The Trustworthy Friends

"That's right," my father ruefully said. "I got video evidence even though I knew that it couldn't be used in court. I was disgusted and didn't know what to do. I knew that if I gave you the information to confront Bryce that things would get really ugly, especially since you – and your Mom and me – had become so attached to Gail and Jill. I was sure that Jake was clueless too. That's when I decided to make the fucking troika disappear."

That was the first time I could remember my father ever saying "fucking."

"You didn't kill them, did you Dad?" I asked in horror after I got over the shock of my father's statement.

"No – but I made sure that they weren't coming back, at least not until you and Jake got divorced and you got custody of Gail and Jill."

"What did you do?" I asked, still in horror.

"They were sent to a private penal colony in Africa which requires charity work by all 'guests.' The people who end up there are selfish assholes who only think of themselves. They are re-conditioned to care about helping other people."

"Are they physically or sexually abused?" I inquired, still in horror.

"Not sexually, but they can be physically if they don't toe the line. The people who run the colony are a weird order of monks – most eunuchs – who have a different take on religion. Since each 'guest' must be supported by who sent him or her there, I have had control over how they were treated. I got short videos every month and even sent emissaries there twice. They have not been sexually abused ever, and only were physically punished the two times that they tried to escape. Most recent reports indicate that they are now happy with their life of service."

Suddenly I felt pity for all three, despite their ridiculous betrayal of me.

"Do they even know what's happened here? That Gail and Jill are my kids, and that Jake and I have divorced Bryce and Bernice?"

"Yes, I sent information about things – including short videos of the kids – a couple of times a year. They know that life as they knew it here is now forever gone."

With that I stumbled out of Dad's bedroom; I looked like so much of a zombie that Mom drove me home – in silence – got a cab back to her house and promised to pick up the kids from school and have them over for dinner.

I know that my father was distraught by my reaction, but I considered what he did almost as bad as what the fucking triumvirate had done, even if what he did was out of love for me, and what they had done was out of anything but love.

That Saturday Jake knew that something was wrong as I just went through the motions and most of the responsibility for the kids fell upon him and my housekeeper – who I paid to stay the weekend. That night in bed for the first time we didn't fuck. Jake cuddled me as I sobbed.

"Jake, I want to tell you what's wrong – but I can't just yet; but I promise I will at some time."

"I know, Amy; just relax; cry yourself to sleep," he tenderly replied as he caressed my head. Eventually I did fall asleep on his shoulder, and woke up in the same position the next morning.

******************

I made peace with my father before he died – which was two weeks after his kidnapping revelation to me. His funeral was sad in general, but especially for my Mom, Gail, Jill, and – maybe surprisingly, maybe not – Sadie.

Two weekends after my father's funeral I made arrangements to – with the help of a professional nanny/helper – take the five kids away for the weekend. Before I made the arrangements I had a talk with Jake.

"Jake – do you want to find out about how and why Bryce, Bernice and Cindy disappeared?"

"You know? He skeptically asked. "Is that what has been bothering you?"

"Yes, and yes," I replied. "However, you'll have to promise not to tell anyone else without my permission, and sign a contract to that effect."

"You're serious, aren't you?" he gulped.

"Yes – here's the contract, in duplicate," I said handing to him a one page contract that my attorney had drafted. He read it over, I called in a Notary who I had waiting in my vestibule, we both signed it and had it notarized, I gave him one copy and put the other in my safe.

"This weekend, look at the first fifteen minutes of this DVD," I said, handing him a copy of what I had gotten from my father's safe – the original was in my safe. "You can watch more if you want to. Once you've watched what you want to watch, put this CD in your computer and look at it. I warn you, however, that the disc can only be played once and then it is erased, so make sure that you have the opportunity to hear the whole thing and listen carefully, because it will not replay nor will I tell you what it says."

I had recorded on the CD what had happened to Bernice et al and had a techie program it to permanently self-erase after it was played once.

"OK," he said, giving me and each of the five kids a hug goodbye as we took off in his van for the weekend.

I tried to put my angst behind me and enjoyed kayaking, wilderness hikes, fishing, and campfires with the kids for two days and two nights. When we returned Monday morning – a holiday – Jake was waiting at my house.

We had a slumber party that night, Jake took off work on Tuesday so that we could have a pow-wow, and Monday night we fucked with an urgency and passion not experienced since the first time that we fucked. This included Jake reciprocating a lubricated butt plug in my ass while he was fucking me doggy and while I was handcuffed to the headboard in the guest room – a combination I had never experienced before, but which produced a volume of endorphins that was off the charts.

After we dropped the kids off at school on Tuesday Jake and I nervously sat in my den, unlike when we established our friends-with-benefits relationship not knowing what the other was thinking.

Finally Jake said something. "Despite the depravity on the DVD, I want to say goodbye to Bernice."

That took me aback. "I want to say goodbye to Bryce, and to tell Cindy that her kids will be the best taken care of kids in the world," I replied.

That shocked Jake.

"We can't go see them unless we tell our kids what is going on," he responded.

"You're right. Let's talk to them Saturday," I replied.

"I thought that this talk might take all day," Jake said with a diabolical grin on his face. "Whatever should we do the rest of the day," he said as he approached me.

"Oh no you don't you bastard," I yelled, trying to run out of the den. Of course he caught me, and we made a point of at least some fucking or sucking in every room of the house – including the utility room. The bastard put me on top of the washing machine and put it on the spin cycle as he fucked me, rendering me comatose for a good fifteen minutes. We culminated our activities with a pool fuck.

*************

That Saturday we partially laid it out for the kids. We simply told them that Bernice and Cindy were probably still alive, that there was little likelihood that they were coming back, but if they wanted to see them they could come with us to Africa. Jill, Gail, Alicé, and Brian wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Jill and Gail cried on my shoulders at the same time. "You're our Mommy – we don't want to see that other Mommy again, ever."

Alicé was as adamant as Jill and Gail, although more angry than crying. Brian didn't remember Bernice and simply wasn't interested. Sophisticated Sadie, on the other hand, said "Yes – I'd like to see her one more time. I can miss a week of school."

We got in touch with the contact my father had given me. All three of the fucking trio was officially released from the penal camp. Bernice still lived in the area with her new husband and continued her volunteer work. Bryce and Cindy were now married to each other and living in South Africa and had become South African citizens, but were willing to travel back to the general area of the private penal colony to meet with us. We arranged to meet in Gaborone, Botswana, only fifteen kilometers from the South African border.

The meeting was strange. Bernice looked very different than she used to; she had put on a fair amount of weight, which made her tits even bigger, although she wasn't close to obese. Her face was still beautiful, but had clearly aged. Sadie was the only one to recognize her immediately, and gave her a big hug. "How are you Mom?" she asked, totally emotionally together.

"Much different than I used to be," she wanly smiled.

Jake and I hugged her too, only much more gingerly than Sadie had.

Bryce now had a beard and looked to have aged about twice as many years as had actually passed, but he was still in good shape. Cindy looked little different than the last time that I saw her.

We ate collectively, and then met individually the next day. Bryce apologized for not being the husband that he should have been, and for being duplicitous. I apologized for my father having him kidnapped. He was philosophical. "I'm much less self-centered than I used to be. My primary goal now is to help other people. I'm sorry that I fell in love with Cindy – I've given her what I never did you, commitment, and I will be eternally sorry for that."

"I forgive you and her; and I hope that you're happy together," I genuinely replied.

My meeting with Cindy was similar to my one with Bryce, including exchanges of forgiveness. "You were always a great friend to me, Amy; I'm sorry that I was about as far from a trustworthy friend as I could have been."

Cindy was very happy to hear that I had adopted Gail and Jill and that they were doing great. I left with her about fifty recent photos of them as well as a recent video that showed Gail playing field hockey and the piano, and Jill playing basketball and making a speech accepting her second place finish in a regional Science Fair.

Bryce and Jake were standoffish although they did give each other perfunctory hugs two times. I wasn't privy to what Sadie and Jake individually talked with Bernice about, although they seemed to come to terms. Bernice was now married to a businessman in Botswana and had another child. While she was interested in hearing about Brian and Alicé, it wasn't with the same enthusiasm that Cindy displayed.

As we parted, Bryce whispered a startling statement to me. "I see that you're in love with Jake – you should marry him."

When I broke away flabbergasted, I looked over at Cindy, who was standing a couple of feet away. She smiled and nodded her head.

When we were driven to the airport, Sadie completely carried the conversation. Jake and I both seemed to be on another planet, although I caught most of what Sadie said even if I wasn't a great conversationalist.

I was very grateful that we had gone when we got home, and even more grateful to be home. Bryce, Cindy, and Bernice were now no longer visible in my rear view mirror. Gail and Jill were anxious to tell me what they had been doing while my Mom and Jake's parents had been taking care of the four kids at my house, and it was obvious that the three grandparents were exhausted from all of the activity. Gail and Jill didn't even inquire about Cindy, however, so I never brought her up even though I had photos of her that she had given me.

The next week, the only thing that lingered in my mind was Bryce's final comment to me, apparently seconded by Cindy. How could they think that Jake and I were in love? We weren't affectionate around them, even though we were both very affectionate toward Sadie.

Jake's clan arrived after sports on Friday night for a two night sleepover even though Jake was out of town on Friday night, but would be returning first thing Saturday morning to do his part in transporting kids to and from events. After the four youngest kids had gone to bed, now thirteen-going-on-thirty-five Sadie sat up with me.

"Amy; I've changed my mind," she said with a lilt in her voice.

"About what, honey?" I questioned.

"About whether I want you as a friend or Mom. Seeing my birth mother I realized that you're really what a Mother should be as far as I'm concerned. I want you and Dad to get married, and I want to call you Mom, and have you around all of the time to share my thoughts and ups and downs with."

I was even more flabbergasted than when Bryce had said something similar.

"I'm sure that your Dad isn't on board with that," I force laughed.

"Oh, well he's thinking about it after Bernice told him that she thought that he was in love with you, and that the kids needed him to marry you," she said nonchalantly – followed by a big grin.

"Bernice said that?" I stammered.

"Yeah; and I've noticed that Dad looks at you differently than he did when you and he first started having sex. I'm sure that he still loves sex with you – but I think that now it's more than that." Then after a pregnant pause she chimed "Think about it –– Mom," and then gave me a quick kiss and went off to bed.

By the time that Jake got there the next morning I was a nervous wreck. I didn't know if Sadie had a talk with him too, I didn't know what his real feelings were, and I certainly didn't know what mine were. We spent most of the day Saturday with kid activities, and got take out for dinner we were so wiped out. When we kissed the kids good night Sadie hugged me even tighter than normally and whispered "Talk to Dad tonight – I really want you as my Mom," and then smiled widely as we separated.

I smiled ruefully.

Jake came down from reading Brian a story – he was the last one to want one, but now slept in his own room, not in Sadie's. He found me sipping a brandy. I offered him one.

"I might have to get drunk to talk with you about something," he said after his second snifter of cordial, putting the movie we were watching on mute.

My eyes got wide.

"I know that Sadie told you what Bernice said as we parted."

I sheepishly nodded my head. "Bryce and Cindy told me the same thing," I blurted out, and then wished that I hadn't, especially in view of the traumatized look on Jake's face. "What do they see what we don't?" I asked.

"Uh...Amy...for me that statement is in the past tense. It should be what do they – and Sadie – see that I previously didn't."

I gulped hard. "Have your views changed?"

"Yeah – paraphrasing Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when confronted by Darcy at the end – 'my views have undergone such a material change...' yada, yada, yada."

"I don't think that 'yada, yada, yada," was in any Jane Austen book," I snickered.

"Well should we?" he seemingly nonchalantly asked.

"Is that how you ask a woman to marry you, you clod?" I sneered, throwing a decorative couch pillow at him.

"No, I have another way," he sneered back. He was on me in two strides, lifted me up causing me to drop my thankfully almost empty brandy glass on the rug, and fireman-carried me up the stairs as I more playfully than angrily hit him on his back and swore at him.

He threw me down on my bed, literally ripped my clothes off, kissed me ferociously, and fucked me with my heels on his shoulders. After massive simultaneous orgasms, he collapsed next to me and I snuggled up to his chest. Five minutes later he lifted up my chin and stared into my soul more than my eyes.

"Amy; I've fallen in love with you. Even if you don't love me, for my sake, for Sadie's sake, for Alicé's sake, and for Brian's sake, please marry me."

"Where's my ring?" I asked.

He reached onto the floor and pulled a multi-colored plastic ring out of his pants pocket. "Arcade's finest plastic," her purred as he held it over my ring finger on my left hand.

"Well...I guess if it's an Arcade's finest...and since I realized yesterday that I love you too, more than I loved Bryce...I guess that I have to accept."

He put the ring on my finger, we kissed, we fucked again, and just before we fell asleep he mumbled "Get off birth control ASAP. We badly need a sixth kid and you need a biological one."

"Shit, I guess that I'm going to have to get full time help with six kids," I mused just before I fell asleep, with a grin on my face and a smile in my heart.