Chapter 17

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Provo, Utah

“Turn around, Lindsay, and raise your skirt. Show my friends your slutty new panties.”

Benjamin Phalen had never witnessed a more beautiful girl than Michael Steele’s nineteen-year-old sugar baby. He had already attended seven of these Tuesday evening gangbang dinners, at which the high brass of Gradiph Pharmaceuticals – the company Ben had been Vice President of for the past three years – would share their female companions, whether it be a mistress, submissive, or prostitute off the street at this BDSM clubhouse. Last week, Tony Dier brought his wife to the festivities, a gorgeous young woman whom he treated as a concubine. Her body was stripped bare, and she was gangbanged amid the dinner plates, her mouth muzzled by an everchanging cock so that her howls of servitude rang softly in the butler’s ears. However, none of the prior seven ladies’ bodily charms came close to approaching Lindsay Anastacio’s in Ben’s estimation.

“Oh, please,” a timid, faint whisper, but as the words emerged Lindsay was already obeying, because if she didn’t, she realized a horrible punishment would ensue. Lindsay lifted the hem of the form-fitting minidress and held it at her waistline, then bent forward, and her taut, sweet bottom jutted outward at the unladylike posture. “Please, Daddy,” she said again, her brow constricting, but with zero hope it would alter tonight’s ultimate outcome. “Four men at once will be too much for me.”

The sight of Michael – or Mike, or better yet, Sammy – with his hand on Lindsay’s upended backside in the seatless panties against the black satin, thigh-high stockings, translucent lace, sizzling young flesh, and spread knees provided an ideal abstract and made Ben’s cock surge in his Giorgio Armani suit trousers. Despite her futile pleas, Ben tilted his head, and grinned at the sight of the little apples of Lindsay’s bottom he and his close-knit friends would do nasty, wicked things to tonight.

“Shh, darlin’. Just relax. You know how to do this,” Sammy said. “You’ve been with Uncle Marvin and Uncle Tony before, right? You know what they like. Uncle Jeff and Uncle Ben have been eager to meet you too. Hell, all my friends are eager to meet you.” His lips quirked. “Bend over all the way, now, and jut your ass out further.” Sammy nudged the small of her back. “Arch this. Raise that ass the way you know you’re supposed to. There, that’s it. Put your hands on the coffee table and show everyone what their main course is gonna be tonight.”

“Yes, Daddy.” She hung her head in mortification.

“Don’t you dare have any second thoughts or reservations about this either. Expectations are different. I told you in the summertime when you agreed to our arrangement, our transaction, that the sex would be the easy part.” Sammy placed an assertive hand upon the front of Lindsay’s neck and his gaze turned cold. “It’s everything that goes along with it that gets complicated.” When she cast her eyes downward and heaved out a gasp, Sammy’s ire intensified. “Look at me when I’m fuckin’ talking to you.” His grip tightened. “In case you’ve somehow forgotten, you belong to me now.”

She puckered her lips. “I ... I haven’t forgotten.”

“You’re a possession. You don’t have to understand why I’ve chosen to share you with my friends like this. What’s the problem, anyway? You worked in a Nevada brothel and you’re used to taking random dicks. It’s nothing new for you.” Sammy gathered the angelic golden hair flowing down Lindsay’s spine, encased in a French braid, and yanked. “You’ll take your spankings and fuckings like a good girl tonight, and you’ll like it.”

Lindsay’s backside squirmed at those words and Sammy gave her no quarter, offering it a hard, open-handed spank. “Open your mouth, slut. I’m gonna have a quick face-fuck before your real fun begins.”

Lindsay closed her eyes and once again obeyed, slacking her jaw and extending her tongue to receive her owner’s blessing, as she must. Sammy slipped his khakis and boxers down and sheathed himself inside with a grunt of pleasure.

“She loves sucking dick,” he told the others while holding Lindsay’s head so he could thrust in and out at his leisure. Her gaze shifted toward the four pairs of lecherous eyes elsewhere in the opulent dining room. Humiliating, degrading, shameful, wanton, crass ... to perform fellatio on her owner with an interested audience present.

How could anyone from Lindsay’s family could have ever imagined that her life, her very existence, would one day resort to this?

“Make sure she gets plenty of it tonight, okay? I want more pricks in her than a porcupine.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Tony said.

In the past, Sammy had brought some mighty fine women to the club for these deviant sessions – Ben recalled names such as Scarlett, Mariko, and Olivia, among others – yet Sammy boasted beforehand Lindsay would trump them all.

Sheesh, he wasn’t lying.

Blonde and slender, five-foot-three, rounded beyond girlhood but still slim thanks to her workouts with a private, personal trainer whose only job, according to Sammy, was keeping Lindsay fit and attractive, so his “investment” wouldn’t go to waste. Ben realized that lower tier employees would never suspect that this girl belonged, in both body and soul, to the titan of the company – its CEO – whose intern she masqueraded as. These people were peasants, Ben thought, and not smart enough to put two and two together. Romance they may suspect, or perhaps that she was Sammy’s daughter given their forty-year difference in age. But the innocence that Lindsay’s blue eyes conveyed would dissuade any notion that she was his bound plaything in a Daddy Dom/little girl relationship.

Ben had heard stories, too, from Tony and Marvin Thomas, of how Sammy would randomly instruct Lindsay to bend over the desk in his high-rise office. He must like her in that position. Ben shrugged one shoulder. Fuck, if she belonged to me, I’d like her in it too. Sammy would ride in and out, sometimes at an even pace, others wild and reckless, but always holding Lindsay’s hips in place and refusing to let her move, making her a stationary receptacle for his cock and its forced pleasure.

Must be nice being the boss, huh?

Once Sammy informed Ben that he was welcome to join the Tuesday night club this past autumn, he already knew from offhanded comments that it had something to do with sex, and in particular the type of sex Ben had yet to try, but yearned to – hardcore, dominant sex. Ben heard through the gossip mill that Sammy and his most trusted company officers, such as Marvin and Jeff Vankirk, among others, were enjoying this type of debauchery with their concubines and Tony, it seemed, was with his wife too.

No fool, Ben accepted the offer.

Last week, for example, they laid Megan – Tony’s lovely wife – on her side at one point, with Marvin in front and Sammy behind, and they fucked her simultaneously atop the foldout sofa, both pussy and ass, while Ben and Jeff took turns thumping her mouth. Megan had never been double penetrated down there before, let alone triply invaded, and Ben recalled with fondness the moment he held her head still and thrust deep into the softness of her mouth, only to cry out as his cock jerked and spurted, and she swallowed his seed.

“Thank you, Mr. Phalen,” Megan told him afterward with a sweet, gracious smile.

Sammy formed the club years ago for the purpose of gangbanging young women in a casual setting in order to provide the top hierarchy of Gradiph Pharmaceuticals a way to unwind and relieve stress after countless hours of intense, million-dollar decisions, and to help the girls learn their place in the lives of the men who kept them.

Of course, alpha males like these pillars of the corporation could do nothing in a completely casual way. The fucking of a shared girl presented an opportunity for competition just as the boardroom did.

Still, Ben realized he had a great deal to learn before he acquired a concubine of his own. After watching Lindsay accept Sammy’s cock and allow him a furious cadence inside her mouth while continuing to maintain her bent posture, Ben felt determined to collar a girl one day, too, and perhaps even buy her as Sammy had, if necessary.

But only if I can find one as beautiful as Steele’s.

Not wanting to soil her face before Marvin, Tony, Jeff, and Ben had their turns, despite a rumble bursting through his organs, Sammy withdrew his cock mid-stroke and tucked it back into his khakis. His hand came down hard on Lindsay’s backside without warning, and she cried out the way she always did at the beginning of every spanking. Sammy pelted her nonstop, covering both cheeks and upper thighs with merciless blows that soon had her hips bucking in place, backside clenching and unclenching.

Ben brought a trio of fingers to his chin and scratched it. The things I could do to that ass...

“Michael, my man.” Marvin waved his hands about. “Don’t get carried away and lose sight here, okay? She’s ours tonight. Not yours. Get the hell out of here.”

With an air of reluctance, Sammy gave one final swat and turned toward Marvin. “I suppose you’re right.” Lindsay still maintained her posture, but wept now, grasping her bottom with both hands because she couldn’t help it, rubbing to try to smooth away some of the sting. Sammy held Lindsay’s skirt in place with his left hand and patted her backside with his right. He put his finger on the dimple of her rectum and pushed inward so Lindsay, head dangling though her woven French braid remained intact, gave a low whimper. “I just fucked her in the ass last night, and it was awesome as usual.” Sammy’s finger pushed farther, and he disregarded her snivels as they transitioned into additional cries of discomfort.

“Alright, gentlemen,” Sammy said. “I’ll go now and leave her with you.” This represented an essential aspect of their weekly gatherings: the video feed, set up by the private club hosting the event, would be sent straight to the laptop and/or cell phone of the member who left the girl with his friends. The idea that the owner had surrendered her to them made for greater enjoyment for the group and a more thorough lesson for the girl. Besides, Sammy got to fuck Lindsay every day of the week, and would fuck her tonight, too, even after Ben, Marvin, Jeff, and Tony ravaged her in a four-on-one gangbang.

Lindsay had done some unholy things in her young life, but being chastised and humiliated, and made to give a blowjob to her Master in front of four of his friends, all of whom would soon fuck her, took the cake. She cast a quick and dramatic sad glance over at shoulder at Sammy yet shielded it quickly, out of fear, by turning away.

“Now be a good girl. Marvin will bring you home to me once everyone is done with you. That won’t be for four or five hours, at least, so I suggest you buckle in. It’s gonna be a long, hellacious ride for you.” Sammy withdrew his finger from her anus and gave her bottom another swat, and Lindsay started to stand up. “No. Stay like that. My friends will tell you how they want you now. You better obey them, too; I don’t want to hear any complaints about you. Else, it will be a very long night once you return home.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Her pupils dilated. “Thank you, Daddy. I won’t disappoint them, or you.”

He walked out the door and vanished just as the butler came in with the salads.

Ben’s dominant blood pulsed as he watched Tony stroll up behind Lindsay, place his hands on her wrists, and yank them to the small of her back. He produced cuffs made of high-dollar leather. The forty-something Chairman of the Board clicked them together, forbidding Lindsay the range of motion a free person has. Forbidding her from hiding her charms from the group. Shame fell across her face and she swallowed hard.

“Lindsay, my favorite blonde teenaged whore.” Marvin was the elder statesman of the quartet, an African-American to boot, and the one who had the privilege to use her first. “Come here and kneel down, under the table. You’ll suck my cock first.”

“Shouldn’t we get her out of her dress?” Jeff asked.

“Marvin, c’mon man; not under the table!” Tony said. “The rest of us want to see, too, if you’re going to keep her to yourself while we eat.”

“Henry,” Ben said to the butler, “would you please help this young lady out of her dress?”

The butler transferred the final salad plate from the platter he had put in the corner of the dining hall and said, “Yes, of course, Mr. Phalen.” He went to Lindsay, who had risen and turned around now, looking up at the older, handsome man in his neat white coat.

“Tony,” Marvin said, “you can get down on the floor and watch her do her business, if you want, but it’s happening under the table – end of discussion. I deserve to have my dick down a girl’s throat while I enjoy a five-star meal at my favorite establishment. And if she’s as proficient with her mouth as I remember, and swallows like a true bitch should, I’ll pass her to you next.”

Technically, Marvin could keep Lindsay for the entire evening if he so desired according to the gathering’s unwritten rules, as far as Ben could tell. The oldest (always Sammy, of course, at least when he was present) had the choice. The other two – Tony and Jeff, as well as Sammy, and a few other corporate nomads not present tonight for different reasons – had been gangbanging one another’s various trophies for three years and counting. But as the newcomer, Ben refused to question protocol, not wanting to cause a stir.

The others turned to their salads, only looking up at Lindsay’s progress in being stripped down to her seatless panties, thigh-high stockings, and lacey black bra to see where matters stood, but Ben hadn’t tucked in yet. He wanted to watch the unveiling of this girl’s body. The bra that concealed her little breasts accentuated their youthful firmness.

Both ready to please and take punishment at the drop of a dime, Ben contemplated the real benefits of purchasing a willing concubine like Lindsay. Indeed, she represented a true possession: a treasure a wealthy man could display and use, and of course debase, to demonstrate the enjoyment of ownership.

The blue minidress, having been sliced and diced with a pair of shears since Lindsay was still handcuffed, fell in tatters to the floor, and the butler picked it up and disposed of it in a nearby trash bin. Lindsay’s blue eyes were down and her cheeks dusted pink. Ben wondered what it felt like to have a butler at a swanky, high-end BDSM club help make you available for fucking, and his erection grew harder. Will she be sent home naked with welts to Steele? Marvin would share Lindsay’s mouth, wouldn’t he? The usual tradition was to have the girl suck each man to climax before they laid her on the table.

“Get her tits out of that bra this instant,” Tony said.

“Leave the bra on, though,” Marvin amended, before turning his focus to Lindsay. “Get down on your fuckin’ knees, girl. Yeah, get down on your fuckin’ knees. You’ll suck my cock now.”

***

Lindsay’s face burned as she passed underneath the edge of the oakwood surface, the crisp white tablecloth brushing against her hair, then her back, and finally her bottom, exposed in the seatless black panties. She tried to avoid looking at the butler’s face beforehand, but in the end couldn’t help it. Something from within needed to see whether he would wear an expression of pity for a girl made to wear seatless panties in a private club and forced to show her charms to the alphas who would use her.

Instead of sympathy, she had seen – as she somehow knew she would, and needed to see – jealousy of the millionaires. Lust to be one of the prosperous members of this exclusive group who gathered on a regular basis to fuck in the dominant style of which the butler yearned to experience as well. Henry had leered at her, as he released the bra clasp in the center of her chest revealing two of the most exquisite breasts he’d ever seen, only to pull it downward and snap it back together, with a hunger that seemed to say, if there are any crumbs left from this banquet – a wet mouth, a pussy, already well-fucked and offered as an afterthought, a tip, to the hired help – I will happily be one of your gangbangers, girl.

Just as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in recognition, Lindsay remembered that Mr. Thomas had given instructions to fellate him underneath the table. Now, his legs loomed in the dim light, clad in the blue of his business suit. “Hey Tony,” she heard him say. “I scored some courtside seats to the Jazz/Warriors game tomorrow night. Want to go?”

“Yeah, man. I’d love to.”

At least Mr. Thomas denied the idea of letting them all watch, Lindsay thought, as black, calloused hands descended to his lap and shifted the napkin aside. Yet Lindsay realized how false that consolation was, because she could feel before long, they would all be watching one another’s enjoyment of her, and perhaps inviting the butler to watch as well, and even join in.

“I have an inkling to spread some crème brûlée on this girl’s cunt later and have it for dessert,” Mr. Dier said.

Mr. Vankirk spoke up, “Oh, I like that idea. Maybe some whipped cream for me.”

From innocent, small-town high school graduate to legalized prostitute in a Nevada brothel, all the way to submissive sugar baby for a gentleman forty years her senior, Lindsay’s life had changed dramatically since the summer months. She left Happy Ending Ranch after her three-week tour and was living with Sammy in a penthouse loft in the East Bench district of Salt Lake City, driving a brand-new BMW 4 series 440i xDrive convertible, and had a stipend of $20,000 deposited into and spread out over various savings accounts every Friday like clockwork.

The tradeoff? She was Sammy’s sex puppet.

His cunt piece.

“Has she started yet?” Lindsay believed the voice belonged to Mr. Vankirk.

“No,” another man said. Mr. Dier? “You’ll see it in Marvin’s face when she does.”

“I don’t know.” Mr. Phalen: definitely Mr. Phalen, one of the two she hadn’t met until tonight. A shiver raced through Lindsay’s body. “Marvin has a seasoned poker face.”

Then the voice with the most authority, Mr. Thomas, the one above her: “Bitch hasn’t started yet. Lindsay, it’s time for you to get to work on my dick, else your sugar daddy will receive a poor report from me of your conduct. And I’ll tan your bitch ass hide myself.”

Lindsay’s face twisted at the threat. She would be punished by Sammy, most assuredly caned, unless everything about tonight was positive. It would be far worse than what any of these men could do to her. Feeling faint, she shuffled forward, hunched over on her knees so she wouldn’t bump her head, and arrived at the spot between Mr. Thomas’s spread thighs.

“Do it, bitch, before we start the night with a spanking of that sweet little ass instead of a blowjob.”

Spanking? I want to be spanked. But she couldn’t risk the punishment that would go along with it. So, Lindsay did as Sammy had taught her: she leaned forward and kissed Mr. Thomas’s trousers as a gesture of respect. “I love cock, sir. Please, may I suck it? I want to suck it so bad.” She nuzzled there, offering plenty more little kisses to show these men that serving their vile whims made her happy and grateful. “Please, sir, let me suck your cock.”

“Of course you can,” he said, undoing his zipper and whipping his penis out. “And you will. I want my dick in your mouth. It’s what whores like you are good for.”

“Yes, sir, and thank you, sir.”

Happy and grateful. Those three weeks at the brothel planted seeds and taught Lindsay how important it was that she make herself appear thankful for the gift of a hard, throbbing cock. It was, after all, her job – her livelihood – how she made a living, and right now was no different. Sammy told her earlier that she would entertain four of his friends tonight – no rules, no restrictions – and he would pop a $25,000 bonus into one of her bank accounts.

Daddy still thinks of me as a prostitute.

“There we go,” Mr. Dier said. “How is she, Marvin?”

“Hella fine. Oh, man; that’s some good shit. Real good shit. It don’t get no better than this.” He gave a hearty groan and guided Lindsay’s face up and down the length of his cock, his fingers wound in her wavy hair, which was starting to become loose from the braid.

“Oh, yes. Ahhhhh, oooooh, so good. Ahh, that’s good. Good shit. Eyes on me. Suck my balls. Suck my balls, bitch, and then deep-throat me until I come. Do as Uncle Marvin says. Do as Uncle Marvin says and you’ll go home a happy hoe tonight.”

“I’m gonna flood that mouth of hers with cum when it’s my turn,” Mr. Dier proclaimed. “Make her drown in it.”

In due time, Lindsay bobbed her head, feeling her consciousness float above her the way it always seemed to do when she had to devote her mouth this way to a man’s pleasure. Mr. Thomas gave a sharp grunt, as if he was surprised how skilled Lindsay was at fellatio, and she heard silverware clatter down to the salad plate above.

“Jesus fucking Christ! Open your mouth, girl. Nice and wide, nice and wide; stick it all the way down. Go down, farther... farther, I said... right there. Oh, shit!”

Happy and grateful. Any dick inside of me.

Semen spurted into her throat, burning a little, but tasting sweeter than Sammy’s did. I love the taste of Black cock. When she was younger, Lindsay believed all sperm tasted the same. Wasn’t Evie making that up when she claimed each man was different? Lindsay let loose with whimpering noises as Mr. Thomas stroked her cheek and lifted the tablecloth so that the full light of the room came again to her eyes, and the scents of the food, obscured by the smell of fine tailored suits and the helpless arousal in her seatless panties, drifted to her nose.

“Eyes on me,” Mr. Thomas said, and Lindsay gazed up. He snapped a photo with his cell phone, causing Lindsay’s face to crumple in horror, and breath to come harshly through her mouth.

Cum is dripping from my chin! And he took a picture?

“Good slut. Real good slut.” Mr. Thomas reached into his suit pocket and flung a pair of one hundred-dollar bills toward her. “There, a tip. Your Master says that money motivates you.” He gave her a rather dangerous leer. “Now go to the cock on your right and start sucking it. I’ll be fucking you before long here tonight, too, trust me.”

Heat and wetness flooded her pussy at the degradation, and still more when Mr. Thomas pushed Lindsay away and lowered the tablecloth again, enclosing her in this seedy world of serving men in the most shameful way imaginable while they carried on conversations about business, their wives and children, sports, and how thoroughly they would fuck her.

***

Sammy watched the scene from the comfort of his 2019 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio SUV with one eye, sitting in the parking lot. His other eye, which should have been reviewing the financials for tomorrow’s hostile takeover of a fledgling company, had a difficult time keeping itself from the screen of the laptop he had open to his right, too, with the sole intention of making sure Lindsay was a good girl for the Tuesday club. The video only showed the men, though, meaning Lindsay had to be underneath the table.

Of course, that meant she was being a good girl, just as he had trained her to be since their initial meetup at Happy Ending Ranch in July, and her mouth was full of the cocks of men she either barely knew or met for the first time thirty minutes ago. Still, Sammy had the urge to listen to the audio and hear what his friends said, and what noises came from under their china and silverware, where the young concubine did due diligence on her knees.

The mere thought of Lindsay could overwhelm Sammy and cause his emotions to go run amok. He growled at the memories from last evening alone. After several minutes of making out and feeling each other up past ten o’clock as hot water cascaded down their bodies in the shower, Sammy bent Lindsay over the bench within. She splayed both hands across the tiled wall and presented her backside to him. They had fucked for hours on end throughout the penthouse already, but Sammy had enough in reserve to step behind Lindsay, latch on to her hips, and pry his dick into her rectum.

Her ass is total perfection, tighter than all Hell.

The two lovers moaned once they were joined. Lindsay, thankful for the generosity Sammy had bestowed on her, pressed back as hard as she could and begged him to use her. Within seconds, Sammy seized a fistful of hair, yanked with conviction, and was thrusting away. The brashness, its taboo nature, and the undeniable sense of surrender that went along with this abhorrent act made Lindsay sob in woe and discomfort. Getting fucked in the ass hurt, but she was at a place in her life where that type of pain often transmuted itself into a strange, raw form of pleasure.

Winding his hand tighter in her mane, Sammy pulled Lindsay’s head back so far that it strained her spine. He put his lips close to her ear. “You’ve been a bad girl, haven’t you? You deserve to have your ass fucked hard, like a slut, don’t you? Don’t you?”

“Yes!” She rubbed her clitoris and pushed again. “God, yes! Make me your slut!”

Lindsay was the sexiest woman Sammy had ever seen, ever touched, ever pinned up against the wall, and the constant desire to bury his cock inside her was too overwhelming to withstand. He surged ahead, his hips slapping her ass as the whole of Lindsay’s body writhed against his.

Sammy decided to work a half-day yesterday, yet spent all morning talking to his eldest daughter, Carolyn, in his Salt Lake City office anyway. Sammy informed Carolyn he was ready to take the next step and propose to Lindsay. Having the little tart as an unequal wife will make her my property all the much more.

Of his four children, all adults with kids of their own, Carolyn was the only one who wasn’t upset with Sammy (or flat-out condemn him) for leaving their mother and his wife of thirty-nine years in favor of young Lindsay.

Carolyn told Sammy that he didn’t need permission or validation from her or anyone else. “You worry too much about what others say about you and Lindsay, Dad. You need to stop and focus on what you and her want, and what’s best for you.”

Sammy wanted to spend the rest of his life with Lindsay. I can’t wait until the custom-made slave cage I ordered arrives. He had been so damn preoccupied with all the negativity from his other kids – they were angry about what he had done to their mother and full of doubt as well, claiming the age difference was too significant for anything to last long-term – but he wasn’t giving what he and Lindsay had built together enough credit. She’s ravenous for my dick.

Indeed, why worry about what others thought when his relationship with Lindsay, though a mere five months old, was as rock-solid and stable as could be? The sky was the limit. Why did Sammy need confirmation when he was assured what he and Lindsay had was so right?

Even if it was vastly different than a typical relationship.

Sammy chuckled at the notion. Lindsay takes care of me and I take care of her. It was mutually beneficial, and Sammy saw nothing wrong with it. This type of steady, long-term arrangement with a working girl was what he had always fantasized about. I may have lost my wife and marriage because of it – the mother of my children, too – but it was a small price to pay.

Lindsay insisted the $20,000 Sammy wired into those bank accounts each week wasn’t necessary. In fact, she hadn’t touched – let alone used – any of the money yet.

What a doll. She claimed the two credit cards Sammy gave her and said to buy whatever she wanted with them, no matter the cost, was more than enough. But I insisted on the weekly allowance. Let that balance pile up and earn interest. Even during a messy divorce, Sammy still had deep pockets, and nothing made him happier than showering prostitutes like Lindsay with his riches. I’ve spoiled her rotten already but am far from done.

The ongoing compensation was inconsequential, a byproduct of their relationship and how they met. I see no reason – if and when we get married – for it to stop. Sammy was intent on keeping the deposits going. She’ll need them one day when I’m gone.

Carolyn had another valid point. Sammy had to follow his heart and do what felt right to him. But little does Carolyn know that I’m following my dick more than anything.

“I know things haven’t been the best between you and Mom these past couple of years, Dad, so I’m not going to hold this against you like Scott, Cassandra, and Marcus do. I have no reason to, and neither should they. You’re my father and I want you to be happy. You deserve it. You’re their father, too, and I wish they’d see things the way I do.”