John and Diane

**********

John

"Okay, everybody. Come on, shake-a-leg, we gotta go. Get your bags and get outside and in the car."

From inside the house, I heard one of the kids shout, "I can't find my sunglasses!"

I shouted back, "Try looking on top of your head!"

I heard, "Found them!"

The parade of small people trooped by me heading outside where they all dropped their bags by the back of the car. I have an ancient Subaru Outback, with a bunch of miles on it, but it's in great shape and refuses to break.

I locked the front door and went down the pathway to the driveway, with my own bag in my left hand, and popped the back hatch open with my key fob as I went. Duffle bags started tumbling into the cargo area and those same small people scurried to get in and buckle-up. I organized the bags, put my own in and got in the driver's seat and before I fastened my own seat belt, I started my pre-trip checklist.

"Are we all here? Andrea, Keith, Laura, Brittany?" I got 'present' or 'here' from all four of them.

I went down the packing list, calling them off: bathing suit, sunglasses, hat, flip-flops, running shoes, underwear, t-shirts, shorts, sunscreen, phones and tablets. And all the other essentials for a trip to Disneyworld in Florida. All responses were affirmative.

"Alright, Florida. Here we come!"

"Yeahs!" From everyone.

And with that we were off to the airport and spring break in Florida. The flight was direct into Orlando, and I had a rental van booked at the airport. By mid-afternoon we would be in the pool. I booked two adjoining rooms and had one of them configured for the four of them with me just steps away next door. I could moderate the disagreements and get them organized. Oh, the fun!

We would be there for five days, so lots of time to take in just about all the major attractions in the park and we planned a day at Sea World.

I planned this trip over the objections of my wife and their mother. She complained that she wanted to go with us and that because of her trip to New York, we should delay until the summer. My point was that Diane was going to New York City when she didn't really need to and should instead go with us to Florida. I lost that part of the argument but stuck to my guns and took the kids to Florida.

Diane dug in her heals and went anyway to NYC.

**********

Diane

I promised Tom that I would go to that convention with him. We'd both been looking forward to the trip for a while. It would be a time where we could spend together away from our families.

John doesn't know about Tom and so, as far as I was concerned, it wasn't an issue. I've been very careful to keep my two lives separate. Well, to a degree. What John didn't know wouldn't hurt him. At least that was what I had thought after all these years.

Tom was careful around his wife. She didn't know about our relationship, either and frankly, it was better that she didn't.

**********

John

Disney is a license to print its own money. The park here is huge and there are lots of hotels and resorts to cater to all your needs. The kids are having a great time and all I have to do is keep an eye out for all of them and be ready with my wallet to pay the bills. The biggest bill is food. They eat a lot. I do make it a point that we get one good healthy meal a day. That's usually supper when I insist that there are some vegetables eaten. In the morning I also insist on some fruit and milk. So, I'm not a completely bad father, allowing his kids to scarf down unlimited junk food.

My plan was for us to be back at the hotel by about 4 in the afternoon to cool off with a time in the pool and then we get cleaned up for supper. After supper, they can go back to the pool if they want, but I get them back to the room and changed for bed by 9 o'clock. Teeth brushed and then it's quiet time and sleep.

I didn't have to bargain with them too much to get them to bed. The yawns were telling me that all the fresh air and exercise of the day was taking its toll. They were all fast asleep by 9:30 and I relaxed with a beer in my room and got caught up on my e-mails from work.

I told Diane that the kids would call her every day. She knew that she had to be ready to talk to them, undistracted by whatever was going around her. Hopefully she had a space to go to that would let her talk with the kids and not have a lot of background noise. I knew what she was doing in New York. She didn't know that I knew. I wanted to keep it that way.

I know a lot of things about my lovely wife that she doesn't know I know.

I know that she has been involved with other men for some time. I know that I am not the father of my children. I know that the father of my children is one man. I know that the one man looks a lot like me, that's how the issue of paternity has been avoided. I know that my children's blood type is the same as mine. How you ask? I had them all tested. I've also had them all DNA tested. I'm not stupid.

When I met Diane, I was deep in lust with her. What's not to like about her. She's tall, blonde, beautiful and smart. As I got to know her, lust became love. We got married and started having kids. It didn't take long for the four of them to add up and then life was all about family.

My days and weeks and months were filled with kids, wife, home and work. Once in a while I got to do something for me, but that was becoming increasingly rare. I got up early three mornings a week and went for a run. I'd do five or six miles and end up at home and get on with my many jobs. Being a father was the best thing that I could do. I have four human beings dependent on me for everything; well, almost everything. Diane does a good job as their mother. She works as hard as I do and even thought she was a stay-at-home Mom for the first few years she's done well since going back to work.

But it's the work that she went back to that is the problem. More on that a little later.

**********

Diane

These few days in New York have been great. But I'm kind of pissed at John for taking the kids to Florida. I wanted that to be a family thing. Not just him and the kids. But he did it anyway.

Notwithstanding, Tom and I are having a great time. The trade show that we're attending is an annual thing that features things in the construction business that Tom is interested in. I come along for the fun. The real fun for me is in the hotel after the day of wandering around the show and talking to the vendors. At night we get to go out dining and dancing and then go back to the hotel for even better fun.

You want to know about Tom, don't you. I've known Tom for even longer than I've known John. Tom was my boyfriend in the early years of college. His mother and father are very well off and he lacked for very little growing up. My family were comfortable but when it came to the luxuries, my parents were not able to afford the expensive things that Tom's family could buy. They had a fairly large house with a pool, and they owned a cottage on a lake.

His mother and father bought him and his brother cars when they turned 16, and the cars got upgraded every couple of years. Tom's father owned a good-sized construction company and so when Tom was finished college, he went to work for his father; his brother didn't.

The company steadily expanded, and Tom's family became quite wealthy. Tom and I drifted apart after he finished college and eventually, he married Margaret. That happened just after she got pregnant. They have two kids.

After I finished school, I got a job working for Tom's father, in the office doing some of the administrative things. Accounting and billing were the biggest part of my day but there was also crew scheduling and some HR things that I learned to do. Tom and I saw each other fairly often but our social lives were quite separate. He was married to Margaret, and I was dating John and we were in different social circles.

When Tom's father started giving Tom more responsibility with the company that meant that he would spend more time around the office and we saw each other a lot more. We actually started having our lunches together. It was very casual; at first. And then, over time, it became...more intimate.

Tom gave me a beautiful watch for my birthday; I still have it. I never told John where it came from. He never asked. I knew that I was never getting married to Tom and so I started to see other men. That's when I met John.

John is a wonderful man. He's cute and fun to be with and has a great sense of humor. He can make me laugh with his jokes and antics. And he always has a smile. John isn't perfect but he's not far from it. Hell, I'm not perfect either.

We started dating and after a few months we got serious. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Our wedding was small and intimate with family and few of our friends. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on it since we planned to buy a house and needed a decent down payment.

John has a very strong work ethic and isn't afraid of long hours to get ahead. His dedication meant that he was able to get promotions at work and his salary went up accordingly. When we had been married for only a year, I found out that I was pregnant and that started our family. John was over the moon with the idea of being a father. I knew that he would be a great father. And he has been. Four kids later and the man continues to amaze me.

But the other side of me was, is, a lot more complex. You see, I still wanted Tom.

Even though I was married to John, I wanted Tom. Tom was the guy that scratched the itch that wouldn't go away. I knew that and even though I knew it was wrong, I couldn't give him up. At least not completely. Oh, I tried, a few times, but always failed. The attraction was always there; a part of my brain kept pulling me back to him. I was only married for a few months to John when Tom and I really upped our affair from the casual to the sexual.

I knew what sex with Tom was like when we were a couple in college, and he hadn't gotten any less talented being married to Margaret. In fact, it seemed that the intensity of sex with him was so great that after an afternoon with him I was so satisfied that I needed John to make slow love to me. No hurrying, no incredibly sweaty writhing just a passionate display of the love that we had for each other.

The thing was, Tom and I were having our regular time together every week and then I found out I was pregnant. I was worried that it might not be John's. But then I looked at the similarities between John and Tom. They could pass as brothers. I stopped worrying.

So, twelve years and four kids later, I'm still going strong. Still married to John and we live in a pretty great neighborhood and the kids are all healthy and in school. John is doing well at his job; he makes a good salary and gets semi-annual bonuses. I'm well paid at work and also get an annual bonus.

Our lives are very busy with all of the things that kids do. We have after-school, evening and weekend activities that really dictate our lives. The engines in our cars seldom cool-off before 10 o'clock at night. I do the pick up at school most days; except Wednesdays. John does it that day.

John is the chief marketing officer for a national company that manages IT services and designs IT architecture; whatever that means. He puts in some long days and has to travel once in a while for meetings with clients.

Generally, he is home to be an active parent and enjoys all the things that the kids do. He coaches soccer for Keith's team and helps out with the girls' teams whenever needed. He loves what he does and I'm very proud of him as a father and my husband.

So, you're thinking quietly, that I must be some fucked-up to risk all that just for a weekly fuck session with an old boyfriend and married man. Some will think that I don't love John and I'm just using him to support me and the kids. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Relationships and especially affairs are complicated. So, why do I continue my relationship with Tom? Well, long-term affairs do happen. This is especially common when both people involved are married. I can't even remember why Tom and I re-started our relationship; we've been doing this for so long, now.

Like I mentioned before, we were a couple before he got married to his wife and I got married to John. I loved Tom and thought that we were going to be together forever. When that didn't happen, I moved on. But then fate, or destiny, intervened and there he was again. The second time around we started out slow.

We both had a lot to lose.

**********

John

I know a few things about a few things.

I know that my darling wife has been unfaithful to me for our entire marriage, or just about all of it. Now, I didn't know that bit of knowledge the entire time. In fact, I only found that out about three years ago. I found that out by accident, or because of an accident. I'll go into that a bit later. Suffice to say that when I did find out, it hit me like a giant dump truck.

I had a doctor tell me that my blood type wasn't related to my son Keith's blood type. I figured that that was impossible. That the hospital folks had screwed up and got it wrong. I had the doc redo the blood test and when the same result came back a second time, well...

When I got home, I didn't know what the fuck to do. I do know that I threw-up. I just made it to the toilet before the contents of my guts spewed forth.

**********

John

Okay, I have to tell you a little bit about Tom, the biological father of my children. Tom is what I think a complete fucking asshole. Diane has another opinion. So much so that she had been his lover for years. She is completely in his thrall; much more so than with me. That much is clear to me.

Tom works for his father. The old man, Ralph, started the construction company and he honestly worked very hard to build it up over the years. The old man is over 70 now and is starting to slow down and turn things over to Tom.

Ralph and Mrs. Ralph have a huge home on the water just outside the city and live a very comfortable existence. Tommy comes by his philandering ways honestly. Ralph has always enjoyed the company of women not his wife.

Now Mrs. Ralph isn't stupid and has known for a long while what the old man has been up to. Ralph knows that Mrs. Ralph knows, too. So, it's all good from his perspective. Mrs. Ralph has a very extensive jewelry collection, shops in NYC several times a year, travels first class wherever she and Ralph go and has had her share of male companions from time-to-time as well; what a great family.

They have one other son, James (named after Ralph's grandfather) who is a surgeon in LA. He's a smart guy and is married with one child. His wife is a corporate exec of some variety, and they live in a high-rise building in an expensive part of the city. James and wife rarely come east; they are far too busy.

Tom learned early on from Ralph that it's easy to do pretty much whatever you want, as long as you have the money to get you out from under the consequences of your misdeeds. Tom was able to do that, except when it came to Margaret. Her family has a certain amount of influence politically in Albany, and so, when it was learned that Margaret was pregnant, the upcoming marriage of Margaret and Tom was announced for all to see and read about in the society announcements pages of the newspaper.

Tom and Margaret settled into wedded bliss and their lives became the thing that would be admired by their friends and acquaintances.

But Tom wasn't always so happy.

**********.

John

I have worked really hard to do the right things for my family. I put in long days and spare no effort when it comes to my kids and Diane. But after I learned the hard truth of my family, I decided that I needed a...safety net; that's what I'll call it. I needed the ability to call upon other resources to help me in the event that things went sideways, and Diane decided that the conditions for a major shake-up in our family were such that she might want to take the kids away from me and go and live with Tom. That was my biggest fear.

The reality of life was that Diane, by all outward appearances was quite content with her life. She enjoyed being married with four children. She liked her job and liked her house and the neighborhood that we lived in. Yes, all things with her existence were good. She never, ever, complained to me about anything I did in the way that I treated her and managed our family lives.

When I found out that I wasn't the biological father of my children, I have to confess that I went through a difficult time. I was depressed and began thoughts about what actions I could possibly take. I even went so far as to do a few things. I visited with a lawyer and discussed some options that were available; but I have to tell you, every option had a major downside to it.

If I were to divorce Diane, she would almost certainly be given custody of the kids. Now our state has some funny family law statutes on the books. Even though I could prove that I wasn't the biological father of the kids, the court says that enough time has elapsed since their birth and I was recognized as their father, thus I was going to have to pay to support them. This was kind of unfair to me, but the court wasn't at all concerned with fairness. The court was concerned with who was going to pay to house and feed four kids; and that was going to be me.

I asked my lawyer about what could Diane do if I just up and left one day? What recourse would she have? He answered my questions with a question? Is it the kids that you are trying to punish or Diane? The answer of course, was not the kids. I wanted to inflict a measure of pain on her, not the kids. He basically said that by running off and abandoning my family, out of spite for my wife, the real ones that would suffer would be the kids. I didn't want that to happen. Besides that, I do love those kids. I raised them; they call me 'Dad.'

The position of the court is that the child's best interests always come first. And, I couldn't argue with that. I didn't want the kids to suffer, no matter what either I or Diane did. She might have gotten pregnant and lied to me, but at the end of the day, I took the four of the kids as mine and I raised them. I taught them everything that a good father teaches his kids, and I acknowledged them as mine. Their birth certificates had my name on them as their father. No, no matter what I did, I couldn't do anything that might harm my kids.

So, I pondered what I could do. I came up with a plan, of sorts.

My plan had a short-term part and a long-term part.

My short-term plan was simple. Stay the course and pretend that everything is just fine. Don't reveal what I know and do anything that might suggest that I'm aware of Diane's real relationship with Tom. I figured that I'd need about two to four years to pull together all the necessary parts of my long-term plan.

But what you really want to know is: what's my long-term plan. All in good time. Be patient.

When I found out that Diane had been cheating on me with Tom and that he was the father of my children, I decided that I needed to begin the setting-up of an exit strategy. That might sound rather innocuous, but what it meant was that I needed resources to plan for that exit, whatever it was going to look like, and whenever it might occur.

So, I started funneling money to a side account that was in another bank. Every month I put money aside and put 75% of my bonus cheques in that account. It grew quickly. Especially when I started buying stocks with the money. I watched the markets very carefully and followed what the big winners were doing. I started buying Tesla shares at $2.32 in 2013 and have added quite a bit to that position. Because of purchases and stock splits I have just over 60,000 shares in my portfolio of that one. The stock split 5-for-1 in 2020 and that meant a big jump for me.