04

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

As was the case with Book One, Book Two of Unhappily Ever After

is a long, novel-length story that recounts the trials and tribulations experienced by a veteran who returns to civilian life and pursues a career path begun before joining the Australian Defence Force. He is forced to resurrect his 'stay alive' skills when he is betrayed by his wife, whose lover puts a hit order out on him.

Book Two picks up Stoney Bourke's life after he had been ambushed and critically wounded during what he hopes will be the final assassination attempt. Despite having witnessed the demise of his would-be killer, he knows there are others out there who want to hang his scalp on their belts.

---oooBJSooo---

I apologise for the time it has taken to get the second book in this duology finished but life and near death have a way of interfering with the best of our intentions. As so much time had elapsed between Book One and Book Two by the time I got back to it, I decided to do a full rewrite.

Although many of the points raised in the readers' comments from Book One had already been addressed in Book Two, a few additional things were brought to my attention that I thought were valid. Hopefully, I have addressed those points in the rewrite.

In an attempt to please as many readers as possible, I have left a few typos and technical and procedural errors in Book Two of Unhappily Ever After to satisfy the nit-pickers.

As each book tells its own story, I'd recommend reading Book One first to familiarise yourself with the backstory and the characters. Despite Book Two containing chapters that could be posted under different category headings, I have posted all ten chapters under Loving Wives for the sake of continuity.

Like Book One, Book Two will be posted in seven parts, all of which have been submitted simultaneously, with a request to the moderator that they be published on consecutive days.

I trust you will enjoy my offering, but I will be happy to receive your comments either way. It should be noted, however, that I have blocked anonymous comments. I know that might inconvenience a few readers, but my philosophy is that 'better one commenter be inconvenienced than ten trolls be allowed to spew their vitriol'.

---oooBJSooo---

Please Note:

The right of Black Jack Steele to be identified as the author of this work - Unhappily Ever After - Book Two - is asserted under worldwide copyright laws. All rights are reserved.

---oooBJSooo---

UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER

BOOK TWO

Copyright © Black Jack Steele 2024

CHAPTER THREE

August 04, 2018 - December 11, 2020

Commitment and Resolution

Six months after having moved into the house together, I felt the time had come for Kate and me to sit down to discuss our future. If we were going to commit to a more permanent relationship, we would have to develop a clear understanding of where we were headed and what, if any, hurdles we would need to overcome.

Kate had been working on a case that was throwing her normal work schedule out of kilter, and this was the first Sunday we'd had together for almost a month. Sure, she got time off, but with her rolling eight on, four off rotation, that often fell in the middle of the week, and while I tried, I couldn't always take time off to match her schedule.

It had been almost fourteen months since the shootout at my front gate. And now, having recovered my balance and with my driver's licence having been reinstated, I was committed to helping get Phoenix Constructions - formerly Aaron Bourke Constructions - back to where it was before everything went pearshaped.

Under Shirley Smith's stewardship, the newly branded firm had been paying me a consultancy retainer while I'd been away from the coalface. It was now payback time.

In addition to the work I was doing for Phoenix, I'd been helping out on the property when they needed an extra hand. I was thrilled to be able to get back up on a horse again, although my doctor had insisted that I wear a helmet rather than my normal wide-brimmed Akubra; at least for a while.

While Kate was sleeping off her busy work schedule, I'd prepared us a picnic lunch. The salads were ready, and I had made a quick trip into our local village to pick up a roasted chicken. That was sitting in the hotpot to keep it warm. The meal was ready for whenever she surfaced. While marking time, I'd taken the icebox filled with beer and wine down to the gazebo on the cliff-top.

I was hoping she'd wake soon. I was starving.

As it turned out, she didn't surface until after three o'clock. By the time she'd performed her ablutions - not to mention having loaded up on coffee - it was after four before we headed down to the gazebo for our talk. As was becoming a regular occurrence, lunch became an early dinner; 'tea' in my parents' parlance.

"Okay, Jumbo or Dumbo, or whatever your playmates used to call you," Kate said after we'd eaten and were sitting enjoying the peace and solitude of our

haus win

on the river. "What's on your mind? You've been as skittish as a kangaroo in a dog food factory the whole time we've been down here."

"Where in heaven's name did you get the idea that I would have had a callsign like Jumbo or Dumbo?" I asked incredulously.

"In my experience," she responded, "men have a fixation on their penises... or should that be penii? With yours being somewhat larger than that of the average bear, I would have imagined that you would have earned a nickname that matched your endowment."

"I'm afraid to disappoint you, My Darling," I said, "although you are right about men and their dicks. From what I saw when we were showering together, I only rated an honourable mention. The first prize went to a bloke who carried the monicker, Donk, which was short for...."

"I have a fair idea what it would be short for," she said, cutting me off.

"Now, will you stop prevaricating and - to use the old silent film term - cut to the chase."

"Okay," I said.

"Do you remember the first time I brought you down to the gazebo, and we talked about whether or not we might have a long-term future together?"

Biting her bottom lip, Kate nodded her head in acknowledgement of her memory of that conversation. She was obviously anxious about where this was going.

"What are your thoughts on that now that we've been living together for six months? I'm talking about since you moved in and not counting the period before that, when you were coming out to view my etchings."

"I think we're well on the way towards making that a reality," she answered. "I'm particularly surprised at how well you have accepted the odd hours I have been working lately. You have never asked me what I'm working on. You have never asked me to account for my time. In fact, you have never displayed any signs of distrust at all."

"That's because you've never given me any reason not to trust you," I said. "I admit that when we first started living together, there was a layer of steel surrounding my heart that was designed to protect it if you were to prove as unfaithful as the women in my previous two relationships. I fully expected that once you'd had enough of me, you'd up-stakes and move on.

"Over time, though - and here I

am

including the time we had together before you moved in - that steel began to melt. That happened in direct correlation to the depth of my feelings for you. We started out with a friendship - peppered, perhaps with a measure of sexual attraction towards each other. That was followed by the development of deepening affection towards each other, culminating in the consummation of that earlier sexual attraction.

"From that point on - at least from my point of view - that affection has morphed into love.

"I guess what I'm trying to say to you, Kate, is that I love you."

"Oh, Aaron," she cried, throwing herself into my arms. "I love you, too, My Darling... with all my heart.

"I know how hard it has been for you to recover from the betrayals you have experienced, and I was afraid that this afternoon's talk was going to be the one where you told me that it's not working out and that I should start packing my bags. You don't know how relieved I am to hear that it's the opposite.

"Before we can progress our relationship, however, I have to ask for forgiveness for something I've done that may be a make or break for us. I have to admit to not being totally honest with you about something.

"Do you remember when I told you that I wasn't going to renew the lease on my apartment?"

"Yes," I replied.

"The truth is that I actually own it... well, the bank holds the mortgage, but I'm buying it. So, I simply leased it out, fully furnished. Which is why I didn't bring much with me when I moved in with you. I put everything I didn't want to bring out here and didn't want the tenant to have the use of into storage.

"I'm sorry for lying to you, my darling Aaron, but I felt I needed to have a Plan B in case things didn't work out between us."

I didn't tell her that I already knew about her lie. I'd had Tommy check into her background. I wasn't about to commit to a doomed relationship before it began. The apartment ownership thing was the only hiccup he could find.

I stood, walked out to the front of the gazebo and looked out over the river as if deep in thought. In fact, I was smiling. That she had volunteered the information about the apartment had torn down the last barrier preventing our feelings towards each other from blossoming.

"I forgive you, Kate," I said as I turned back to face her. "What you did shows that we both have trust issues, or we did back then. Your telling me about your avoidance of sharing the facts shows me that you were just as insecure about what we were getting into as I was.

"But let's call it for what it is. It was as much of a lie as my denying that it was me in the painting was a lie. Whatever our reasoning at the time, it could have driven a wedge between us that neither of us wanted.

"With the score at one for one, let's put an end to that game. We have no chance if we don't. The point is that we've both now told each other the truth, and there's been no flare-up as a result. Nor has it resulted in an end to our relationship. But something we've learned is that neither of those lies needed to be told in the first place. I suggest that we take that lesson to heart and never repeat it.

"Lies always lead to more lies. Surely, they taught you that at policing school. Isn't that how you trip up your suspects?"

"Thank you, My Darling Man," Kate cried as she threw herself into my arms. This time, she had tears streaming down her face.

I pulled her to me and held her tightly until the tears ended. There was still more to discuss, and I needed her full attention for what was to come because this would be the make-or-break part of our conversation.

Once she had settled, I moved back from her and swung around to straddle the picnic table bench seat. I wanted to be able to look into Kate's eyes while we talked about the next step and what that would entail. She followed my lead.

"We've talked about our love for each other and have promised that we won't lie to each other again," I said. "But that all means nothing unless we are totally committed to each other. I'm not talking about marriage; not yet, anyway. In fact, I don't know that I will be ready to take that step for some time; perhaps not ever.

"I'm not going to say 'never', though. None of us knows what tomorrow might bring. What I am saying, however, is that if we are to move forward, we'll need to make some sort of marriage-like commitment to each other. And whatever terms are included in that commitment, exclusivity must be high on the list. I am a one-woman man. And I expect that my partner will be a one-man woman."

I then raised the subject that I thought might cause a few problems: the Relationship Agreement.

"Whoa!" Kate exclaimed. "Back the truck up! Why would we need a relationship agreement? What, for that matter,

is

a relationship agreement?"

I took a moment to think about my answer.

"Despite having lived on my wits in the desert and the dirt of two Middle Eastern countries where I needed to keep my head on a swivel twenty-four, seven, I walked into my relationship with Samantha with my eyes shut. I was the dumb dufus who trusted anyone who wasn't pointing a gun at him. So I let my guard down.

"When she and I got together, I was bush-smart but somewhat less than street-wise. I was naïve enough to see life back in civilisation through rose-coloured glasses. But those glasses have been discarded and ground into the dust, and I'm not looking to replace them.

"I'm no longer that same trusting innocent. And, as I've said to you before, that's going to make any chance we might have to develop a lasting relationship a lot harder. I'm gunshy. I can no longer simply assume that everyone I meet or form a relationship with is trustworthy. Sam and Charlie both taught me that. That puts the onus on you to prove you are worthy of my trust.

"Had I not been able to prove that Sam had only married me to provide her with a beard to hide her sluttish behaviour behind, she could have done me a great deal of damage. In fact, I now know that that was her intention. Both she and Kingston somehow believed I was wealthy and that they could get their hands on that wealth, either by domination or inheritance. They probably still believe I am wealthy; which I'm not, by the way. But assumptions aside, they did learn that I'm not prepared to share what little I do have with cheats and bullies.

"Samantha's whole life was driven by lust; and not just a lust for sexual gratification. She also had a lust for prestige, a lust for recognition and a lust for money. She was driven by greed.

"What neither of them realised, however, was that even if they had won, they'd have lost. I don't own anywhere near as much as they thought I did. Apart from my trade tools - which they couldn't have touched - my only asset was my Mustang. And that's as true today as it was then.

"I don't own the house we are living in or the property upon which it stands. I also don't own the cars I drive. Until they forced the rebranding of my construction firm, those assets belonged to the company I operated. On the day Aaron Bourke Constructions closed, the ownership of those assets was transferred over to the trust that owned ABC and which currently owns Phoenix Constructions. I have control of those assets only by the grace of the trustees.

"The other thing they didn't seem to know was that I was only paying myself a pittance. I'm earning considerably more now, working as a consultant than I was as the CEO of ABC.

"Kingston and my former wife didn't do their homework. Instead, they made the mistake of setting their plans in motion based on assumptions and bad intel. As I learned a long time ago, that's a recipe for disaster. And it came back and bit them on their collective arses.

"With both Samantha and Charlie having betrayed me, I'm hoping you can understand why I want to set up my defences before committing to another relationship. I'm not saying that I'm

expecting

you to betray me; the truth is that of the three women I have been involved with, you would be the least likely to do so. But I

am

saying we have a sixty-six per cent chance of failure. Those are not odds I'm comfortable with; which is probably why my insecurity levels are elevated.

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't go into a military operation if my chance of failure was that high. But we're not talking about a military operation. We're talking about the survival of what could be termed a trial marriage.

"The thing is, though, that while we might not be talking about a full-blown marriage, we

are

talking about entering into an arrangement that has legal standing in the Family Law Courts."

"So, how do you see this working?" Kate asked.

"We're already living together and have been doing so for some time," I answered. "Everyone we know sees us as a couple. Unless you have any objections, we would simply continue to live our lives as we've been doing.

"If that's how we are going to live our lives, I'd be proud to refer to you as my wife; unless, of course, you'd prefer one of the other modifiers, such as 'my partner', 'my de facto' or 'my common-law wife'.

"You, in turn, would be free to call me your husband. If that's not your preference, I'd much rather 'my partner' over 'my de facto' or 'my common-law husband'.

"Of course, we could always introduce each other as 'my friend' or 'my current squeeze'."

That last one got a chuckle.

"The relationship agreement would serve the same purpose as a pre-nuptial agreement. It would set out the benefits that would accrue to you as a result of staying in our relationship and the penalties that would apply should either of us cheat on the other."

"For example?" Kate asked.

"Okay," I answered. "But feel free to butt in if you have a comment.

"Let's say we've been together for five years, and you decide that I'm not living up to my side of the bargain. And let's say that after talking about it, we decide to go our separate ways. You would walk away with what you have brought into the marriage or pseudo-marriage.

"But you wouldn't walk away empty-handed. If you decided to break off our relationship after five years for no reason other than irreconcilable differences, I would pay you one hundred thousand dollars. And, assuming there is no reason to prevent such an arrangement, we would share the custody of any children that had resulted from our relationship.

"The same would apply after ten years, with one exception. After having hung in there for that long, you would receive two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars."

"What happens if we don't make it to five or ten years?" she asked.

"First, let me make one thing clear. The money I am talking about is in no way designed to be an inducement for you to stay with me any longer than you want to. I have no intention of paying you a hundred thousand dollars as a reward when we hit the five-year point or two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars on our tenth anniversary.

"The money I'm offering is merely designed to help you restart your life if our life together doesn't work out. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't want there to be any ambiguity."

"Yes, I understand," Kate acknowledged.

"Okay. Any payment would be pro rata. But that wouldn't come into play until after we'd been together for three years. That's three years from when we started living together, not from the day we signed the document."

"And what happens if one of us cheats?" I could see that Kate was fully focused on the subject under discussion. Her analytical mind was ticking over.

"If I cheat," I replied, "the payment to you doubles, and I won't contest any claim you might lodge for full custody of any children we might have. I will continue to support them until they have completed their education. Of course, I will expect to be allowed reasonable visitation rights.

"I will even pay you marital support for five years or until you enter into another long-term live-in relationship or marry. I will not be paying you money that will be put towards supporting a live-in lover, though. And when I say 'live-in', I mean sharing the same bed for more than three nights each week. Whether it's his, hers or yours is irrelevant.

"If you cheat, you get nothing. You walk away with whatever you brought into the relationship, and I get full custody of any children I have fathered. You will take any children who might have been born as a result of your infidelity with you when you leave. The circumstances surrounding our separation will dictate whether or not I allow you visitation with 'our' children, should there be any."