Escalating

"Bro, Jenny didn't deny any of that. She glanced at me with a guilty look on her face and then just looked at the floor. That tells me that it all started well before the party.

"I will say this, though, if she actually remembered everything that happened, she should've won an Oscar for her performance when she watched that video. She seemed completely surprised, devastated and ashamed. She feels guilt even now. If she was and is faking it, she missed her calling as an actress.

"Bro, I would like so much to have this conversation with Adele. There was a time when I would have been comfortable with it, but not now. She's much too fragile now. I think she may be thinking the same things that I am. She knows what she said and did on that video. Don't you think that she's asking herself if that video showed an aberration, or did it reveal the real Adele?

"That's the big question, Bro, that's the question. If that was the real Adele showing through, then the beast is just in hibernation. I'll have to face it again when it wakes up. It could be just a little while, perhaps even with Rocky again. Or, it could be years from now with some other 'Rocky.' All I can do is keep watch out of the corner of my eye, always hoping that her behavior was indeed, an aberration.

"Here's the thing, what if when I'm gone to a convention or an out-of-town meeting, Rocky knocks on our door. What will Adele do? I think I know, but then I thought I knew her before and I may have been dead wrong. What would she do, Jerry?"

"Jim, from what I've learned so far, I think she would tell him to 'go to hell' and slam the door in his face."

"I hope you're right, Bro. I hope you're right."

He confided in Jerry that he'd made another visit to see Dr. Reynolds, unbeknown to Adele. "I told him what I mentioned to you about the fact that Adele participated fully in those sex acts with Rocky and seemed to be in control of what she said to him. She didn't seem to fit the description of 'unresponsive' at all.

"Dr. Reynolds told me that he'd handled fifteen cases like ours. He reminded me that he'd given us the summaries of those cases. Eight of them worked out fine, since both the husband and wife had been successful at shifting the blame to the drugs. The sexual escapade was never repeated by any of those women. The marriages survived and flourished.

"Of the seven cases where either the husband, the wife or both didn't shift the blame, not one marriage survived. Two cases had neither audio or video evidence of the encounter. Of the other five, two had video with audio and three had audio only. In three of the cases, the victim was very passive with no sign of participation.

"There were two cases that were like yours. One had video with audio and one had audio only. In both of those cases, the victim was actively participating and even seemingly enjoying the encounter, even though it was proven that drugs were active in their system at the time.

"Your case is our third one like that. You're the only spouse that has come to me questioning my conclusion that the encounter was an aberration. I have to admit that it's possible that some people may be immune to the drugs or somehow be able to overcome them. I just don't know. In the case of Adele, she did pass out from the drugs after she got home, so she wasn't immune to them.

"If you hadn't discovered that she'd passed out, we could be looking at something much worse than what we're facing now. It' s a mystery, Jim. I can't tell you with certainty if she knew what was happening or not. I tend to believe Adele, but I understand your questioning of what we saw and heard on that video.

"Here's what I do know, in those two cases that I mentioned where it seemed like the women were willing participants, both of them committed suicide.

"They couldn't overcome the guilt and the self-loathing. They couldn't handle the fact that their husbands didn't believe them when they said that they didn't remember the encounter at all. They couldn't face the divorce that they knew was in their future. In one case, a young four-year-old son, lost his mother.

"I've been hoping that your case would be an exception. I think it depends entirely on whether or not you support your wife in this, Jim. It's just that simple.

"I hope that you can appreciate why I withheld the outcome of those cases from Adele. In my opinion, she's not ready to handle it. Know this, Jim, it's still my professional opinion that Adele would never had cheated on you had she not been drugged."

Jim told Jerry that he had to agree with Dr. Reynolds that Adele would not benefit by hearing about those suicides. He also told his brother that he felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility after hearing about those suicides.

He went on to mention that Dr. Reynolds wasn't going to charge a single cent for his services as long as he was kept abreast of how their case was progressing. The doctor was writing-off their case as research.

With tears in his eyes, Jim continued, "I know that I'm seriously overthinking all of this! From this day forward, I'm just going to be thankful that we weathered this storm. I'm going to stop thinking about all of this as much as humanly possible.

"I'm sure as hell not going to get her fitted for a GPS ankle bracelet. I have no alternative but to trust her. I can't monitor her every move or restrict her activities. At the very least, I just hope that we can hold it together long enough to let us raise our girls in a loving and stable environment."

At that point, Jim looked skyward as he shook his fist and exclaimed, "God, can we at least have that?"

Adele is back to normal in most ways. She's turned down every invitation to hang-out after work. She values time with her family more than ever. She realizes what all of them nearly lost. Most of all, she's thankful for the support she's getting from her husband.

From her actions so far, it really appears that the encounter with Rocky was, indeed, an aberration.

Is their marriage back to normal? Not completely, but it's getting better every day. There's still some guilt on her part and some trepidation on his, but all in all, they're nearly back to normal.

His thoughts still darken, sometimes right in the middle of their love making. That's happening less and less as time goes by. Now, when that happens, he uses his new big tool.

Hey, get you mind out of the gutter. He uses his new psychological tool. He shifts the blame and continues without missing a beat, or more accurately, a thrust!

Despite his resolve to move forward, he's always watching out of the corner of his eye. So far, so good. Nothing even remotely suspicious.

Yes, things are definitely better. Making love is easier. It's nearly as easy as it was before the party and Rocky. There is, however, one thing that just keeps getting harder and harder... but that's the way Adele likes it!

BTW, Adele got the promotion.

THE END