April Fool's Joke Backfires

All the usual warnings apply. Any mention of a person, place, event or thing is coincidental and should not be taken as an accurate portrayal. No one under 18 engages in sex.

I detest practical jokes. I vehemently hate April Fool's pranks.

As a child, I was on the smallish size with hair colored like a carrot and ears that stuck out. Steve Ryder, the tallest and biggest kid in our class, perpetually teased and played practical jokes on me. Others too, to be honest.

My name is Declan Callahan. I'm one of six siblings, four men and two women. I'm also the youngest male. Even when I was 18, my parents were only 50. I had just turned 42 at the time this story starts.

We all had Irish first names. Mom, my younger sister and I had red hair. My sister and I looked much alike in school, hence the teasing of people like Steve who called me a girl. The rest have dark, almost black hair.

He commonly called me "elephant ears." He and his henchman loved to corner me in the hallway in front of the girls and pull my pants down. I got so many toilet bowl dunking's that I lost count.

In junior high, he discovered a way to open my school locker. He put stupid things inside like frogs, snakes and women's panties, bras and slips which looked like they'd been taken from someone's trash, a jab at me.

His actions were hard to pin down because he often got his cronies to perform them. He never touched me, so I couldn't fight back directly. My dad forbade my brothers from seeking retribution, saying a beating would cause him to try even harder and get them in trouble.

Any complaints to school officials went unheeded. "Nothing but kids playing harmless pranks on one another," the school principals told my mom. Hah.

As a child, our city was small but growing. Between my 10th and 30th birthdays, the town's population quadrupled. It doubled in size again by the time this story started.

With the added population, people like Steve's father lost their influence in the area. He owned a large manufacturing plant that was the area's biggest employers.

I got into Steve's locker in high school and left a toad one day. In return, he put pot and illegal pain pills in my locker. This was in the days when possession of pot resulted in an automatic jail sentence in our state, even for juveniles. I managed to sneak it out of the locker and buried it into a foundation form. Crews poured concrete into the form the next day.

He replaced term papers in high school with sheets of paper filled with gibberish. Another time, he substituted an XXX-rated sex story for my short story in senior English. I caught it in time and switched back to the original.

One time he put pig manure in someone else's high school locker. I was home sick that day.

One of his buddies swapped out my water bottle with one that looked the same. They put a laxative inside. I often drank from that bottle as I drove home. The smell from the locker made several people sick and someone ratted him to the principal.

Since his dad chaired the school board, he basically skated with a two-week suspension. He was 18. He went to his dad's lake cabin and partied with a bunch of college dropouts.

Karma caught him eventually. While I was in college, he got drunk, wrecked his car and killed his girlfriend. He spent one year in prison and one year on probation. He barely walks these days because of his injuries from the accident.

He is as mean as ever. No woman wants anything to do with him. I refused to treat him or allow him inside my gym. Other gyms operate in the area and they didn't want him either.

Because my maternal grandparents lived in Ireland, we visited them every other year until I got married. People can hear an Irish lilt in my voice to this day. Another source of teasing in those days.

His worst April Fool's joke happened when I was in the seventh grade. Steve and some of his buddies decided to prank my dad. On Sunday, April 1, they put boxes of dog and cow poop on the porches of four duplexes that dad's company was building. After dark, they lit them on fire and skedaddled.

Like most kids that age, they cared only about their prank and didn't pay attention to the weather forecast. Not long after they left, high winds hit our town and blew the burning manure through the open doors and windows. The four duplexes and three newly constructed but empty houses burned to the ground. The fires scuttled our plan to move into one of the houses.

No one died, but my father's company had to restart the construction of all seven structures. The company's insurance paid the actual construction costs, but the setback lowered his company's income for the year.

The insurance company sued Steve's father and several other families. They settled out of court.

Over the years, I've made my disdain for practical jokes well known. When my wife of 20 years pulled an April Fool's joke on me, the thought that it was a prank never occurred to me. Everyone around me knew I hated practical jokes.

Liesl, my wife, operated an accounting firm with eight employees. She handled the books for all our finances, for my dad's business and many other businesses owned by family members.

In college out of state, I took physical therapy. That is where I met and fell in love with Liesel because local women considered me a subject of ridicule. Another mark against Steve Ryder.

During those four years, I grew six inches in height, gained 40 pounds and turned into a hunk.. Or at least that's what most of my girlfriend's said. I learned how to style my hair so my ears didn't seem so obvious

During the sixth year of my PT practice, a gym went up for sale and my parents helped me purchase it. Physical therapy practices and a good gym complement each other.

Over this past year, a couple offered another gym for sale. It is 11 miles from the first one. Our house is about halfway between them.

The sale was supposed to close at the end of October in the previous year, but two weeks before the close, the couple died in a traffic accident. Their three children couldn't decide what to do for several months, which was understandable given the season.

Faced with foreclosure on the building, they agreed to sell it to us for a reduced price "as is." The sale closed on March 27, a Friday, rather than the end of the month because of the closeness to tax filing day.

On top of that, Liesl's parents died of natural causes last year. They were lifelong smokers and in their early 70s. They lived in another state and their records were a mess, which only added to the problems.

Faced with the uncertainty concerning the purchase, the added burden of her parents' death and taxes, and the fact that our 19-year-old female twins were in college, Liesl was behind in preparing our taxes. My job over that weekend was to find all the necessary paperwork and organize it for the new gym, my two companies and our personal incomes.

She gave me a list of missing documents. There were at least three containers of a plastic file box size or larger of records missing, Liesel said.

My wife's natural sense of order made searching simple in one way, but harder in another. If a person misfiled one sheet or folder, it could be easily overlooked.

The former gym owners didn't use Liesl's system or services. Their bookkeeping was atrocious. I wasn't surprised when they sold out at age 52 because they had no idea of their costs and income. I spent all day Friday and Saturday and part of Sunday going through paperwork stored at their gym, sorting it out and putting it in boxes for the accounting staff.

On Sunday afternoon, I searched through records at my two locations. Still missing at the end of the day.

I normally work Mondays, but I canceled all my PT appointments. I wanted to make sure Liesl, and her people had enough time to prepare the documents.

Early Monday morning, I started going through the basement and attic of our house. Nothing. We put all pertinent records in a special area of the basement after we file each year. At the end of three years, we move ours to the attic and the rest to a climate-controlled storage shed in a storage complex near our house.

The chance of those documents being in the storage shed was low, but I had to check. Still nothing. In desperation, I entered Liesl's private dressing area, which is a room separate from our bedroom. I had warned her.

Our twin girls - Marin and Meara - were born within a year after we married. When it became apparent our second go-around three years later would result in twin boys, we looked for a larger house.

Marin has red hair and Meara does not. Same with the boys. Grant has red hair and Greg's is black. The four children never suffered the level of teasing and bullying I did because they were larger in stature, and the school district had changed its polices.

According to my mother's research, if a couple has a set of fraternal twins like we did, the chance of having another set of fraternal twins multiplied by four, making it 1 in 12. Nearly all my parents' siblings had at least one set of twins.

We found an older home that a house flipper purchased. He ran into problems when he found asbestos and didn't have the money to finish. It was less than a month away from foreclosure.

Because my father's company had money, he paid cash for the house and allowed us to pay him back at a much lower interest rate over 20 years. Twelve years later, we had the house paid off. The value doubled over that time.

The Queen Anne style house has three stories and a basement. Over the years, previous owners converted the house into a boarding facility with four bedrooms and one bathroom on each floor.

Someone else added another four bedrooms and another bathroom that replaced the back porch. Each bedroom barely held a dresser, a closet, and two twin beds. Most of the rooms had a bunk bed to gain more space.

The second and third floors were gutted, including removal of the studs. Four hefty beams held the rafters up. The ground floor extra area was gutted to the studs. The heating ducts in the original house were insulated with asbestos and those remained. One of my cousins specialized in asbestos removal and he took care of it.

Even though many of my siblings and my cousins had other occupations, all of them knew their way around construction. In less than three months, we finished gutting the house and constructed two bedrooms large enough to hold two queen-sized beds, and assorted dressers and study desks on each of the top two floors. Each bedroom had an ensuite bathroom.

The ground floor addition we later converted to a family room and indoor recreational area for our children. We left one small apartment for visitors and moved the laundry room to that area. In the basement, we built a climate-controlled section for my wife's record storage.

We also added decks on the front and the back with an enclosure over the outside hot tub on the back deck. The design allowed panels to be opened in the warmer weather to view the lawn. It also provided privacy because we liked to go nude when we used the tub.

One thing we left was a dressing room for my wife because it contained the wood and brass fittings from when the house was built in 1892. She had a large closet for hanging items and a separate shoe closet, plus a dressing table with a large mirror and moveable side mirrors.

She usually didn't do much in the room except dress and apply a minimum of makeup. We both loved to dance and went nearly every Saturday night. When she emerged from the room, my cock would grow stiff. She perfectly matched my height in her four-inch-high heels. We had danced together long enough we automatically fell into a rhythm.

God, when we made love, we finished completely drained. We loved each other more today 20 years later, than we did when we married.

After the boys were born, we discussed birth control. I volunteered to be snipped. Logical Liesel suggested she get her tubes tied. "I don't want any more children ever," she said. "Four is more than enough. If something happens to me, I want you to be able to have more children." I had wanted six. She only wanted two.

Let's set the scene for the beginning of my expedition into Liesel's dressing room. This is the fourth day of at least 14 hours that I've spent going through and sorting records.

When someone exercises extensively, sitting still for long hours builds up toxins in the body that normally burn off via exercise. Not being active adds to a person's stress

Despite stopping for a shower twice a day, I'm grimy with paper dust and dirt. We live in a windy, sandy area. Not matter what we did, grime oozed into the house.

Sweat coated my body. I spent much of the time alternating between only wearing shorts and shorts and a top, depending on what I was doing.

The average high temperatures for this time of year in our city usually ran in the 60s and 70s during the daytime. This Monday marked the fifth straight day when the high exceeded 90. Even at night, the temperature wasn't dropping below 70. I was working so hard and sweating so much that I had inhaled over a gallon of water each day and at least a six-pack of beer.

The air conditioning tried but couldn't get the temperature anywhere in the house below 75. The attic was worse. Any calls to a specialist resulted in an appointment at least two weeks away. I was too stressed to look at it myself.

Drinking cold water isn't good for a person when they are sweating, so I drank tap water. But when I rested every two hours, I slowly drank a cold beer. I'm sure I lost several pounds over those days.

The first thing I found, buried in the back of her hanging closet, was a gym bag full of lingerie that I'd never seen. Trying to figure out why my wife owned those items called for two more beers.

I was acquainted enough with women's intimates to figure out these items didn't come from a place like Victoria's Secret. These were higher-class pieces from a special Italian maker that were only available through mail order. I purchased a few items from the same place for my wife, but not these pieces.

At this point, all the bets were off. I planned to comb every nook and cranny to find out why she purchased such items and didn't tell me. Before I stopped around four p. m., I had consumed two six-packs of beer, but I was sweating so much, it barely phased me.

Searching further, I found the receipts for all the items in the bag in a shoebox on the top shelf. We have separate personal accounts and credit cards. I give all my company and personal receipts to Liesl for accounting purposes. But I did know her credit card numbers because they are joint accounts. She ordered them all.

Not long thereafter, I found a false section of the wall behind her dressing table. Inside was a four-foot by four-foot by three-foot-deep storage place. Crammed inside were all sorts of objects I recognized from pictures, but we had never used.

As I examined the space on the other side, I found that someone reduced the original available space. From the door to the area that was under the stairs, one couldn't see this change because of all the stuff stacked inside.

This isn't a complete inventory but included most of them. A crop and a flogger. Three strap-on harnesses. A selection of dildoes ranging from what I recognized as an anal dildo to a nine-inch long, four-inches in circumference, black monster realistic-looking faux dick, three complete sets of butt plugs with three different sizes, two sets of padded handcuffs with different length chains, three sets of ankle cuffs, two spreader bars, a red ball gag, a vinyl headpiece with openings for eyes and mouth, six complete dominatrix outfits and other assorted items. Each item looked well-used. I could still smell my wife and other women on them.

I spread the items on the nearby bed and used my phone camera to take pictures, ending up with 21. Not all similar items fit in the photo without looking too small, so I split those up.

Unlike one of my older brothers, Conrad, I don't have a hair-triggered temper. Mine is more of a slow boil.

I can handle stress up to a point. After that time, I go off like a volcano. I usually recognize it before it happens. I go into the gym and work it out, ride a bicycle somewhere, or split wood for our fireplace when that mood hit me.

Just as I was putting everything into a box for transportation elsewhere, my cell phone rang. "Honey. I'm so sorry to waste all your time. Donna found the records I needed at my office. They were mixed in with my parents' things."

"That's good," I managed to say. "I can shower and stop looking now."

"Will I see you for dinner tonight? We're far enough along I can break for a few hours, bring something home to eat, and work at home after the boys are in bed."

I barely held my tongue. "Probably not. I'll call the boys. They can go to their Aunt Cierra's house. I need to exercise."

The line went dead for over 20 seconds. "Again, Declan, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier. I can hear the frustration in your voice. Go work out and I'll see you tonight. I'll still be home around seven after I pick up the boys."

I didn't hear much sorrow in her voice, which made me angrier. I'm sure I heard someone giggling in the background.

"Good night, Liesel. Don't work too late."

It was at that point that I made my fatal mistake. Sometimes, when I look back, I think that if we had sat down that evening and talked this through, we might still be married. But my anger and frustration caused me to make a rash move.

Not really. If she had said on that phone call what she told me the next day, we might have had a chance. But she didn't. When I thought it through later, I realized I would have been so angry I might have taken my anger out on the wall or worse.

The first thing I did was call the boys and leave messages. "Mom is working late tonight. I need to exercise. Please go to Aunt Cierra's house until one of us gets you."

The next thing I did was power the phone off. That would prevent any GPS tracking. Knowing Liesel as I did, she would start calling me as soon as she arrived home and I wasn't there.

The younger of my two sisters, Cierra, started having children before I did. She took a paralegal course and married an auto mechanic when they were 20. Her boy is the same age as our twin girls. Her twin daughters are a year older than our twin boys. They lived within blocks of us.

Over three years ago, a woman in her mid-30s nearly died in a dreadful boating accident in another state. Her "sugar daddy" husband in his upper 50s died and she barely survived with massive internal, bone, and muscle injuries.

They couldn't have children but had adopted two older children, both of whom were in college. Her care team referred her to our facilities because of our high success rate for sports and outdoor injuries.

Her name is Esme. She is of French ancestry. She is barely five foot two and her body is a shadow of Liesl's.

Sitting as much as she did, my wife probably gained 30 pounds since our marriage, which didn't bother me that much. She had the strong Germanic bone structure, carried her weight well, and still turned heads.

As she recovered, Esme made no bones about wanting me. When I worked with her, my cock hurt within the confines of my jock strap. Her petite body with small breasts affected me in ways no other woman had done.

I grew so attracted to her that I finally assigned one of my other physical therapists to work with her. She grumbled. "I've done all the advanced work," I told her. "Beth can do the rest."

Once we finished her rehab, she moved to her old hometown which was about 50 miles away. I called her after I showered and changed clothes.

"Esme. I'll explain more when I get there. But I'm going to accept your offer for sex."

She squealed. "I'm sitting in my recliner in shorts thinking of you. Tell me what you want to do. I'll pull my shorts down. We can go on Facetime and watch each other.

"Better yet. I'll call you back in a few. I've got a special room set up where the quality is better."

We synched up after I went to my recliner, put an extra towel down, and pulled off my shorts and jock strap. I later learned she got her kicks by filming sex videos. She put her phone on a special stand with a large circular light and filmed commercial-grade photos and videos.

She didn't need the money. She loved showing herself to others.

"The first thing I'll do is feast on those gorgeous legs. Raise your legs, honey, and stroke slowly down the insides from the ankles to your pussy.

The few times we spent by ourselves; she told me she had a daddy fixation. "My father was mean to me and mostly ignored us kids. My therapist said I'm searching for a father figure to stabilize my life."

"Let Daddy see that gorgeous pussy open up for him."

"Oh, yes, Daddy. Baby girl loves her Daddy." I watched her open her legs as wide as she could. She used her fingers to pull her pussy open and show the pink insides and her asshole.

Seeing that taboo place caused my cock to throb. Liesel never allowed anal play, which made what I found even more disturbing.

If a person reserves one part of their body for their partner, I always believed it should be the rectum. Any man and woman can perform oral sex and fuck with a cock in the pussy, if they want. But not many people like anal play. I performed anal sex with several of my former girlfriends.

"That's it, baby. Play with yourself. Wet a finger in your pussy and shove it in your ass."

"Yes, Daddy. I love ass play."

I slowly moved my hand up and down my throbbing cock. My balls were full and ready to erupt.

"Do you have any toys," I said. "I'm close."

"Sure, Daddy. Hang on a second."

I watched her roll to her side and take two items off her nightstand. One was a vibrating anal plug. The other was the twin of the black cock I'd seen earlier today.

She spread lube on the anal plug and put it in her ass. I forced myself to stop while she did. If I hadn't, I would come. It was the biggest one made and it went right in with a pop.

"Both of them vibrate," she giggled. "I'm close too. Let's see if we can cum together."

Once I heard the remote-controlled twin vibrators start on low, I pumped as slowly as I could. The effect of watching her put me near the edge. "I'm cumming now," I roared.

The two sources of pleasure went up in speed. I watched as her back arched and she flooded the duvet before she collapsed boneless on the bed.

I spewed out so much cum, some fell on the floor. After I cleaned up, I made that 48-mile trip in 43 minutes. Our house is less than a half mile from the freeway. Her house is about that much distance off the freeway. I consistently drove with the traffic flow.

Once I stopped in front of Esme's suburban ranch, I turned the phone on, ignored all the voicemails and texts, and sent one text to Liesel.

Not coming home tonight. I'm fine. I'll explain tomorrow. I immediately powered the phone off.

Esme met me at the door and hopped in my arms. After giving me a big smoochy wet kiss, we headed for her bedroom. She gave me the tour the next morning.

She had changed her clothes into an outfit I recognized from a private school in our city: White fitted blouse and green tartan skirt. Instead of extending to the knees, the skirt ended at the bottom of her ass and the blouse was transparent. Her nipples stuck out like pencil erasers.

Her hair was in pigtails and she'd placed several dots on her face to imitate freckles. She wore Buster Browns and those white socks that come up near to the knees.

"You are into the teenage look, aren't you?"

"Only for play. I abhor sex with underage people."

"I think that Daddy needs to punish his little girl for being so naughty as to tempt a man like me into straying."

A crafty look came into her eyes. "His little girl thinks so too. I'm all ready for a good spanking and a nice ass fuck with a pole like yours. We'll use the code word 'red' if I want you to stop."

She placed herself in the proper position as soon as I sat on a chair in the bedroom. The dress barely covered her ass. I could see her already damp white cotton panties. My cock throbbed with need. The first few slaps I administered while she still wore the panties.

I paused for a bit and ran my hand over her small ass and under the panties, traced the butt plug she wore and dipped down to find her pussy hot and wet. "Yes," she hissed. "I've wanted that since I first saw you."

Using my fingers, I brought her to an orgasm. "Stand up and take your panties down," I commanded in my best Daddy voice. "Papa wants to see his little girl's pussy all wet."

Her panties disappeared so fast I thought I was watching a magic act. She got back on my lap unbidden.

I paddled her for so long and so hard that I feared she would cry red. She never did. I stopped because my hand hurt.

My mental processes ran amok. I liked this. I liked being in control. I liked paddling a woman. I could get into this.

"Daddy. Take me now," she said, tears falling from her eyes. "I want it so bad."

I pulled the butt plug out slowly and watched as her ass gaped and called to me. After carrying her to the bed, I used liberal amounts of lube on her ass and a condom she provided. I slid my cock inside her and fucked her for several minutes.

"You are so tight, little girl. This won't take long."

"Please, Daddy. I need this so much."

Before midnight came, I was worn out from fucking her. She went to sleep in my arms. We performed more conventional sex the following morning.

When I arrived home at ten a. m. the next day, I could see Liesel's van was gone, but her car was in the driveway. She met me on the front patio. I could tell she'd been crying.

She tried to hug me. I pushed her away.

"Let's go into the rec room and talk. It's time for show and tell."

Once inside, I saw a banner between the two sides of the archway between the dining and living areas. The legend said April Fool's Day. That is when I knew our marriage was headed for the rocks.

I sat on the sofa directly in front of the TV. She came to sit beside me. I got up and moved immediately to a wingback chair. I heard the crying start again.

"I found several items in my search yesterday that require an explanation. Before I start, I'll tell you where I've been.

"After I found all the items, I was so angry and felt so betrayed, that I spent the night at Esme's place. I can't believe that with the emphasis I put on how much I hate practical jokes and April Fools pranks specifically, you would dare pull such a trick on me."

"She wore me out. She loves anal which you say you hate. I call you a hypocrite."

The 21 photos went by in 15-second increments. The five minutes seemed to take hours. She wept the entire time.

Once the pictures ended, she sat silently before she moved to kneel at my feet. She put her head in my lap and tried to undo my pants. I pushed her away.

"Stop. I need an explanation. Move over to a chair where we can talk face-to-face and explain why this whole event happened. I want to know who talked you into this. If it's someone related to me, I'll shun them forever."

This took over 30 minutes intermixed with bouts of crying and begs for forgiveness.

"Do you remember Anna?" she said. "My friend from high school who roomed with me the first year I went to college."

"Yes. I took her out a few times before I met you. She introduced us."

"Five years ago, we joined a service to teach women how to stand up to domineering husbands. Sometimes, I feel overpowered by you and how fit and strong you are. I wanted us to be more equal.

"The third woman is someone you don't know, but she trains at the gym you are buying, so perhaps you've seen her. Her name is Rachel."

I stood up, my emotions teetering on the edge. "Do you know who the fuck that is?" I screamed. "She's Steve Ryder's cousin. God. What a stereotypical dyke."

She started crying again. "What you say may be true, but I've fallen under her control."

I turned and headed out the door. "I'll be back when I can be civil. If the boys want me, I'll be at the gym working out." My voice was so loud, she put her hands over her ears.

Grant and Greg came into the gym as I worked out. "I had to go home for lunch because I forgot one of my assignments, I needed to turn in. Mom was home and upset," Grant said. The boy would forget his head if it wasn't attached to his body.

"Dad, what's going on? She refuses to talk to us," Greg said." He is the detail-oriented twin.

We went into my office. "I hate to tell you this, but you are old enough you need to know the truth. Your mother has been cheating on me for at least the past five years with at least two other women. I'm so angry and frustrated right now, I can't think straight.

"I presume you have the van. Best head back to school until it's out. Tonight, do your homework and help your mom with whatever needs to be done. She's got a lot of work to do preparing people's taxes. People depend on her. I'm not sure when I'll be home."

Around five, I sent her a text. I'll stay in the apartment tonight. You need to work and I'm still in a bad mood."

With a mind toward renting the extra apartment out once the boys went to college, we added an outside entrance. She left a note on the counter.

The full impact of how stupid I've been hit me between the eyes after you left. I'm sorry. If there is a way we can rebuild what we've had in the past, I'm willing to do so. Love Liesel.

Her comments triggered all sorts of thoughts. I didn't know anyone who I trusted enough to discuss the issue with. The pain of her betrayal still made me nauseous.

The next day, Shannon, my older sister, stopped by my office with Tina, one of her friends who has a master's in psychology. Tina is married to one of the lawyers in the office where Cierra works.

"Liesel called me last night to cry on my shoulder," Shannon said. "I'm sure I didn't get the full picture. This is not an issue where I want to get involved. I know your insurance includes mental health counseling, so please use her services."

Tina and I discussed the issue thoroughly over the next two weeks. During one of those days, Anna Thurman, who is a divorced OB-GYN, stopped by.

"Lee told me about what you discovered. I'm mortified that I participated and allowed Rachel to gain so much control over me. I already told Rachel off and removed all her contacts from my files. All I ask is that you spare me."

"I'll think it over. I like you. You've always been a good person who treated my family well. I'll get back to you."

All this time I was brooding and "contemplating my naval," as one of my hippie uncles mentioned one time. Over the following two weeks, I plotted a course. My first goal involved retribution toward Rachel.

One of my cousins is a private investigator after spending 20 years as a cop. I asked him to thoroughly check her background. Three months later, we had enough to ruin her career as a lawyer.

She had a practice of seducing married women, talking them into a divorce and vastly overcharging them as their attorney. Once she milked all the money that she could, she would dump them. As it turned out, Anna was one of those. He found indications that Liesel was next.

The women felt so ashamed, they didn't want to say anything. He established that she and Steve were working together and benefited from her schemes by doing the same thing with men. We decided to return the favor on the next April Fool's Day.

A lawyer and I discussed the legal issues involved in a divorce. I decided that our lives were too intertwined to divorce at present. As I calmed down, I decided I want to take the high road and give my wife another chance.

I'd been on the receiving end of Steve's pranks for years. I knew how desperate they made me feel, like I no longer trusted my judgment. Tina, Liesel and I meet weekly for several months and explored why she felt threatened.

"Declan, while it may not seem like it to you, you can be threatening because of your fitness and size," Tina said. "Try to dress to conceal some of those muscles."

From the way she looked at me, I'm sure if we both had been single, she would jump my bones. I'd do the same if circumstances were different.

In another session, she talked about couples our age. "It's not uncommon for two people in a marriage to reach this time in their lives and find they don't want the same things from their spouse that they did when they married," she said. "It seems to me that you two are perfect examples."

She gave us three keys to surviving infidelity. Consistency in adhering to agreed-upon standards; Preemptive sharing; and the three-part apology. The last item involved naming the issue, claiming it and owning it.

In the meantime, I took all the items I found in the hiding place and in the bag and put them into a foundation form of an eight-unit apartment complex that Ronan, my oldest brother, was building. We watched as the cement poured out of the spout and over the items.

After we explored why she felt threatened, Liesel agreed to work out more and get in better shape. She added another accountant to reduce her workload to give us more time together. I started to wear loose clothing.

At first, I wasn't sure what to do about my workload. But if I wanted our marriage to work, we needed to spend more time together. I hired another experienced physical therapist and turned that portion of my business over to him. The new gym needed a lot of work in rebuilding the customer base.

Anna left her job at the hospital-related clinic and opened an OB-GYN practice with another doctor. She helped me design a physical fitness and nutrition program for expectant mothers. That drew a lot of business.

Liesel and I agreed to separate bedrooms as we worked on the issues. By the start of the new school year, we moved back into the same bedroom.

But some breaches of trust can't be fixed. In the oddest moments, like when we would make love, I would think back to that instant when I found the bag, or the opening in the wall. Even worse, an image of the banner would appear in my mind.

Those thoughts always caused a sinking feeling of mistrust again. No matter the logic I applied, my emotions took over. Thinking about Liesel's behavior and who caused it, brought back all the memories of the pranks Steve and his buddies played on me. I became uncontrollably angry during those times.

Tina helped me recognize that years of being the boss had changed me too. I was less forgiving and more demanding of good performance. I always allowed people a chance to change if they goofed up, but if they continued to err, they were fired. No third chances.

Instead of yielding to my partner, I had started doing what I wanted first. That one time with Esme opened my eyes as to how conservative Liesel was.

Both of us had become more of a Type A personality as we ran our businesses. When we talked through the issues in our marriage, we concluded that we'd gone our separate ways in things like music, arts, and activities. We did agree on how to deal with our children and most financial issues. That helped.

Starting on April 1 the next year, my cousin started releasing bits of information into the community about Rachel and Steve. Everything he told the local media, and the bar association, was based on facts.

Within three months, she was forced to close her office as her client list dwindled. After a series of public hearings, she was kicked out of the bar association. Steve's family finally severed connections with him.

He still drove frequently. One night, he misjudged a corner and slammed into the guardrail at 110 mph. He died instantly. The cops said his blood alcohol was.27 and he was high on meth. I didn't shed a tear.

During that summer, Liesel and I agreed to a legal separation. I couldn't forget her practical joke. She refused to allow me to explore my need for other partners and kinky sex. We no longer fit together like we once did.

To meet certain legal requirements when she started her accounting practice and when I began my PT practice, we listed each other as co-owners. The separation allowed us to clear up the business ownership, decide how to deal with the house if things didn't work out, and freed us to explore other sexual partners.

The house was in both our names, but most of the money and time involving in upgrading it came from me and my family. We decided that if we divorced, I would pay her one-quarter of the current value. A current assessment put the value at three times what we originally paid, including the upgrade costs.

I wasn't sure I wanted to stay in the house given the history, but selling it to someone else and finding two new homes didn't make sense. All our children attended college locally.

While working out over that winter, she met Kevin Chapman, a recently single father of two college girls. His wife died of cancer, and he was several years older.

He managed a local chain retail store. They meshed better than Liesel and I did. They liked to visit art galleries and attend local symphony concerts. I prefer outdoor activities such as snow skiing, hiking and mountain climbing.

During the summer after Grant and Greg finished high school, we converted the separation to a divorce. Liesel moved in with Kevin.

Our children weren't happy, but they'd seen the signs. They reluctantly accepted the divorce.

Lisel and Kevin didn't get married at first. One of my cousins told me she still hoped we could work things out.

I told her "No chance. The betrayal ran too deep. The memories are too bitter." Esme and Anna both moved in with me.

Over the past two years, Esme obtained a physical therapist assistant's degree. She became my assistant manager. She became my co-owner after she sold her home.

Since the divorce didn't happen until all four children were over 18, we allowed them to choose which parent they wanted to stay with. Most of the time, they preferred our house because that is where they grew up.

We both continued to pay their college costs. With three other bedrooms and an apartment, there was plenty of room when they brought home lovers.

Once the boys entered college, I started buying new BDSM toys. The two women and I slept in a Hollywood King bed which left plenty of room for a spanking bench and a place to store our adult toys.

Esme and Anna brought an openness to our relationship that I'd never had with Liesel. Especially Esme. She often greeted me at the door dressed as a cheerleader, or in a maid's costume. She purposely would do something to "irritate me."

I would put her over my knee and paddle her. When I finished, I would bring her off with my fingers or with my mouth.

She talked Anna into the games too. They liked to surprise me as to who would receive my attention when I came home. These sort of game kept up the interest for all of us.

For example, one night when I came home, Anna was laying on the kitchen table completely nude with whipped cream covering her tits and her pussy. It was summer so all I wore was a singlet and a pair of shorts.

As I licked off the whipping cream from her body, I felt Esme pulling down my shorts, pulling aside my jock strap and sucking on my cock. When I got too close, she would pause.

She stopped when I finished with Anna. I pulled her to the edge of the table and sank my cock in her pussy.

Esme came from under the table, used a chair to climb onto the top and planted her pussy in Anna's face. After I filled Anna's pussy with my special cream, Esme had her dessert.

When I walked into the house another night, I was met by Esme. "Anna is upstairs waiting for you."

Lying on the bed spreadeagle with her wrists tied to the upper posts and her legs tied to the bottom posts, Anna was blindfolded. Esme handed me a long feather while she took another. We spent nearly 15 minutes tracing parts of Anna's body with the feathers.

I crawled on the bed and presented her my cock. Esme feasted on her pussy. We each took turns being tied to the bed and subjected to sexual pleasures.

We often spent our evenings during the warmer times on the back patio. The women loved to show their bodies and often wore only the skimpiest of bikinis.

Their figures were as different as night and day. Esme is small, as I said. Anna is Liesel's height, but bigger in stature with nice DD tits and a fleshy ass. Not overly large, but soft and cushy.

One weekend evening, we were all tanning nude. I watched with interest as Anna put sunscreen on Esme's back. After Esme returned the favor, her hands slid forward and cupped Anna's tits. She palmed her nipples and kissed her on the neck.

When she finished the back, Anna laid down. Esme crawled into her lap, removed the swimsuit top and began applying the lotion. As she did, she would lean down and kiss and suck on one of Anna's nipples.

Before we stopped, the three of us were covered in sunscreen. After the sun got too warm, we showered to remove the lotion. We put the same kind of oil on each other that body builders use in a competition. I had laid a canvas on the deck.

We got on the canvas and began goofing around. It turned into a three-way orgy with Anna sucking my cock and Esme perched on my face. After they drained me, they fell into a 69.

Not everything was fun and game. When Kevin received a promotion to manage a group of stores elsewhere, he and Liesel married and moved away.

Marin and Meara took over the accounting business and expanded it. All four of our children got married and started having children.

Anna came to me one day. "For some reason, we're going through a rash of unwed mothers whose families are kicking them out. Could we convert the family area into rooms for unwed mothers?"

"I think so. We left the original rafter structure when we opened it up. Let me talk with my siblings and cousins."

Marin's husband became a lawyer. He set up a foundation and we raised money to pay for the conversion.

During our planning, it became apparent to the three of us that having unwed mothers in the same house as us might create rumors that weren't deserved. Ronan constructed a four-bedroom single story house for us far enough away from the original house that I seldom saw it. I was rid of the old house and its memories at last.

Oh, yes. I still hate pranks and April Fool's jokes.