1. We Had it All -- Aftermath
When I reviewed We had It All, I realised that I may have short changed Debbie by not exploring her motivation and decided maybe there was room for a sequel. I also read the comments saying the ending was rushed. So here it is! It is written with Debbie in first person.
-----------------------------------------------
I sat in my house reading a letter that Gary had left me. My dad had picked me up at the prison gates, I had been released from prison that morning and was trying to come to terms with my life now that I was divorced and estranged from my children. I had been imprisoned for trying to Pervert the Course of Justice, I knew my world had ended. I had lost my husband and my children through my own selfishness and lust! As he drove, it ever occurred to me to ask him where he was taking me. It wasn't until he turned into the street where my family home used to be that I asked, "Why are we here?" Before he could reply another question escaped my mouth, "Are Mark and the children waiting for me here?" My excitement and the sudden burst of hope flooded my senses, but my dad deflated that hope in an instant, "No Mark and your children don't live here anymore! The house is yours and he has left you letter that explains it all.
He stopped the car, we had arrived at my old home. My mother was waiting inside and rose to give me a hug, but could not bring herself to say more than, "I'm glad you are out of that horrid place. You deserved to be in there for what you did, but now you need to try and build some bridges with your daughters. Despite what they might say, they need their mother now that they are growing into womanhood. It's too late for you to do anything about Gary, he has started to rebuild his life, without you, I might add and I for one wish him every happiness." She had said her piece and asked my father to take her home, so I was left alone in my home with plenty of time to reflect on the damage my actions had caused.
My husband, Gary had me served with the divorce papers while I was out on bail awaiting trial. I was still working at the Accountancy Practice, but from the Milton Keynes office. I had found a small flat to rent, it was pointless looking long term until the trial was over. I was not seeing Mark he and I split up after I learned that he tried to shift the blame for our arrest on me. Gary had been awarded temporary custody of our children pending the final decision. He had also filed for full custody of our three children, Hazel, Gemma and the baby Danny even though he believed that Danny was not his child, but the child of my lover, Mark Bennett. I say baby, but he was nearly four years old when I was incarcerated. I didn't fight Gary on the divorce or custody issue, he was a far better parent than I had been, loyal and loving, only I didn't appreciate then just how lucky I had been.
Life in Prison was tough for me, not the type of environment or the inmates the kind of people that I was used to associating with. I only spent a couple of weeks in a Medium Security Wing of our local Woman's prison before being transferred to an Open Prison which has a more relaxed environment. Those first two weeks were a complete eye opener for me. I didn't realise just how butch some female prisoners could be, never mind the guards! I'm not so easily shocked by that type of behaviour now as I was then, where the bitchiness, meanness and sheer brutality of the place shocked me! Don't misunderstand, I wasn't raped or propositioned during that first fortnight, but it was made clear to me that I would be someone's bitch before the month was out. I witnessed a few fights and thanks to Gary, I knew how to punch and move. He had been a professional boxer and had taught me how to defend myself. One particularly butch woman tried to intimidate me in the dining hall and tried to push me against the wall so she could use her weight t to crush me against it, I slipped passed her and unleashed a punch into her soft belly. After that I had no more trouble while I was in there. Due to the overcrowding in the prison, a case review had been conducted and low risk category prisoners were being transferred to one of the new Open Prisons. I was lucky enough to be transferred out of hell and into a much better environment.
Life in the Open Prison was much better and I had the opportunity to reflect on my behaviour over the last three years. One of the comments that Gary made while we were still married haunted me and I spent of lot time thinking about it. He had accused me of not feeling any remorse for cheating on him and it was true! I didn't feel remorse even then and I started to explore why that should be. I'm a fairly intelligent woman and knew that I should be feeling guilty, but didn't! I went back over our whole life together from teenagers through to the present day. Did I love Gary? Certainly not when we first married, a shotgun marriage is not the best way to start ones adult life. Did I grow to love him as the years passed? I honestly couldn't answer that then or now. I loved my family and I was content with our life for many of those years together despite the scrimping and saving to make ends meet.
The more I thought about it the more I was coming to the conclusion that I resented being railroaded into marriage because of the condition I found myself in. I also discovered that deep down, I resented the fact that I never had a chance to experience life and freedom as a young woman. I further defined that down into believing that I felt aggrieved that I never had a chance to play the field a little. I'm quite a sexual being and Gary had been my only lover. I had surrendered my cherry to him fully conscious that I would have a chance to spread my wings when at University. Early on in our relationship, Gary and I had agreed that we would both see other partners while I was away. Therefore, I believed that I would have the chance to experience other men then and until that time, I was happy to be with him.
That resentment festered and reached a climax after I enrolled for the Open University Course in Accounting. Over the first year, I met other mature female students and in the bar after dinner, we took it in turns to recount our experience of the other sex before we either married or entered into stable relationships. I found myself envious of them and when it was my turn to reveal all, they were shocked when I told them that I only ever had experienced one man. I was teased constantly about my lack of experience and kept telling them that I was perfectly content with the man I had.
That seemed to satisfy them until one night during our final week's seminar for the academic year, our tutor Mark Bennett came into the bar, the other women started making comments about how sexy they thought he was and what they would do to him given the chance. We were pretty well drunk by this time and when he came over the giggling started. Naturally, he had to know what the joke was and Jenny, one of the more forward girls, told him that I was looking for a lover so I could experience sex with another man for the first time. Well I was told later that I went beetroot red and tried to hide my embarrassment by getting up to leave, when he grabbed my arm and ordered me to sit back down. It was all just banter at first and we all had a good laugh afterwards, but the seed was sown and after that night, he always seemed to single me out for private chats. I tried to ensure we never spent any time alone together, but I was getting drawn in and found myself attracted to him, even wondered what he would be like in bed.