Scorched Earth

It was late on Friday night and I had just missed the8:30 by a couple of minutes. I was in the city for a meeting that ran very late and found myself sitting alone at a bar in Union Station while I waited for the last train home in the 'burbs.. I called my wife and told her not to wait up.

I was nursing a drink because my budget wouldn't permit a second when a distinguished looking man in a tailored suit announced he was buying a round for the house. I looked around and laughed when I realized we were the only customers there.

He smiled and explained tomorrow was his tenth anniversary. His in-laws coming in from Minnesota on the Hiawatha, which was running an hour late, and time would go quicker with some company. He asked if I had already eaten...I shrugged and explained it was the end of the month and I wouldn't get paid again until Tuesday. "Not to worry," he said. "It's on me. Order anything you want." I shook his hand, thanked him for his generosity, and invited him to sit down and shoot the breeze while we waited.

Over the next hour my benefactor told me the most incredible, dare I say romantic, story I have ever heard.

The following is presented exactly as told by said generous man; I never did get his name. I have no way of knowing if any of it is true but no reason to believe it isn't. I think most men in his position would do the same thing to save their marriage.

Chapter I

I was sitting at the dining room table staring at my laptop, listening to my wife get ready for a girls weekend with her friend Bonnie. But that wasn't where my mind was.

Kristen walked out of our bedroom looking like a high fashion model strutting down a runway. Her jewelry, hair, make-up, and ensemble were perfect. She pulled a large suitcase behind her.

"That's a lot of clothes for an overnighter with Bonnie," I said.

"You know how us girls are," she joked.

"Honey, before you leave, I want to show you a really funny e-mail I received this morning. It will only take a minute."

She looked at her expensive watch. "Okay, but I only have a minute. Bonnie is expecting me to pick her up at ten sharp."

I turned my laptop to show her an email which directed me to a cheating wife website. It said I was supposed to view cheating wife #131. I clicked on the link and was asked to check a box saying I was over eighteen. I hit the X in the yes box and a menu appeared. Kristen started to tap her shoe impatiently as I scrolled down to #131.

The cover page opened with a profile of the cheating wife. In inch tall, bold black letters the name Kristen St*nt*n appeared as the headline. This was followed by a short biography. Kristen, age 30, a Gemini, lives in the City of Chicago in a Magnificent Mile condominium. Kristen has been married for eight years but has no children. She works out three times a week with her personal trainer. Kristen wants you to click here to see how nice her naked body looks. A box labeled click here to ENTER followed.

Isn't it an amazing coincidence that if you add an A and an O to her last name you get Kristen Stanton, the exact same name as my 30 year old wife, a Gemini who lives in a Magnificent Mile condominium, and has been married for eight years without any children.

I glance to my right. My wife was white as a ghost.

"Honey, should I press ENTER?" I taunted.

The only sound my wife made was gasping for air like an asthmatic fighting for breath.

"Well Kristen Stanton, my 30 year old Gemini wife who lives in a Magnificent Mile condominium and has been married for eight years without any children, should I click ENTER?" My voice sounded like it was torn from my soul.

"Honey, was that a yes?" I had tears in my eyes as I pressed ENTER. A picture of my beautiful wife lying naked on a bed filled the screen.

Kristen didn't say a word. She couldn't talk while retching all over the hardwood floor. I didn't say a word.

She finally managed to whimper, "I can't believe this is happening to me," as another picture appeared.

"Wow, look at how much Kristen St*nt*n looks like you. You even have that same dress...Remember, I bought it for you to wear went we celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. Look her bedroom even looks identical to ours...the same curtains and bedspread. Furniture. Everything. What a fucking coincidence."

The next two pictures showed her taking the designer dress off and tossing it on the floor like it was a rag. She stood there wearing only a lace shelf bra, garter belt, stockings, and high heels. Her erect nipples looked proud to be on display.

"Honey, remember when I surprised you with lingerie that looked just like that, just like that! I even bought you silk stockings from Paris to wear under that dress. You said only a prostitute would wear something like that. So I guess the woman in the pictures is a prostitute."

Kristen collapsed into her pool of vomit and began sobbing as she curled into a fetal position. Her dress hiked up enough for me to see she was wearing nylons. That only infuriated me more.

I held the laptop in front of her face and commanded, "Watch." The next twelve pictures were a strip tease with Kristen taking off one article of clothing at a time until all she had left was a smile. The capper were the close ups of her spread legs...three pictures that showed her cleanly shaved pussy in exquisite detail.

"Wow, her husband is certainly a lucky man because my Kristen Stanton called me a pervert for wanting to take pictures of her in her underwear. Hey honey, get up here...there's still fifty four more pictures of this piece of human shit. Wow, there's even a couple videos of this whore masturbating with a big vibrator in her cunt."

Kristen wrapped her arms around her chest while retching with dry heaves. The hacking made a chilling sound. It took at least a minute she managed to stammer, "I...I can explain."

"Shut the fuck up...your cheating whore wife portfolio is doing all the explaining." Another picture of my naked wife appeared on the screen.

"I always trusted you...I have done everything a man can do to make the woman he loves happy and this is how you repay me. So cheating whore wife, who are you fucking?" I demanded.

She coughed several more times as she tried to catch her breath. Bile was drooling down from the corners of her mouth.

"What is the name of the son-of-a-bitch who destroyed our marriage?" My voice quivered with rage.

In a hollow voice she said, "Jim, er James Bowmann."

"And you let that son-of-a-bitch fuck you in our marital bed." I slammed my fist into the table.

Kristen let out a wail that drowned out the orgasmic moans she was making in the video. But she no longer resembled the beautiful woman on the screen. Her hair was crazed and makeup melted and streaked; her eyes were bloodshot yet hollow, like a Halloween corpse. Her silk designer dress was ruined.

"You do remember we have a prenup that says you get nothing if you cheat. You cheated. You get nothing. Now get the fuck out of my condominium you cheating whore."

Kristen threw herself at my feet and grabbed my ankles, "No...no...no...that never happened...I swear...I've never even met him...today I was going to..."

I stopped her babbling. "Today you were going to fuck him but someone spotted your cheating whore wife pictures and sent them to me just in time to stop you. If not you would be fucking him right now. Tell the truth. Admit it."

"Yes, but..."

"And you claim you never met him. How stupid do you think I am? You must think I'm a fucking idiot."

"No...no, it's..."

"If you never met him then where did these pictures come from?" Spit flew from my mouth as I ranted.

"I, er. I e-mailed them to him."

"You what! You want me to believe you would e-mail pictures like these to a man you never met! Unfucking believable."

"I...I...I" she stammered.

"Then answer this. If you never met him then how the fuck did he take pictures of you naked in our home...in our bed...if you never met him?" I roared.

"Bonnie took the pictures with my camera."

"Bonnie! Our good friend Bonnie; our maid of honor. The same Bonnie who offered to sleep with me if I gave her husband a job. And did I fuck her. No, I told you every detail right after it happened and demanded you never have anything to do with her again. I told you she was nothing but trouble...a home wrecker. Even after what she did I still gave him a job because you asked me to, and I loved you so much I could never say no to you. That ends today...you killed that part of me. First thing Monday morning Randy's ass will be in the unemployment line and I don't care if they lose their house. And yes I'm going to tell him everything. She destroyed our marriage and I'm going to destroy hers."

Kristen shrieked something I couldn't understand as she was seized by the cost of her actions.

"Give me your camera, your laptop, and your phone. I have never once checked up on you so I don't know your passwords. Write them down so I can to verify what you said."

"If I find anything that makes me suspect you fucked him, or anyone but me, your ass is out the door and I will send these pictures you to everyone; your parents, your family, your friends...everyone that I can find an e-mail address for. I won't stop until there is nothing left of you for me to hate."

Just then her phone signaled it had received a text message. I read it out loud, "checked in room 488 how soon"

"Let me guess, that's not Bonnie."

She shook her head no.

"What hotel is the bastard checked in at?"

Kristen hesitated.

"You have one tiny hope of saving this marriage. That is if you stop lying and own up to what you did. If not my next call is to my attorney."

"The Palmer House. But..."

"Don't say another word. Not one syllable. Nothing. Clean this mess up then take a shower. You stink. Maybe if you use enough soap, shampoo, and hot water I won't get disgusted when I see you. When you're finished stay in the bedroom and think about what the fuck you did to our marriage. I'll call you when, make that if, I want to talk to you."

Chapter II

"Kristen, get out here." I was still sitting at the dining room table while naked pictures of my wife scrolled by on the laptop.

My wife, for at least now, shuffled out in an old pair of jeans and a bulky sweater. She had on a pair of tennis shoes that lacked laces. Kristen gasped when she saw a picture of her spread eagle fucking herself with a vibrator on the screen.

"This is all I could find from before we get married. That way if you decide to throw me out..." her voice tapered off as she stared at the floor.

She looked pathetic...without any makeup her swollen red eyes appeared demonic against her colorless skin.

"Thank you. That is the first smart thing you have done today. Now take a seat. I looked at the pictures on your camera and they match up with the ones on your webpage. I also could see that home wrecking bitch Bonnie's reflection in the mirror of at least two of them so I believe you."

Her eyes looked at me for but a second.

"I have some good news and some bad news. I called my IT guys, the ones you always make fun of. When I told them what you did they said 'boss, what can we do?' I didn't realize until today but they hate you because of the condescending way you look down your nose at them. They jumped at the chance to get even. I imagine they're enjoying your pictures right about now."

Kristen started sobbing again.

"Don't worry, just because you don't care who knows you're a whore I do care about my reputation in this community.

"They said they would have the website shut down any minute...would you believe over 250,000 people have seen you naked. The biggest problem is from poachers, sleazy webmasters who steal pictures from other websites to post on their own. They said this picture of you masturbating was the most popular. It's on over a hundred different sites. But since your name and address aren't posted I said let them be...there were other more pressing uses for their talents." Just then my computer scene went dark.

"Thank you," Kristen said.

"I read all of your e-mails and can see that Bonnie was the cunt behind your affair. She talked you into going on that spouses looking to cheat site."

Kirsten shook her head in the affirmative.

"I can't even begin to tell you how betrayed I am over the things you wrote to that predator, about me, about our marriage. I had no idea that you hated..."I started crying so hard I couldn't complete the sentence

Kristen looked numb; her mouth hung open but no words came out. I buried my face in my hands and muttered, "I thought you loved me."

Kristen dropped to her knees and laid her head in my lap wailing, "I do love you...I love you more than anything. I can't imagine living without you."

I lifted her face and said, "I read every word you wrote." She had an expression that I had only seen once before, when I had to tell my mom dad was killed in a car accident. The physical body was there but everything that made her who she is had died.

We sat like that for quite some time until her phone signaled another text message. It was from Bonnie, "Having fun?" I showed it to Kristen. She said nothing. I stood up and flung it against the wall as hard as I could. Pieces of broken plastic and glass exploded across the room.

I sat back down and pushed a chair out for Kristen. I did not want her touching me again.

"The guys hacked that home wrecking cunt's computer and found a cache of pictures of her having sex...and not with her husband. It looks like she has had at least three affairs during the last two years with men she met on that cheating wife site."

"What she has done to us had to be punished. Those pictures of her have been sent to every e-mail address she has, family, work; every last one. I wonder if her husband will even bother to show up on Monday so I can fire him."

"Just in case she kept naked pictures of you the guys did something to her computer that destroyed it for anything other than a doorstop." I paused for a moment while I typed something. "I just told the guys to smite her phone too."

I took no pleasure from my vengeance. Instead violent emotions tore through me and I retreated into my self for a few minutes. Kristen sat silently, her body slouched in the chair.

When I settled down enough to speak I continued, "The guys also hacked the bastard's computer. They found an e-mail from him to a half dozen men bragging he was going to plant cameras in the hotel room so they could watch him fucking his new whore live. You almost became an internet porn star."

Karen grabbed her throat and began hacking again only there was nothing left in her stomach to throw up.

"Oh, it gets better. He also bragged he lied to you about having had a vasectomy...and forgot to tell you that he had a fresh herpes sore. So he was going to try to infect you with an incurable sexual disease and get you pregnant this weekend. What a prince among men." I said sarcastically.

I caught Karen as she started to fall off her chair...she was limp and looked and breathing shallow. I carried her to the couch and laid her down. A splash of cold water in her face brought her back. I handed her the glass and helped her sit up and take a sip.

"Please, let me die. I'm too stupid to live."

It took everything I had not to grab her in my arms and say everything would be alright. Instead I continued.

"The guys sent e-mails to the computers that were going to be your audience with a nasty worm attached. None of them will be watching anything on those boxes ever again."

"Next I authorized scorched earth against the bastard. They found pictures on his computer of him having sex with three other woman...they looked like burned out old crack whores but he didn't seem to mind. No wonder he worked so hard to talk you into shitting on our marriage vows."

Kristen hung her head and kept repeating, "I can't believe how stupid I am."

"Oh, and I hope I don't destroy your illusions but the globe trotting business executive is actually an assistant manager at a hardware store in some backwater Wisconsin town... and would you believe he's a deacon at his church as well as a member of the school board"

Kristen moaned again.

"Too bad for him his church has their membership roster on line...so does the PTA. Just for shits and giggles they put together a power point presentation complete with a country song about a cheating husband and sent it to everyone. There's gonna be a lot of eyes popping open in Wisconsin. They also toasted his computer and his cell phone to make any pictures he has of you disappear."

"But my absolute favorite...and this is pure maniacal genius, the guys hacked the credit companies computers to report the bastard's cards as stolen including the one he used to book your love nest. I don't even want to know all of what they did but there are several outstanding warrants for his arrest for identity theft. The warrants say he should be considered armed and dangerous. He should be getting arrested any minute now. I hope he resists. The guys assured me it will be lead story on the evening news."

"When he gets out he'll find his fifteen year old SUV was towed for outstanding parking tickets. After the phone calls I suspect his wife has been getting I don't think he'll be getting bailed out any time soon. Fortunately they don't have any children.

I almost feel sorry for his wife for being married to the piece of human shit who tried to destroy our marriage. Almost isn't the right word because the truth is I am not sorry for a single thing I did to protect the woman I love from a predator. And I swear by all that is holy, I will wreak retribution upon any man who tries to steal my wife and not stop until he is destroyed."

Kristen managed a weak smile and asked, "Does that mean I'm still your wife?"

"Do you still want to be?" I smiled at my beloved wife.

Her eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I want to be your wife forever. I will do anything...anything to make it up to you. Please give me another chance...you won't regret it." She threw her arms around me and showered me with kisses. "I want to be your wife and grow old with you. I am so sorry I hurt you. When I saw the look on your face I thought about throwing myself off our balcony. I was so ashamed, not just by the pictures but by how I betrayed the man that I love."

"I won't lie. It's going to take a long time for me to trust you again." I answered.

"You rescued me...you saved me from becoming an adulterer and betraying my vow to forsake all others. You are my hero, my savior. I swear on my life I will never give you another reason to mistrust me."

"I've hurt you greatly. Do you still love me?" She asked with a quiver in her voice.

"As much as the day you honored me by becoming my wife, my partner, my only lover."

"And you are the only man I have ever loved...you are the only man I have ever been intimate with. And I will be saying that every day for the rest of our lives. Can you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?"

"I forgive you my wife."

"I always knew you loved me but I didn't realize how much you loved me until today.

"You are going to have to make a lot of changes," I said. "Starting with Bonnie. I don't want you to ever to speak with, text, or anything with that home wrecker again. If you see her in public just keep walking."

"You have my word. I will do whatever it takes to save my, our marriage."

"And it goes without saying that you must never communicate with the bastard again because there will be no third chance.

"I swear I will never risk our marriage with him or anyone else. Ever."

I swept my fingers through her hair. "It's almost 5. Do you feel well enough to eat something?" I asked