February Sucked

I would like to thank GeorgeAnderson for graciously allowing me to write a continuation of his February Sucks story. Thank you for my beta reading team and to Randi for her editorial help.

I'm not a lawyer, so the legal situations might not agree with your expert knowledge of the law. But please keep in mind, this is a work of fiction.

Please check out the original story here:-

February Sucks

And yes, this is my second continuation of February Sucks.

But now, on with the story, continuing with the meeting with Linda, Jim and Ellen at the club

We did our best not to think about what we were trying to forget, which worked about as well as it usually does. The dinner was good, and as our conversation began to flow better, I was reminded of all the reasons I'd fallen in love with this woman. The fact that Asshole had wanted her, too, didn't make those reasons any less valid.

We went dancing afterward. That, too, was awkward at first, but became less so as I held my wife in my arms. Her every act and look made clear that she was mine and was going to stay that way. Of course, the little voice in my head had to speak up and remind me that's what it had been like on that night, too. It was correct, but did I really want to keep living that day over and over again like Groundhog Day? No. Besides, I knew that Linda had grown and changed since that night. Perhaps I had, too.

We were sitting out a dance at our table when someone approached Linda from her side of the table. Several men had asked her to dance, but she'd turned them all down, so I didn't pay much attention.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but may I please borrow your husband for a few dances? There's a half-drunk guy over there who I can't get to leave me alone, and I think maybe a few dances with your husband might help him get the message. Only with your permission, of course."

"Why my husband, may I ask?" Linda sounded more amused than jealous.

"Because the way you look at him makes me think he's your white knight, so I know he won't take advantage of the situation."

Linda turned toward me with a loving smile. "Yes, he's all of that. He's my hero." She chuckled as my ears turned red. "So come on, Jim, rescue the damsel..."

"Ellen."

"Ellen, from the booze-breathing many-handed dragon."

I stood, and I was suddenly face to face with the most beautiful woman in the world. I had never imagined beauty like hers could exist. It wasn't just that she was sexy or hot, though she was all of that. She was a work of art. She should have been in some museum to be admired by the ages, except she was far too warm and alive and vital for that. Up until that moment, I'd thought that Linda was the most attractive woman in the room, as usual. Now, she wasn't. And it wasn't even close.

I was in a daze as I held my hand out to her, Ellen, and led her to the dance floor. She was a fabulous dancer in her own right, but she also had the rarer gift of making her partner look far better than he actually was. She melted into my arms for the slow dances as if she'd been born to be there. I never said a word to her. I wanted to, but neither my voice nor my brain was working just then. I didn't try anything with her; mortal man shouldn't dare. She smiled at me, I smiled at her, and nothing else in the entire universe mattered.

I don't know how long we'd been dancing together when she finally spoke.

"Come with me, Jim." You know how you read the part about the Sirens in the Odyssey and you think, "Come on, no woman's mere voice can have that kind of effect?" I'm telling you it can. Ellen could have led me off a cliff or straight to Hell, and I'd have followed her blindly with a goofy grin on my face.

We were almost at the door of the club when she stopped. She put her hands on my arms and turned me so I could see our table. Linda sat there in her beautiful red dress, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed her heart out. Seeing her was like suddenly waking up from a dream. Ellen spoke three words in my ear.

"No, Jim. No!"

"I'm sorry, Jim, but I can't do this. Please come with me, Jim. Come with me to one of the tables on the other side of the room."

We hurried over and I glanced back at Linda. Ellen said: "Ignore your damn wife for a little while, and please listen to me. Things are not what you think, what you have been led to believe."

Suddenly, I realized LW had appeared at our, or rather, Linda's table. I hadn't realized he was there. Why was he there?

He ostentatiously pulled out a large white handkerchief which he presented to Linda with a ridiculous great ceremonial flourish as he comforted her.

"What the fuck is LW doing here?" I was genuinely bewildered.

Ellen shook her head. She looked angry. "I didn't know he was here, either. I'm so sorry, Jim. This is all down to LW's damn meddling. He decided to poke his nose in and he decided to hire me to tempt you away from Linda, but at the door it was planned I'd say: "Now you know" and you'd rush back and comfort Linda."

She paused before continuing. "But I suddenly realized that this was such a crock of shit that they were playing you for the fool. That's not who or what you are. You're nobody's fool, Jim."

"You said 'they' just now. Does that mean that Linda was in on this deception?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I was with them a couple of times whilst they were planning it. At first, it seemed like a good idea. I mean, she loves you, or at least she says she does, but she made such a stupid mistake and you, according to LW and Linda, still love Linda, so I was glad to be able to help them out. At least at first.

"But as time wore on, I thought they were both being a little too damn smug about it all. Tonight was the night, and I suddenly realized they were playing you for a fool. And I didn't like that."

Just after she finished speaking, Linda and LW arrived at the table we were sitting at and they were both furious. LW said: "Ellen, just what the hell do you think you are doing? This isn't what you were paid to do!"

Ellen shook her head. "LW, I'm doing what you asked me to do, just not in the way you envisaged."

LW replied, "I didn't pay you to think. You need to remember that you're nothing but a paid wh..." before he could complete his sentence, I jumped to my feet and grabbed LW by his lapels. "Don't even finish that disgusting remark, LW. I always thought you were a gentleman. Now I realize I was wrong."

I removed my hands from LW and lightly pushed him back, away from me, I turned to Ellen, took her hand and said: "Milady, I think it's time we left."

She nodded and giggled as we walked past LW and Linda, who both looked stunned and shocked.

We walked to a nearby 24/7 coffee shop and over a couple of coffees, we chatted.

LW and my family went back a very long way. I'd always thought of LW as a gentleman. I knew that other people had different opinions of him. I'd always put this down to jealousy, but maybe there was more to it than that?

And he'd begun to call Ellen a whore? What the fuck was that all about? I decided to learn more.

"Ellen, just what the hell is going on? How do you know LW? And he said something about you being paid? What did he mean?"

She gathered her thoughts before responding. "I gathered that you and your parents have known LW for many years?"

"Yes, back to the days of my grandfather," I replied.

She nodded, absently. "I have known LW since I was a student in my early 20s. There was a problem with my college grants and I needed a lawyer to help me. Someone suggested LW and it was obvious that he was smitten with me from our first meeting. He decided that he would install me in a luxury apartment and that he would be my sugar daddy, though I never thought of him like that.

"He convinced me that I didn't need to continue with my education, so I left college with a BSc in Psychology and gave up on studying for my Psychology MSc. We've been together for eight years, almost."

"I never knew that LW was cheating on his wife," I replied. "He's the last person I'd have suspected of doing that."

She gave a laugh that carried no mirth. "Yes, that's the impression he likes to give. Good old courtly LW, such a nice old codger. And I, myself, fell for that line of bullshit, too. But of late, I began wondering if he was getting tired of me? Wanted to move on?"

"But you're the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Why would he do that?"

She blushed and grinned. "Thanks for saying that, Jim. But I have noticed that he hasn't been as attentive of me so much in the past several months. I always thought that he regarded me as his "Little Ellen," his lover, but especially after he started to address me as a whore just now, I realize I'm nothing but his stupid prostitute!"

Her eyes began to tear up. I'm no LW, I had no large white handkerchief to flourish like a damned stage magician, so I passed Ellen a napkin from the box on the table. She grinned when I told her about seeing LW as a stage magician.

I took her hand. "No. You're not a prostitute. I know how persuasive LW can be; as a kid I saw him in court several times, so trust me, I know about LW and his smart, persuasive ways. But you were a young, impressionable girl who went to see LW for legal help, and he turned you from a student into his, well, his kept woman."

She nodded. "Yes, thanks. I suppose that's true. I find it remarkably easy to talk with you. Most of my friends know very little about LW. Or the fact that if I am a whore, he turned me into one. On several occasions he actually had me prostitute myself for some of his more important clients."

She then really broke down in tears. I grabbed some more napkins from the box on the table and did what I could to comfort her. I wanted to give LW a piece of my mind and I was beginning to have doubts about Linda, now. After all, Linda must have known about LW's relationship with Ellen?

Eventually, Ellen recovered a little and I escorted her to her luxury apartment, which was just a couple of blocks away.

"You like my home?" she asked, shyly.

"Yes, it's beautiful and very nicely equipped. It also has a great view of the city."

Almost as if she was reading my mind, she said, "This isn't the apartment LW set me up in. I own this apartment in my own right. In fact, I own the entire building. LW may be a bastard, but he's a clever bastard and I followed his investment advice and made myself a modest fortune."

She giggled, and said, "But I did something that LW didn't do. I read an online financial advice blog which gave a warning that the bottom of the entire Crypto Currency market was liable to fall out very soon, and I took that advice to heart and transferred 90% of my Crypto portfolio into good old US dollars and gold. I told LW about what I planned to do. He actually literally patted me on the head, called me a silly little bitch and left it at that. Maybe then was the moment the gilt came off the gingerbread in how I viewed LW?

"So, I bought the apartment block, which, through the management company that runs it, generates me a good, solid income."

She went into the kitchen and came back with two bottles of chilled Lagunitas IPA for us. We sat on her sofa.

"So, what do you want to do now, Jim?"

I took a sip from my bottle. "I honestly don't know. Look, Ellen, this whole damn thing stinks to high heaven. Why the hell did that asshole target my wife in that club? Why did she drop me like a hot potato and leave me on our special night? And why was LW poking his nose in and setting me up to look like a total fool at the club this evening?"

Ellen shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't really answer those questions, Jim. But I can try. Maybe your marriage wasn't as good as you thought it was. Not as strong as you assumed? Well, yeah, you can pull a face at that remark of mine, but think back on it, Jim. If Linda loved you as much as you love Linda, how could she have treated you so badly that evening? That doesn't make any sense to me."

"Don't you believe Linda loves me?" I asked.

Ellen paused before replying. "Jim, I don't think she does really love you; that she can love you. I mean, she obviously thinks she loves you, but if she can turn you into her publicly humiliated cuckold, in front of all your mutual friends and dozens of strangers on what was supposed to be your special date night as a 'loving', committed couple, how on earth could that be love? I mean, really? How?"

I shook my head. "You are right. I think I have spent my married life with a woman who I now find I really didn't know at all. My Linda, the Linda I courted, married and made two babies with, could never have done that to me."

All of a sudden, I gave a start. "My god, Ellen! Do you think that the kids might not be mine?"

She squeezed my hand. "I'm surprised that idea didn't occur to you sooner. That it didn't is a testament to the real, deep love you have for Linda."

I shook my head. "The love I had for her. I don't think that I can love her now."

Ellen nodded. "I'm not surprised after what she did. I think you need to see a lawyer, a real lawyer, a lawyer who has your back, not LW who seems to have some weird agenda of his own relating to you and Linda.

"Plus, I feel that you should get DNA tests done on your kids. I know, I know you love them to bits, but if you don't get the DNA tests done the doubts that you are feeling will grow and fester. The woman who dealt with the legal aspects of my building purchase is really good. She's also a good friend of mine. She might not handle family law, but I'm 99% certain that someone in her partnership does. We'll get that sorted in the morning. But it's getting late, so I think we need to call it a night, okay?"

Obviously, we slept in separate rooms and to my surprise I slept reasonably well.

The next morning Ellen set me up with an appointment to see her lawyer, Susan Smith, who was able to handle my case herself, as it happened.

"I'll level with you, Mr. Brown, Jim, I kind of have a history with your 'friend' LW. I have been a good friend of Ellen's for years. In fact, we met at college. I hated what LW did to her. He decided to take a young, impressionable girl, pluck her from her chosen career as a psychologist and basically turn her into his private whore. And not-so-private, eventually. I mean, sure. He never had her turning tricks on street corners, but he made her into a prostitute for some of his 'special friends.'"

I shook my head. "I'm learning things about LW that although I accept as true, I don't like acknowledging as being true. His interference in my marital problems is just another manifestation of that, I guess."

"Yes. Ellen told me about the plot by LW and your wife to set you up at the club. I find that idea so disrespectful and distasteful that if it wasn't for the fact that good old LW was involved, I'd not have believed it possible."

"Apart from what LW did to Ellen, do you have any other grievances with LW? I mean, you can shoot me down, as it's not my business, but if you are going to be representing me in my divorce, maybe I need to know?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I can see why you'd think that. Okay, I have seen LW in action over the years. He's not clean, ethical or particularly honest. That stunt he pulled the other evening? It's actually fairly mild to some of the other games he has played.

"In my opinion, he's lucky that the State Bar hasn't thrown him out and that he isn't spending time in prison, really. He's fucked over some friends of mine, so I'd like to face him in court. However, Jim, please rest assured that I'll work for the best interests of you and your two children. If I can also take LW down at the same time, so much the better."

The divorce papers were served on Linda along with the court order to get DNA tests done on Emma and Tommy.

Linda called me screaming and yelling, asking me how I dared to doubt her fidelity. I actually laughed at that. I mean, really, Linda? Fucking really?

She told me that LW would take me for every penny I had, would make certain I never saw the kids ever again and that I would end up living in a cardboard box under an overpass.

When I reported this to Ellen and Sue, they looked at each other. Sue said: "That's interesting. I'm not sure the courts will allow LW to represent her because he was your lawyer, first. That's a conflict of interest."

Ellen was looking thoughtful. "You know something? This is starting to stink. LW never does anything without there being a damn good reason and one that will profit him. I have an idea. Leave this with me."

I got a temporary joint custody arrangement and the court ordered DNA test would, of course, be a mere formality. After all, right up until the Marc LaValliere asshole incident, we'd been good, right? The perfect married couple, looked up to by all our friends?

I was receiving my mail at Ellen's apartment as I was camping out in one of her guest bedrooms. When the DNA testing service envelope arrived, I looked at Ellen and I trembled as I opened it.

When I read the test results I collapsed on the floor, sobbing. Neither of the children were mine. Neither of them.

Ellen took my arm, helped me up from the floor and sat me on the sofa. "Oh my God, Jim! This is horrible, dreadful news!"

She picked the papers up, read them and said "But the father of both Tommy and Emma is the same man. Interesting."

I went to see my doctor and he issued me with some medication for depression that really did nothing for me.

Linda called, but I told her to make all contacts through my lawyer and I blocked her number. We really now had absolutely nothing to say to each other.

However, I was going to fight for joint custody of the children. I might not have been their sperm donor, but I was their dad, damnit!

A couple of days later another envelope arrived from the DNA testing service, but this one was addressed to Ellen.

She opened it, pursed her lips and growled "Son of a bitch!"

She showed me the paperwork. "I had a sample of LW's DNA saved. I'm not sure why I did, but I'm glad I did. Sort of like Monica Lewinski and that famous blue dress. I sent it off to the same DNA lab that you used, got them to crossmatch with the DNA samples from Tommy and Emma and there's a 98% chance that the slimeball bastard LW fathered both of your kids.

"Jim, I'm so, so sorry. I knew LW wasn't a real gentleman, but to father both of your children? We're going to have to burn him to the ground."

I had stopped crying. I was all cried out. I called Sue, and when she replied, I said, "I think I need to go scorched earth against both Linda and LW. It seems that the asshole Marc LaValliere was the least of my problems."

When I explained about the DNA results, she gasped and said, "I was not expecting that, to be honest. LW will be made to pay for this."

When the date of the first appearance in court came along, LW was representing Linda. He looked smug, dressed in a white linen suit with a bolo tie, if you can believe it. Quite the Southern gentleman. A strange affectation seeing, as far as I knew, he'd never even been to the South.

Susan stood up and said, "Your honor, I would ask that LW, or rather attorney Lawrence Walters, be made to step aside from representing Linda Brown in this action, because initially he was representing her husband, Jim Brown, in the divorce and that is, I point out, a conflict of interest."

The judge looked at LW and said "Is this true, LW, Mr. Walters?"

LW smiled, shrugged and said "Yes, but I'm sure that can be overlooked, your honor?"

"I don't think it can, LW. You'll have had access to confidential information about the case Mr. Brown might wish to put forward."