All Comments on 'House of Cards Ch. 10'

in every way. the writing, the story, the evoked emotions, and especially the rapid release of the chapters. so many stories that i start out enjoying, lose their emotional impact because of the long drawn out time frames. you did everything perfect with this one. kept my interest and emotions bound together from beginning to end. will be looking forward to, and hoping there will be many more stories from this author. keep up the good work.

I commented, somewhat critically, early on in this story and decided, thereafter, to hold my peace until the end. My opinion is that you have given us a very well-written story (I have one or two little quibbles which I will refer to shortly) and in this final episode you gave us, to me at least, an entirely credible scenario of two people who love each other working through the problems that the infidelity of one of them created for both. You perfectly demonstrate the difficulty and uncertainty involved in this process, especially for Tom, and I find myself entirely able to believe in the final outcome. Many will not share my view, of course, as they have already indicated, because they believe that adultery, particularly on the scale of Marianne's, can only have one outcome, and any other makes the husband a wimp. I guess wimpishness is in the eye of the beholder in that case! Quibbles? I stand by my original criticism that the initial circumstances surrounding Tom's discovery of her affair made his decision not to confront Marianne immediately implausible IMO. In addition, I wasn't too keen on Tom's 'affair that never was' or the chuckling that he and his two friends enjoyed when talking about the deception. This was certainly, to me, more morally questionable than Tom's real 'two night stand' which actually helped enormously to resolve the situation in the way they both wanted by, at least partially, restoring his self-esteem. Also, I think a lot of adverse comment was brought about by your submission of the story in dribs and drabs, which frustrated me too. To the point that I almost gave up reading, since it was easy to feel that, submitted that way, the story wasn't actually moving forward. IMO, it would be better to finalise the story before submitting any of it (I seem to recall a comment from you that suggested that you were being led by the story, rather than vice versa, and were posting it as you went along) and then post it in larger chunks - it is always possible to divide a single submission into chapters if that is appropriate. Just my view!

In short, I re-iterate that I think you write extremely well and this last chapter, in particular, demonstrates that fact. I will await with great interest, further submissions. Many thanks for your efforts.

Very well written, and a good effort overall in spite of the fact that he should have told her about Carrie. Especially since he wanted to start over with a new marriage of sorts, but he kept lying to her about it.

This story would have been one of the best this year if you hadn't painted yourself into a corner, by making Marianne such a bitch in the first four chapters.

You should have covered the anniversary disaster in at least one of their conversations, but it seemed like some of them were just a rehash of previous territory.

Also there is such a thing as overexplaining things. I think it would have been better to imply what Tom and Marianne were thinking when they had sex for the first time, rather than spell it out word for word.

I can't help but think what a great story you'll be able to come up with in the future when you have it planned out and consistent all the way through.

What a fucking spineless wimp.

i liked this ending though i disagree that he didnt tell her about the "affiar" also was there last name Card the whole story? I dont even remenber reading it anywhere

I commend the author on listening to readers' feedback.

This was a good end. However:

- I do not buy phsycobabble. This is bullshit. It was obvious she was overcome by lust, besides the excuse does not make any sense anyway.

- The fact that he did not admit the fictitiousness of the affair is a moral setback for him. He implicitly declares that lying is not always bad. The whole affair thing was bad. A woman who cannot tell that betraying trust hurts without being put in the same situation is too dumb to keep.

I still think it is worth going back and fixing some of the inconsistencies.

Thanks for writing. Please keep it up.

An excellent closing to an extremely well written series.

I was also surprised to see this series held up as an example of good writing in a critique on curious2c's, "The Accident Ch. 8." Surprised because this was your first submission and you were being favorably compared to another author with a large number of highly-rated stories.

Earlier last night I read Patricia51's, "Forgiveness" and re-read capecodmercury's, "Truth & Consequences." Nice insights into relationships without being too clinical.

Your writing has gotten much better in this final chapter. Granted, it rests on all the detailed writing from the earlier chapters. But it speaks volumes about the difficulties in maintaining a relationship. Tom took the very demanding and challenging route of reconciliation.

He didn't wimp out as some others piss and moan on and on about. To put it in simple terms these folks will understand, he stood his ground and claimed what was his.

Your series concludes with a smooth telling of the healing process told over a period of months. It succeeds because it is built on the slow steps taken in earlier chapters. This isn't blind faith; he's checking her closely. They're not restoring their marriage, as you so astutely point out; rather, they're building a new marriage.

The only point in this tale I take exception to is going into the details of Marianne's therapy. I felt it weakened the story. Talking about the details makes this seem so trite. Her Father was a bad Husband, blah, blah, blah ... ... such talk trivializes this element. Better would have been to just narrate how they had talked about the therapy and had come to understand what had opened her mind to straying. Leave out the specific details for the minds of the readers; we're all a bunch of perverts already, we can come up with some wild scenarios of our own.

Your position vis a vis the affair with Carrie shows a much better understanding than mine. You're right, of course, to keep the fictitiousness of the affair secret. The best way was to just put it in the past. The Carrie/Kristin affair served its purpose in that Marianne got insights and Tom healing. And a nice object lesson in the ethics of lying. And whether there is such a thing as too much truth.

Finally, since the easiest job in the world is that of being a critic, I offer a comment or two on the series overall.

The gimmick of a chapter a day (or every other day) works nice at the outset. Pulls the readers in; had yourself quite a firestorm. While combining the first 3 chapters might work, I think it would have been better to roll together at least chapters 6 & 7, perhaps into either 5 or 8. Roll the painful "talking" chapters together.

But my vote is for the short chapters; much easier to read; doesn't take time away from readers' other activities; keeps up interest.

Looking forward to many more submissions from you. So here are a couple of challenges.

#1 - satisfy the wimp whiners; she cheats, he dumps her. Only she learns her lesson, builds a new relationship, new husband, kids, etc. And her ex- lives out a lonely, pontificating, self-righteous existence; shutting out the world & friends.

#2 - the perfect couple; everyone says so; why would she ever cheat? Perhaps he's not so perfect after all, doesn't beat her but still why is she trapped; why would an affair help her escape?

Again, great first series.

you lost it.

A wonderful story. I could have lived without the Kristin interlude, that somehow lowered the husband a little. But overall the story was great.

Looking forward to reading many more stories from you.

I thought your story was very good. It showed insight on the people and actions in such a marriage. The people that say husbands are wimps if they stay with a cheating spouse do not understand that in some cases it is a stronger husband that stays. In this case Tom was such a man. Your writing is good, please keep it up.

Jesus, what a lot of blather. It's been like listening to a public radio fund drive. After hearing this self-satisfied asshole run on, I can see why his wife wanted to look elsewhere. It was all her fault? I don't think so. It hardly ever is.

At least the author knows grammar and spelling, though.

These last chapters are a good ending to a story, but unfortunately a different story than that of the early chapters. The main issues brought up then were never addressed. Marianne wasn't just having an affair, or even just a long-term affair. She got very emotionally intimate with someone. The psychological excuses given are good excuses for some other affair, but not for this one. The main issue is the intimacy, and those excuses don't begin to touch on why she was so intimate.

The Marianne of the early chapters was a selfish, thoughtless bitch. Eddie was getting off on cuckolding Tom by ruining his anniversary and so forth, and Marianne seemed to have no problem with this. The Eddie presented in the bar scene is an arrogant asshole, yet Marianne got very emotionally intimate with this asshole - why? Even after the husband strongly suspected the affair, not only did Marianne not stop it, she didn't even consider stopping it. Then when she was finally found out, she was amazingly obtuse and weeks later still couldn't figure out what the big deal was until he did the same thing to her (at least giving that impression).

None of the excuses given like "father slept around" can begin to explain the depth of her betrayal. Tom at least seemed to have some emotional reactions to her intimacy with Eddie, but Marianne seemed to be bouncing back from a completely different affair than the one she committed. She maintained all along that it was like some kind of hobby, something she was emotionally disconnected to, but in fact it wasn't like that at all.

The bottom line is, you made her too evil in the early chapters, and you never truly addressed the disturbing aspects of her behavior in the latter chapters. Too bad you rushed the story out so quickly - the only saving grace was when you started to address some of the feedback with chapter 7.

I think you did a good job wrapping things up. I'm glad that they worked things out and reasonably. Yes, the psychobabble is a problem because it becomes so clinical.

In the future tighten up the chapters. I think it was Chap 6 that was the weakest. 9 & 10 were excellent.

Hopefully you will write other stories. Note and note it well---a writer, a singer, a painter will never produce work that will please everybody--it is as obvious as night follows days only to be followed by another day. This is no great revelation but let the positive comments buoy you up. Do keep individual constructive criticisms in mind. They may improve the next story. You show a sensitivity for character and try to write of the "normal" world---middle class,educated,family oriented, and you do well. Good luck with the next tale.

playingcardcompany(if I'd ever remember my password I'd post this pseudonym at the top instead of the bottom but such is life w/computers today)

like someone else said its the intamacy she had with eddie that bothered me and the way this ended there was no resolution of those feelings...we have the reaction but it just seems to drift away ...story was good but i still feel that a few issues was totally passed over and lost ..oh well nothing is life is guaranteed is it except death

Excellent finish. You pulled off a reconciliation finish the way it should be done: Over time with an acknowledgement that things are different. I also like the finale twist on what the House of Cards is: You stinker!

One other thing I really enjoyed about this chapter was the way you kept us in suspense. I kept on waiting for the other shoe to drop. That made a good chapter even better.

The only suggestion I would make is a matter of preference on my part: Namely the timing of his ending the "affair" with his imaginary lover. It seems to me that it would have been better as part of his new marriage speech at the lake to show his committment to the new marriage. But, as I said, that is just my preference.

Great story. I'll be looking forward to reading more from you in the future.

YOU MADE A WIMP OF THE GUY WITH YOUR BULLSHIT . CRAP LIKE THIS HAPPENS ONLY IN WRAPED MINDS,

A very sensitive and beautifully written story. And please ignore comments like "crap" or "bullshit" - you deserve much better. Thank you for your work and please carry on writing.

Good job wrapping things up. Marianne's behavior at the party showed that she had indeed changed and was not going to ever put herself into any risky situation again. You never trivialized the pain and difficulty of forgiving or the hard work it would take to get past this kind of experience.

Having 'been there and done that,' my experience did not turn out with a positive ending - my ex never learned to resist the excitement of a potential new relationship. I ended up marrying the equivalent of Kristin's character and living happily ever after, although I didn't meet my wife until about a year after the divorce. My hunch is that 'once a cheat, always a cheat' is more often the case than the happy ending presented here, however, Ch. 10 does make a credible case that people can change. Again, good work, Ohio.

Good job! And I don't hand out praise easily! Except for a few MINOR problems you did quite well indeed! And the minor gigs ar so minor that they aren't worth mentioning (for those of you who have never written a line here, try it sometime! It isn't easy writing a faultless story!) But there were few, if any, major gigs which made me want to smack you.:-)

A little overdone with the "tears in our eyes" schtick but I felt for the characters and it showed that a marriage can be continued (but not the same one!) and that people can be forgiven and change.

GOOD JOB!

Excellent story, ohio. The ending won't satisfy the folks who want a straying spouse anally and orally raped; flayed alive in the village square at high noon; and then drawn and quartered, but that's okay. They are a very small percentage of readers out here. There are also some folks who are self-appointed psychiatric experts but they only expose their ignorance with their criticism. Forget all of them!

You're the author of this piece; you set up the special universe in which the events take place; and you are in charge of how the protagonist's problems are resolved. I thought the qualities of retribution, reconciliation and, above all, redemption were extremely well handled in "House Of Cards," and I look forward to more stories from you. Kudos!

enjoyed this story very much even though i thought the story drifted from the original plot layout.

in no particulat order........

the psychobabble in the end sounded so convoluted as to make no sense at all,and is certainly inconsistant to the relationship with Eddie as related in the beginning.

the bogus affair did serve a purpose,forcing Marianne to finally feel what Tom felt. he should have fessed up though when he moved back in with his wife.for him to tell Marianne at the end of the story as he was considering doing would have reopened healed wounds (and added two chapters to the story!! lol).

what i really liked was that in the end they were still together.i've never been much into the 'dump the bitch' mentality, but i do believe some marriages should end.you made this marriage surviving very believable.

overall a pretty good story.i will look forward for more stories from you. thanks for your efforts.

don

You had a great story going. It started downhill with chapter six and then it got worse. She did not have just a sexual tryst, she had an affair of the heart, and revealed to Eddie intimate parts of her marriage.

Marianne tells Tom, “Our love-making is special to me because it's just for us, because neither of us ever shares ourselves with anyone else in that way." Apparently, to her, the love making with Tom is no longer special.

After the confrontation with taped evidence and more lies from Marianne, Tom says, "No, fuck you, no. After you break my heart, after you cut my balls off and stomp on them, after you look me right in the eye and lie to me, you don't get to ask me to sit quietly and listen to your stories. I asked you for the truth two weeks ago. You think I didn't know that story about the thong panties was bullshit? We didn't make love the night before I left on that trip! And even tonight, you had a chance to be honest with me, and you gave me another fairy tale instead!"

Where did this Tom go? He did not show up again after chapter five. Has he been abducted by aliens and replaced with a spineless clone?

Tom laments that she has destroyed a great marriage, and they are now in a new marriage. This new marriage is the pits. He does not trust her, he sneaks around spying on her, and listens to the tapes to check on what happens when he is not around. He cannot relax and enjoy life anymore, he has to watch out for his wife cheating on him, again. Who would want to spend the rest of their life in this kind of relationship? She lies so well and easily, with no notice she spun several convincing lies, and told them with a straight face. She even berated him for not believing her lies.

To think the kids will not notice the lack of real intimacy between them is another fallacy. Everyone seems to think kids are so wrapped up in their own lives they don’t know what is going on with their parents. This is not true.

The garbage about doing it because her father was unfaithful was the worst tripe I have read in a long time. If anything it should have made her more determined to be faithful. She has personally seen the damage caused by adultry and deceit, yet she wants to use this as an excuse for doing it to Tom. She made the decision to have an affair and tell any lies she needed to. Screw Tom and the kids, she is going to have a good time.

it had weakness.

like many others have said, the characters in the first few chapters seem to have major personality tranplants in the later chapters. but it is hardly just your difficulty - it is a common problem to the better stories that have reconcilliation endings.

the psycho-babble is also a weak point in most reconcilliation stories. someone here recommended leaving more of it to our feelthy imaginations, and that seems like a good idea to me. details about psychobabble will just be picked apart, distracting from the story.

i liked how he didn't trust her enough to shut the recorders down yet - it is a good way to show us that trust is still a major problem a year later.

i didn't like how the kids were handled, but that kind of parenting is believable.

i hope you taught yourself something, i look forward to better things from you with more experience.

over all, as good as i have seen a reconcilliation story here, and you did far better than most. kudos.

Let me get this straight. Marianne had to be truthfull with Tom about her affair with Eddie. Also, if Tom found that Marianne was not truthful with him and if she ever deceived him again, Tom would be out the front door and never return again. Well, Tom was not truthful with Marianna about his fictional character Carrie and he was not truthful with his affair with Kristen. Also, Tom did not tell Marianne about his suspicions and checking up on her. Isn't this a double standard where Tom can do as he wants and pleases but Marianne has to be loyal and truthful. Marianne will find out about Tom one of these days and will throw him out the door and I will not blame her.

As for bringing in the shrink to tell Marianne that her affair with Eddie was her parents fault is a load of CRAP. As in your story,"THE ACCIDENT", the shrink was brought in to tell the husband and wife that it was the husband's fault for the wife to have an affair. If all the kids were told by a shrink that they had affairs due the parents fault, we would have one messed up society.

The author blew this ending and I do not know why. He had a good stroy and now that Tom and Marianne have reconciled their differences, it is just a matter of time before one of them will cheat on the other.

Reconciliation in these stories can happen and can be good -- if it's done right. This is not one of those times.

I've seen comments on other stories, discounting those who hated that happy ending as narrow minded people who only want to see the wife punished. Are there commenters like that? Sure, but more often, the negative comments come when the ending is not supported by the earlier chapters. When the ending is forced and negates and betrays everything that came before it, the negativism is well deserved. This is one of those stories.

The reconciliation in this chapter is completely contrary to what happened in the eariler chapters. Case in point, the use of the pet name. For chapters, it seemed to be a main issue for him, evidence of a closeness and level of intimacy between her and Eddie that she kept denying to him existed. Yet, when he finally confronts her with it, is brushed off in a few paragraphs of, "Oh I didn't want him to, but he kept on doing it." It's like the classic McGuffin of the embezzeled money in "Psycho" that is explained with a simple, "Oh, it's probably in the lake in the trunk of the car. Norman wasn't interested in it."

This had set up after set up, chapter after chapter, revelation after revelation from which no marriage should or could logically or sanely survive, and yet, it does. It can only do so by dismissing everything. It's an insult to the story, and it's an insult to the readers.

Marianne's point of view.

This ending has way too many double standards and an easy out why the woman cheated and why the husband was just as dumb.

This storyline is 50/50 with me, either you like it or hated it and I liked most of the chapters, but this ending has me back on the fence.

This entire series represents verbose, muddled psychobabble, a waste of the English language.

This piece really sucks and so does the author.

Should have ended, then started a new and different story. Whew! You sure worked a long time on this...

Sorry

The story is too unrealistic to be believable. He is to be perceived as this great father and husband who each year sends their kids away for the entire summer. I don’t think so. A couple of weeks of camp are stretching it.

Marianne’s reason for the affair, if accepted, gives anyone without the best of childhoods chart blanche to do as they please with regard to marital vows.

Your good start soon became unrealistic.

Too bad.

Ken

Overall I find I am more in agreement with those who have put an identity of some sort to their comments than those who haven't!

Contruction and creation of a story like this takes a great deal more than just an attitude like "dump the bitch" or don't bother me with the "psychobabble". It takes a great deal of thought, time and effort and I for one would like to thank you for the many hours of entertainment your writing has provided for me.

I'll be looking for more of your stories to entertain me and to provide me with another opportunity to perhaps improve my own writing.

cageytee

Im not a 100% hardliner that hates any form of forgiveness. In the middle chapters, I mostly had a problem with the husband seeming a little unemotional, the wife not having any redeeming qualities (therefore made the drawn out conclussion seem like padding - from a literary, not a realistic pov), and having a few too many unanswered questions left over from the first chapters (pet names, kids whereabouts, recordings, etc).

I do think the last couple of chapters where pretty good though. You addressed many of the outstanding issues, made the wife seem a bit more sympathetic and had the husband take a more proactive stance.

I did have a few problems but there werent major so I hope you take them as more of constructive cristisism, rather than shots at the stories ending (forgiveness).

- I dont think making the lover out as a villain and having the husband confront him was necessary. I agree with what you wrote in previous chapters about Eddie taking what was offered etc. Lots of readers clambered for it, but I think making the lover into an asshole smacks of transferenace, rather than honestly dealing with the husband's emotions (hurt, fear, insecurity, etc).

- I dont think bringing a real loving in for the husband was bad but it did bring up a few points you didnt explore much. The lover seemed like a better choice as a partner than the cheating wife so I think you had the husband recognize his feelings (or lack thereof) too quickly. Given that Kristin was better looking, younger, smarter and more lovign than the wife, it seemed like the husband got to the root of his feelings for her rather quickly. I know he couldnt fall in love with her in an instant no matter how perfect she seemed, but I think that he would have had a bit more trouble distinguishing love from neediness (especially given his emotional state regarding his wife at the time).

- a few things in the final chapter werent thought out as well as they could have been imo. The husband becoming sullen and withdrawn and fearing his wife was cheating again was a nice touch (showed that relapses do occur without warning & trying only goes so far, etc). Having the husband learn from their friends that the wife was unconcerned & happier than ever seemed like a mistake though. Since the wife was still in an apologetic frame of mind and worrying over her husband's feelings, it seemed that she would have been worried about his mood. Haivng her happy & carefree at this point seemed like foreshadowing another affair instead of just having pointing out the husbands insecurities (like you seem to have intended). This type of thing happened quite a lot in the other chapters of your story as well. I think you need to put a bit more thought into the inbetween stuff. Just because you intended a paragraph one way, doesnt mean the reader will take it that way. i.e. digging wife into a deeper and deeper hole when you were just trying to convey the husbands emotions (happened alot in this story) etc.

- it must be very hard to write the opposite gender in these stories but I do think you could have made the wife a little more 'lovable'. Here apologies and declarations of remorse seemed a bit pro forma to me. As I said before, she was more sympathetic than previous chapters but I still wasnt sure why the husband was so insistant on rebuilding their relationship. Her minuses still seemed to far outweigh the plusses from my pov (thats taking into consideration their shared history & the children).

As I said before, this story ended much better than I expected it too even with its flaws (from my perspective). Thanks for writing and please take the enormous feedback you have received as encouragement. Even if every comment wasnt positive, this story did spark more discussion than any series I can remember since I started reading literotica.

In an effort to be constructive regarding the series - You started very strong in setting the stage and laying the foundation - the basis for your work.

You then wandered about a bit as this was uncharted by your own admission - you opened up prior character traits to change and were challenged as to why.

To your credit, you plugged on and closed most credibly by citing in large part why people are people - most make mistakes and some try to grow from them. Now please understand that not everyone will buy all that you sell but they should agree with several things.

Your strong talent to write, your understanding and use of language and structure - your intuitive sense of human feelings and actions - not perfect but like life - flawed but possibly and seemingly real for those involved.

Throughout, you showed an insightful sensitivity in spoken words and thoughts that were refreshingly close to life and it's fragile turmoil. You capably explained why you felt what you did and thought from your perspective. It was largely very well thought out and presented once you brought the story back under control.

There are no perfect works here - or anywhere else. But there can be growing and learning by those who wish! It should and can be fun but diligence rewards itself tenfold in credibility and appreciations - ours and yours!

So Author (has a nice ring to it eh)- where to now - you are appreciated and anticipated - for more qualitive work. Be patient and imaginative - consider what has been learned - Get up and knock our socks off - not many have the raw ability you displayed in a first effort - so selfishly I and many others hope you will - take your time - do it to your standards. Marital consequence is an entriguingly complex and challenging theme isn't it!

Thanks again - with high Regard

it's over now,i still think he should have booted her,but it was a great write. But thank you for allowing me to move on now.good job

Got so carried away in my earlier comment, forgot to mention my appreciation for the ending - Thomas Card & Mrs. Card indeed!!

These small-minded vitriolic comments by such pathetic creatures. While this isn't great literature (C'mon, it's Erotic Literature after all), a certain amount of civility should be extended the author. Victor Hugo would recognize these creatures; they would be the same kind of moralists that sent Jean Valjean to the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread.

You did a great job on this series; small questions of style but you remained fundamentally on target.

Looking forward to your next submission.

Catch you breath.

I think you have done an excellant witing job, especially for a first story.My reaction, other than admiration for your writing, is surprise at my attitude changes in reading the entire story. Initially, I thought Tom was paranoid and Marianne was blameless.Shortly afterward, it became obvious she was a cheating bitch, who had a real talent for lying to cover up her adutery and I hoped he would divorce her asap. After about 4 chapters of Tom whining and having weekly conferences with Andrea about the state of his marriage,I became a fan of Mariannes. When Tom continued criticising Marriane and tormenting her with his fictional lover story, I became more of a fan of Mariannes. When he had his short torrid affair with the young lady at his hotel Kristin, I think, I stopped having any sympathy for Tom . In summary Marianne screwed up royally in having her affair with Eddy and in lying about it. I would have divorced her at that point.From that point on, Tom became a consummate deceiver, had his own affair and , to me, was despicable in trying to humiliate Marianne and enlisting Marianne's friend Andrea to assist him in his deception. In short he became an adulterer and a lyer but he did it deliberately and knowingly just to humiliate his wife. I think he ended up worse than Marianne. Great writing. Just thought I would add a minority opinion on the story. 60 year old George

The author fucked up the "Eddie" character for convenience sake. I ask, how can a woman have a nine month affair with the man that was described during the meeting in Chapter nine...there is no way..this Eddie does not match the Eddie in the tapes and in previous chapters.

It is not my intention to change the author's story nor conclusion but rather provide a better continuity to the script. This is my take on their meeting....for background, re read what was previously said about Eddie.

THE MEETING REVISITED

As Anni leaves the table, Eddie couldn’t believe the cold look in her stare.

Tom was thinking....here is a great opportunity to get another opinion on this entire damn affair right from the horse’s mouth. He still couldn’t get over the whole nine months and the deceit that was played on him. He thought,” I’ll lead him and see where he takes me”. Little did Tom realize that Eddie was all that Anni had told him. In short, a nice guy and a gentleman, someone you can be fond of.

Tom:I am here to stop this nonsense from going any further. Anni wants it stopped…so no more contact, ok. Why are you still pestering her…she told you that it’s over. What’s done is done?

Eddie: hey man, I’m sorry, I know where you are coming from…but I didn’t cheat on you, she did. Man, shit, almighty shit…I thought Anni and I had something …I mean for nine months we …sorry to say this..…we were fucking 2-3 times a week. But it was more than fucking… at least for me. It was the times after the fucking that I loved…when we cuddled and talked and talked and cuddled and enjoyed ourselves…it wasn’t just sex. You know the day before your anniversary, when I got back from being away for two weeks, she was so caught up in celebrating our sixth month together…yea….I know we have been together nine months, but three months into our relationship we cemented it with a loving understanding of what we mean to each other…so we exchanged pet names…she wanted me to call her Anni.. so I did … and she wanted to call me Babe..Baby...because I was so much younger than her.…my real name is Theodore…Ted to most people…but she likes Eddie.. She told me that Theodore means “gift from God”. She kept repeating that the first few times we had sex. So like I was saying, we went all out and did double…no triple the norm that day, man I was so sore ..and so was she…I told her we’ll remember this day forever and I announced the date out loud. Anni said, “oh shit”. That’s when I found out that your anniversary was the next day. Anni completely forgot it and knowing full well that you may have something planned felt guilty for the first time. But, I lived for those days…so did she…I thought she loved me…you don’t know how heart broken I am.

Tom: heart broken? After hearing what you just told me..you don’t know the meaning of the word . Regardless, I want....no…she wants this to stop…Listen I got friends that can..

Eddie: No you listen, at my age maybe I don’t know much [Tom grimaces realizing how young he is]. But if she is saying that I was just a fuck to her, you should talk to her friend Susan… it was Susan who provided me with the initial heads up to my friend Jack that Anni….I hope you don’t mine if I call her Anni…[Tom scowls, but relents]…that on the next day, she was acting like a little school girl with fluttering feelings she had not felt in years…those were her words. Well you know the rest, how Susan set it up and then helped us cover for Anni at work while she and I were together 2-3 times a week. When Susan left with Jack recently, we stopped meeting as frequently because she couldn’t find someone to cover for her and didn’t want to risk her job.

Tom was shocked..he didn’t realize the Susan connection fully. So Anni stopped meeting Eddie because of Susan’s departure and not because of me. Tom didn’t like where this conversation was going…all he really had was Anni’s side…he decided to continue to hear his side.

Eddie continued: she told me all these things about herself, the kids and you. She told me that after 16 years, she felt she was missing something…once she came across….she couldn’t stop....I mean, I thought we were addicted to each other…she wanted to be with me all the time…that’s why I’m now getting mixed messages…she was forever calling me at a moments notice to get together..hell she even came up with the cheap cell phone idea…like our own personal walkie talkies..and only to be used by us…just like our nicknames….she was creating this world for us… Man, but when she heard the tapes you had of us…she freaked…she tossed the cell phones and told me not to call her at home. She had Susan call me from her office phone because she thought hers was bugged and then handing it to Anni once it was cleared and we had long discussions of how we should be more careful and that we can still get together but not as frequently.

Tom: what do you mean get together…Anni wants this stopped and stopped now…that’s why I’m here.

Eddie: well you got me there …I thought we were meeting to set up another get together after the Vegas trip fell through. Look man, after my brother died and she comforted me and things led to other things..we became soul mates. Heck, we had some real great times…we have a life together…so I thought… that’s why I thought I’d remind her by bringing these photos of us taken over the last nine months. You know I own a photo shop..and…. well, photos are my speciality.

As this was transpiring, Marianne did not like what she was seeing…she started to get nervous…she couldn’t hear them but it seemed Eddie was doing all the talking. She felt her worlds were colliding…this was suppose to be “ THE SUMMER OF ANNI”. She knew Eddie was too sensitive of a guy and too nice to be in this predicament and that the break up could devastate him. But that’s what she liked about him the first time she met him in the hospital. Tom was a terrific planner and very very predictable….but Eddie was sensitive, understanding and pliable..very different… she hoped that Tom would quickly get to what he said he was going to do.

The huge stash of photos was now in Tom’s hands…photos of the two of them at restaurants they use to go to..some photos of Eddie and Marianne with his kids at the mall Christmas shopping, skating and then later at the beaches and amusement parks. Some photos were in the apartment and hotels they stayed at…kissing and hugging. Tom’s heart was thumping…and breaking…

Eddie: .. the last little while, we have been having our problems…like all couples…I mean she was pissed because I couldn’t go to Vegas with her this last time when you went to Atlanta….[ how did he know I was in Atlanta?]… we booked it three weeks back and even though she gave me strict orders never to call her at home, I had too. I wanted to explain the emergency that came up forcing me to cancel. But she freaked out…earlier she told me you were probably in Atlanta with your girlfriend having an affair which according to her is okay since she is involved with me…so I thought why not call her at home. But you got her so freaked out …she thinks you have the place bugged. Here, give her the cancelled Vegas tickets and the money I was going to give her tonight.

Tom was floored with everything. These new revelations stunned him. But what came next shattered him.

Anni came over to the table and told Tom not to believe a single word Eddie had said…that he was a liar and an arrogant asshole…and is trying to ruin our marriage. Then she tossed a drink into his face and walked away and said she would be in the car.

Eddie was beside himself…He said out loud, “I can’t believe this is the woman I love…How can she throw away these last nine months, my Anni, my beautiful Anni. Anni…Damn her…

And then Eddie pulled out another stash of photos..photos of the two of them naked and frolicking in what appears to be his apartment. Anni blowing him, being fucked doggy style, and even anal fucking…Tom thought ”my God what was Anni doing during those nine months”.

Eddie: I don’t run a photo stop shop for nothing…my place has the latest equipment hidden all over….I feel like sending these photos to her boss and friends…she can’t use me and discard me like a piece of shit…man to think I loved her…she used me..

Tom quickly pulled out his knife and threatened Eddie to first calm done and to give him the photos. Furthermore, if he so ever hears that these photos are being circulated, he will come after him and cut him to pieces. Eddie was not a fighter and did as he was told, got up and said to Tom, “ I gotta leave…I’m hurting inside and I don’t know what to do, tell Anni I still love her and that I’ll try to leave her alone.” And then he left.

Tom gathered everything and walked out to the car. He knew the hurdle that was in front of him. That Anni and he had to do more talking. As he got into the driver’s side, he handed Anni, the cancelled Vegas tickets, the money and the two stashes of photos and said, “ You know you broke his heart don’t you…don’t say anything until we get home”. As Anni was looking at the items in front of her, tears started to fall that matched the tears falling from Tom eyes as he drove in silence. Their sixteen year marriage, as they knew it, was over.

Andy

This story was great, but i really didn't like the ending because of course they got back together.I am not against a happy ending, but i can't see how this one could have one.I mean the affair lasted 8 months,she lied to his face time after time,the anniversary incident proved that the marriage wasn't as important as she said and the use of her husband's pet name for her by eddie.The last two are the worst, but the fact that the affair lasted that long is screwed up.Hell i caught my wife cheating on me within 3 weeks and i divorced her ass without any hesitation.Story was pretty good though.

Wife lies and commits adultery for sort of a convoluted reason. Might even be the true reason or part of one but it's enough for her. Husband lies and commits adultery for a pretty straight forward and (for many) understandable reason. It seems like his ability to forgive might have had something to do with the realization that he's the same as she. He, too, is the kind of person who will lie and cheat given sufficient reason. He doen't seem to have "... O, wad some Power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us!"

The forgiveness and re-connect in the last chapters, while possible, went way to smooth for plausability. But this is just a short story... it would take a novel.

I'm reluctant to say this but the alternate account of the meeting written by igiorgi0 seems to fit better with the facts presented to that point. (Maybe a whole story from him someday?)

Please write more.

It may not be the best of endings but it is still an enjoyable tale. I would never have taken her back and would have only agonized over the loss of a wife, not "can I trust her?".

But to anyone who says it isnt plausable I would say that 'everything is possible and therefore plausable'.

I believe you cannot contrive a story that hasn't been real for someone, somewhere, sometime.

I thought the emotions of Tom were well described. One could follow along with his train of thought quite easily.

The bogus affair of Tom's was not to humiliate her. It was well explained in the story---too bad the one anonymous detractor couldn't follow it.

I don't know if you researched the psycobabble or not, but the parents ARE always blamed, so that fits. It may be a little far-fetched but most of us don't expect you to be a psychiatrist!!

Just keep writing for those who can appreciate a good writer!!

Yes, it is well told; and, for those who appreciate it, even after the damage, the two stayed together and made a good life sharing their love with each other. Very good characterizations for everyone except Eddie. You first description kept getting modifeid during the story till at one point he was a conniving mature destroyer of marriages simply for the sake of besting another man. This caused a problem with my believability. How could a 40 year old, intellignet, woman cater to such a person to the detriment of the spouse she declares her love for. I mean, are you trying to make me believe he wasn't setting her up to exclude her husband in her anniversary?

You made Tom into a real hero. Making the right decisions and the right moves to restore his marriage. It was very well conceived and very well executed. Thank you for posting and sharing with us.

unlike many here I with held my comment until the very end.... Overall it was a nearly great story. The guy wasnt a whimp and Marianne may have finally gotten a fooking clue.

But its last chapters... well with the therapist . It that sucks shit on toast. Let me see If I have this right... she had a 8 month affair because

1) her AUNT died

2) Her husband broke her ankle about the same time

Ohio man are you fucking kidding me? Dude you are shoveling some serious bullshit here... and it fails miserably.

Enjoyed reading it however however...

In an earlier comment I submitted on patricia51's essay, "Forgiveness," I spoke of some comments/critics and offered the view that you have to sometimes wonder what story they were talking about.

*****

This last comment on House of Cards is a perfect example of what I was speaking about in that you've got to read it and wonder, "To what chapter in 'House of Cards' is this person referring?".

*****

The portion in House of Cards in which Marianne talks about her therapy, she's telling Tom about the problem with her parents. My concern with this whole element is that it was rather superfluous and could have been passed over with less detail. This last comment by Anonymous refers to a rather major element in the final chapter of Lyin' Eyes in which Mark spends a fair amount of time speaking with his wife's psychiatrist and how an important Aunt died and Mark had broken his foot.

*****

Let's get it straight people. Such comments that bear no relevance to the story being critiqued are an insult to the author and his readers.

Supper story, enjoied it I like the way this one ended and the fact tom did not tell about his made up affair. In the end it would serve no purpose.

Decent story Ohio. A bit drawn out but an interesting take on reconcillation.

As to Andy's comment and rewrite, I liked it but it didn't make eddie too sympathetic. All I'd say to eddie at that point is, grow a spine you wuss, thats what you get for banging a married woman, heartache.

i gave the story zero but i gave you (igiorgi0) 100! that's the logical ending. it explains everything up that point. if you nitpick not everything. one is susan left spring, so around april. the affair was going strong and anni was still seeing eddie 2-3 times a week after that. of maybe, since anni is such liar, she lied about susan leaving spring when in fact she left a few week ago.

another weak point is the picture of eddie, anni and the kids christmas shopping, skating, beaches, amusement park. if this really happened, surely the kids would have mentioned something to tom about an eddie.

again, kudos igiorgi0! thanks for writing the logical conclusion to this series.

To the author’s credit he can write some very powerful images. He excels at describing Tom’s feelings throughout the ten laborious chapters of this saga. Those instances where Tom is speaking of his turmoil are some of the best written on this site. Unfortunately, that is the only redeeming value of this story.

The rest of the story is a mess. It is plain that the author did not have a complete vision when he started writing. In the author’s own words (his comments at the end of chapter 5):

“I've gotten the message about chapters being too short, and future ones will be more substantial. But I don't know yet how many there will be--I'm letting my characters dictate what has to happen as the story develops.”

”As for how the story will resolve: all I can say is that I'm aiming to write a story where the characters are psychologically plausible, and behave in ways that are or at least might be believable. That may make the story less of a sex-drenched fantasy, but I hope it will be rewarding for readers in other ways.”

Therefore, I assessed this story based upon the goals as stated by the author himself, and found it lacking in all elements. Of particular concern is why the author chose to introduce children into this tale. He never gives them names, although all of the adults have names – even if they are given no assignments. For example, he even mentions friends Alec and Diana (whose children are the same age as theirs). We don’t know the ages of his children. However, he has inferred they are no younger than 10 and no older than 16.

The ‘kids’ were dropped from the plot after the first two chapters then reappeared after several commentators (myself included) noted their absence. Then when the author mentions them again it’s mostly to tell us they are at camp, with grandparents, or away in general. Neither parent spends ANY time with them nor do they both behave as if they do exist. So does that make Tom and Marianne ‘psychologically plausible’, a stated goal of the author? The answer is no.

Furthermore, upstanding Tom loses his integrity by first claiming to have an affair and then actually having one. His motivation for this? Who knows? I cannot speak to Marianne, because other than her physical appearance she is never developed as a character. What are her motivations? Certainly, her reason for the adultery is one of the weakest ever provided in a story of such length and emotion. It’s completely implausible. I came to expect more.

Personally, I thought this story might have gone on for another 10 chapters. In reality, it ended around chapter 5. Since then, we have been treated to a series of entertaining essays, none of which were necessarily related to the others.

One commentator asked at the end of chapter 4 “What is the House of Cards?” Well now we know. Tom and Marianne’s last name is Card. Enough said.

Dear author, you may read many critical comments (along with many deserving compliments), but that is mostly because of the big undertaking that you took upon yourself. You did not look for short cuts and it shows. You set for yourself as a goal to cover in great detail, complex relations along a very long period of time. I am tempted to call it affectionately a mini – epic scope. Given the high bar that you set for yourself it is very impressive that you were able to build good reliable characters, set the plot in motion but most importantly work through the details of the post calamity of the exposure of the betrayal. Taking us through the painful unpredictable road of the internal psyche -mostly of the husband, is a rare achievement! It’s a shame though that you left out the progress of the wife to the end (the therapy part) and than dumped it all in the end. As you set the standard of open and full communication it is a strange omission. You introduced a lot of important thought provoking concepts on conflict resolution. Most writers resort to the ‘Rambo’ style of throwing wife with the car and the furniture or on the other hand to the “Deos ex Machina”, some lame excuses: drugs blackmail brain washing etc. You never fell for any of these proverbial traps.

Which makes this story one of the most introspective and psychological stories I have read on this site. In some ways this story reminds me of the most psychological of Ingmar Bergman’s films I have seen. I refer to “Pictures from Married life “The problem for me is that when you put a camera or a recorded diary to create a detailed progression of this kind of crisis I want to ask ‘ok you met all the necessary conditions for a good story” - detailed observation, good analysis, coherency of the dynamics but what makes it different from a good case summary of a good therapist?

Unlike a sciencetific report which should be accurate and detailed I believe that a work of fiction asks for more.

True and detailed technical recording of every development that may come to your mind could be a good guidance for a scientific recorder but not necessarily to a fiction writer. In other words the above is not providing the sufficient conditions for a work of fiction. It seems to me that you have a fantastic draft, with which you could now mold play and edit. Compare the impact of each version, pay, attention to the reader’s point of view as you re- read it. I would love to see the result of the any next version! By the way, this is NOT meant as a put down! most great creative writers musicians painters ‘play” improvise and reproduce elements in their works -some times putting them next to each other without a decision which draft will be the final one.

I can not wait to see your next work and I thank you very much for this one!

Some random thoughts on the story:

Ohio, you took such pains to describe Tom's emotions on finding out about the affair, it almost seems autobiographical.

I am surprised Tom did not have a flashback at the end of Chapter 10, when Anni draped her arms over his shoulders as a sign of total openess. Did he not fear that she used this gesture with Eddie?

I think you pulled it out in the end and did come up with a happy ending. Good job.

This ending is frustratring and a great insult to engineers. Ohio wanted to show the emotions. That’s well and good but should that preclude tom to think? I am an engineer and given the facts of story I have different ending. tom may love anni but remember he hates her now for her betrayal. it seems ohio disregarded that hatred. In fairmess, I set those feelings aside to make a rational decision. Do I want to stay married to her? yes, the facts say so. Despite what I want or how I feel at this time, is staying married to her the right thing to do? can I trust her never to betray me again? Why would I accept a her back when eddie was number 1 in her life for 8 months. let the facts speak for themselves.

THE AFFAIR

I start with the thong. In chap1 we know tom saying “It was a silky black thong—in fact, her only thong, the one I had bought as a sexy present a year before and which she saved for special nights with me. Marianne is not a big fan of thongs—"They're not so bad if you feel like flossing your ass-crack!" is what she said to me once—but she wore that one a few times because she knew it excited me. I hadn't seen her wearing it in some time, but here it was, crusty and stiff on the crotch with what could only be a man's cum. One sniff confirmed the evidence of my eyes.” So, tom buys her a thong she seldom wears and only bec she knew it excited tom. Now she wears this thong to fuck her lover. Not good.

The “honeymoons”. Anni’s explanation was, "I didn't ... see Eddie on our anniversary, Tom. It was the day before. We hadn't been together for nearly two weeks, because he was away on vacation, and ... I guess we were extra horny. Well," she finally continued, "he made love to me over and over. He was just wild for it that day. I think we did it four times that afternoon, and a couple of times he was extra forceful and a bit rough. I was sore for the next couple of days.” The question now is, why was she extra horny? If she was, why didn’t she fuck me instead? Didn’t we fuck those 2 weeks when eddie was on vacation? If we did, I gues she wasn’t satisfied hence her horny state. Whether we fucked or not, the conclusion is she’d rather fuck eddie than tom. Also, she slipped when she said “we made love”. Not good.

While we’re at it, let’s talk about the anniversary. We know from chapter1 tom said, “So—why would I think about either of the strange little moments in the evening? No reason to. Who would care about a little grimace, or refuse a loving blowjob? No one. And that included me, until precisely eleven days later when my world began to crumble around me. I had come back late Saturday night from a two-day conference in Chicago”. That “Saturday” was when tom found the cum encrusted panty. 11 days before that was Tuesday of last week, their anniversary. Anni said she fucked eddie the day before, Monday and was sore for a couple of days. The story tells us tom and anni had sex the 3 days before he left for chicago, a Tuesday and nothing more.. the story also tells us anni and eddie fuck 2-3 times a week. What can safely conclude? Eddie fucked anni a few days after tom and anni’s anniversary. That means eddie fucked anni before and after the anniversary thereby shutting out tom completely. Wow! and anni was ok with this.

While we’re talking about the anniversary, let’s talk other important dates as well, like valentine’s day. from cha9 and 10 we know aug30 is a Sunday. do a little math or maybe simply check the calendar, we see feb14 is a Saturday. Since this was not discussed, let’s create scenarios based on the facts in the story. tom usually has his trips near the weekends and comes home sat or Sunday. if he had a trip then and came back Saturday, feb14, eddie would have fucked anni silly the night of feb13 and the morning of feb14. if tom didn’t have any trips then, eddie fucked anni the afternoon of feb13. I’m sure eddie wouldn’t have let that important date go by without fucking anni. So either way, eddie got first servings on anni on valentine’s day. tom got sloppy seconds on the day of lovers. We can surmise the thing happened on xmas, Thursday and new year’s day. for xmas, chances are eddie fucked her dec24th and dec31 for new year’s. tom was always second to eddie during the whole 8 months of the affar. If your read taboo teller’s do for lust and not for love, the wife there had an almost year affair. the wife darlinia did things with her lover she never did with her husband. But in fairness to I find darlinia very unsypathetic but in fairness to her, she didn’t fuck her lover tony 2 weeks before and one week after their (darlinia and her hubby’s) anniversary.

The blowjob. From chapter1 we know. “Marianne adores it when I lick her, though she's much less enthusiastic about going down on me and Marianne usually isn't so crazy about giving me blow jobs. Compare this with what we heard on the tape on chapter3 “They sucked and licked each other for a few minutes, until he said, "Hold on, Anni, I'm going to come!" Apparently she didn't stop, for a moment later he groaned. "Oh, oh, shit, that's incredible, oh, ohhh!" Then he sighed, and said, "Baby, you have incredible lips. That was unbelievable!" She just giggled and said, "I loved it too, Eddie”. She enjoys sucking eddie’s cock while she isn’t crazy giving tom a blow job. I wonder what other things she eagerly did with eddie and never with me? Anal sex? and one more thing in chapter3 eddie muses “The fact that he called her "Anni", a pet name that only I used with her—above all in bed--just made it worse”. Very bad.

In all these, anni claims her marriage came 1st. in fact in her defense in chap5 she said, "From the very beginning, I told Eddie that I would do whatever it took to keep our ... relationship a secret. I told him I loved you—that this ... affair had nothing to do with that. I wanted my marriage to last, and my seeing him would never interfere with that." Number one for me is my marriage. I won't do anything to hurt Tom, no matter how much I love being with you." Is this true? HELL NO!

In chapter6 tom asked anni, “After I first asked you about an affair, when I found the panties, did you ever think of just ending it with Eddie? Instead of just being more cautious, and hiding your affair more carefully, did you consider breaking it off?" anni answered no. this shows what anni’s been claiming that her marriage came 1st is a big lie. If this were true, she would have stopped the affair immediately or at least waited for things to cool down. But that didn’t happen. she fucked eddie 9 days later. When eddie asked “"Anni, sweetheart, when can we get together again?" she answered "I don't know, Eddie. It all depends on when Tom calms down. He's been so moody, it's obvious he's still wondering about me. I need to be very careful for a while. Call me at the end of the week and I'll let you know how it looks." Clearly it didn’t matter to her if tom is suspicious. the affair was more important than her marriage. she intends to fuck eddie forever.

Not only was the affair more important to her but obviously eddie was number 1 in her life in those 8 months. First is the thong she didn’t like wearing but wore when she fucked him. tom saw her wear it a few times since he bought it for her. who knows how many times she wore it for him. second is allowed eddie to give her the honymoons and ruin the anniversary. The honeymoons happened to her twice already so she knows the kind of fucking eddie was giving her that day will give her honeymoons. She allowed it. 3rd, she never was into giving tom blowjobs but from the looks of it, she enjoyed sucking eddie’s cock and swallowing hin cum is a normal thing for them. 4th she allowed eddie to call her annie.

So we’ve established that eddie was number in her life in those 8 months and affair was more important than her marriage. the question now is, should tom forgive her and get past this betrayal? or given the facts of the story has anni earned her forgiveness? let’s use particia51 essay forgiveness and capecodmercury’s comment on that essay as bases if forgiveness is possible. Patricia51 said, “perhaps the most important factor of all, how does the cheater react when caught? Some things are almost certain to happen. As long as possible the cheater is going to deny what has happened. When confronted with proof, the next instinct is to attempt to minimize the damage as much as possible. These actions; coupled with the standard "I can explain", "This is the only time its happened", and the most famous "I just love you, it was only about sex" are panic reactions. They spill out in a desperate attempt to soften the situation, make it appear not as bad as it is, make the cheater appear less wrong.”

Capecodmercury said, “Another factor that must be considered is the issue of why the cheating spouse is sorry. Is the sorrow over getting caught, over a concern for themselves or a genuine sorrow over the damage that was done to the marriage or the spouse. Is the regret over the actions or the consequences?Unless both sides really look into the hows and whys, there is no chance that the relationship will survive. Maybe its simplistic, but I think that forgiveness must be earned, and not simply given. The generic I'm sorry is as self serving as the affair. The cheating spouse must pull their soul out and examine why the cheating occured and really look at what they have done to the spouse and the relationship. Until they can understand the anger and hurt caused by the affair, they can't learn to regret the actions.”

THE NEGOTIATIONS

We know how anni lied when tom confronted her with the thong and her taped phone call to eddie. When tom asked her why she lied, anni said "Sweetheart—one thing I hope you'll be able to believe. I hated lying to you. HATED it. But I couldn't cheat on you without doing it, could I?” another argument to prove that the affair was more important to her than their marriage. she wanted to appear less wrong.

In chapter6 tom asked, "Marianne, if I hadn't found out about your affair, how long do you think it would have gone on?" She looked up at me in surprise. "I don't know," she said. "I know that it wouldn't have been a long long time. After all that time it wasn't as ... it wasn't as exciting and crazy as it had been at the beginning." "Well, it was becoming more of a settled thing, and I think it would have just continued cooling off in ... I don't know, a few more months. I think we would finally have just ... looked at each other and said, that's it. We're done."

Compare this with what tom heard in tape in chap3 "Hello ... hey baby .... yes, me too .... Are you there now? I can hardly wait! It feels like it's been forever ... You'll just have to wait to see what I'm wearing (with a giggle), I chose it for you to see it! .... Well, maybe for you to take it off me too .... OK, in a few minutes ... Bye." And “Then Marianne, MY Marianne, speaking back to him, teasing him! In a sultry voice, "I'll bet you say that to all the girls, big fella. Can you back it up? Or are you all talk and no action?" Then she laughed aloud, and I heard more kissing and hugging, with the two of them cooing and moaning into one another's ears. "Let me go, Eddie," Marianne said. "I'm so hot for it, let me just get my clothes off and you inside me!" I heard the sounds of clothes coming off, then the springs of the bed groaning as one or two bodies came down on it. “God, it's so big, and so hard, and so beautiful!" Marianne said. "I guess you really DID miss me! Let me suck on it first." Well,you get the idea. Anni is lying. This doesn’t sound like “becoming like a settled thing” and “cooling off”. From all indications the afffair as hot as it can be without signs of slowing down. She made it appear not as bad as it is. If I were to hazard a guess, it’ll last for at 2 more years.

The anni thing: in chapter9 tom asked marianne why he allowed eddei to call her anni. She replied with, “I told him at first to stop it, but he didn't. And I ... there's no excuse, Tom, I ... just gave up fighting him about it. It didn't seem worth it. Maybe it was all part of my deluded thinking, that you'd never know about the affair, about any of it, so what difference did it make?" compare this with what we heard on chapter3, “They sucked and licked each other for a few minutes, until he said, "Hold on, Anni, I'm going to come!" Apparently she didn't stop, for a moment later he groaned. "Oh, oh, shit, that's incredible, oh, ohhh!" Then he sighed, and said, "Baby, you have incredible lips. That was unbelievable!" She just giggled and said, "I loved it too, Eddie. Now maybe you could pick up where you left off”.

We don’t know if she really told him to stop at first but am sure she could have stopped him if she really wanted to. from chapter3 we hear eddie asking, "Anni, sweetheart, when can we get together again?" anni replied, "I don't know, Eddie. It all depends on when Tom calms down. Call me at the end of the week and I'll let you know how it looks." "OK, babe," Eddie replied. "But once every ten days is not enough of you for me. I get lonely." "Look, Eddie," Marianne said in a more serious tone. "You've known from the beginning how it had to be. Number one for me is my marriage. I won't do anything to hurt Tom, no matter how much I love being with you." And eddie said, "OK, Marianne, I get it. Just do what you can to reassure him, OK? I want to see you more than just once a week." Clearly, a simple serious tone from anni will get eddie back in line. Obviously anni didn’t do this and gave up fighting him about it. In fact her actions (sucking eddie til he came in her mouth and swallowing his cum after eddie warned her he’s cumming) reinforced that behavior (of eddie calling her anni). Maybe she told eddie to stop caling her that but her actions encouraged him to keep on calling her anni. She’ wanted to appear less wrong.

The honeymoons: from chapte6 anni says, “I didn't ... see Eddie on our anniversary, Tom. It was the day before. We hadn't been together for nearly two weeks, because he was away on vacation, and ... I guess we were extra horny. Eddie had wanted to meet the next day, which would have been our anniversary, and I told him absolutely not. But I think there was something about ... doing it with me just before our anniversary that was a special turn-on for him. He kept mentioning it while we were together. "Well," she finally continued, "he made love to me over and over. He was just wild for it that day. I think we did it four times that afternoon, and a couple of times he was extra forceful and a bit rough”. She’s trying to make it appear she didn’t have a choice in the matter. On that Tuesday afternoon when tom recorded their session, they havent met for 11 days and anni was still ok to fuck tom that evening. That means it’s not a function of how long they’ve haven’t fucked. Anni allowed eddie to fuck her silly the day before the anniversary because she also got off the idea just like him. again she didn’t tell the whole truth and told a story a to make her appear less guilty.

Why was anni sorry? From chapter7 after tom read the list of how he feels, anni said, "Jesus, Tom," Marianne finally said, with a tremor in her voice. "I thought I was a sensitive person, and I thought I'd been thinking hard about this—but there are things there that never entered my mind." Couple this with the what she said in chapter6. The one thing I swore to myself, from the beginning when I realized I was going to keep seeing Eddie, was that you would never know. I didn't let myself think of how much it would hurt you. I should have, of course, but I didn't." Obviously was sorry for being caught and not how her actions affected tom or the realtionship.

This can be further explained with what she said in chapter9. anni’s feelings on the carrie/tom affair was, “In my mind I can see you touching, caressing, making love to her just as you used to do to me, or whispering love words in her ear the way you did in mine, and I can hardly even stand up. I feel as though someone has slugged me in the stomach. But I'm going through all the wondering about her and me. Is she more beautiful, a better lover, does she satisfy you more than I do? Last week when you told me about your first night with her, it sounded so exciting that I was completely in despair. How could I ever compete with that, at 39, after 16 years of marriage? But whenever I have those feelings I know—truly KNOW—what my cheating has put you through. My nose gets rubbed in the pain I have caused you. Does she really know? Tom provided her with a list of his feelings and she thinks it’s about sex. she missed the point in tom’s list completely. It’s the intimacy you shared and fondness you had for him stupid!

In all of this marianne always claimed "I never loved him, Tom. I swear to you. It was never like that. It was more like 'wow, that felt good'—like it was a massage or something, a good workout at the gym!—'and now I can hardly wait to be back with my loving husband'. But in chapter she admitted, “I WAS fond of him. I felt close to him—after all we had been sharing ... intimacies for several months." Again she’s making the situation appear nota as bad as it is. It’s quite obvious she has feelings for eddie. But those feelings are not as strong as what she feels for tom hence she chose to break it off with eddie when tom confronted her with proof. From all indications, eddie has strong feelings for her as well. am sure had tom not caught her and the affair lasted another 8 months (which surely it will despite her saying she sees it ending in a “few months”) she would have loved eddie very much and left tom.

In chapter 10, tom relates. “One night after we had made love I was lying on my back, propped up against the pillows, staring out at nothing. Marianne looked at me and said, "Tom. I am so very sorry for the things you heard me say to Eddie. I can apologize for the rest of my life, and I know it will never be enough. But YOU are the best lover I have ever had. It's YOUR arms I want around me, your body I want next to mine, and your beautiful penis I want inside me. I am just so, so sorry...."Compare this with I heard in the tape in chap3 "Oh, Eddie, nobody does me like you do!" she said to him, a remark that stunned me with pain. "Give me a minute to relax and enjoy that wonderful feeling, then I want your beautiful dick inside me." This is an abashed declaration of how she feels at that time. eddie didn’t prompt her nor did he ask for the compliment. What she said in chp10 is part of her apology and therefore self serving. so much for tom being the best lover and her wanting his cock only. Anni lied.

And of course, let’s not forget what she said in chapter5, "Tom, there is one more thing. When you were away on business trips I ... usually spent the night at Eddie's apartment. That way we didn't have to get a motel room, and ... we had more time together." And what tom heard on the tapes in chapter3 “He came with a loud, long groan, and then there were the sounds of them getting comfortable to rest in one another's arms on the bed. When they stopped making noise the tape must have stopped recording, perhaps for quite a while, but then came the sound of the shower. They must have been in it together, because I could hear their voices but couldn't catch any words.” Clearly, anni loves to cuddle with eddie after sex and she spent the night with him for that reason. That proves her statement “. It's YOUR arms I want around me, your body I want next to mine” a lie.

In chapter9 we hear tom asking anni, "Marianne, we need to talk about Susan. And Jack." And she replied, "I was thinking about that, Tom, and I wanted to tell you as well. Susan and Jack left Cleveland together in the spring; I think they're living in Tennessee now. I wasn't really friends with her after that night ... they set me up to see Eddie again. I mean, I'm to blame for what I did, but ... let's just say I don't think she had my best interests at heart. In any case, she's gone—they're both gone."

Anni’s answer doesn’t make sense. if it were true she wasn’t friends with susan after that night, and thought “susan didn’t have her best interest in mind, she would have realized then what she’s doing or fucking eddie the 2nd time and spending the night in his apartment was very wrong and ended it right there. But as we know in chapter5, "When I left his apartment, I knew I was going to keep ... seeing him. I knew that I couldn't justify doing it, I knew it was utterly wrong, and selfish. But I LIKED it. It had been the most exciting thing I'd done in years, and I liked it."

So she liked it and naturally, she didn’t think susan didn’t have her best interest in mind then. Why would she think susan is not her friend when she set her up for the most exciting thing she’s done in years. She must be very grateful to her. it’s one or the other. either she thinks susan isn’t her friend for setting her up with eddie or she thinks the world of her for introducing her to this other world of pleasure. Based on her actions the latter is true and her statement is a big lie.

In chapter10 what she did at the party shows she hasn’t learned her lesson. Marianne knew “In previous years this party had sometimes gotten quite rowdy, with wild dancing and even couples pairing off (not with their own spouses) and making use of one of the many distant bedrooms in the large house. Tom saw a guy named Marty, whom Marianne and I knew casually, corner her beneath some mistletoe and give her a kiss and a full-body hug, his hands roaming over her, after which she pushed him away, laughing. After a while anni, came running to tom and begged him to leave. At home, anni told tom, “I was having a nice time, like we always do at Alec and Diana's. You know it starts to get pretty flirty after everyone has had a few, but it was no worse than usual. Then this guy I didn't know before, his name is Malcolm—I think he works with Diana—started really coming on to me.

He had been talking and flirting with me earlier, but it was harmless, the usual lines about my dress, or the aquamarine sets off my eyes. You know—no big deal, and not hard to handle. But later he managed to separate me from the group we were talking with, and maneuver me into a corner of the living room. The flirting got way too serious. He was telling me I was the loveliest woman he'd ever seen, and my husband couldn't possibly appreciate me as much as he would. If I'd only give him a chance, he could show me pleasures I'd never dreamed of before. And he was stroking my shoulder, and standing way too close, talking into my ear. Then he had me by the arm, and was starting to steer me down the hall towards the bedrooms. I was terrified you'd come into the room, Tom, and get the wrong idea! I was frantic to get away from him. I couldn't get loose at first, and no one else noticed what was going on. So I yelled at him, "let me go! I am NOT going with you!"

Compare this with happened to eddie and her the 1st time. In chapter5 anni said, It was when you were on that four-day business trip in Phoenix. On the Friday night I had plans to go out with Susan and Whitney (two of Marianne's unmarried friends from her office), and they dragged me to a disco they liked. It was loud, and packed full of people, and lots of fun. You know Susan and Whitney—they love to flirt, and the three of us got lots of male attention. We had some drinks, danced with a lot of guys, and enjoyed ourselves."Around 11 we were sitting at our table when Eddie walked in with some friends of his. He spotted me, and brought his group , it got kind of hot and I got kind of drunk, and ..." "We all got really hot from dancing. I told the group I was going out there for a minute to cool off. Eddie said he'd come along too. Standing outside in the dark, we were just laughing and joking, enjoying the cooler air; and then all of a sudden Eddie took me in his arms and kissed me. and before I knew it he had pressed me up against the wall and plastered his body against mine. I was about to cry out, push him away, slap him—and I just didn't. I was drunk, and thinking slowly, and ... and it just felt good. I liked kissing him, liked feeling his body and his hard-on pressing tightly up against me. And instead of pushing him away, I kissed him back. I put my arms around him, kissed him back, and let him stick his tongue in my mouth." He got his ... cock out, and I held it. It was so hard, and so hot! I began to stroke it, and he groaned into my ear. And his fingers were inside me, and I was soaking. His touch down there was driving me crazy. And then he pulled my skirt up, pushed my panties to the side, and just ... entered me."

The 2nd time eddie fucked her, anni says, "We all danced, and drank a bit, and had a good time. And when Susan said she was leaving with Jack, I knew I should let them drop me at home—but I didn't. I stayed with Eddie. I was having fun, and I wanted it to continue." "Tom, we ... we went back to his apartment, and I spent the night with him. We had sex a lot ... several times. There was something about the wrongness of it, the dirtiness of it, that excited me, knowing that I was cheating on you, that this was ... sex with a man who wasn't my husband. Eddie is a bit younger, he's ... only 29, as I said, and the fact that he was so full of desire for a lady of nearly 40 was flattering. I was more ... more vocal than I usually am with you, and ... well, it was very exciting. I ... I, I came a lot."

Anni hasn’t learned her lesson. The affair with eddie started with harmless fliting and a lot of alcohol. She could have avoided the unnecessary attention had she not allowed marty to kiss her while his hands roamed her body. She could have given her a look that told everyone that she didn’t like what marty did but instead she laughed when she pushed him away. This told every man in the party that she was fair game. As regards malcolm, she would have avoided him when she knew he was flirting. Instead she had a few drinks and flirted with him. coparing eddie’s style with malcolm’s we can malcolm didn’t get to fuck anni because he didn’t play his cards right. He came on too strong for anni’s taste. Anni’s claim to know how to handle the situation with a “no” or maybe a spike heel on thr guy’s shoe would only work if she didn’t like the guy. She never did this to eddie. The lesson she should have learned is “the only way to prevent shark attacks, literallya nd figuratively is stay out of the water”. She enjoys drinking, flirting and having fun at parties that it’s only a matter of time she’ll meet guy like eddie and start another affair.

CONCLUSION:

Where do we stand now? We have anni who had an 8 month affair with eddie, who during those times was number 1 in anni’s life. She fucked him 2-3 times a week while tom gets it once a week. When tom confronts her she lies. She not sorry for her affair but sorry she got caught. She was never totally honest with her confesion to tom. She glosses over the truth to make her appear less guilty and at times lies completely. In the weeks that follow she “realizes” the hurt she caused tom but misses the point completely as she thinks it’s all about sex with eddie. She says she’ll do anything to make it up to tom but she has not learned her lesson. She still flirts thereby putting at risk to another affair. she has the same job, ergo the same flexible schedule. To sum, nothing has changed. She’s stil the same lying bitch she was when the affair with eddie started. It’s only a question of time, of when she’ll have another afair and of course with whom. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hooked up with eddie again. Eddie feels something for her and I think he wonp;t stop. So using patricia51 and capecodmercury’s formula for forgiveness we see anni failed miserably. Staying with her is a big mistake. The only logical conclusion is a divorce.

eddie had some part in this mess and you let him off the hook.clear to do it again to somebody else family.this was to long, 4 chapters and got eddie too.

like others have commented on,,, the author emphasized a lot on the husband's thoughts, but not much on the wife, except through her tears, when she's confronted with her extra marital activities,,,

"Salamis" didn't say it but I think it is safe to say it: a house built on "cards," a house of cards, has no foundation at all,,,, I think the auhtor making the couple's last name Card was not as significant as his making the title of the story a HOUSE OF CARDS,,, Cards as a last name means nothing more than that: Cards, a last name.

A House of Cards, on the other hand, has a lot of meanings and most, if not all, are negative,,, not something you want to build on, be it relationship or future! As noted by others, if the kids were really an integral part of the story, they would have been presented more ubiquitously throughout; and if they did, the happiness of everyone concerned would have been better attained if the couple separated,,, but the way the author made the husband to be, at the end, made the story diverge too far from the beginning for the reader to feel much emotions, solidarity, or sympathy for him.

I must confess I didn't read the whole story; except the last chapter, but the "reviews" of dependable readers who are also good writers like "Salamis" and others help us not to waste too much time on long stories that ultimately don't amount to more than just sex; if that's what a reader wants, just read the 1-2 page where everyother word or imagery is sex, sex, and all kinds, all the time, etc., ad nauseam

Please write a believable ending to this story! This "Anni" was not sorry. Tom just had the money. There will be more "Eddies". I'll bet my hole "Card" on that.

for a really good story. I did enjoyed reading it.Despite the fact that I personally wouldn't go for the reconciliation, mainly because 8 months are too much for any type of explanation, and in my opinion Eddie was her real man in that period, the way you sorted things out in the last chapter was acceptable for me. Thanks for writing to us.Carl.

I've read a ton of cheating wife stories, and we often forget they are just stories, often entertaining, but still just stories. However, almost without exception the wife says something like, "It was only sex. You are the only one I love," or "I love you more than life itself," or "Because of our love, I know we can put this behind us and strengthen our loving marriage." Most of the time the husband says something like, "I would divorce you in a heart beat, but I love you," or "In spite of your slutty behavior, I still love you and want to remain married to you."

So there's "sex" and there's "love". By default, the stories explain what "sex" is, sometimes to excruciating detail. But of the many cheating wife stories where "love" seems to endure all, the authors have never taken the effort to explain what this "love" really is. This "love" is so powerful it often overcomes the domination to be an adultress (a power itself so great it is often not completely explained), so its power seems to be beyond description, because the authors never explain what it actually is.

Maybe it is too difficult to explain? The dictionary has trouble with it. love, n., 1. An intense affectionate concern for another person. 2. An intense sexual desire for another person. See? Even Webster right off conflicts love and sex.

Why is it "love" forces Tom to continue the marriage with Marianne after he finds she has had a lover for eight months? She lied to her husband, more than once, to keep her liaisons a secret. She created a separate life, with all the intimacies of a loving marriage, with someone other than her husband. Meanwhile, she flipped between these two lives, sometimes twice a day, and gave herself fully to each. Yet "love" survived and she just flipped a switch and, like turning off a light, extinguishing the one life and protesting the other life was never effected because of her undying "love" for her husband.

I'd like to see one of these cheating wife stories where the author gets into the heads of the husband and wife and explains just what this binding (blinding?)"love" is.

BTW, ohio did a wonderful job writing House of Cards. Character develepment was excellent, flawless grammar and sentence structure. But we never really understood what went on in Marianne's mind. Perhaps that is a consequence of having Tom tell the story, but Marianne has many opportunities to tell him why she did it, other than just saying it was stupd and she is very sorry. This seems to be one of those cases where the wife was truly sorry because she got caught, not sorry because she made her husband to be a fool.

Unfortunately, ohio ran out of gas near the end. She makes this miraculous transformation from a cheating wife to a "loving" wife, leaving the readers wondering why and how. And he takes her back into his "loving" marriage, leaving the readers to again wonder why. Oh, I guess it was because of "love", whatever that is.

Again you have stirred up a hornets nest since many do not like 'forgiving husbands'. Most critics remain anonymous but some like 'romaq7705' have much to say but have little in the way of stories for us to read (and criticise). I prefered the happy ending despite the lengthy affair of the wife. However, my pleasure came more from reading a well constructed, interesting tale in excellent prose with few, if any, errors. A pleasant change from the frequent fare of torid, explicit sex told in barely readable English. OHIO, don't take bad reviews too seriously, at least you are providing us with somethink to read.

I guess it's time for me to leave a comment.

I thought the total story was very well done with nice, detailied characterization and a plethora of detial. The outcome is as believable as any other outcome (see Patricia51's essay on forgiveness).

I gues I would have the most trouble with the degree of intimacy followed by the length of the affair. Both showed a total lack of respect.

Regards, DJ

A friend hipped me to this site a few years ago, and while alot of the stories are erotic, there are some real "whoppers" here also. This is one of the most unbelievable stories I've ever read anywhere. An affair that lasts nearly a year AND when she gets busted she lies and tries to continue the affair and knucklehead takes her back!?! Woody Allen couldn't nail absurdities like this! Your story structure was tight, but the plot was too implausible. But, like I mentioned earlier, it flowed (albeit WAY too long, considering the outcome)and was structurally sound. Perhaps you need to stay away from daytime tv for awhile and get more inspiration from real-life events.

A little long but a compelling good read. To bad he wimped out and took her back, but you pretty much knew thar was the way things were headed. He could have humiliated Eddy in front of Anni, but didn't adequately do so. He didn't even have the balls to have a "real" affair, and had to lie. Of course you wouldn't have had the tell or don't tell quandry on hubby's part, which was a clever plot twist, but still left this reader frustrated with his lack of spine. I don't expect he will be able to keep his wife faithful for very long. (zed)

I've read this story numerous times and it's outstanding. I could ramble on and on about the authorship but I'll try to keep this brief. It's well-written, the characters are richly drawn and the scenes are well-managed.

It also doesn't work for me and here's why: the title is in many ways so appropriate. Tom and Marianne's new marriage is indeed a house of cards because it's built on lies. At a time of marital crisis when the only salvation is complete honesty and total truth, Tom abandons his integrity and lies to Marianne, then compounds this blunder by violating his marital vow to be faithful when he has his affair with Kristen. He feels no remorse nor guilt, merely pleasure at having put one over on his wife. It is pathetic indeed when, at the end of the tale, he decides that it's better for Marianne never to know the truth.

It really doesn't matter that Marianne cheated first. His rationale that his supposed affair would help her understand his pain is assinine. It's an excuse based on his assumption of how she would feel about it. It's base, vile and contemptible. I honestly expected the couple to become estranged and then divorced. It didn't happen because the author decided that "love conquers all." It doesn't.

Their "new" marriage is a sham and I've no doubt that it will not stand the test of time. The day will come when one or the other will be tempted again and, as they say, "once a cheater, always a cheater." Had Tom remained faithful, Marianne would've had his strength of character to fall back on, to help her resist the temptation to cheat again, because she knows like you know the sun comes up in the East that he would never cheat on her, that he loves her more than life itself. But that's all gone, flushed down the toilet in an act of revenge, and what they have after the affairs is merely a marriage of convenience.

The story is superbly written and excellent fiction this is. I'll give it a 75 because I can't give it a 100.

.. is a fantasy. i dont know any guy who would go back to his cheating wife after what she have done. especially those who have no problem attracting women.

I read this story again and I was amazed how pitiful and sad these characters are. They are losers from day one.

Marianne never respected Tom even up to the very end. For example, she ran out of the party because she was afraid that Tom would catch her again. Let's face it married women are hit upon all the time at parties and they know how to handle these unwelcomed advances. Marianne allowed a strange man to touch her in an intimate manner. Once most wives make it very clear that you can look but you better not touch. She had experienced the "honeymooners" twice so she had to know that the level of forceful fucking could cause her pussy to become too sensitive to make love with her husband. So much for putting Tom first (her excuse -her lover was horny).

One point Tom never seemed to think about was that if Marianne was so smart and crafty didn't she know (in fact she told her lover about it) that her conversations were being monitored? So her every action after being exposed as a lying cheating wife would have been oriented to winning his trust again.

Tom was just a fool determined to stay married to his lying cheating wife. He never questioned why Marianne could be so guilt ridden after exposure when she admitted that she never felt guilty after that first fuck with her lover. She was consumed with having her fun and keeping him in the dark. Tom who was married to Marianne for 16 years really did not know her. So Tom lowered himself down to Marianne's level so he could stay with her (after all if they both cheated then he could feel like less of a victim). In the beginning of the story, Tom highly valued martial fidelity but by the end of the story he was struggling with telling the truth to Marianne about his cheating behavior.

In real life, either Tom or Marianne would cheat again.

SleeplessinMD

It's a shame after such a well developed good story, it boils down to her parent's bad marriage. I understand somewhat the self-fulfilling prophecy angle, but would have thought her background would have lead to appreciating her husband and marriage MORE rather than hedging against it's failure (to which end her actions contributed). Shame on her. She should have gone to a shrink before rather than after the affair. No matter how much they recover, they have lost something they will never get back.

Yet I do not see it as a wimp story or one of a "marriage in name only". Those who see it as such have either never been there or are too much wimps themselves to face such a situation. No one said marriage was easy.

Very thorough. The naysayers like or don't like these two people. So what? It's a story and a very good one. This is the way it worked out for these two and it would be different for another couple. I really feel that I know a lot about these two.

In real life, Tom's "fever" --"Sometime in March, as the dreary winter weather dragged on, I began to feel uneasy. I still don't know what set me off, whether something actually happened or I caught the suspicion virus out of the air—but I began to worry about Marianne's fidelity." -- was caused by his own infidelity which he never confessed to his wife. His actual affair remains a secret justified by his fantasy affair. He never confessed this to his wife and so remains between them. The wrestle with whether or not to tell his wife about the fantasy affair was smoke and mirrors to cover the fact that he didn't want to tell her about his real affair. Oh well... hey it's a story after all. Good work.

Let's see here she gets busted and is going to lose the good life to be with the Photo Mat guy at the MALL??????? What should she do????? Looks like she did it .... dump the young stud with no money and a shit job ... and be the good wife again ?????

1) The panic attack in the pre-Christmas party would

probably have been brought on by her feeling the desire

to have some fun in the bedroom and she knew where that

would lead. Basically she has to stay away from dancing

and drinking with the opposite sex if she wants to respect her husband!

2) You did not convince me that he would ever trust her again or even that he continues to love her. So the ending sounds doubly false. Of course, his plan could be to maintain a home for the children, have a sexual relationship with her without love and then split up when the kids move out. If she got wind of this plan she would have gone into panic once more.

1) The panic attack in the pre-Christmas party would

probably have been brought on by her feeling the desire

to have some fun in the bedroom and she knew where that

would lead. Basically she has to stay away from dancing

and drinking with the opposite sex if she wants to respect her husband!

2) You did not convince me that he would ever trust her again or even that he continues to love her. So the ending sounds doubly false. Of course, his plan could be to maintain a home for the children, have a sexual relationship with her without love and then split up when the kids move out. If she got wind of this plan she would have gone into panic once more.

I've actually read this story more than once and still bothered by it!

Come on readers, she's screwing around on him for at least a year, covers up, denies, and continues even after she know's he has become suspect!

Would this happen to me, this women would no longer be a part of my life!

Duke, somewhere in the midwest!

, continues her downward lifestile!

As old as I am, I know the meaning of forgiveness, but

... to a degree, you want to save a marriage or at least try to. sometimes it works and some times it doesn't, mine did not. but at least you try. since then you continue to live life and have fun and go on, do i look back at times i do but the hurt is gone and all relationships since then has both benefited and hurt from it. there is a wall that is never completely torn done just adjusted to let someone in but still there in case you need the protection.

Thanks

Mike from Texas

Your best yet (I've read about half of your stories so far). The detail and emotion of the first half of this saga were told to perfection, I don't recall feeling such strong "no body fills my wifes cunt with cum but me" feelings from any other story here. I've voted 100 for the first 8 chapters. I'm a fan of reconcilliation, or atleast trying, and this was well handled, but just too far outside the realm of reality to expect a marriage to survive this. It was worth a try though. Regards, and thanks for a great story.

life.

What truly amazes me is why 'readers' always want to "rewrite" someone else's story!

Excellent story, written with "true" passion, and so detailed with honest emotions.

Nesher

I think the number of truly stupid people that think this was a GREAT story and gave it 100s is shocking. It speaks volumes about the number of people who lack basic reasoning skills

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First given how she lied and lied and lied and lied and lied surely Marianne would have no ehtical problem trying to say " its just sex Tom it doesnt mean anything .." But even she couldnt. She never even tried.

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What this emans is that far too many readers have forgotten that this was NOT an simple sexual affair!! <b>Marianne developed a long term deep EMOTIONAL AND SEXUAL affair with Eddie. </b>

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She says in chapter 4 or 5 to Eddie -- on the Tape that <b>"My marriage always came first" </b> and Tom of course hears that.

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Yet when TOM got very suspicous (the Thong panties incident) she did NOTHING to end the affair. <b>Delaying the next sexual meeeting with EDDIE a few days -- NOT breaking it off - was clear signal of what was REALLY importnat to her. </b>

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This is what the lying was REALLY about. And this is why the story's ending is fucking disaster.<b> Marriane's argument "well TOM I had to lie to have an affair" covers up the KEY point. </b>

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Most folks when caught cheating... if they want to save the marriage...CONFESS. She did not. When TOM got suspicous She lied and lied and lied again. <b> THAT is putting her marrage first? </b>

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When Marianne she says she had to lie to Tom... b/c all affairs are decietful and lies by nature that is NOT answering the Question.

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TOM asks "Why did you lie and lie and lie? Why did you lie shamelessly to my face? <b> he is asking why did you put me #2 ? </b>

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So Marianne's answer that she had to Lie is an admission of NOTHING. Its like asking why is it HOT today ? To say that it is because the temperature is 95 degrees is NOT a real explanation. The 95 degree reading is statement of FACT it is NOT an explanation as to WHY it is hot.

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so TOM wimps out and says OK I guess I can understand that. HUH? I mean like what the fuck... can anyone be this fucking stupid?

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so TOM rather than face this critical concept decides to Lie by making up his own affair... and all the readers falls for this diversion.

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<b>Marianne lying at KEY moments ....to his face when he asked... by NOT stopping the affair before he found out for certain.... by NOT really telling TOM why she lied and lied and lied... she made a decision that she wanted Eddie MORE than she wanted TOM. </b>

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Then the author has TOM make the same mistake AGAIN when he talks to her about Eddie fucking the hell out her right before the anniversary. Eddie knew what he was doing .... to stop tOM from having SEX with his wife on their anniversary.

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<b>Again she INTENTIONALLY let that happen. She Knew what Eddie was doing. How is that putting her mariage to TOM First? </b>

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But once more instead of confronting her on this massive conflict he decides to have a therapy session where they write down How they FEEL about each other. That in itself is NOT a bad thing per se but he never confronts the issue of the SIGNFICANCE of her lying repeatedly and how she CHOOSE to let Eddie fuck her senseless so she could not have sex with her married husband.

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TOM being stupid as shit cannot see how all these things are connected... he views them as all seperate aspects of the affair but he doesnt see what these pieces of the puzzle really mean.

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It was NOT the sex per se .. it was what the signficance of the sex that she allowed and wanted that told why this reconciliation is not in the least bit believeable

I rated the story high for it was a good story.

Tom was a better man than me for I would never have gone back with her.

Thanks for entetaining us. Mike from Texas

I have read through this story multiple times. Fabulous writing. No complaints on that score = 100. Entertaining, and well devloped characterization = 100. Believable ending = 0. Eight months of cheating. No matter what her excuses are, that would destroy a marriage. She chose to do it knowing how wrong she was. One time, one slip, one drink too many. They could discuss rationally forgiveness. But she pissed and puked on their love for eight months. And then blubbers how sorry she is. After agonizing and suffering the horrific pain of her LONG TERM betrayl, he takes her back and lives happily ever after. This is not believable in these characters as you created them. He will never, ever trust her. He thinks he can, but his actions in the last chapter show what will happen. And he will always worry about her and never be sure, never.

As a writer, you are 100%. But the ending is not a realistic fantasy for these two people...

Tom should have gone to counseling if he wanted to consider reconciliation with Marianne. In fact, they both should have begun counseling to have an objective facilitator help with the talks. Also, the fake "affair" with Carrie was a mistake. Even though it was fictitious, and it served to make real for Marianne some of the hurt Tom experienced, it was a lie that even Tom realized would be difficult to confess. It just added another barrier between them. Marianne has given up her boyfriend but Tom is cheating with a woman (phoney, I know) to hurt Marianne in return, to get even? OK, he had the fling with Kristin at the Atlanta meeting; that just happened. But Marianne was trying to behave herself despite the knowledge that Tom was seeing another woman. Therapists (from experience) know this does not help the wounded marriage. It's like the Hatfields and the McCoys; she cheated, so he'll cheat, then she will be upset and cheat back at him, and so on. How does this permit love to reappear? Tom knew it was wrong so he didn't actually have an affair with Carrie, but he decided to lie ("a little white lie" is still a lie) to hurt her back, to make her insecure, because she did not really appreciate how he felt. This is where a counselor can help. Finally, I'm surprised Tom did not visit an attorney, take some money from the bank account, and at least protect himself half as well as he bugged the house and Marianne's car! What if she decided to keep her younger boyfriend and keep the money too! Tom remained very vulnerable during his attempts to "take some control." Despite these concerns, the story is very well written and I really enjoyed it.

Excellent story and well written. I'm a big fan of reconciliation (Yes, I know how to spell it)but the length, intimacy, and magnitude of the affair makes it pretty unlikely in this case. After an eight month affair in which she got together with Eddie 2-3 times a week she says," I owe you complete honesty and faithfulness and I already failed you ONCE----big time." More like 80 to 96 times. I think she's in denial. But those are just plot issues and as they say," It's your story and your sticking to it." Then there's Tom, is there a man in the world that is as strong as he is? I consider myself a pretty forgiving guy but I can honestly say, I'm not sure I could endure what it would take to salvage that marriage and I've had to endure a lot to stay in the one I'm in (don't tell my wife I said that) Even though it was a stretch I really enjoyed it, like all your stories. Please keep on writing. He never did call her Anni again, did he? Hmmmm You know if you keep being this subtle a lot of your readers won't know you for the genius you are!

A well planned cuckolding by another selfish wife. If a husband behaved like she did, she would divorce him in a second and take every cent she could. The list of deceit is too long, but a few items: the affair lasted months; she bought another phone that he did not know about; she cheated on their anniversary; she clearly thought the "big cock" was better than her husbands. And she LIED LIED LIED!This infidelity is not one that can be reconciled regardless of what he did after he found out. She gave another man her love: this was way more than fucking. She got emotional support from Eddie; she got sex as often as she could arrange it; and she clearly had developed a close relationship. Sure she said her husband came first and she really showed that on their anniversary. No way would he in his right mind return to this slut.

I took the bait and read Cards in one setting. Very well written and edited. The storyline got me hooked and pulled me in like few others on Literotica. At a few points in the story I noticed my heart was beating faster in suspense and anticipation. To get blood going to the crotch is not unusual but to get the visceral reactions I did from Cards was special. Either you have been through this yourself or you have studied and researched the subject thoroughly. I hope you keep contributing stories of this caliber. Great job.

When I first read this, from beginning to end, I rated this as a 4. It is very well written! However, after I have re-read this story, I rate it at 50% because I think that he should have dumped her. It is obvious that it was an intense affair for her for a year. How could that have not impacted negatively on her love for him?

not no, "BUT HELL NO!!!!" when he was with kristin the condom broke??????????????????? not a very good ending! you had the chance to really put one "HELL," of a twist to the story ending. all the crap she put him through, right up to the end? he and kristin excanged addrss' do you see this? ................... rich

Getting this idiot to show some belated muscle don't impress me much.

He should have kept some pride and walked.

Instead he is licking ass, not trusting her and enjoying it.

A sorry story.

well told with lot's of words.

But no life.

cheers

Yoron.

wow ! is this guy unreal-or what --If that was most guys -she'd be 6 Ft.under

Yes, there are some similar emotions & plot devices however, in both stories, the wimp husbands are so weak they end taking these slut wife's back! Utterly disgusting & so pathetic. Was this a collaboration with the manhater "bonnietaylor"? It is stories like this wimpy effort that make the "consequence series" so popular.

having a spouse cheat on you so much and lie to you so maliciously you feel you need to buy more electronics than the CIA uses to spy on her, and her betraying actions become such a pattern of psychological abuse toward you that you have nightmares every night to the point where YOU may need a psychiatrist. LOL Life's too short to put up with this girl.

To all you "big fans of Reconciliation" read Grimm's fairy tales."and they lived happily ever after." The trouble you have is you have never grown up enough to face reality.Read the divorce rate stats. This one would have been an addition to the stats.

You are a good author but this is a ridiculous story line. There has to be a point at which there is too much cheating to forgive. This is such a case. What kind of wimp could live with himself after continuing this marriage.

the rating reflect the feeling on the end. 8 months, those lies, showing more enthusiasm w another than apparently ever did w him.

the reason(?) under the adultery was ....? she was the one that deceived in the marriage, without any thought more than she did not want to hurt him (and have a wounderful time in the process).

her love extended to the open ended duration, but for being caught. children, other considerations, but all the deception.

I agreed with the earlier post. This story actually had my pulse racing at certain points. I read it all in one reading and it was just a fantastic story. Thank You!

Sigh. Normally you produce some very good stuff, but once again, I see the typical eight month or longer affair, followed by crocodile tears, psychotherapy, blah blah blah bullshit. And now, watch the clouds part and the sun shine because their marraige is better than before! In fact, the affair improved their marraige!! Hell, let's EVERYBODY go fuck around on our spouses since it leads to such complete redemption and bliss. In a previous story you call "bullshit" on those who would say to just walk away from the lying, cheating whore, but now I have to call "bullshit" on the wimp idiot who couldn't figure out that in order for there to be infidelity, there also has to be a complete lack of love, trust, honor, and honesty. In short, "this ain't fantasyland." You've written other good, quite good, stories, but this one misses the mark about as bad as Evel Knievel missed that haystack.

Judging by the posted comments both ways -this story really "got" to some of the readers --I am always in favor of getting back together =-even in this extreme case of betrayal --8 months of it in fact!

But a common flaw of these type of stories is that the women are in it "just for the sex". In reality, this is a much more male mindset-women usually form emotional attachments in the affairs.

Totally wimped out wussy hubby. He's only macho towards other males and a chauvenist towards fems making him a real disaster cause only males fuck fems, fems never fuk males so it's always the males fault even though seduction is always a 2 way street. Typical story all fems write and Ohio is indeed a feminist who enjoys wimpy wussy ass kissing anal licking males.

You really make us feel the emotions of this couple.

It does not matter if we agree or not with the actions,

what is important is that you transmitted the emotions and

brought up a lot of interesting points.

Thank you very much.

Is there only one woman could he not find one who was not nuts.

Loved the story, similar to my own circumstances but with a better ending im afraid to say.

good luck with further writings friend

regards c

This story is stupid,huspand is very wimp and wife is slut

I gave it a 100 because you described all of the emotions so well. Plus that, you covered just about all of the ground that the hundreds of stories I have read do. I was finally impressed that she did still love and respect her husband accept for that 8 month period. Sure she had rationalized what she was doing by thinking he would never know. However, I agree with you that extramarital sex is not uncommon at all; and each of us has to think of the love before and after such an event. Each of us has to consider the children, family and friends. I do not think that makes us a wimp as some of the other commenters do! I think that it makes us more of a man to forgive and get beyond the event. The way you described the feelings they had for each other, and the fact all his mistrust never bore fruit after her affair clinched their new continuation of marriage together. I cannot believe these persistent kick the bitch out types! It is evident that they have never truly loved or had such a woman as you represented! One has to feel sorry for them... I am older then they I think and I have divorced once. I have some knowledge of the travails of marriage. I have been married 45 years to two different women and I still have problems thinking about the cheating of the first wife and then the loss of sexual desire by the second after about 20 years. The first one's libido went up after cheating and sex was better than ever; then again the second never has cheated and our sex life has petered away. I think I will read a thousand of these loving wives stories and never pin down what will work in every situation, or perhaps even any marriage situation. You were masterful and detailed in your presentation and I think you covered this one situation better than most that I have read.

Speaking only for me (I guess I'm one of those "Kick them to the curb " types), is not the cheating so much but the how. AND, their (the Cheater) response upon being found out. This chick gets caught, and her mind IMMEDIATELY GOES TO BEING MORE CAREFUL!!! And then LIE. No confession or thoughts of stopping the Affair. Sleeping overnight at her Lover's? Allowing Studly to call her by her Husband's pet name (Hell, talking about Hubby period is the coup de Grace, as far as I'm concerned)? You guys can rationalize all you want, but the Literate amongst call bullshit.

on this story. Unfortunately, I have nothing to say about it. Still, this counts as a comment and Ohio has joined the 100 comment club again, or better yet, this poppycock comment popped his 100 comment cherry!