Reclaiming His Balls
Part 6 of 9
The story was written without the use of artificial intelligence. The text was composed using Google Docs, then exported to create a Word file for submission to
Literotica.
All characters are adults over the age of 18.
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As Ted rebuilds his life after exposing his wife's affair, they are both left with questions. Why did Michelle behave in such a reckless, irrational way? She'd never thought of herself as a bad person. Why did she do such bad things? In Part 6 of "Reclaiming His Balls," they get some answers.
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Michelle's new therapist was female. She would have felt more comfortable sharing her secrets with a man, but Ted forbade her from going to a male counselor.
She'd approached Ted one night and said she felt she needed more therapy. She told him she'd found a therapist online, and mentioned his name. Ted just laughed when he learned she'd selected a man.
"Forget it," Ted said. "If you need to go back into therapy, you're going to see a woman, not a man."
He said he'd select Michelle's therapist. "For obvious reasons, I don't have a lot of faith in your ability to find a competent psychologist," Ted said. It made Michelle feel Ted was treating her like a child, but she couldn't argue with his logic. The last therapist she selected had lured her into an affair that wrecked their marriage.
Psychological counselor Sarah Leibnitz seemed nice. She was a handsome woman who looked to be in her 50s. Leibnitz had worked with patients who had a wide range of problems, and she wondered if Michelle asked to enter therapy for any of the reasons she'd seen before.
It turned out that Michelle's problems were unique.
"What is it that brings you here today?" Leibnitz said at the start of their first session.
"My husband is very upset with me," Michelle said.
"Unpack that for me," Leibnitz said.
"I had an affair," Michelle said.
That does tend to make husbands upset,
Leibnitz thought to herself. But she said nothing and kept her expression neutral.
"I don't want you to think I'm making excuses," Michelle said. "What I did was wrong. I was stupid to think I wouldn't get caught. Now I'm paying for my bad judgment."
"Do you want to stay married?" Leibnitz asked.
"Yes! God yes! I wouldn't have messed around if I'd understood it would get me in this much trouble."
Leibnitz noted that Michelle seemed more bothered by getting caught than by being unfaithful. She suspected it would take a long time for Michelle to explain precisely what happened. People who behave badly tend to explain it with circuitous, indirect language that avoids key facts, forcing therapists to ask probing questions that reveal the truth.
Leibnitz decided to ask a question that might make Michelle get to the point quickly.
"When people have affairs, the circumstances make a difference. If your husband had an affair, you'd probably be more upset and hurt if it was with your best friend or your sister. Is your husband acquainted with the man you cheated with? Does he know the details of the affair?"
"I slept with our marriage counselor," Michael said. "Ted - that's my husband - set up nanny cams that took videos of us having sex."
Leibnitz managed to keep her expression neutral, but it wasn't easy.
What the actual fuck!?!?!
she asked herself.
What kind of sleazebag therapist sleeps with a patient!?
Leibnitz tried to imagine how upset Ted got when he watched videos of his wife fucking another man.
It must have been extraordinarily hurtful. That kind of trauma can make a man behave in extreme ways, Leibnitz thought. Michelle would eventually confirm that Ted had expressed his hurt and outrage in bizarre ways.
"You probably think I'm a horrible person," Michelle said.
"When I hear a patient say that, it's usually because they think they're horrible. Do you think you're horrible, Michelle?"
She looked sad. "Yes. My husband deserves a better wife than me. My son deserves a better mom."
A better mom?
Leibnitz made a note to ask Michelle to explain the comment about her son later. It was obvious why Michelle was a poor wife, but how had she been a poor mother? Leibnitz would eventually have to find out why Michelle believed her son deserved better, but it was more important to unravel the affair first.
Michelle reluctantly gave an account of what had happened. For professional reasons, Leibnitz was very curious to know which one of her fellow local therapists took advantage of Michelle, but she avoided asking for his name because it wasn't relevant to Michelle's case. She was pleased when Michelle volunteered that she'd been a patient of Dr. Jacob Brianson.
I've met that guy!
Leibnitz thought.
He must be a jumbo-sized asshole! I hope he's sweating bullets because Michelle's husband has a video that could get his license revoked. I need to NEVER refer patients to Brianson!
They spent the entire session talking about what happened. When it was over Leibnitz realized that Michelle wasn't a patient with a simple problem that could be explored in a few weeks. It would take months before Leibnitz understood the full range of issues that forced Michelle to return to therapy.
One of the first things Leibnitz noticed was that Michelle wasn't the kind of patient whose problems stemmed from a disadvantaged childhood or a lifetime of poverty. Michelle dressed in designer clothes, was well-educated, had a professional career, and presented herself with the manners and social graces of a member of the upper middle class. She'd been raised by good parents who provided all the benefits and love a child needs to grow up and become a healthy, happy adult.
The affluent city of New Haven was full of upscale residents like Michelle. That meant that the local therapists faced different professional challenges than counselors who served depressed urban communities scarred by drugs and violence.
Therapists called patients like Michelle "the worried well." The name implied that such patients were less in need of therapy than people who'd suffered harder lives. Many of the problems of "the worried well" were of their own creation. That certainly was true of Michelle, who apparently had a satisfactory life and marriage before she started acting stupid.
Leibnitz knew she'd eventually untangle the web of mysterious events that explained Michelle's seemingly inexplicable behavior.
Ted sometimes asked Michelle for updates on her meetings with Leibnitz. "I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm an idiot," Michelle said.
That makes two of us,
thought Ted, who harbored lingering feelings of anger and hurt.
It was obvious that it would take a lot of time for Michelle to get to the bottom of her issues, so Ted tried not to think too much about what she told her therapist. He continued going to work, caring for Henry, remaining cordial with Michelle, and finding consolation in the arms of Sassy.
Ted and Michelle kept having regular sex because they both wanted to, and because Michelle was afraid of what would happen if Ted ever stopped. The fact that Ted still enjoyed taking Michelle to bed made her think he wouldn't carry out his threat to expose all her dirty secrets.
As Leibnitz grew more familiar with the details of Michelle's case, she found something striking about the affair. Michelle described Ted as a kind, caring, generous husband who'd done everything he could to please her in bed. But she'd had an affair with a sleazy, unethical jerk who treated her like a slut. Why would a woman who had a husband like Ted go looking for a lowlife like Dr. Brianson?
"Michelle, this is a bit delicate, but I have to ask," Leibnitz said. "You've implied that Ted always treated you like a lady in bed, but that Brianson was very different. What do you think about that?"
"I think it just shows I'm stupid," Michelle said. "Any woman would be thrilled to have a husband like Ted. What I did makes no sense."
"Actually, it does make sense. Michelle, the longer we talk about this, the clearer it is that you are one of those women who aren't satisfied by a man who treats her like a queen. This isn't common, but it's not exactly rare, either.