If asked, Erica Watson would have said she had many close friends in the neighbourhood, such as Amy and Tamara whom she exercised with daily, either at the gym or, if the weather was good, for a run through the park; or Cathy, Jane and Liz who all had children in her son Don's age group and still met up once a week for lunch; or Barbara, whose husband John worked with Erica's husband Will; and so on, but of all these close friends only one was a true confidant and that was Sally Johnson.
Erica and Sally had been friends since school, and on the surface, at least, could not have been more different. Sally was tall with long, dark hair, and slender too, so that she had earned the nickname Morticia of Addams fame amongst the neighbours. Erica, in contrast, was blonde and blue-eyed, and had had the fortune of falling in love with a man four times her age (she was eighteen, he seventy two).
To be precise, she had his fortune, for Charles had been as wealthy as he was handsome, and had died within a year of their marriage. Erica had received many nicknames as a result, most of them vulgar. The wealth had been spent over the years, but she often had reason to think of him. For one thing, Charles had been a lover of large breasts, and although Erica had not been lacking in that department, she had been happy to let him pay for their enlargement. To be blonde with such large breasts did risk a certain reputation, but Erica liked the impact they made, and she was quite willing to play the bimbo to get what she wanted.
And there was Don, of course. Her son by Charles. Handsome, like his father, and athletic too. Popular with the girls when he was at school, but sadly not too bright.
"How old is Don now?" Sally asked, peering out Erica's front window to where Don was packing tools into a white van in the driveway.
"Twenty next month," Erica said. "Will bought him the van. As an investment. Don always did like working in the garden. It's good to see him make something of it." She would have preferred him to find a real job. A career. With real money. Something that meant she didn't have to rely on a husband for money. Especially now.
Erica sighed. "I fucked up."
Sally perked up. "Do tell."
"I did a DNA test."
"Oh no. Alice..."
"Will isn't the father."
"Fuck." Sally sipped her coffee as she mused over this revelation.
Alice, one year old now, was in the front garden with Rosa, their live-in maid. One of the main things that had attracted Erica to Will was that he had a house big enough, and money enough too, that he could afford a live-in maid. Someone to do the cooking and cleaning - and, it turned out, do the bulk of the childcare too. Erica loved her daughter, but at thirty-nine years old had no wish to go through all that again.
"Will adores Alice. She's everything to him." Will was pushing fifty, and Alice was proof of his virility. More than that, she represented to him the promise that the ideal of a happy family was possible. "If he learns the truth, it will be the end of us."
The end. A no doubt messy and bitter divorce, with no guarantee that Erica would get anything to support her as a single mother.
"Then don't tell him," Sally said. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
Erica sighed, abruptly angry. "Yes. But Xara knows." Will's daughter, Xara, whose antagonism towards Erica was the one fly in the ointment of her new life. "She found the letter with the DNA results. I tore it up and put it in the bin - I should have burned it - but she fished all the scraps out and taped them together."
Sally laughed. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh, but you have to admire her determination. So, I'm guessing she hasn't told Will?"
"She says she will if I don't do as she says. Honestly, I could strangle her." Erica, despite her reputation as a black widow, had never actively considered murdering anyone before, but squeezing her hands about the neck of that blackmailing little bitch had a dreadful appeal to it.
"What does she want? Money?"
Erica gave a bitter laugh. "If only. It's far worse than that." She closed her eyes and squirmed in her seat with embarrassment. Xara's demands were humiliating, and only Erica's desperate need for a friendly shoulder to cry on gave her the strength to continue. Counting them off on her fingers, she started, "I'm to shave my pussy, bare like a porn star, and keep it that way."
Sally snorted into her coffee, and fought back a smile as she hurriedly wiped the table clean. "I can't see Will complaining about that," she said carefully.
"I wouldn't mind if Will was the one asking," Erica snarled. "My fucking stepdaughter is the one asking - demanding - and what's worse is -"
Erica held up a second finger. "What's worse is that I'm not to wear underwear. No knickers. No shorts or leggings or trousers either. Skirts and dresses only. She wants my pussy exposed at all times, and to make sure I'm following instructions, she wants to see my pussy with her own eyes whenever she asks."
"I told you she looked like a lesbian."
"It gets worse." Erica held up a third finger. "I'm to wear high heels always. Even in the house. Three inches minimum. Although, she
generously
" - her voice dripped with sarcasm - "allows me to wear trainers when I go for a run or to the gym."
"Very generous," Sally agreed with a smirk.
"
And
..." Erica held up a fourth finger. "Hold-ups."
Sally studied the silky black gauze that wrapped Erica's legs from her cork wedge heels to beneath her knee-length summer dress. "If you want me to believe you, Erica," she said slyly, "you'll have to show me."
Erica rolled her eyes. She knew her friend well and wasn't at all shocked, but that didn't make lifting her skirt any less embarrassing. It didn't make parting her thighs feel any less slutty. She felt her cheeks burn as Sally's eyes widened in delight.
At the sound of the front door opening, Erica hurriedly fixed her dress. Don appeared in the doorway. "I'll be back about six," he said.
"Hi Don," Sally said in a sultry manner. "If you're looking for work, my hedge needs trimming." She shifted her leg as Erica made to kick it.
"I can do it tomorrow morning," he said.
"Great. See you then." Once he'd gone, she turned to Erica and shrugged. "It really does."
*
Xara, recently turned eighteen, was in her final months of school. Unlike Don, Xara was a bright kid, and Erica could hardly wait until she left for university - and that was true before she started blackmailing her.
She was an attractive girl, but Erica had seen no evidence of boyfriends, or girlfriends. Maybe she was a lesbian, as Sally thought. She arrived home from school as usual at four in the afternoon, and as usual grabbed a snack from the kitchen before going upstairs to hide in her bedroom, music blaring in her headphones, phone busy with notifications, somehow managing to study despite the constant distraction.
This day, however, between coming home and disappearing upstairs, she cornered Erica in the living room. "Let's see," she said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
Too angry to be embarrassed, Erica lifted her dress. It wasn't the first time she'd shaved her pussy, but she resented being made to do it for this girl. She resented too having to wear hold-ups, a ridiculous fashion. Still, she couldn't help wondering if the sight of her pussy excited the girl. Maybe Xara had a thing for her stepmother. Maybe this blackmail wasn't about Xara trying to humiliate her.
"Good," was all Xara said, leaving Erica alone with her questions unanswered.
Will arrived just as Rosa was taking Alice to the park. Erica was on the sofa, reading. She had switched to leather boots with five-inch heels, and her skirt was so short there was nothing between her and the leather of the sofa.
"Will!" she said, pretending to be startled. "I didn't expect you home so soon."