Being a Man for Himself Ch. 02

All day Tuesday, Henry ran around getting things done. He still owned a car, thankfully but he had no money except what Amy gave to him. He had to make it last. He was supposed to be out looking for work but Henry knew full well that no company would hire him. He'd be black balled by his former employer and even if he were offered a job, he'd have to leave it after three months so he could report back to jail.

His sister had scoffed at that idea. She told him to just run instead of willingly go back. But Henry didn't feel like that was the path for him. Unless he suddenly found a way to get a fake passport or find someone who could smuggle him out of the country, there was no way he could just leave.

All of Henry's assets were frozen so he had no way to get money out of his bank account. He did still have access to a very large credit line that was supposed to have been secured by assets in the bank but now that those assets were frozen, it probably would be a bad idea to use that. He had a credit card and amazingly, it worked when he tried it. Ok, so there was that.

It was funny. Now that Henry was thinking that he only had three months of relative freedom (though he'd still prefer solitary to going home to the bitch); Henry sort of felt like he could just run up debt and it didn't matter. What more could they do to him? And once he was dead they couldn't collect from Merissa.

Dead. Yeah. He was going to have to die. Fuck. He did not look forward to that. And then his child would grow up with no father. That would suck. But the kid was never going to have Henry for a father anyway if Henry spent the rest of his life in jail. Better to leave the kid with money.

Henry wondered how much it would hurt when he died.

Anyway, he could think about that later. For now:

Encrypted computer. Done.

Encrypted phone. Done.

Encrypted internet access. Done.

Encrypted email. Done.

Henry checked on his little website and storage for collecting data and it was all still there and growing. He linked his new computer to that site and started to get some of the numbers to be analyzed. Damn, it was time to go back to that place where that evil woman was.

Upon finally arriving home Henry had to call into a special number that connected to a computer which told the police he was at home. He felt he needed to check up on his sister and Merissa but of course before he could do any of that, his fucking wife had to come bother him. She hadn't hugged him or done anything affectionate when he had come into the house. She stood there like she expected to be able to lord over him.

"You're welcome." she said.

"For what?"

"I got you out of jail. Don't you want to tell me thank you?"

"What?" he said. This crazy bitch didn't seem to understand that Henry being here was more punishment being heaped onto him. "Did you want to fuck now or should we schedule it for later?"

"Why did you leave?" she said in a way that made it clear she was playing it up for whatever hidden microphone was in his house.

"You know why."

"Explain it to me." she said.

"You broke your vows."

"I did not."

"There, right there. I rest my case."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you even remember your vows?"

"Of course I do. I'm not the one who always forgets everything."

Henry waited.

"Um, we vowed to love each other."

"Which you broke."

"Don't interrupt me. You asked a question and I'm answering. You're the one who broke the vows, running off like that instead of taking care of your responsibilities. You know we'll lose the house if we don't pay the mortgage. To keep us from defaulting I had to take money out of my personal savings."

"Which you stole from me."

"And you know there were hundreds of other things I had to take care of because you were too busy being selfish and stubborn."

Henry allowed himself to yawn. Normally he'd stifle such a response because he didn't want his wife to think he was bored with the conversation. But now, fuck her. He wanted her to know he cared nothing for what she said.

"Laugh all you want." she said. "But the longer you let this go on the more difficult it's going to be to dig ourselves out of the hole you want to put us in."

Henry got up and left. He went upstairs to the guest room with his wife following him the whole time. He closed the door on her but she wasn't going to give him peace.

"You have to make yourself available Henry. You heard what Judge Stevenson said. I'll call them and tell them what you're doing. I swear it. You better get your butt back out here."

Henry thought for a moment. He didn't know how the crazy judge would rule if he kept the door closed. He suddenly started thinking that a ticket to another country would be the perfect way to solve this problem. But for the moment, Henry did remember the judge's words. He took off all of his clothes.

When the door was opened his wife burst into his face but was immediately taken aback by the sight of him naked.

"Henry! What are you doing?"

"I'm making myself available. The judge said I had to fuck you not listen to you."

Henry took a step towards her but she backed away from him. "Later, Henry not now. I want to talk first."

"What's there to talk about? I'm here to get you pregnant."

She continued to back away from him down the hall. "Henry, put your clothes back on."

"So, men wearing clothes turn you on?"

"No, I don't want to. Not tonight. I ... I have a headache. I'm under a lot of stress. Stress which you caused. I'm not in the mood tonight. Just put your clothes back on."

"I'm here to get you pregnant. That's what I'm going to do."

"I said no."

Henry stopped in his tracks. "Fine, but I'm here in case you change your mind."

Henry walked around the house naked. That kept his wife away from him and he was able to eat his fried chicken dinner in peace. And also, very importantly, he got Merissa on the phone.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Where are you?" she countered. "They brought you to jail and I never heard anything."

"I did three months solitary."

"Holy shit. For what?"

"They're trying to steal my money. The government wants it or they say they'll keep me in prison forever."

"Then just give it to them."

"No. This is my life."

"Henry, I can't deal with losing you like this."

"Who are you talking to?" Henry heard Keiko say, and then she tried to come and take the phone from him. He could only keep her away by wagging his dick at her.

"Anyway, I'm doing three months home incarceration before I have to go spend the rest of my life in prison."

"How did you work that out?"

"You can thank my wife Keiko who claims she wants to have my children apparently."

"Your wife." Merissa said in a somber tone.

"Anyway, you know me. I always take care of my responsibilities. I'll take care of any children I have." Henry looked over at Keiko and she rolled her eyes at him. "Even if I can't physically be there, I'll make sure my kids are provided for."

The call ended and Henry was going to actually watch tv. Keiko had bought a new one that was even bigger than what they'd had before. Every time Keiko came by to protest whatever, Henry just made the tv louder and pointed his cock in her general direction.

Ding. Di, di, di, ding.

Henry got up to answer the door and Keiko got in his way to prevent him from opening the door while he was naked.

"Henry, no. It could be a customer of mine."

A customer? Good. Let her see how it feels for a spouse to fuck with your income. Keiko pressed her entire body up to the door but Henry was stronger and he got the door open.

"Amy! Come in." Henry said when he saw his sister out there.

"Naked man. I love it." Henry's sister did as she was bid and she carried with her a suitcase. She threw it down and then asked which room was hers.

"Excuse me?" Keiko said.

"I wasn't talking to you, bitch."

"Well, I was going to sleep in the guest room." Henry said. "That is, unless Keiko wants to actually have sex."

The siblings looked at Keiko who sneered at the suggestion.

"It doesn't look like you're getting lucky tonight, bro. Show me which room you're in and I'll bunk with you."

"I'm sorry." Keiko interrupted. "Why are you here?"

Amy went up to the other woman, grabbed her lapel and then nearly lifted her off the floor.

"You lied about my brother once, bitch. I'm here to make sure you don't do it again. If I hear you even mention Henry hitting you, I'll deck you for real."

Amy pushed Keiko so hard that she lost her balance and ended up on her ass. Without even giving her time to get up, Amy just stepped over her and asked where the bedroom was. Keiko whimpered as she eventually got to her feet and then she looked over to Henry for an explanation.

"I don't know. Post traumatic something."

Later that night, after Keiko had locked herself in the master bedroom and Henry was snuggling up with his sister in the guest room, Amy had a confession of sorts.

"I lied to your wife."

"About what? You barely talked to her."

"I didn't come here to protect you."

"I don't care why you're here. I'm just glad I don't have to be alone with her."

Without a word of reply Amy revealed her true intentions. She positioned herself on the bed and started to suck Henry's dick. Henry smiled. He was in his house and Keiko was in the other room but she couldn't stop him from having sex anymore. So maybe home incarceration wasn't so bad.

Henry and Amy fucked all night long. They fucked for a bit, then rested, changed positions, and fucked some more. And each time he made love to Amy, mentally he was saying Fuck You to that crazy bitch in the other room. Henry didn't even care that having sex with his sister was sort of a crazy thing in and of itself. It no longer bothered him. He was fine with it. He was finally able to have sex. And hey, he was doing a public service if fucking his sister helped her not shoot people.

...

"Is there a reason you're bringing your client back into my office, counsel?"

"Yes, Your Honor. We'd like you to reconsider your ruling from yesterday. My client is very sorry he did not speak to you with the level of respect your office demands. He has certainly learned his lesson and it won't happen again."

"Well Mr. Cooper. Have you learned your lesson?"

"Yes I have, ehm (he cleared his throat), Your Honor."

"Did you go home last night?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"And did you engage in the marital act with your wife?"

"No, Your Honor."

"Why not?"

"Your Honor, she said no and no means no where I grew up."

"Are you sure? She called here this morning and said you locked yourself in a separate bedroom."

"I was changing, Your Honor."

"Was the door locked?"

"I only closed it, Your Honor."

"Yes or No Mr. Cooper."

"No, Your Honor."

"I'm having trouble believing you, Mr. Cooper. How do you expect your wife to be able to get pregnant with you behind a locked door?"

"Your Honor, I was taking off my clothes, Your Honor. I begged her to have sex with me, Your Honor. I tried to have sex with her, Your Honor. She refused me, Your Honor."

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No, Your Honor. That's what happened, Your Honor."

"Counsel, I think your client needs another course in how to address a judge."

"I apologize, Your Honor. He is making an effort. And he did sign up for the anger management class."

"Has he visited the fertility clinic yet?"

"Not yet, Your Honor."

"Your client is asking for an annulment on very specific grounds. I won't be ready to rule one way or the other until I'm satisfied that's what's really going on."

"Your Honor, according to my client, he did attempt to engage sexually with his wife last night but she rebuffed him. This just proves again what he's been saying. She refused to have sex with him and refuses to give him children."

"She just didn't want to put out on the first date."

"They've been married for more than seven years, Your Honor."

"Mr. Cooper, I want you in that house. Maybe after you and your wife have tried for a child at least once I'll consider lifting the home incarceration."

...

All he really had to do was lie. It was a small thing to lie. Men all throughout history had lied about sleeping with women when they really hadn't. All Henry needed to do was lie. He could just lie and say he had sex with Keiko and then it would be over.

Ok, ... Not completely over but that would be a huge step towards it being over. Now that he'd had a taste of freedom from her he really didn't want to go back even if being away from her meant a holding cell only slightly bigger than a coffin.

It was sort of funny in a way. Keiko really did not want to have kids but he'd almost hate her more if she did. Then she could just raise his child all by herself while Henry wasted away behind bars.

Henry sat in the park and a familiar face came to sit next to him. The broker handed him a copy of the instructions that Henry had written up. Good. With that he could leave at least something of a legacy for himself.

"How much did they take?" Henry asked.

"Technically they didn't take anything but it's all frozen."

"How much is there now?"

"A lot actually. Some of the shares that might have looked like nothing more than penny stocks at the time have gone up in value considerably since then."

"Can I get access to any of it?"

"No. It's all frozen. And I'll also tell you, your wife has been to see me. I couldn't give her any information of course but she's not stupid."

"Damn. I need that annulment."

"I'm really sorry this kind of thing happened to you. And I'm sorry if it might seem that we're not on the same side."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll have to testify at your trial. I like you. I do. But I don't know what they're going to ask me when I get up there."

"Just tell the truth. That's how it's supposed to work."

"They were particularly interested in a comment you made about money being your job. You can bet they'll try and use that against you. They also asked me over and over again about your wife's consulting business. Near as I can figure it, she's going to say she passed you some secret information about one of her clients."

"She doesn't have any clients."

"It's easy to fake a paper trail to make it look like she does. They can make it look like just about anyone is her client if they really want to railroad you. They'll concoct some story about you stealing data from your company and using information provided by your wife to set up the deal."

After the meeting in the park he met a girl at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Merissa was so happy to see him again that she started crying right there. As Henry hugged her he noticed that she was dressed a lot more conservatively than he remembered of her. Henry told her some of what he'd gone through but didn't have the courage to tell her about the beating he'd taken. Now that he had a cell phone again it made it so much easier to contact people and set up meetings.

"We're really going to have a baby?"

She nodded. "My dad was always telling me it only takes one time." She pulled out several ultrasound pictures to show him. This was real. Henry was going to really be a father. It was sort of a big moment.

"Ok. The baby is my number one concern."

"I think your number one concern should be staying out of jail."

"I can see how you might feel that way but actually, no. I'll make sure you're taken care of."

When the time rolled around for Henry to have to report back to the bitch Merissa didn't want to let him go.

Henry walked into his wife's house with a pair of earphones playing a relaxing saxophone tune from his phone. His wife started saying something but Henry couldn't hear her. She apparently didn't know he couldn't hear her because she just kept talking as Henry walked into the kitchen and put the left over Chinese from his lunch date with Merissa into the fridge. It made Henry feel very good to bring that home, show it to his wife while he knew what it symbolized and she didn't.

After that, even though his wife tried to get in his way, he walked around her to the living room. The TV his wife was using was pretty big. Henry inspected it for a USB port. A lot of these new TVs could play basic video files and he had an interesting one to share with his wife.

With his new laptop he downloaded a porn film and put it on a USB stick. Now he just hoped it was the right kind of file for the TV to understand.

The file did play but instead of filling up the entire screen, there was a pretty thick black frame around the film. Henry was a bit disappointed but just so long as the video played it was ok. He got his cock out and started stroking it.

Then he heard a very loud pop and pain went through his inner ear. His wife had pulled one of his headphones out.

"What the hell, Keiko."

"What are you doing?"

Before answering he pulled out his phone and turned off the app playing the music. No need wasting the battery. He certainly wasn't going to charge it here where his wife might do something to it. "Trying to get you in the mood." he said finally. Somehow Henry could tell just from how his wife was talking to him that his sister must not be there.

"Ugh. I'm not having sex with you."

"The only reason I'm here is to have sex. Now if you don't want to do that then I might as well go back to the jail."

"Sex isn't going to solve our problems."

"You sure?" he said as he reached for her hand but she pulled away from him.

"What we really need is to talk and you need to agree to certain things."

"I'm not here to agree to anything. I'm here to get you pregnant." He made another move towards her.

"Henry, no. And turn off that filth."

Sigh. "Keiko, stop jerking me around."

"I'm not jerking you."

"If you don't want to have kids with me then let the annulment go through so I can have kids with someone else."

"As if. Who would even want you? If I hadn't married you; you'd be alone, broke, and probably dead by now."

"Look, don't do me any favors. Just get naked so we can get this baby in you."

"I'm not having sex with you. And I'm never going to have children with you. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly. So why didn't you tell the judge that?"

"Because you don't get to leave me. If a divorce is going to happen then I'm leaving you."

"Such hate. What did I ever do to you?"

"You embarrassed me. You made me feel like a stupid bimbo for getting married to you in the first place. Now the least you could do is fulfill your obligations but you can't even do that right. If you did have a child you'd probably neglect it the same way you neglected me and then the thing would end up in foster care. Thankfully that will never happen because there isn't a woman on earth that would touch you, much less go through maternity for you."

"You wanna bet?"

"What?!"

"You don't want to have kids and I do. You think no woman would ever want to have sex with me."

"Only prostitutes maybe."

"Well, then let's make a bet."

"What bet?"

"If I can get another woman to want to be with me, marry me, and have children with me then you'll back off and let the annulment go through."

"Prostitutes don't count."

"I'm not talking about a prostitute. I'm talking about a woman who falls in love with me."

"No woman would ever fall in love with you."

"So then bet."

"And if I win, then you drop the annulment, I file for divorce, and I take everything. You pay me alimony and pay off the mortgage on the house. I'm thinking $10,000 a month sounds about right."

"Are you kidding? From prison. I'm going to pay you from prison."

"I don't care how you do it. Buy some more stocks or whatever you did."