to see how Anne handles this adversity. The true test of character is not in making mistakes, but it is how you deal with those mistakes.

Of course I was disappointed in the lower rating of the last two chapters almost to the point where I had thought briefly about not continuing the story but, I decided not to be discouraged because writing to me is a learning process. What is done is done. I will learn from my mistakes. I have already finished most of the story. So, the show must go on. Hopefully, in the subsequent chapters, I can re-kindle more interest for the reader in the outcome of the story of our loving wife. I can still alter the outcome if you want to send your comments a suggestion.

The next chapter deals with the aftermath of the prior chapters. For those of you who are looking for sex, there is no sex in this next chapter.

As always, I must make the usual disclaimer that no minors are depicted as having sex in any part of the story, and the story is entirely fictional with no connection to anyone living or dead.

Chapter 5 Anne's life devastated

When I got to the apartment, I called Robert's name.

"Robert! We must talk!"

But the apartment was silent. I looked around and noticed some things were missing like an antique clock that Robert had from his grandmother. The bedroom was in disarray with some articles of clothing of Robert's strewn about, but Robert's closet was missing a lot of clothing. I looked in the hallway closet only to discover two suitcases missing.

I was frantically trying to call Robert, but my calls went to voicemail. I went back to the bedroom and glanced up on the dresser and got a shock. There was Robert's wedding ring on top of a note. I felt a queasy feeling in my gut as I sat on the bed and opened the note.

"Anne,

I could not believe my eyes when I awakened at the party to find the love of my life, someone I thought was a respectable and fitting mother for my children on the bed with three men fucking. I saw a total slut cheating on me and throwing away her marriage vows to the wind. It would have been bad enough in private, but you were doing it right in public at a friend's house!

I thought you loved me, and we were exclusive. I thought your marriage vows meant something to you. But I now see that they were lies. You have lied to me about everything. Our marriage is one big joke.

When Jake told me what a slut you are at first, I did not believe him. Then, after last night he came over to comfort me and told me that you had been stepping out of the marriage for quite some time. He showed me a video of you with that stripper during your girl's night out and I saw you fucking him. When were you going to tell me about that? How many times have you cheated on me?

I cannot ever trust you again. This marriage is a sham. Do not attempt to contact me anymore. I cannot see you without reliving the pain you have caused me. I just see the image of you airtight and I do not think I will ever get it out of my head.

I thought you loved me! I do not know how you can live with yourself mocking me behind my back and treating me with such disrespect. You have trampled on my love and ripped out my heart! The marriage is dead. Thank God we do not have children that is the only blessing in this mess you have made of my life!

Just sign the divorce papers when they come.

Your ex-husband,

Robert

I was devastated. I now realized the full extent of what Stacy and Jake had done to me. I began to get frantic crying and getting out my cell phone to call Robert again, but it went straight to voicemail. I did not want to believe that this was happening to me. I hadn't felt such dread since my parent's death.

I just cried and cried. I left text after text on Robert's cell, but none were answered. I called Robert's mother who asked what I had done to Robert to upset him so much. I just sobbed and pleaded with her that it was all a misunderstanding.

"Please tell Robert I can explain! Please Martha tell him that things are not what they seem!"

All she could say was that she would talk to him, but she knew her son and knew that whatever it was he needed space. There was not much else I could do. I did not want to be alone, so I called my sister Jessica who was married and living with her husband David in the Bronx. She was 5 months pregnant with first child. I did not want to upset her, but I just did not have anyone else.

Jessica heard me crying on the phone and heard how upset I was. She did not want me driving so she came out to drive to Roosevelt Heights to pick me up from the Bronx where she lived in the Riverdale section. I was sobbing in the car on the way to her house. I could not calm down until we were at her house.

"Oh, Anne tell me what's wrong? What happened to you honey! I have never seen you like this! Please stop crying and tell me what is going on!"

My sister was as frantic as I was, and she was in tears by the time she got me home. She led me into the house and put me on the sofa. Then she ran into the kitchen to grab me some water and sat down next to me to talk. Her husband Dave glanced at us from outside of the living room and just took a seat on the chair near the doorway to listen in.

I took a sip of water and tried to calm myself. After some minutes I began to tell the whole story of how I was set up. I told them everything starting with the slip of the inheritance money that I told Stacy about to the time when we went to girls' night out and I was drugged with that stripper to the events of last night at the party. I felt so foolish as I told it, reliving each mistake I made and not telling Robert a thing and falling into the trap.

Jessica was in disbelief. "How could you have let them drug you twice? What were you thinking? You must go to the police and file a criminal complaint!" She spoke to me plainly.

"Jesus Jessica! Who would believe me? Stacy's friends were all witnesses. They will all say that I was not coerced into doing anything. They will say I went willingly to the strip club. They will all say that I was enjoying myself at the party! How can I prove rape when everyone will say it was consensual!"

We discussed it for hours, but I was trapped. It would be a difficult case to prove that I was drugged and raped, and I was not willing to suffer the humiliation of a public trial only to lose in court.

Besides, the detection of illegal drugs in my system would make me vulnerable to losing my Nursing Practitioner's license for professional misconduct, especially if I could not prove that I was drugged without my consent. I was really screwed!

I collapsed on the couch and finally sobbing with my head in my sister's lap with her caressing my hair, I cried myself to sleep. Jessica covered me with a blanket and let me sleep.

When I awakened the next day, I awakened sleepy but in a split second the dread returned to my gut as I realized the nightmare my life had become.

The next few days were a blur. I remember I called to work and asked my supervisor to cover my shift for the week citing a family emergency. My sister had me stay a few days so that I would not do something stupid.

Robert still had not contacted me. When I called his mother again, she began to curse at me asking me what kind of a woman I was. She said I was a no-good slut and that she did not want to talk to me ever again and didn't want her son near me. I wrote letter after letter to Robert at Martha's house, but they were all returned to me unopened.

Now depressed, I stopped eating and Jessica was thinking that I needed professional help. She tried to get me to see a psychiatrist, but I just could not face going in there and telling him my story because I knew he would tell me to move on, but I didn't want to hear it. After a few weeks of this my depression deepened. I knew Jessica was worried sick about me.

Dave went to see Robert at work where Robert greeted him cordially. Robert was still hurt but his anger had subsided, and he was sad. He told Dave that part of him would always love me, but he could never be married to the kind of loose woman he now realized that I was.

Dave tried to tell him that I had been tricked and drugged but Robert got angry and would not listen.

"Tell my slut of a wife not to insult my intelligence. She needs help Dave. I do not know how she hid it from me the first few years we were married but her hyper sexuality is off the charts. She needs psychiatric care. She not only cheated on me with multiple men but deceived me. I can never forgive or forget the lies and the cover up of her cheating. I could never stay married to a woman who I cannot trust." He stated angrily.

After hearing how recalcitrant my husband was being, I decided to go back to my apartment so that I would not upset my sister and her husband anymore. I put on my best acting face and said that I was going to be able to cope with my divorce. I thanked her for her loving support, but I needed to go back to work. It would take my mind away from my plight.

She reluctantly agreed after a few days of me hiding my grief from her. She had the baby to worry about and I was causing her emotional pain. Jessica said that Dave would check in on me frequently and that I was to call her every day.

It was with a heavy heart that I resumed working and taking care of patients at the hospital. Although I still broke down and cried often, taking care of people in need did distract me from the pain of separation from the one man I had ever loved so deeply.

My nursing friends knew that I was separated but I did not give the details too embarrassed about what they would think of me if they did not believe my story about how it happened. I avoided going out and didn't return their phone calls.

I went home alone to the apartment and when I was not crying and feeling sorry for myself, I was thinking about killing my man stealing ex-girlfriend Stacy and her side kick Jake.

One evening I couldn't resist not seeing Robert again. I drove uptown to West 121st street to outside of Stacy's apartment and I parked the car and waited. After midnight I saw Stacy exit the apartment arm in arm with Robert. I could not stand the notion that the slut was fucking my husband to console him. I saw them walking towards Grant's tomb and I followed them in my car as best I could without being seen.

They stopped at the entrance of the park, and I could see them kissing in the moonlight. That witch was already using her wicked charms to cast a spell on my distraught husband stealing my husband from me! I could not stand to watch them anymore. I started to accelerate the car towards them with the intention of driving straight into them just to get them apart.

I was not thinking of killing them with the car, just separating them. Through my teary eyes I could see them looking into the car's headlights as I approached with blinding speed. But, just at the last second, I came to my senses and veered the car at a right angle screeching the tires on the pavement as I drove away from them.

I just drove past them heading downtown on Riverside Drive. I was not paying attention to my whereabouts or the traffic. There was no one on the road at that time of night, and I was distraught speeding through the green traffic lights.

As I sped through one intersection, a drunk driver ran through the red light and collided with my Honda Civic causing my car to spin over upside down and roll. I was not wearing my seatbelt, but the airbag deployed. Everything went black and I did not remember anything else until I awakened in the intensive care unit at Columbia hospital.

The first thing I remember, was hearing all the sounds of the different machines and alarms in the ICU. I was unable to speak, my neck had a tracheostomy tube in it to breathe from a ventilator. I couldn't turn my head very much, but I could tell that I was surrounded by life support machines. My face was covered in bandages, and I felt tremendous pain from my head down to my toes. My limbs were immobilized. My arms were in casts. My jaw hurt like hell. My head was shaven with sutures on my scalp. My jaw wired shut and I was being fed with a tube right into my stomach. I could see myself through the reflection in the glass of the intensive care unit. My face was bandaged and swollen like I was a hideous mummy. My eyes were half closed with swollen eye lids. They looked like raccoon eyes all black and blue. I couldn't move my left leg which was pinned and hurt like hell. Suddenly I felt very weak, and I closed my eyes again drifting off to sleep.

When I managed to open my swollen eyelids sometime later, I could see Jessica's tear-stained face look at me attentively. As soon as she saw that my eyes were open, she let out a gasp. She shouted at me if I could hear her. I looked at her blankly.

"Anne, can you hear me? Anne close your eyes if you can hear me." she shouted.

I slowly closed my eyes and opened them again.

"Anne, oh my God you are awake! Anne! I thought I lost you honey! Do not ever do this to me again." She said half scolding me and half crying for relief that I regained consciousness.

I just fell back to sleep I had no strength to interact with her.

I remember falling in and out of consciousness and having no idea of time. The doctors knew I was conscious because I could blink my eyes on command, but I could not stay awake for extended periods of time.

I remember dreaming about Robert and was back at Stacy's party pushing off all the swingers from my naked body everywhere around me in a crazy effort to find my clothes and tell Robert that it was all a misunderstanding, that I really was not a slut. I opened my eyes and I saw my husband standing there watching me.

Robert looked sadly at my body. I struggled against the casts and bonds that held me and I tried to speak. The air coming out of my neck tube instead of past my vocal cords failed to make any sounds and I only succeeded in setting off the alarms. My nurse came in to check in on me.

I heard Robert say, "Oh God Anne, what has happened to you? I am so sorry for you. I am

so sorry for what happened to us. I will always love you. Anne, I do not want you to die. I cannot stand the thought of you dying!"

I just looked at him and tears formed in my eyes. He noticed my tears and I saw tears in his eyes.

"Anne, we had some wonderful years together. I shall try to find a way to remain friends. You have to pull through Anne! People need you, Anne." He said holding my hand.

I gripped his hand as tight as I could never wanting to let go. I struggled to find a way to say it was all a lie that we had been tricked by Stacy who was after his money. I tried to shake my head at him to communicate with him but all I succeeded in doing was setting off the ventilator alarms again.

"Please Dr. Savino, your presence is upsetting your wife," said the ICU nurse as she ushered him out. He pulled his hand from my grip. They administered more sedation through the I.V., and I fell asleep.

I must have spent more than a week in the ICU. I had multiple operations and tests. My nose had been set and was packed. My broken jaw had been wired. My cheek bones were crushed by the mangled steel of my vehicle when the frame buckled in on me. The doctors didn't want me moving my mouth to prevent the facial bones from shifting so my jaw was wired shut.

Both of my arms were in cast, so I was unable to write. My left femur had snapped in several places and was pinned. It was completely immobilized, and I needed morphine for the pain and aching all over.

My most severe injury, however, was subdural hematoma which happened when the ceiling caved in as the car toppled over. The injury required a craniotomy. Fortunately, the pressure was relieved in time before any permanent brain damage could occur. That is why I had been in a coma for so long. The doctors were still worried about seizures or brain swelling.

Fortunately, the skin of my face had not been lacerated, but the crush injury, swelling and bruises had left my face monstrous and unrecognizable. The air bag had prevented lacerations to my face from broken glass. However, the air bag had been pressed against my face by the crumpled steel with tremendous force crushing my nose and maxillary bones and fractured my jaw. My face was a swollen mess and all black and blue from the blood loss. I must have looked hideous. The plastic surgeons told me that the bones had to set, and the swelling had to be reduced before further operations could take place. They would operate from under the jaw line, lifting a flap of skin upwards to avoid obvious scars, but they were not promising anything.

Jessica and Dave were fully supportive of me. Unfortunately, I only saw Robert that one time. They had both tried to tell him my story, but he had made it clear that if they persisted, he would not talk to them at all. So, they gave up and just reported to him on my progress.

Every several days while I was in the ICU, I had a follow up CT scan of the head to assess my brain. Fortunately, there was no bleeding of swelling. I had a feeding tube right in my stomach because my jaw would not heal for weeks. I could not speak and could not move my arms. I was miserable in despair. I wanted to die. My Robert was not coming to see me. My life was over.

If my arms had not been in a cast, I would've have taken my own life. If I didn't have a feeding tube, I would have refused to eat. Jessica saw how despondent I was, and she tried her best to cheer me up. She put her belly to my hand outside the cast so I could feel the contractions of her baby. I could not smile but I nodded and a tear of happiness for my sister fell upon my swollen cheek. But it was also a tear of sadness that I would not ever have a baby with my true love.

I was transferred out of the unit to the floor, but I still could not talk, as I was still using the tracheostomy to breathe, but I did not need the ventilator anymore. My sister spent hours by my bedside. Jessica was so kind and caring. Communication was hard because I could not even write. She read to me stories after telling me all the news about our lives and showing me the get-well cards from my friends. She was now in her 6th month of pregnancy and getting big. She talked about the baby. She was a girl the sonogram had shown. Jessica told me she was going to name her Antoinette after me. I was genuinely touched and expressed my gratitude with my eyes.