Gone With the Quiet Wind

My wife, Jolene Stephens, and I both cheated.

The difference was that she chose to betray me while I had been made to cheat.

She got me blackout drunk the same night her affair with Leon Homes came to light. Then, she stripped me naked and left me in a hotel room with a stranger.

She posed my unconscious body in degrading positions and took photos to create evidence of my "affair."

Both our cheating photos were exposed consecutively, and the public outrage against her little lover was offset.

A huge wave of nausea rolled over me, making me dry-heave over the sink. My body was covered in red marks.

The thought of what the stranger had done to me drove me to fits of terror.

My wife watched as I scrubbed my skin until it split and bled before saying quietly, "I didn't have a choice. Leon's from a conservative family. It would destroy him if word got out that he was a homewrecker."

The internet tore me apart overnight.

My grandfather, Bruce Tillman, the only kin I had left, suffered a heart attack after seeing the news and was rushed into the emergency room.

I had to protect her just to protect myself.

So, I repeated the lie she needed me to tell under a wall of flashing cameras and microphones. "Neither of us cheated. Ms. Stephens and I had already separated long ago."

He's Different

Jolene finally softened as she saw how compliant I was. She stood in the shadows, having already sent her little lover, Leon, somewhere safe.

She tried to reassure me as she said, "This will be the only time. It happened so suddenly that I…"

I stared at her through clenched teeth. "Then, where did all these marks on my body come from?"

My chest felt so tight I could barely breathe. I felt filthy. Some marks looked like bruises from someone grabbing me. Others looked like kisses. It was as if I'd really gone through some sick, degrading night with a stranger. Even worse, I had no fucking idea who had touched me.

I'd grown up protected and privileged.

Suffice it to say, I had never experienced such a violation in my entire life.

Jolene froze for a moment before finally understanding what I meant and rushed to explain, "Don't panic. I made those marks. No one touched you. I just took the photos."

I dug my nails into my palms. "If I were your lover, would you make Leon take those photos to protect me?"

She avoided my gaze. "I don't know. He's different."

I knew I was never her first option for her lover, let alone her husband. I bit so hard into the inside of my lip that I tasted blood before shoving her out of the room. The sight of her made my stomach roil violently.

Jolene and I had grown up together.

We shared the same social circle and background. We were the perfect match that everyone envied. And we had been happy for a while after we got married, but that ended when she started cheating.

She never made it public and only confessed it to me in private. "We'll keep everything discreet. No one will challenge your position. Society won't look down on you."

Love was optional in a circle like ours.

Unfortunately, I loved her. So, I got angry and blew up at her. At one point, I genuinely wanted to blow everything up the way powerful men in movies do and drag everyone down together.

Alas, my upbringing got in the way, and I chose to look the other way. Still, I never expected my compromise would only make them bolder. My grandfather, Bruce, must have been devastated by the news to land himself in the hospital.

Jolene only remembered that her lover couldn't handle public criticism, but forgot that the old man who treated her like his own granddaughter was suffering from heart disease as well.

She had forgotten that Bruce couldn't be put through such a wringer.

Regardless, I pulled myself together quickly. At the end of the day, it was only a divorce. And honestly? With loveless marriages running rampant in our circle, divorces were no big deal.