The Gold Earrings

Another quick flash story for fun.

Once again, the plot is contrived and silly, perhaps cartoonish, but as I keep saying this is escapist fun not serious literature.

A few comments up front. One, this isn't a BTB story, the wife gets away with it, and the husband never knows, so if you don't like that stay away. It isn't really a cuck story either though as I find those pathetic. I know we are supposed to be tolerant of each other but to me willing cuck stories are just wimpy crap and expect no tolerance from this end for them. I would prefer to spend an evening watching dogs vomit than read one.

Two, there is a 1970's pop culture twist and the first one who posts it in comments with it wins a useless prize you probably wouldn't want anyway. Just remember when reading, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, I probably wouldn't want to read a story from a website that would allow me to write for it.

It is also very violent and bloody so be warned. If you comment about the gratuitous violence after this warning you will look even more foolish than I do as you were warned and chose to continue. I also might throw some totally irrelevant to the plot large boobs in there as well as large boobs and violence does seem to be the correct formula, at least no one ever went broke in Hollywood following that script. Even the Scottish Play episode of Black Adder featured violence and enormous bosoms.

Also, I am not a lawyer and don't play one on TV. And I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night. So, if I get some legal details wrong unless it completely screws up the story just ignore it. If it does screw up the story ignore it anyway.

Please feel free to comment to your heart's content. I still probably won't read them, not that I am worried about getting my feelings hurt, but for the most part I just don't give a rat's ass one way or the other. A couple of people took the time to email me with some pertinent criticisms and suggestions and I do appreciate that and will try to take them into account.

All the usual restrictions apply. Copyright 2018 all rights reserved to me. No real sex in this one as usual I don't do sex scenes all that well although I might try next time.

*****

Dave and I had been married about four years when we decided the time was right to expand our little family. I had met Dave at a deposition for the medical insurance company I was on staff for, he was the lead attorney for the plaintiff, and I was one of the minions defending a defenseless position. Dave was, and is, a brilliant attorney, on the fast track for partnership, destined to make millions in the pursuit of justice. Although I am a competent attorney I won't claim to be in his class and was therefore surprised to hear from him shortly after the suit was settled.

What he was looking for, however, wasn't the benefit of my legal mind but something of a more carnal nature and I found, over multiple courtship dinners, drinks, dances, and events, that he was a witty and charming companion. Sex was everything either of us could want, Dave was an imaginative and considerate lover, and nature has blessed me with a passionate and responsive body. Dave loved to have me sit astride him as I rode him to orgasm, him playing with my D cup breasts and sensitive nipples, me just floating away in bliss.

Marriage followed and we had settled into one of those ubiquitous gated communities that seem to sprout like weeds all over Long Island, for the well-heeled anyway, those with a few million to drop on a four-bedroom ranch that was too small for the price, and too large for the two of us. But there was room for us to grow and we had space for an Au Pair for when, or if, I wanted to return to work. Like many privileged couples we were living the American dream, with more money than a young couple should reasonably expect, and at times it seemed the only trouble we faced was the amount of hours Dave worked. Although we were both lawyers mine was more of a nine to five office job while he put in extensive hours in his quest for the almighty partnership.

So, it was often left to me to attend the perpetual round of get togethers, barbecues, dinners, wine tastings, and general neighborhood gatherings that living in a gated community entailed. It was over the course of multiple gatherings of this type that I became friends with Joanna and, by extension, her husband Walter. The pair intrigued me and as I had time on my hands, having taken the last month of my pregnancy off, I decided to find out what I could. No, I didn't hire a private investigator, or dig into their personal life, I simply struck up a friendship with Joanna as she didn't work and lived only two houses away from us. I was intrigued, not deranged, it was a puzzle but not one I desperately needed to solve.

Walter, as I understood it, was a CPA, and had his own small firm. Oddly enough, unlike some other self-employed businessman in the neighborhood, he never seemed to solicitate for new business or try to network. He looked like an accountant, maybe fortyish, balding, getting a little pudgy although not what I would call fat. He didn't look like he had ever had an athletes body, just a bookish, nerdish, type individual, about 5'8", and he often had a slightly detached or befuddled manner. He never seemed to totally fit in with the guys, he didn't golf, fish, or drink, nor was he the stereotypical alpha male our little community was crawling with. He also seemed, oddly enough for a married man, somewhat shy around women. Ever polite, always the gentleman but without being ostentatious about it, he mostly blended into the woodwork.

Joanna, on the other hand, was beautiful, lively, vivacious, flirty, maybe mid-thirties but looked younger, and totally devoted to Walter. She had a smile that put the Mona Lisa to shame, a body, despite having two children, that on my best day I could never hope to compete with, breasts the size of small pineapples, probably enhanced, and enigmatic sultriness about her that just screamed sex.

I had only seen her angry twice, once when some men made fun of Walter in her hearing and she verbally chewed them up in a way that had them slinking off with their tails between their legs, and another time when one of the local Lothario's tried his tricks on her. I think he was happy to escape with his testicles intact, but she made it clear, loudly and publicly, that if he, or anyone, tried it again, they wouldn't. What she had was for Walter and no one else.

She was visibly, sometimes sickeningly, in love with Walter, that much was obvious to all of us, except, oddly, perhaps Walter himself, who somehow seemed slightly oblivious to it all. He obviously loved her, treated her wonderfully and with respect, seemed completely devoted to her as well, but was just nerdish enough to miss the clues the rest of us saw. Or maybe, having lived with it so long now, he simply just accepted it as natural.

As I said they lived two houses down, so they had the money to live here but they didn't seem to have the toys the rest of the neighborhood so prominently displayed. The cars were pedestrian, nothing fancy. There were no boats in the yard and none of the 90-inch TV screens or man caves with mahogany bars the others boasted of. They had a nice yard with pool, a regular size barbecue, just like most houses here, but nothing ostentatious. I had never heard her complain about money, or it being tight, but neither did she go for the latest designer fashions. She didn't wear much jewelry, a modest but decent engagement ring, a gold wedding band, and an ever-present pair of gold earing's that looked exactly like two little cylinders. I think they had the money for the toys just not the need to compete by displaying them.

They had two children, a son, six, and a daughter, two. Both were little darlings, well behaved, and their mother and father obviously doted on them. The had a Hispanic girl that watched them, sort of a combination maid and nanny, as well as Joan being a stay at home mom. But even in this they were perfectly normal. I understood the son was attending one of the better private schools in the area but nothing too exclusive, as he was only six. Mom would drive him to school and pick him up after while dad was at work and the nanny watched the baby.

I was about eight months along with my pregnancy at this point and had taken leave from work. I was used to walking every morning to try to get a little exercise, although I stayed pretty close to the house, so I was out and about early when I saw Joan leaving to take her son to school. We made small talk for a minute and I invited her for coffee after she returned home. She had a full morning planned, dropping her son off, going to the gym, then some shopping, but promised to come by around lunch time for a coffee and chat. I knew there was something about them, some story just waiting to be told, but I wasn't expecting to get it this day. I was wrong.

Joanna came by a little later and we were sitting drinking coffee and chatting about being pregnant and children in general when I asked her if she planned to have more.

"That's up to Walter, whatever he wants I do. If he wants more we have more, if not we don't." I noticed she had twirled her little gold earring with her fingers when she was saying this, a nervous habit I had seen her do several times when something about Walter came up.

"Surely you have some input on this as well, I mean this isn't the nineteenth century. It isn't like he can force you to get pregnant."

"No Walter would never do that. He really is a sweetheart and I couldn't hope for a nicer man to be married to. It isn't like he would ever force me to do anything, it's just I will do anything, anything at all, to make sure he is happy and that includes having children, not having children, or whatever he wants."

"You really love him that much don't you. We have all seen how you act around him, like he is God's gift to women, and you won the prize, the way you treat him. Honestly, I had never seen anything like it until I met you two. And yet at times he seems a bit clueless like he doesn't understand what you are doing for him."

"And hopefully he never will." She said twirling that earring again.

I looked at her a little sharply as it was an odd thing to say. "You don't want him to know how much you love him?"

"It isn't that so much as... It's a bit hard to explain. Let me ask you a question, Roberta, you're a lawyer, if I told you something could you keep it confidential, like that attorney client privilege they always talk about?"

"I could if you hired me. Are you in some kind of trouble? Is Walter hurting you or threatening you?"

"No nothing like that. It's just I do have a story to tell and I would like to tell it to someone, just in case, but it can never, and I mean never, be repeated. What would I need to do to hire you?"

"That's simple enough just give me something, like ten dollars, for a retainer, and we can have a verbal contract establishing attorney client privilege."

She grabbed her purse and pulled out a twenty, handed it to me, and smiled. "Consider yourself hired."

"I grew up on Long Island, but not this part of it." She started. "My dad was a roofer and half of what he made he spent at the bar. So, we never had much money. Mom worked as a hairdresser and brought some home but we were definitely on the lower end of middle class, nothing like this neighborhood. Between his boozing and philandering and their fighting it's a wonder I made it through high school, but I did and managed to get some time in at a secretarial school as well. I was working for a temp agency, you know doing fill ins and short-term assignments, when I met Walter. His secretary was going on maternity leave, her assistant was covering for her, and they hired me to cover for her. So, I was sort of the second string."

"When was this?"

"Just about ten years ago now. I was twenty-four and was getting my fill of the party scene and starting to look around for someone to settle down with. I admit I was a bit of a mercenary little bitch, my thought being to get a well to do husband for a few years and then move on with a decent settlement, and Walter seemed to fit the bill perfectly. He was thirty-two then, eight years older than me, and even more clueless and inexperienced than he is today. I didn't think he was rich, but he did own his own business, had a nice apartment in a good section of the city, and seemed perfect for the role of a starter husband. I started dating him after my time in his office was up and moved in with him shortly after. About a year later we were married. Walter was sweet, and compliant, and I thought I could control him for as long as I needed to. He was also completely trusting and never asked for pre-nup. I'm not proud that I was a gold-digger, but I won't sugar coat it either."

"Yet here you are, ten years later, and still happily married."

"Yes, so I am. We had settled into a fairly normal engagement. My one condition for marrying him was I wanted a house, a real house, we could call our own. I had lived in rentals and apartments my whole life. So, we looked around and chose the one we have now. I thought it was a little big, but Walter wanted room for children, and although I didn't have any intention of having children, I didn't want to disillusion him before the wedding. The good news, to me, was he didn't even blink at the price and had no problem including my name on the deed. There was, however, one event that happened shortly before we were married that although I didn't attach any real significance to it at the time, I came to realize later it was probably the most significant event of my lifetime."

"What was that?"

"Several weeks after we were engaged Walter had said he wanted us to have dinner with an old friend of his from school. We went to a small restaurant I had never been to in Little Italy, one of those family places, but somewhat upscale. It had an odd feeling when we went in, like you were just walking into someone's home, not a public place, and we weren't wanted. Walter had a quick word with the maître d, told him who we were meeting, and the whole place changed. We were shown to the best table and within five minutes the owner was there, with a complimentary bottle of his best wine. The service after that was simply amazing, we had two waiters hovering near by at all times, and barely needed to do more than blink before they were at the table."

"We had eaten most of dinner and Walter's friend had still not shown up when these two large men entered and seemed to look all around the restaurant. One then left and the other took up a place a little behind us. The first one then returned with two other men, one extremely well dressed and about Walter's age, and the other much older. Walter stood up and hugged both of them and introduced me to his friend Tony and Tony's grandfather Salvatore. These two were nothing like Walter, I mean I have been around Long Island my whole life and these two were connected up to the hilt. I asked him about it later, but he claimed not to know anything, just that Tony was just an old school friend."

"Anyway, they didn't stay long. The old man made a short toast and they drank to the success of our wedding. Tony gave me a early wedding present, a nice pair of diamond earrings I later had appraised for ten thousand dollars, and there were hugs all around before they left. Neither came to the wedding and I didn't see Tony for another two years."

"So, as they say, life went on. With the excitement of the wedding, and moving, buying furniture, and settling into our house I forgot all about the dinner. Walter went to work each day, but he never seemed to be all that ambitious. I asked him a few times about if he didn't want to network for new clients and expand but he said he preferred what he had. Money was never an issue, I hadn't a clue how much he really had, but he never complained about anything I wanted to buy."

"So, you settled into wedded bliss."

"Let's just say we settled into married life. Walter is a sweet, kind, gentle man, but sometimes a girl wants a little more than gentleness in the bedroom. Growing up I had some boyfriends that like to ride me hard and that just wasn't Walter and, honestly, I missed it. Now I wasn't ready yet to discard the marriage with Walter, at least until I had some idea what he was worth, so I knew I needed to be discreet, but the need for something a little harder was there. I wasn't going to do anything at home, too many busybodies in this neighborhood, and evenings were out, so I joined a gym. I did want to work out and keep my body in trim, but I also added in a personal trainer. Christopher would work my ass off pushing me to the limits in the gym and, eventually, out of it. He was partly Italian, about 6'1", and had a body as hard as nails. We entered into a discrete affair, meeting at hotels several times a week for an afternoon of fun and games. His stamina was incredible, and he gave me what I was missing out on."

"So, you were having an affair. Did Walter ever find out?"

"No, he has never known but it did end in a spectacularly bad fashion, and there has never been another one. Unusually Walter had to travel for work for two days and nights, so Chris and I decided to get an overnight hotel room. We had never done this before, typically we just grabbed an hour or two during the day, so this was going to be a treat for both of us. I don't remember much, I think we were both drugged somehow, just sometime during the evening we were hustled into a car and driven to a remote warehouse by several burly men. I know Chris was involved in selling steroids or something, so I assumed it had to do with that, and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it didn't look good."

"You mean you were kidnapped? What happened? How did you get out of it and did Walter find out?"

I noticed her voice seemed to take on a flat monotone quality as she told me the story, as if she was detaching herself from the whole experience. Between that and the details she related it was a bit unnerving.

"When the drugs wore off, I found myself tied to a chair. They had used ace bandages to wrap my arms and legs so they didn't leave any marks plus wrapped some more around my mouth so I couldn't speak. For some reason they were being extra careful not to mark me in any way. Chris, on the other hand, was strung up by his wrists using a rope that was tied off somewhere. My chair was facing him, and two men came out and roughly stripped his clothes off, tearing the shirt around the handcuffs. They had spread a large plastic cloth under him, and they began beating him, over and over, with large heavy chains. I could see the blood splattering the plastic and dripping from his wrists where the cuffs cut into him, as they beat him. They just kept beating him as he screamed over and over."

She stopped talking for a minute and shuddered before going on in that same flat tone.

"After a while Chris stopped screaming, I think mercifully he had passed out. His body was covered with blood, one ear was hanging partially off, his nose was flattened, and blood still dripped out of it, his eyes were swollen shut. A forklift drove over with two 55-gallon drums on a pallet and some type of bolt cutters with a long handle. They hoisted Chris up higher and put one of the drums under him then one of the men put the bolt cutters on his dick and balls and cut them off. I remember the blood spurting out as they fell into the barrel. They must have released the rope then as Chris fell into the barrel and they put the lid on and hammered it down. They then rolled up the plastic and put it and the cutters in the other barrel, put them both on the pallet, and drove them away. A few minutes later it came back with two new drums. I remember thinking I was going to be next and passed out cold."