Two Brothers and the Girl

Now even her parents were refusing to answer her calls. She had called them five times to find out if they had heard anything about their granddaughters. Even her text messages were not be responded to. She was wondering just what they knew.

Beth knew she had to find a way to bridge the wide divide between her and James. They needed to start talking it all out. She picked up the phone and called him to find out if he had heard anything about their daughters. He answered on the third ring.

"James have you heard anything about the kids," She asked.

"No, I haven't," he said. "But I don't think you need to worry."

"Why do you feel that way," She asked."

"Because if they are as lucky as you, they will be picked up by a man like John," He said. "Who will train them both to be eager and willing sluts like John did to you."

Beth ended the call and sat there in her car crying her eyes out. James had just pointed out cruelly just how most probably saw John's and her relationship.

James had made it quite clear before, that was his greatest fear. That his daughters were going to become nothing but easy sluts. That's why he had said what he did. Because John, until he had got reconnected with her, was known to always have a whore on his arms. In James' eyes, John had just moved the biggest one ever into his home.

She felt ashamed. She felt used and owned in a way she never had experienced before. It was then she realized how different the two men she had loved were. One wanted her to be a better person in a life filled with quality and love, the other, the image of the first but a woman who dressed and acted with class but was a sexy slut and be acceptable to doing everything.

To become what John wanted in a relationship she had sold the morals and principles that she had grown up with and everybody now knew it. She had turned her wild-child youth into her walk in life.

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It was a celebration at my mother's place as my teenage daughters could not keep themselves from me. Beth's parents and I didn't say a word, but we all hugged each other a lot. For all of us, it had been a very trying four days.

The girls were delighted to see Aunt Connie and Uncle Tom. During the meal, we told the girls about our temporary plans until the divorce was done. They were both delighted about it.

With what was going on we decided to leave the business matters until tomorrow.

Beth's father and I were taking a walk outside on the property so we could talk in private.

"James how long as my daughter and your brother's relationship being going on," He asked?

"From what I just learned I can say off and on since the time the first time I brought her home, from the wild party, my brother was attending. Beth admitted that John had been her date that night."

My father in law's eyes teared up, and he replied with a broken voice, "Then why did Beth start chasing you?"

"I have to believe that John and Beth were not serious about each other back then," I said. "That night saw me in a different light. The first few years of married life were good. I think John started desiring what I had and started chasing her."

"John was always the more aggressive one between the two of you," Beth's dad observed. "It made him mad that you were doing so well in your personal life. Your father told me a long time ago that John felt he was always trying to live up to you because your standards and approach to things was so high."

"I never knew that," I said. "It's sad that John had to pull Beth down with him in the fall he has created for himself. The police will be seizing his computer sometime this week. If he has what we believe he has on it. Beth will end up getting what she desired to give me, supervised visitation of her daughters."

"After what she has done," Beth's dad said. "She deserves it. Some have to learn the hard way you reap what you sow."

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I was late getting to the office Tuesday morning because I was being selfish. I was enjoying being reconnected with my beautiful daughters. My mother was glowing with excitement because it had been a long time since she had a girls day out with her granddaughters.

When I walked through the doors to our main office location the employee's where lined up and clapping. Carl Robertson was at the end of the line with Mary and Joanne with him. All three shook my hand. I told Carl that as soon as the President's office was redone and set up that we would redo the Vice President's office according to his wishes.

That morning, in the business section of the daily newspaper the announcement came out about me being appointed as president and the promotion of Carl as a vice president since John Tait was no longer with the organization. That's when the phone started ringing. Both Carl and I were swamped with new business opportunities that were coming in.

Joanne and Mary learned that most were because of the fact that John was no longer associated with the company. It seems that he was not well-liked generally. It made me wonder just how much business he had cost the firm over the years.

I left the office that day and went to pick up the rest of my clothes from my former home. I had called mom and knew they were still out shopping. I had been there half an hour and was loading up the trunk of the car when I got attacked from behind.

Big brother had shown up. The last time we had fought, he had beat me badly. I grabbed the tire iron and swung down to the side of his leg. With that blow hitting him he released me. I guess a neighbor had seen it and called the cops. Who came to break us up.

By that time neither one of us in the greatest of the condition but at least I was still standing. The cops could tell that John had been drinking. Being the aggressor, they put him under arrest. I collapsed and woke up in the hospital.

I learned I had cracked ribs that had popped out, but they thought given a couple of days rest they would resettle back in place. A lot of internal bleeding, my body was black and blue with bruises so was my face. My mother said I looked like the diseased characters from the movie 'Soylent Green.'

John was going to be charged with aggravated assault. My daughters were upset emotionally because of how I looked and what happened.

"Bijou and Bree what happened to me resulted because your Mother and your Uncle have been acting out their emotions because they can't control them. People being led like that, lose the ability to see things logically," I said. "It causes them, in the long run, to make their situation worse. I will recover but with the long term damage they are doing to themselves they may not."

The girls and my mother stayed with me until I drifted off to sleep.

Connie, Mom, and Tom came into the hospital room I was placed in the next morning. In order to get the loan Tom wanted, we were required to agree to expand into the northern part of the state. It seems one of our competitors north of us was in financial trouble and unable to find the funds they required. As a result, they had just filed for chapter seven bankruptcy. The company was being liquidated because debts way exceeded the value of all assets.

He was suggesting we step in and offer to complete all their existing contracts and make a low ball offer on all their existing equipment and buildings.

I said, Why don't we just buy controlling interests in their shares?"

Tom explained that their debt load was just too great and then we would be stuck with their union contracts which were loaded with high pensions and medical commitments which would end up putting us in the same boat.

Mom then shocked the three of us completely when she said, "James has been the de facto president of the company for years. We all know that. When Jacob was alive it was James who was carrying the load and he knew it. Even though James talked to him daily to keep him informed and to get his approval, it was James who was running the show. Tom, I want to gift James the twenty-seven percent of the shares needed to give him complete control because we can't guarantee that John will agree to sell. The rest I am giving to Connie."

"We all know that I have enough, thanks to James' wisdom in handing my investments, to live on comfortably for the rest of my life," She said. "Does anyone have any problem with that?"

"I do," I said. "If we are going to go that big, I will only agree to all of this if Tom finally comes aboard as our Chief Financial Officer. I know it might be a dent in his pay but that's the sacrifice he will just have to accept."

Connie got tears in her eyes because our father had never truly accepted Tom as part of the family. There was just something in Tom's personality that had stuck in my father's crawl. Just the offer by me to Tom meant everything to her.

"Hell," I added. "I will even throw in the cost of your move and pay for the house you will have to buy if you say yes."

Tom was flabbergasted. He didn't know what to say. The firm he worked for was always advising and wheeling and dealing with putting things together for someone else. Sure, he made good money, but he knew that James would pay him just as much as John had made and that was a hell of a lot more."

Connie looked at her husband and said, "Just don't stand there say something."

Tom walked up to the side of the bed and offered me his hand. "I accepted it" and as we shook, he said, "I'd be honored to come aboard."

Mom was ecstatic her only daughter was moving home. After they left, I called Carl and informed him what the plans were going forward. I learned that the company assets and contracts we were going after had been supported by some, in the State Capital. Carl believed that there were a lot of paybacks being done by them under the table. I made it clear that if the court accepted our offer the name changes and all things related to it had to be done quickly.

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They released me on Friday. My mother was there to pick me up and drive me to my house so I could finish packing and get the car. Connie would be flying in to begin looking for a house in the morning. My body had started to heal. My divorce lawyer having heard about the beating I had taken, had gotten a restraining order served on both Beth and John. The in-laws had been up to visit three times.

"It's been a quiet three days," Mom said. "I'm glad because it's given the girls time to adjust. It's been a long time since I had to explain the difference between the choices people make and the consequences that go with it."

"How are my daughters emotionally," I asked?

"They're handling it better than I would have," She said. "Yet they will both need some private quality time with you alone."

"Then they shall have the whole weekend with me if that's what it takes," I said. "Before I come back to the house I'm going to stop and pick up the material from the motor vehicle office so Bree can start studying for her learners."

"Tom has given his notice and has completed the valuation of the company," Mom said. "Connie will be bringing the report and his firm's bill. They offered him a huge raise in an attempt to keep him, but he turned it down flat saying his sign-on bonus was a brand new house."

"Mom, Tom has the knowledge we need to put this big growth together smoothly," I said. "Besides bringing him into the family business was long overdue."

"If you felt that way, why wasn't it done before," Mom asked?

"I couldn't do it, the president wouldn't approve it," I said.

We finally arrived at my house. I got out of the car and thanked her and headed in. After opening the front door, I grabbed the mail. In the pile of mostly junk was a letter from Beth. After reading it I threw in the garbage. It was too little too late and I did not believe any of it. How can anyone be sorry for what they did deliberately?

I called a cleaning service and arranged for them to come in remove all the food, clean the place and shut the water and all equipment off. I gave them the access code to shut off the alarm and said I would drop off a key in about two hours.

It took me about an hour to finish packing all my clothes and personal stuff. Before leaving I decided to shave some parts of my face. It was time for a new look, so l left the growth for a nice mustache and a goatee.

David called me to inform me they had just raided John's place and seized his computer. John's lawyer was in negotiations in trying to get the charges reduced for a guilty plea.

My daughters were already back from school at mom's when I got there. Both of them help me move the rest of my clothing in and put it away. Afterward, the three of us just laid on the queen size bed and cuddled while we had a very long chat.

One of the things that came up was the act of having sex.

I said, "When you have sex for sex purposes it is basically to satisfy your own animalistic needs. In making love you are putting the needs and satisfaction of the other first. In doing that you are strengthening the physical and emotional bond with your significant other."

"What drew Uncle John and mom together," Bijou asked? "Was it love or just the sexual attraction they had for each other?"

"Your uncle desired what I had," I said. "He instead of quenching it, he allowed it to build until it forced him to act on it. Your mother may have been overpowered by him at first but found herself attracted by the animal nature of it. After that first raw session together each time they saw each other the remembrance of that day drew them towards each other. Over time that desire forced them into a long terms relationship which required them to lie and deceive everyone around them."

I was worried that I might have made it sound complicated, but I was surprised for Bree said, "Basically they each bought what the other was advertising instead of having enough morals to walk away."

"What do you mean by that," said Bijou?

"My red dress that you desire so much," Bree said. "I keep taunting you with it because I know you want it. That's what mom and uncle john did. Instead of the red dress, they used their physical appearance to taunt each other."

Bree then got up and left the room. When she came back, she had the red dress that Bijou wanted.

Handing it to her sister she said, 'What I did was just as wrong as what they did but to a different degree. I'm sorry sis the dress is yours."

With that, I got off the bed and opened up the top drawer in the dresser and grabbed the booklet and said as I tossed it to Bree, "You best start studying that because you can get your learners in three months.

Bree squealed in delight, "Thank you, Daddy."

My girls were growing up. Both had learned a very important concept of life and I was very proud of them.

Mom had asked the kids what they wanted for supper and they had said Mac and Cheese. It was a hoot when we got served the old fashioned type that had been baked in the oven, along with a very nice pork chop and baked beans.

After supper knowing that I was still weak and still in recovery I called it a night and went to bed early. It was around midnight that Bijou crawled in beside me. As I pulled her into me to cuddle her, I couldn't help thinking that Beth would have used something as innocent as this as proof of child molestation.

Connie came home bearing an exciting gift for me which was greatly appreciated. In his evenings at home, he had completed the proposal for the bankruptcy court and all it needed was my signature, for it be sent in. If it was approved, we would gain a hundred and twenty-three new locations and would double our size.

Carl and I reviewed it on Monday morning and discussed the pros and cons of it. After signing it I had Joanne scan it in for our records. She sent it out to the State Capital where the bankruptcy Judge who was handling it was located by same day courier.

As soon as it was picked up, she came in to inform of me of that fact, as she was heading back out, I said, "Joanne I informed payroll that you're now on a salary of seventy thousand a year effective the current pay period. I told them your position is now considered junior management."

It was a real pleasure to see Joanne's eyes tear up in pure joy.

About three o'clock in the afternoon Joanne came into my office and closed the door.

"James, we need to talk privately for a few." She said. "David wanted to let you know what's going on so is using me as the messenger."

I stopped what I was doing and got up and walked around to the front of the desk. After moving one of the chairs I set down right across from her.

"You got my undivided attention," I said.

"The images are of all girls who were underage between the ages of fifteen to eighteen," Joanne explained. "All of them are local girls. David is looking for them to find out what their story is. David feels it might be a trophy list of all the girls whose virginity he has taken because Beth's picture was one of them. He wants to see if John had the same pattern of behavior with them all."

"I'm not surprised," I said. "A few of the workers when I was growing up had said that John had pictures of some of his conquests. Beth at seventeen would mean that John would have been twenty-three so it could legally be considered as statutory rape."

"It does point out a pattern of behavior that David feels can be used as an advantage in your divorce," Joanne disclosed. "It would mean that you would have to attack his motive's directly by implying that the only reason he wanted Beth to move in was so it could give him easy access to your daughters."

"With what we are learning about John since his removal from the company," I said. "I will have no problem doing that the problem is how to do it."

"David will have to write up an official internal report," Joanne explained. "It will be up to the district attorney to decided what he is going to do with the information. David will bring a copy of it on a disk home which I will get to you."

"Sounds good to me and tell David I owe him one," I said.

"When I called David to inform him about what you had done, he was overwhelmed by your generosity. We both know that was one hell of a raise"

"Mary has been rewarded too," I said. "Just not as much as you, as Carl's assistant, she is now junior management too. Connie's husband is coming aboard as our first Chief Financial Officers. I want Mary and you to find the most qualified assistant, one within our current staff that the two of you feel could fit in the best with you two. When you have picked her the three of us will sit down with her and explain what her new responsibilities will include, if she agrees to become part of the management team. We will use the empty offices where we have John's former furniture stored. We will use it for them."

"You're really changing things for the better," she said. "Why?"

"We very shortly might be doubling our size and going statewide. There are going to be days when the upper management will be tied up or out of the office." I explained. "As our executive assistants, you three will be once you are fully set up and fully trained be making decisions on our behalf."

"So, we better make sure that Mary and I can trust the one that we pick," She said. "Like you trust us."

"Any problems regarding Mary and the new girl is part of your new responsibility. It will be you they deal with," I said. "If you can't solve it remember you can always ask me for my advice."

Joanne walked out of the office with the proudest look I had ever seen. When I left for the day Mary and Joanne were in a deep discussion. As Carl and I walked out together Carl told me the new structure going forward was brilliant.

"Mary and I are starting to put plans together in case our offer is accepted," Carl said. "Human resources are going to compile a list of who should be considered for relocation and promotion for the new openings being created."