The Daughter Who Screwed My Husband

Submitted into Contest #161 in response to: Start your story with someone sharing a secret that has a big impact on everyone.... view prompt

3 comments

Coming of Age Drama Speculative

This story contains themes or mentions of mental health issues.

She was darling; everyone in the community thought so, especially all the men. She just had this way about her, the sparkle in her eye that drew them in and then, like a Siren, she would sink her claws and fangs into them, cutting them far beneath the skin, tearing at their flesh and then ripping out their hearts. My fifteen year old son laid his eyes upon her married form and swore he would marry her himself one day. Sadly, none of us realized just what a promiscuous, narcissistic, sociopath she actually would turn out to be. What a joke! She could take a perfectly sound man and turn him into a psychopath with a glance.

Yes....she was married, with three little children of her own at that time, and considerably older than him, but my boy didn't care. Having suffered childhood abuse at the hands of people we thought could be trusted, people he "should" have been able to trust, my young boy; four years old at that time, learned things children shouldn't know and so...childhood had ended for him at a very early age. He went on to participate in activities only adults should participate in, doing things children aren't permitted to do. We had no idea. he would go out with the older children and then...things went south from there.

We'll call him...Nathan. And so Nathan became entangled in a life of substance abuse and sex far, far, too early in his lifetime. We were constantly chasing him down after he would sneak out. We 'd had to call the police on him, using the tough love method, we sent him away to school, we threatened her, when she; at long last, entered the picture, but nothing helped. No; Nathan was determined. If there was anything that would have helped, anything that might have changed the outcome, anything we didn't think to try without destroying him completely, I don't know what it would have been. The authorities discovered their relationship and she went to jail, sentenced and convicted as a pedophile. There was a protective order placed against her and so they would sneak about. Soon, we learned that he was to become daddy to her forth child and my new sorrow dug its fangs down deep into my juggler veins. He would pay her fines for her, finance her therapy sessions and I would watch the baby. How dearly I came to adore this child.

Once Nathan turned eighteen, the two of them got married but he wasn't mature. I'm not sure he would have ever been mature enough to take on a twice married mother of three...now four but certainly not at the tender age of eighteen; after going through everything he'd endured.

Time went on and Nathans young, (new) bride began to see a little more clearly that she'd married a child, not a man and child that he was, he wanted to hang out with his friends and do things young boys do. At about this same time my husband began spending a great deal of time on his phone. I didn't know who he was visiting with, only that he was on the phone a great deal more than usual. Finally I learned that he was visiting with the daughter in law. She would turn to him for advice regarding Nathan and he would try to help. He took to going fishing more often and would leave me home asleep in bed. One day, I just had the feeling I should go see what he was up to. Was he fishing? Nope...just as I knew he would not be. Nathan was off to work and my husband was spending time with his new wife. I let him have it, came unglued as it were, he ended it and for a while the secret was safe. Then she found out she was pregnant and I just had that sick feeling.

A couple of years later, when Nathan and the wife were considering divorce, he came to me, to tell me that which I already knew. When I told him I already knew about it he was angry with me. I hadn't told him because I didn't want to hurt him. I shouldered all the pain myself, as his mother because, I hoped that what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Ok...so I was wrong, I freely admit it.

To this day, we don't know whose child the child is, however, he bears some striking genetic similarities to my husband. We love him, just like we love all the grandchildren; that didn't stop me from cutting his hair when I got the chance...just like I cut my husbands hair, along with everyone else's. Maybe one day I'll have a DNA test done. Until then life remains a nightmare; as they lie about the truth to her family, as well as their children, make me out to be the bad guy. Nothing is EVER her fault. Even in Nathan's eyes, it was all his step father's fault that the thing had ever even happened. It couldn't have been because of her mincing words and the flirtatious sparkle in her eyes....the way she sauntered up to him, all cat like, at a birthday party, took him by both hands, and right in front of everyone, told her father in law that she would be happy to have a baby with him. Nope...she was never to blame for anything.

She and Nathan are still together, she's pissed off that my husband cut her off and chose to stay with me...that was just unacceptable, apparently, along with my noticing that their last child doesn't truly look like Nathan. His first born looks just EXACTLY like Nathans real dad. There is no denying the parentage of that child, while the last child truly takes after my husbands family...if I'm being honest, and not just trying miserably to placate people.

So many secrets. I HATE secrets!!! All they do is lie in wait, in the closet, for someone to carelessly come release them and thereafter destroy people's lives. It's so much better to just be out with it. We are loving and forgiving people but this has gone so far beyond a joke. They moved far away...took my sweet boys and left. So many disasters have struck because of them and since they left....too many to list here, in this very short story, which is truly a very LONG, and painful story so...make of it what you will. People just have absolutely NO IDEA what they do to each other. I long for peace and for closure and fear, that with my failing health, I will never live long enough to see it; even if it should actually come to pass in this lifetime.

Tune in tomorrow when Heather says, "What? What did you just say about my chocolate cake?" Until then folks....don't keep secrets....they just never come to any good.

August 28, 2022 22:05

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3 comments

AnneMarie Miles
04:43 Sep 08, 2022

Your storytelling technique feels reminiscent of many classic American novels I read growing up. A very familial tone/feel throughout such a tragic story.

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Keila Aartila
18:10 Sep 07, 2022

Secrets are often devastating.

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Tommy Goround
01:09 Sep 04, 2022

Great title. What do we call you?

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