Old Story - New Ending

A while back Odiouser wrote a story called "Can You Cheat in an Open Marriage?" He invited authors to create an ending for it. This is my effort. If you haven't read Odiouser's story, you should. It's good. I hope this ending is worthy.

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The end of the original;

Or turn that around. Would I willingly leave and divorce her if I was guaranteed a free pass to frequent sex with her? I don't think so. Yeah, I would want the free pass, call it a Platinum membership card for Rye Balled, but then I would want to hook up with a new woman for the many other things of a married life. I do not want to come home every evening to an empty home. That's not even a home. God, what a deep thinker I can be.

One thing was starting to clear up through the haze. We cannot go on like this, with her leading the life she is and me pretending to be clueless. If we have any chance of surviving, we absolutely have to get her out her current employment.

I honestly think I could maybe tolerate her getting way more sex than I was, but my ego would not allow me to live within the community knowing I was a cuckold to the loosest woman in town. Sorry to be so thin-skinned and fragile.

SO, she would have to agree to quit the job and lifestyle but I am almost sure she wouldn't. I equally doubt she would agree to moving far away from here and starting over. I finally drifted off to sleep.

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I woke up Tuesday morning to the smell of a wonderful breakfast. I lay in bed for a few minutes, thinking. The germ of an idea of how I should move forward began to take shape in my mind. All at once I felt empowered in a way that I hadn't experienced since that terrible day when I began to peel the onion. I wasn't ready to act yet, but I knew what I must do.

Tuesday I went into the office, but I didn't get much work done for the company. I spent more time working out the details of my plan to save my marriage. Tuesday night was tense - both Heidi and I were anxious but neither wanted to talk about "it" yet. I would be ready to make my move the next day.

Wednesday morning I awoke filled with resolve. I went to the kitchen and found my wife showered, dressed nicely, and smiling. She served me eggs and toast and fruit and coffee, then sat down and looked me in the eye. "We have some things to talk about," she said.

"Yes we do, and we need to talk about them today," I replied.

"Meredith and I have a date to go shopping this morning, maybe we can talk when you get home from work," she said, trying to be bright and positive.

"That will be fine," I replied. I needed time to get my ambush put together, and I have no doubt Heidi needed to huddle with Meredith to get her story straight, whatever that story was going to be.

I went upstairs and got in the shower. Heidi stuck her head in the bathroom and told me she was heading out. "Have a good day, Merl," she said.

"You too, Heidi," I replied. "Stay out of trouble." I added, just for fun, "I'll be stopping by Spencer's house - there's an old matter from when we worked together that I need to straighten out." I figured if he had been on her to-do list for the day (pun intended), maybe that would change her plan.

Once she was gone I toweled off and called work to let them know I wouldn't be in. Gretchen assured me there was nothing going on that she couldn't handle.

I got dressed and ducked out to the office supply store down the street. I got poster board, two-sided sticky tape, and markers.

I set up a card table in the den, then collected the coin and jewelry from the closet, the box from the attic and the envelope from the kitchen drawer. I got on the computer, and printed out some of the "paper trail" of her secret life. Well, secret to me. I spent about an hour arranging the "exhibits" on the table and making up a couple of posters outlining my discoveries, including the dirty pictures. I wasn't sure when Heidi would be back, so I worked quickly. When I was finished I stepped back and looked at the display. It looked professional, detailed, and damning.

It was Wednesday, so I called her boss at Rye Balled to tell him she would not be in that night. I told him her gonorrhea had flared up again. He sounded worried on the phone, but wished her well. I wondered if he'd been fucking her too. "Of course he has," I thought to myself. Well, now I was fucking with him.

Heidi got home about 2 p.m. She actually had some shopping bags, suggesting that she had told the truth for a change. She was surprised to find me at home. I had closed the door to the den - she wasn't to see my display (I had come to think of it as a "murder board," like on cop shows) until I was ready. I suspected that catching her early might throw her off guard on her own preparations for the conversation we were to have.

"Hi, love, what are you doing home?" she asked.

"My marriage is more important to me that my job," I replied. "Unlike you, I put our marriage ahead of everything. Why don't you ditch those bags and let's sit down and talk."

A dark look crossed her face. She began to answer, but when she saw the determination on my face, she backed off. She put down her bags, then walked toward me making like she would give me a hug and a kiss. "My marriage is important to me, lover, I don't know why you would say such a thing." I put my arm out to block her.

"Fix us each a drink," I said firmly, "then come over her and sit down. From this moment forward, you tell me the truth. I know enough that I will know when you are lying. The first lie that I detect will end the conversation and our marriage. It might even send you to jail, so be very careful with your words."

Now she really looked worried. I knew that she knew that I was on to her, but she did not know all that Meredith's cuck husband had told me. She didn't know about my visit with Devin Durand. My words were having the desired effect of letting her know the jig was up. Now I'd find out where her head and heart really were.

She splashed whiskey into a couple of tumblers and came back to the living room. She handed me my glass, then sat down in a chair across from me. There was fear, and a tear in her eyes.

"Okay," she said, "what do you want to know."

"I want to know what you really do when you go out of the house in the evening. I want to know where you go, and I want to know what you do when you get there. By the way, I already know, but I want to hear you say it."

Her eyes fell, and she looked down at the coffee table. There she saw one of the photos from her kitchen drawer envelope. Her face was clearly visible and she was clearly being fucked. And she clearly had a cock in her mouth.

Any trace of resistance or defiance drained from her face and her body. She slumped in the chair and her chin fell to her chest. She began to sob. "How did you find out?" she asked.

"You know, how I found out really doesn't matter. What's more concerning to me is that I didn't find out for so long, while you were cavorting in a strip club, fucking I don't know how many men, including a guy I thought was my friend, and piling up hundreds of thousands of dollars whoring while I was working my ass off trying to keep a roof over your head and food on your table."

She took a moment to consider her words. Then she began: "Before I say anything else, I want you to know I love you, I have always loved you, and I always will. I do value our marriage, but I guess I love you in a different way. Yes, I admit I have lied to you. I admit I have done all the things you said."

She paused. "I admit that I get off on the Adrenalin rush of exposing my body to men, to be admired and desired, and to make men horny. I enjoy having sex. I enjoy the variety of having sex in different ways with different men. I get off on the power that comes from controlling men through their cocks and balls."

She paused again. "And, although this is actually secondary to the other things, I like it that I can come home at night with my purse stuffed with money that men have given me because they think they are using me. They have no idea that I'm the one who has been using them.

"And this will sound crazy to you - hell, it probably is crazy - but I have enjoyed entertaining the fantasy that you would be proud of me if you could see me at work and realize that I am just as good at what I do as you are at what you do - maybe even better."

I laughed, mirthlessly. "Well, evidently your private fantasy wasn't strong enough for you to actually let me in on the secret and invite me to witness your accomplishments on the job. You must think I am a total loser. Letting you get away with whoring all over town while witlessly believing you were doing good works in the community and that you loved me and valued our marriage."

"I DO love you, and I DO value our marriage," she cried. "You don't know what you're saying."

"Well, let's put that assertion aside for a moment," I said. I don't really want to know the graphic and detailed particulars of your life of crime and deception - you do know that prostitution is a crime, right?" I think what I know is enough.

"I am curious to know how you got started down this road, though. How about giving me a little explanation of when and why you decided to become a cheating, lying, whore while pretending to be a faithful wife."

She collected her thoughts. I think this part she had rehearsed with Meredith because it sounded a little practiced.

"Meredith and I went out one night to have some drinks and go dancing. You were out of town, and it seemed like an innocent 'girl's night out.' We ran into Julie French at the bar, and she told me that she and a girlfriend were going to a wild club they'd heard about to check it out. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we had had a few drinks and were feeling no pain, so we tagged along. Of course the wild bar they took us to was Rye Balled. We went in and paid the cover and found a table.

"The pulsating music, the flashing lights, sex-charged atmosphere was just overwhelming. Then a beautiful girl came out on stage, started dancing, and stripping. I was fascinated. Then a naked girl came to our table for our drink order. She was very nice, seemed like an ordinary waitress except for her nudity, and we chatted with her a little.

"She said she was a housewife who did this a couple times a week for extra household money. She said she enjoyed the job and enjoyed being sexy. She did not mention anything about the stuff that happens in the back.

"She delivered our drinks a few minutes later, and told us it was her turn to dance. She disappeared through a door beside the stage, and sure enough, when the next song started she swept out from the wings, dressed in a sexy costume. She did a sexy strip and wound up doing the most incredible moves on a pole. That ordinary housewife was turning on the men all over the room with her dancing. I got a little wet myself, and I'm not into women. Meredith and her friends and I were just blown away. After a couple of drinks and a couple of dances we were really getting onto the whole scene. It was so charged with sexual energy.

"After a while a guy came over to our table and introduced himself. It was Devin Durand, the club manager. He chatted us up a little, but he was obviously checking us out. After a little conversation he told us that there would be an 'amateur night' the next Wednesday and invited us to come try it out and have some fun. He said it to all of us, but he was really talking to me. 'We're always looking for fresh talent,' he said."

"The other girls were not interested, but Meredith and I thought it would be fun to give it a try once and have a bit of a thrill. So the next Wednesday I made up a story about a dance class, and we went. We stopped on the way at a sex shop and bought some stripper clothes.

"I was nervous as hell when it came to be my turn, but I had watched enough of the others to have an idea of what I should do. Those ballet classes my mother paid for when I was a kid came in handy, for once. I put on a pretty good show. Guys were sticking bills in my g-string and whooping and hollering as I finished my first set. I did two more sets that night and before I was finished I was getting off on that feeling - so turned on, so desired, and so naughty. Meredith felt the same way. Toward the end of my last dance I rubbed my pussy and I actually got off on stage.

"So, the next amateur night we went back and did it again. That night Devin had us do some waitressing between our sets. Strutting around among all those men in the altogether was such a turn-on. I got pinched and squeezed a little, but mostly it was the nasty comments - men telling me the hot things they wanted to do to me. I was getting hooked on the sex buzz."

Heidi stopped talking then, and took a sip from her drink. She looked at her watch and said, "Oh Merl, I have to start getting ready for work."

"No you don't," I replied. "I called Devin and told him your gonorrhea was back and you wouldn't be in tonight."

The look I got from her was black. Her eyes showed nothing but anger and embarrassment.

"You had no right to do that," she snapped. "Embarrassing me like that."

"Well, dear, I would argue that you've had no right to do what you've been doing, and if you want to compare levels of embarrassment, I think I have you beat. But now's not the time to argue. If you want to argue you can grab some things and get the fuck out of my life." I looked her straight in the eye. She tried to hold my gaze, but couldn't. Her eye fell back on that damning photo on the coffee table. The defiance left her.

"So, go on with your story, Sweetheart," I said. "When did you start fucking the customers?"

"That didn't start until later. After our third "amateur night" Devin offered us both jobs to come dance a couple of times a week. He explained that once we were on the payroll, we'd be expected to go into the VIP rooms and get down with the customers - lap dances for starters. He didn't expect us to start fucking people right away - he said he'd give us a chance to get comfortable with being with strangers, plus holding us back would build interest with his regulars. Meredith backed out, but I was getting caught up in the thrill, so I accepted the offer and started the next night.

"I guess it was after about three months that I decided 'in for a penny, in for a pound' and started doing actual sex acts. I started with blow jobs but eventually moved on to fucking. Devin arranged for his best customer, the Mayor, to 'pop my whoring cherry.' I was having so much fun I talked Meredith into joining me on the job."

"Once again, I found out I liked it. Sex feels good, you know. Add in the excitement of getting away with something I knew was wrong, the sexual atmosphere - and yes, the tawdry nastiness of the whole thing - it was very alluring. And throw in the money, Merl it's like a drug. I got addicted. My body craves the sex and my mind craves the adventure so much that somehow I was able to mentally put aside the betrayal. Of course I knew it was wrong. But I fooled myself into thinking you'd never find out. And the money was really for us - I just hadn't figured out how to tell you about it.

"Merl, baby, I have always loved you. As I hear myself telling you this story I realize how ridiculous this is going to sound, but I really never thought about my other life affecting this one. You seemed to be accepting that I was away many evenings - remember when this started you were the one who was away a lot on business. But I'm not trying to justify it or make excuses - I have been a faithless wife, I have shamed you and I have betrayed my vows. I'm not even going to pull out that old open marriage agreement we had when we were first married, because what I've been doing certainly doesn't fit what we had in mind back then."

She sat back in her chair.

"You used the word 'drug,'" I said. "Have you been using?"

"No, not that. I was comparing the rush I get from dancing and the sex with a drug. Some of the girls are into drugs, but I never have been. Oh, I've smoked some pot and I've had hits of coke a few times, but it's occasional and I'm really not into that. I get my high off the experience."

I sat quietly for a few minutes, considering what she had told me and letting her stew a little. She took a big slug of her whiskey, then took her glass and mine to the kitchen and refreshed them both. When she handed my glass back to me she bent and tried to give me a kiss. I turned my head away. "Not yet," I said. "We're not done."

"I have one more question, and then I have something I want to show you," I said. "I know you had an affair with the Mayor, and I know you had an ongoing something or another with my former friend Spence. Have there any other men that you've been involved with outside the club?"

"No," she replied. "Flaming Red has some regular customers at the club, and I've had some dates outside the club, but there's nobody else that I've had what you'd call a 'relationship' with. You truly are the only man that I love - the only man I have ever loved. I just used the others for he thrill of it."

"Okay," I said. "Come with me." I walked over with her behind me and opened the door to the den. We walked in and she saw my display. I heard her gasp. Her legs got a little wobbly as she realized that I really had uncovered her secret life. I had not been exaggerating when I told her that I knew enough to catch her in a lie.

I could see her eyes fall first on the coin and the necklace. Her hand went to her chest and she drew a deep breath. "Look it all over," I said. "Understand what I have found, and take in the full scope of your deception."

She did - she looked at the items laid out on the table and the photos and documents taped to the poster board, along with my notations. I had piled the cash on one side of the table - it was a big pile.

She looked up at me with red and teary eyes. "What do you want?" She asked.

"We'll get into that, but right now, look over all this stuff you have hidden from me, and tell me, is there anything else that I have not found. Any other chapters of your life that I don't know about?"

"No," she said. "You have found me out, and you know about all that I have done. There's more money - a lot more money - that I have hidden in various places. I have a locker at the club where I keep my costumes and there are some expensive gifts from clients there. There's a safe deposit box full of cash - the trouble with this job is that the men keep sticking cash my g-string and the cash mounts up - and then what do I do with it? I can't waltz into a bank with a duffel bag full of cash, there would be too many questions. Devin helped me set up a business account, and he's helped me find some ways to invest the money - the coin and necklace were the biggest things."

"Have you been paying taxes on this cum-soaked income?"

"My wages from the club are paid into the business Devin helped me set up. My business has declared that income," she said. I have not declared the cash."

"So, your misdeeds include betraying our marriage, engaging in illegal prostitution, and tax evasion. Along with occasional violation of drug laws. Anything else I should worry about?"

"One of my regulars at the club is Vince d'Angelo. His organization arranges dates for girls."

"You mean he's a mob pimp?"

"Well, I've never called it that, but I suppose that's what it comes down to. He has arranged some dates for me outside the club - some high rollers who pay big for good sex. Vince probably has the idea that I have some obligation to work for him. We've never formalized a business arrangement, but you know how these guys are - they draw you in and then they have expectations."