Ten Seconds

I'd been watching them for a good ten minutes. Watching the two of them grinning at one another like a couple of teenagers out on a first date. Watching the damn man fawning over her like some gigolo on a mission. Watching her, Helen, who had stolen my heart the moment I'd set eyes on her twenty-three years ago, responding to his overtures in a way that a married woman just didn't ought to do.

Ok, so I knew the affair, potential affair really, was in it's very early stages, but with the success rate of that bastard sat beside her known to me, then I wasn't going to stand by and take the chance that it would progress that far.

I breathed an involuntary sigh of relief as I spotted my man, George, Big George to his friends, emerge from the nearby doorway and saunter casually up towards them, holding my breath as he engaged them in conversation. Helen didn't know him of course; none of my close family knew that I knew guys like George, never mind that they worked for me. Then with a smile, he handed the women a piece of paper, a note as it were, then promptly melted away into the crowd around them. It was short and to the point, and her mouth fell open in shock as she read it, looking around her in desperation seeking out someone, but not finding me, secreted away as I was.

Of course I knew what it said; I'd written it and you should know as well.

_______

Helen, you have ten seconds!

I know what you've been doing and I know who you're doing it with. I know you haven't fucked him yet, but I know that he has your bra in his pocket. You have to decide how important your marriage is to you, and you have ten seconds to make that decision.

Walk away from him now.

Don't say a word to him and don't look back.

Leave and go home, and we'll never talk about this 'incident' and our marriage will continue, otherwise all hell will be let loose.

The ten seconds starts now.

___________

Decision time eh?

I watched as the colour drained out of her face, and even from this distance could see the tears well up in her eyes.

Damn it, she was just so bloody beautiful; so perfect in every detail. There wasn't an element about her that I could improve on. There could never be another human being in my life that could replace her and I would go to the ends of the earth to sort this problem out without conflict. And that was from a man like me, whose whole life was conflict. Who spent his life surrounded by conflict and had my fortune from it.

But this was Helen, my Helen. The one and only Helen. The only one I had.

The man, him, tried to take her arm puzzled by what was going on, only, to my relief for Helen to shake him off.

"I've got to go," she sobbed, a clear transgression of her instructions, but one I was prepared to overlook, as she pushed him away and walked away from him without another word.

He tried to follow; of course he did. But he was thwarted as George re-emerged from his surroundings to confront him, his whole countenance a whole lot more menacing from what it had been earlier.

The man, his name was Mike if that is of any importance, thought to argue but very quickly changed his mind as George quietly explained the consequences of that course of action, his eloquence sufficient to persuade Mike to walk uncertainly off in the opposite direction.

Another sigh of relief, and Ok so maybe I was a softy. I'd had people eliminated for less than what had taken place that evening, and I wasn't finished with Mike the man yet, but Helen....?

Well there was only one Helen in my life, and forgiveness wasn't in question.

Yes, I'd forgiven her as I'd forgiven countless transgressions in the last twenty-three years, and would continue to do so to the end of my days. They'd always been minor, and nothing on this scale, and that's why I needed to do it this way. Seems odd maybe, but I'd never before been this hard on her, on Helen.

Yes, I'd forgiven Helen, but the question, if he ever found out, would her husband?

My son in law, Glen, was a truly great guy, worked for me and hopefully would take over from me one day. But would he forgive her? Good question and not one that I wanted to be tested.

---------------------

"Daddy," she sobbed as she ran up to me later that day. "I've been so stupid, so damn silly."

"What's up my sweet?" I asked, taking my daughter into my arms, unable to keep the smile off my face. Shit, I never could.

"I've done something really unforgivable Daddy," she confided in me. "Glen's found out and will throw me out."

"Maybe not honey," I sort to calm her, knowing that in reality Glen, schooled by me, might well be tempted to more than just throw her out. "Remember what happened to your mother."

"Oh God," she cried out. "What I nearly did. What Mummy did. What you did. Oh my God, Glen wouldn't, would he?"

"Say nothing more of this matter Helen," I told her. "Go home to your husband, keep your own council and carry on with your life, and don't put Glen in the position of having to react to what you've done. Don't make the mistake that your mother did five years ago."

And that's what happened.

Glen none the wiser, at least as far as I know, though who really knows with a switched on guy like he was. My daughter Helen, suitably chastised, and hopefully having learned her lesson, wouldn't make the mistake that my wife had.

Fair chance that life would go on and Helen and Glen would have a happy and long marriage. If only my wife's father had been around to prevent the unpleasant disaster that my own marriage had ended up as.

The man Mike?

George tells me that I, and other fathers for that matter, will not have to be worrying about him any longer.

Messy, but job done, and all it had taken, was just ten seconds.

+++++++++

I could have been more specific, but I want you to think about it. A wife's a dear thing, but what would you do for a daughter?