Justine Watters picked up her phone when she heard it buzz. It was a message from her husband, Tom, who had been out of town on business for the last few days. She unlocked her phone and read the message.

“Finished here,” the message read. “On my way back. Dinner reservations have been set for 7:00 pm at Mario’s. See you there. Happy Anniversary,” the message concluded. There were no loving endearments or heart emojis. That didn’t surprise her much. Tom hadn’t been very communicative lately for some reason.

“See you,” Justine wrote back. “Happy Anniversary. Love you.” She sent the message but didn’t expect a reply. She set her phone on the nightstand, hoping to see a reply. Something. Anything would be nice. But none came.

Justine looked at the clock and realized she had just enough time to get cleaned up before meeting her husband. She sighed as she got off the bed and started for the adjoining bathroom, where she would shower before meeting her husband.

“Who was that?” Jake Carter, the man she had just spent hours with, asked.

“My husband,” Justine said. “Letting me know he’s on his way back. He’s already made reservations for us at Mario’s tonight. It’s our fifth anniversary.”

“Your fifth anniversary, huh?” Jake asked. “I thought you said he was back east.”

“He was,” Justine said. “Apparently, he’s managed to wrap things up early. I’ll need to call my mother, see if she won’t mind looking after little Jacob for a while longer.”

“Alright, do that, then come on back to bed,” Jake said with a sly grin. “Maybe we can give Tom a little present.” Justine snorted at that.

“I’d love to, Jake, but I really need to get cleaned up a bit and I don’t have much time,” she said. “Fortunately, I have some clean clothes here I can put on. Wouldn’t do to meet my husband in the clothes I wore over here. They’re all wrinkled and stained.”

“You think he knows about us?” Jake asked. Justine shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “He’s been pretty wrapped up in something lately. It’s been taking up almost all of his attention. He rarely speaks to me and he almost never does anything with the baby. It’s like he’s in a completely different world.”

“How long are you going to string him along?” Jake asked. Justine shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s hard to say,” she said. “He’s a good provider. I know he’d be a great father if he ever applied himself.”

“You think he knows about little Jacob not being his?” Jake asked.

“If he does, he hasn’t said anything,” Justine told him. “I can’t imagine that he would let something like that go without mentioning it to me.”

“Well, I’ll be here for you if you need anything,” Jake said. Justine smiled at him, glancing at his flaccid penis, now laying on his right leg.

“Just keep that warm for me, okay?” she said with a wicked smile.

“You know it, baby,” he told her, returning her smile. Justine went into the closet and pulled out a clean dress. She couldn’t believe how much of her wardrobe was in this closet, instead of the closet she shared with her husband.

Justine looked at the dress she selected, trying to remember if it was one Tom had seen before. It was blue, fell about three inches above her knee, and showed just enough cleavage to be enticing. She was pretty certain it was one Tom had seen before. If not, she would simply tell him she just purchased it.

After calling her mother, Justine went into the bathroom and took a nice hot shower, hoping she could get all of Jake’s semen out of her orifices before meeting Tom. She promised herself when she started her affair with Jake 16 months ago that she would never disrespect her husband by giving him sloppy seconds, or making him go down on her with Jake’s semen inside her pussy.

At first, Jake understood, but ever since little Jacob was born just over three months ago, he began pressuring her to have Tom clean her out with his tongue. Justine told him that was dirty and gross, and refused to disrespect her husband that way. It was bad enough that she was sleeping with Jake, and it was even worse that she had given birth to Jake’s child, but she wouldn’t do THAT.

After her shower, Justine brushed her long dark hair until it was just right, dressed and applied her makeup. Satisfied that she looked – and smelled – good enough to pass Tom’s inspection, she gave Jake a kiss and bade him a good night.

“See you in the office, tomorrow?” he asked as he looked her over.

“Of course, lover,” she said. “But for tonight, duty calls.” She grabbed her purse and sauntered out of the room.

...

Tom Watters took a drag off his cigarette as he sat in his Escalade in the parking lot across from Mario’s. He just received a message from one of the private investigators working for him. Justine had just left the luxury condo owned by Jake Carter, her lover of nearly a year and a half. He looked at the photo the PI sent and took in the blue dress she was wearing.

It wasn’t the same dress she wore when she went to Carter’s condo earlier that day, and it was certainly not one Tom had seen before. He wasn’t surprised.

Justine was right about one thing. Tom had been back east, but he returned a day ago. He had been told in no uncertain terms that he had a serious security breach that had to be dealt with – immediately. If he didn’t deal with it, he was told, they would. “They,” of course, being a federal agency the public was not allowed to know even existed.

Tom remembered how nervous he felt sitting in the office of the one-eyed man he knew only as “Alpha One.” Only a handful of people were even allowed to know the man’s name. And Tom wasn’t on the list.

“You have a serious problem, Watters,” the man said, moving his head in a way that reminded Tom of the actor who once played Moses. “And when you have a problem, we ALL have a problem. Deal with it. Quietly. Or I will.”

“Yes, sir,” Tom said. He was smart enough to know that was the only answer Alpha One would accept. And he also knew Alpha One had no qualms about making people disappear. He had heard stories of how Alpha One once had an entire beach estate droned out of existence, along with everyone inside. Tom shivered at the thought.

Justine thought Tom was just a glorified salesman who traveled around the country hawking his wares to various companies looking to upgrade their security systems. But Tom was much more than that. Sure, he actually did sell security equipment, and he oversaw the installation. But he was more than that. Much more.

The equipment he sold and installed was equipped with special circuitry that gave Alpha One’s monitors insight into nearly everything those companies did – who they took on as customers, what they did with their profits – everything.

And Tom knew the breach Alpha One spoke of was his wife of five years – Justine. Well, five years as of today, that is. For about the last year and a half, she had been involved in a steamy affair with Jake Carter, one of the senior partners at the law firm where she worked as a paralegal.

Tom didn’t know all the particulars until fairly recently, primarily due to the fact that he spent a great deal of time traveling for work. But he did notice a few things had been off between them for a while. By the time he learned the specifics of the affair, Justine announced her pregnancy.

The lawyer Tom spoke to told him that no judge in this state would even entertain a divorce as long as Justine was pregnant. If the child turned out to be his, he would be on the hook for child support along with maintenance, regardless of the prenuptial agreement they both signed. At least he didn’t have to worry about the house, which was already his when they married.

Tom gritted his teeth and remained silent throughout her pregnancy and nearly lost it when she named the boy Jacob – after his sperm donor. Immediately after the boy was born, Tom asked for a DNA test. He wasn’t surprised to learn the boy wasn’t his.

Looking at his watch, Tom knew that Justine would arrive soon. He saw a man in a khaki jacket standing by the door to Mario’s with a woman carrying a briefcase and knew that was his cue. He drove across the street and parked. Grabbing his ever-present briefcase, he walked to the front door, nodding slightly to the two people by the door.

Tom spoke quietly to the woman at the door and was soon sitting in a corner booth. The khaki-clad man and the woman with him sat at another booth within earshot. Tom thanked the waitress for the water and started looking over his menu. He detected Justine’s presence at the table and set his menu down. He stood as she slid into the booth across from him.

“Good evening, Justine,” he said in a neutral tone of voice. “You look very nice this evening.”

“Thank you, Tom,” she said, smiling.

“I don’t recall seeing that dress before,” Tom said. “Is that something new?”

“Uh, yeah, I just picked it up. Do you like it?”

“Yes, it really sets your eyes off,” he told her with a slight smile. After they finished ordering, they heard music playing from a different area of the establishment. Mario’s was more than a restaurant. It also featured a dance floor and cocktail lounge.

“It sounds like they’re playing our song,” Justine said. Tom knew that was her way of saying she wanted to dance. What the hell, he thought. This was their anniversary, even if it would be their last.

“Care to dance?” he asked, standing up.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Justine said, holding out her hand. Tom took her hand and led her to the dance floor. They danced in each other’s arms, but Justine couldn’t help but notice that Tom was keeping a bit of distance between them – almost as if he could barely stand to touch her. The song finally over, Tom escorted her back to the booth. By then, their food had arrived and they began eating.

“Is something wrong, Tom?” Justine asked. “You seem so ... standoffish. This is supposed to be our anniversary.”

“Yes, it is,” Tom said. “The fact is, your dress smells like it’s been hanging in Jake Carter’s closet for quite a while. And try as you might, you weren’t quite successful in cleansing his stink off of your body.”

“What?” Justine asked, offended that Tom would speak this way to her. “Jake Carter? Are you serious?” she asked, trying, unsuccessfully, to detract Tom.

“Yes, you know Jake Carter, one of the senior partners at the law firm where you work,” Tom said matter-of-factly.

“Of course I know who he is,” Justine said sarcastically.

“I certainly hope so,” Tom said. “After all, you’ve spent enough time in his bed, and he is little Jacob’s sperm donor.”

“What are you saying? That’s outrageous. I will not sit here and be spoken to like this,” she said, indignant.

“Actually, you will,” Tom said, opening his briefcase. “You will sit there and absorb whatever degradation I choose to heap upon you. Especially after what you’ve been doing for the last 16 months.”

“What?” Justine asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do,” Tom said. “Let’s start with this,” he added, dropping a sheet of paper in front of her.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“This is the result of a DNA test I had done on your child,” Tom said. “According to this, Jacob is not my son. The sheet under it is another DNA test that proves the sperm donor is none other than your lover, Jake Carter. The man you named Jacob after.”

“How did you get Jake’s DNA?” she asked, confused.

“That was easy,” Tom said. “You’ve been bringing it home with you at least three nights a week. But there’s more.” He pulled out a thick folder and dropped it on the table.

“What’s this?” Justine asked.

“A copy of every email, text message and DM between you and Jake over the last 16 months,” Tom said. “I hate to break it to you, but there really is no such thing as privacy online anymore.”

“Okay, I admit it,” she said. “Jake and I fooled around once, but that was it. And it was just sex. It didn’t mean anything. Not really.”

“Is that a fact?” Tom asked. “Please turn to page 75 and look about halfway down the page until you find the passage I highlighted. Tell me what you see.” She flipped the pages until she got to the one Tom referenced. Her face went white as she read her own words to Jake. “I’m waiting,” Tom said.

“I’m reading it,” she said quietly.

“Out loud,” he said. “I want to hear you say the words you wrote to him.” She gulped and looked back at the page.

“Please,” she begged. “Don’t make me do this.”

“Either you do it, or I will,” Tom said. “And if I do it, I promise I won’t care who hears.” Tears falling down her face, Justine looked back at the paper and began reading the words Tom highlighted.

“I love what you do to me, Jake. I haven’t felt so wonderfully satisfied as I have these last 16 months. I can’t wait until you knock me up with another one of your babies. I love your cock, even more than Tom’s, and I look forward to the next time you can fill me up with your cum,” she read.

“In all the time we were married, I don’t recall you ever once speaking to me like that,” Tom said.

“Is this all you have?” she asked nervously.

“No,” Tom said. “I have pictures, audio and video. Hours upon hours of video.”

“You must really hate me,” Justine said quietly as she pushed her food around on her plate.

“Yes, I do,” Tom said. She looked up, shocked at what he just said. It was like a slap across her face. “There was a time I would’ve taken a bullet for you. Now, it’s all I can do to keep from blowing your stupid head off.”