Mothers and Daughters Pt. 07

Nate returned to the kitchen to check on supper. The thermometer probe showed 80, which was perfect for chicken in Celsius. The rice needed another few minutes, so he restarted the microwave and then pulled the chicken out of the oven.

While the rice cooked, Nate plated the chicken and scrubbed the baking rack in the sink. That was the one request of his cleaning lady – to please not leave the baking rack to cool and harden its cooked residue on the metal. Evidently it takes a long time for her to clean properly, whereas it takes Nate half a minute to scrub the worst of it off while it is still hot.

Nate refilled their wine glasses, and then the microwave oven dinged again. The rice was ready, so he plated that beside the chicken, and brought the plates to the table. The salad was already in a bowl on the table, as was the cut French bread.

Nate invited Martha to sit at her designated seat, and he sat at the chair closest to the kitchen, adjacent to Martha. He bowed his head for a silent moment, and then picked up his knife and fork.

"Was that a private grace?" Martha asked. "I noticed you did that last night, at the restaurant."

"Something like that," Nate offered casually. "I am not really religious. I guess I am not even spiritual, at least not in a God way," Nate explained. "But I do believe in respecting those that made sacrifices for me. So I was thanking the chicken for giving its life so that I may eat."

"That's interesting," Martha offered honestly. "What do you say – I mean what are the words you hear in your head?"

"Thank you chicken," Nate said without sarcasm.

Martha looked at her plate. "Thank you chicken," she said out loud.

Nate offered the salad to Martha, and she used the wooden salad forks to serve some onto her plate. Next he passed her the bread and butter, and she took some of each. "Thank you," she reflected on his polite hosting.

"Bon appetite," he gestured toward her, and then he served his own salad, bread, and butter.

"Just to be clear, I am not complaining," Martha asked as they ate their meal together. "I am curious. Why are you so strict and hard on me?"

"People do not have enough respect," Nate opined without delay. "When you give yourself to someone, as you have done so to me, you must respect me, as I respect you."

"How do you respect me?" she asked. She thought it was a legitimate question.

"There are boundaries I do not cross – ever," Nate observed. "Such as going from ass to pussy, as you pointed out last night." He paused as he took another bite of chicken and chewed. "I would never do anything to hurt or discredit you," he explained further. "For example," he offered, "when I take pictures of you, I will apply safeguards to ensure those pictures are never released without your permission."

"You're going to take pictures of me?" Martha asked, realizing a whole new realm of concerns.

"And you will not say 'no'," he replied without hesitation. "But as I said, I will safeguard them from release."

"Have you taken pictures of Briana?" she asked.

"Yes," Nate nodded, "lots. And videos too."

"I may see them, then?" Martha semi-demanded.

"No," Nate refuted. "For the same reason, I cannot show them to you. If Briana gives me permission, then I will." Then he thought again. "Actually, Pavlina is in some of them, so I could not show you those ones."

"And what happens if they are accidentally released – anything could happen."

"All the files – in fact the entire hard drive – is encrypted using a virtually unbreakable cypher," Nate assured her. "If it were somehow to fall into the wrong hands, they wouldn't even know what files they were in possession of." Nate paused for a moment. "That's what I mean by respecting you – I take precautions to protect you even when accidents happen."

"With all due respect," Martha countered, "I don't feel respected when I am told to grab my ankles while you fuck me up the ass."

"But don't you see, I do respect you," Nate argued. "Yesterday you assured me your ass was mine for my recreation and pleasure. I respect that." Nate continued before Martha could reply. "When I took you out shopping today, I respected your fashion sense. Not once did I even hint – as you did with your rolled eyes before dinner – that I disapproved of your choices."

Martha paused in reflection of the day's shopping. "You need to understand something," Nate explained. He waited for Martha to ask what. "In this relationship, you are in control."

"How do you figure that?" she asked incredulously.

"You can say 'no' at any time. You have the power. The instant you say no, we're done – I will give you back your purse and your money, and you will be on your way with my blessing. Hell, you can even keep the clothing. Nothing I ever did or said forced you into this arrangement, and nothing I say or do can force you to stay in this arrangement. You are totally and completely in control, and I respect that."

"But you have the power," Martha pointed out sharply.

"I never took any power away from you," Nate clarified. "You gave me that power to hold over you. Maybe, in your mind, you had no choice, but that is not my fault. You gave me the power, and you can take it back any time. I never took anything away from you. I never forced you do to anything that you did not agree to in advance. I respect that, and you know it." Nate pressed forward. "You would never enter into this arrangement with me if you didn't trust me to honor my obligations. You know I will come through with the money, with the lawyers, with sharing my apartment, my food, with buying you clothing, and with everything else. You and Briana know I have too much respect to do anything other than to keep the promises I made to you."

Martha fell silent for a long time. "I never saw it that way," she finally admitted.

"I expect of you," Nate pointed out, "to give me the same respect I give you. When you promise to do everything I ask, and then you roll your eyes with disdain, you are being disrespectful to me, and in the end, to yourself." He paused, letting that sink in. "So when I correct your wicked ways, I am correcting your disrespect."

Martha remained silent. She had no words. It had never occurred to her that she was the one in charge, and she was disrespecting Nate. She always viewed the power relationship as Nate doing whatever he wanted, and she was the victim who had to bend over and take it - literally. Never in a million years did she consider Nate as the victim of her disrespect.

"Think of it in another way," Nate ventured. "Supposing, for each time you disrespect me, I retaliated by disrespecting you." He paused. "For example, suppose every time you roll your eyes or criticize my choices, I retaliate by deducting a thousand Euro from my obligation." Martha's eyes opened wide at the catastrophic outcome that possibility entailed. "Where would that leave us?"

"Nowhere," Martha answered dejectedly.

"Exactly," Nate confirmed. "You wouldn't get what you need, and I wouldn't get what I need, and we'd both feel cheated out of something. We would both be worse off than if we had never agreed to anything." Nate waited, letting that sink in. "So when you disrespect me – when you fail to live up to your promises – would you prefer that I correct your behavior, the way I do now, or would you prefer that I disrespect you in retaliation by deducting a penalty from the money I promised you and Briana?"

Martha didn't offer an opinion either way. "I want an answer," Nate ordered after five silent seconds.

"I guess ..." Martha faded off. "I mean ..." she faltered again. "Fuck!" she yelled, realizing how hopelessly trapped she'd fallen into his logic. "Okay," Martha finally allowed, "if those are my only choices, I guess I would rather you correct my wicked ways instead of deducting a thousand Euros for every mistake I make."

"And so would I," Nate agreed, "because the alternatives give us both less than nothing."

"So where do we go from here?" Briana asked after a long moment of reflection.

"You need to ask yourself two questions," Nate announced. "First, are you still committed to getting Briana home this way?" Nate held up his index finger. "And second, if so, do you want to do it the easy way or the hard way?" He held up a second finger.

"The easy way would be?" Martha asked. She was pretty sure she knew his answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"You do what I want, when I want, the way I want, and you laugh, smile, and adore me."

It sure didn't sound easy to her, but having had a taste of the hard way, Martha was beginning to realize complying to Nate's orders was certainly the less stressful option.

"Take tonight to think about it," Nate offered, "and tell me in the morning what you decide."

"I don't need to think about it," Martha announced without a pause. "This is the only chance I have to help Briana. And you're right. It is my choice to do this – you are not forcing me to do anything. And like you say, I guess the easy way is better."

"Just to be clear," Nate confirmed, "do you now pledge you will do what I want, when I want, the way I want, without hesitation or attitude, and you laugh, smile, and adore me?"

"Just to be clear," Martha countered, "do you now pledge to pay the 5,000 Euro AeB fee, the 20,000 Euro AeB bond, whatever the London School fee is, the lawyers' fees, and Briana's flight, and will you house us, clothe us, feed us, protect us, and do everything you can to make sure Briana returns home safely as soon as possible?"

"Providing that you and Briana honor your agreements, yes," Nate assured her with a nod.

"Then, yes," Martha declared, and held out her hand to Nate. Nate shook her hand to seal the agreement.

Martha thought for a long time. "You know you're full of shit." There. She finally said it. "And I mean that in the most respectful way," she qualified.

"How so," Nate asked neutrally.

"Here you go on about me and respect, and how I have to respect you and myself, but we both know you forced Briana to have sex with you," Martha scorned Nate bitterly. "I don't mean physically, but you used her AeB to blackmail her, to force her to have all kinds of sex against her will." She balled up her fists and her face went red. "You raped my daughter" she seethed, "so fuck your respect!"

"Is that what she told you?" Nate asked. Martha studied Nate's face for a long time.

"I have to believe what she tells me," Martha defended.

Without another word, Nate pulled out his cell phone, and pressed a few screen buttons until he had the sound recording app. He set the phone down on the table, and played the entire recording he made when he and Briana were on the balcony. The sound quality was poor, and there were a lot of background noises, but the words were unmistakably clear. Nate studied Martha's face the whole time.

Things got interesting when they could hear Briana's voice say "ever wonder what could have happened to us if you hadn't stopped me from fucking your brains out that night? Now's your chance to find out." Martha lifted her hand over her mouth. Her eyes grew deep with conflicted emotions.

"Are you offering" Nate's voice said from the cell phone. "Sure" Briana's voice replied, and Martha barked out a little cry through her hand.

But the icing on the cake came later when Briana's voice said "How about this. You do all those things, buy me clothes, and I will be your sex kitten – whatever you want, when you want. Kissing, fingering, fucking and sucking for six days straight."

"Please stop it," Martha cried. Nate pressed the pause button on the screen.

"Martha," Nate said softly, "Briana lies. She lies to you, she lies to me, she lied to Pavlina, and she is probably lying to the police right now."

"I don't believe this," Martha rested her forehead in her hand. "I fly four thousand miles to save her, and she lies to my face." She looked at Nate. "I don't know what to do."

"She lies to you because she doesn't respect you."

"She lied to you," Martha snapped back.

"Right," Nate nodded, "and look where she is." Nate paused. "I didn't rush to her rescue after what she did."

"So," Martha shook her head in confusion, "you think I am, what ... stupid?"

"No," Nate shook his head softly. He took her hand in his and rested it on the table between them. He looked into her swollen eyes. "You are a kind, supportive, loving parent. And Briana is exploiting that."

"So what do I do?"

"I'm going to tell you what you already know," Nate warned. Martha stayed silent. "You have to stop treating her like a child, and demand she act like the adult she is. And you have to stop doting on her like you are a smothering mother. As long as you infantilize her, you are disrespecting her and yourself. You must learn to respect yourself," Nate continued. Martha understood the words, but the hidden meaning escaped her. "When you learn to respect yourself, Briana stop using you," Nate assured her, or Briana will avoid you, he didn't say.

"So let me get this straight," Martha took her hand away. "You are going to use me in every way possible so I can learn to respect myself?"

"Do you know how to respect works?" Nate asked. "It is not a trick question, but the answer is deceptively simple."

"I'm sure you're about to tell me," Martha offered glibly.

"Respect boils down to this. Do what you say you promise, and promise only what will do." Nate paused. "That's respect. It can be about giving your body, about doing your job, about raising your child, about money, about anything. The point is," Nate said, "respect comes from keeping your promises, and making only those promises you can keep. Period."

Martha stayed silent, so Nate pressed on. "So when you say you will do anything for me, then do it. Only make the promises you will keep, and don't make the promise if you can't keep it. That's respect."

"Okay, if you say so" nodded Martha uncertainly.

"If you tell Briana no more money, then there's no more money. When you come charging over here, you need to understand you are breaking a promise, and someone like Briana knows how to exploit your well-intended lack of respect. She manipulates the situation to serve her own purposes."

"So," Martha ventured, "that is why you rented that hotel room – to keep Briana safe after they tried to rape her and when you killed that guy in the street?"

"I made a promise," Nate explained. "In order to keep that promise, I hired two lawyers, paid for a hotel, and I'm not sure what else. And when Pavlina broke her promise, it hurt all of us."

"So you want me to only make promises I am certain I can keep."

"Only if you want people like Briana to respect you."

"So you are correcting my wicked ways, as you put it, so make sure I live up to my promise to you, and earn your respect?" Martha concluded.

"And to show you how amazingly difficult it is to do something that sounds so easy." Nate continued. "Doing what you promise and promising only what you can do is much harder than it sounds, as you are now learning."

Martha fell silent for a long time. "What do we do now, then?"

"Strip," Nate ordered. Martha shook her head for a moment, not in defiance, but at the suddenness of the change of conversation. I suppose, she thought, he will test me early. She stood up from the table. It did not take long for her to pull the white silk/spandex top over her head and unzip her leather skirt. In seconds she stood naked before Nate.

Nate stood up from his chair and went to the center of the living room. "Come here and stand for inspection," he ordered, and Martha obediently padded over, and stood naked with her hands behind her head and her feet set wide apart. "We're going to go over some ground rules," Nate explained. "As part of your pledge to do what I want, you will follow these rules always. Do you understand?" Martha nodded her understanding.

"Use your words," Nate chastised.

"Yes," Martha declared with a hint of defensiveness, "I understand."

"Good. Rule One. You will never be punished or disciplined for not understanding something, or for asking for clarification. If you do not understand something, you must ask for clarification. But," Nate emphasized the word 'but', "if you proceed with something without understanding it completely, and you did not ask for adequate clarification, you will be disciplined. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Martha nodded.

"Rule two. Except when I kiss you, whenever I touch something to your mouth – it might be my finger, it might be something else – you will stop what you're doing, take it into your mouth and you will suck on it until I pull it out. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Martha nodded.

"Rule three. When I kiss you, you will stop what you're doing, close your eyes and kiss me with an open mouth and behave like you really adore me. You will continue to kiss me until I break off the kiss. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Martha nodded again.

"Rule four. Whenever I touch anything between your legs – it might be my finger, it might be something else – you will stop what you are doing, carefully put down anything you might be carrying, and spread your legs wide, and let me play, and you will keep your legs wide apart until I am done. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she acknowledged.

"Rule five. You will have any kind of sex that I tell you to have, in any way, and you will actively participate as I tell you to. That includes oral, vaginal, and anal. Do you understand?"

Martha paused in silence a moment. "I have a few questions for understanding," she noted, still standing naked in the inspection pose.

"Go ahead," Nate offered.

"May we agree that I will have sex with you alone, and no one else?"

"I will agree that your sex will be confined to me and Briana."

Martha paused in thought a moment. "Does that mean you will ask me to have sex with Briana while you watch?"

"Yes," Nate nodded, "or we might have a three-way." Martha thought about the years of therapy to come.

"And also," Martha continued, "can we agree, like I think you already have, than any pictures or videos you take of me or Briana being nude or having sex will never, ever be shown to anyone else, and never ever, ever put on the Internet?"

"Yes, I promise that," Nate declared.

"And also," Martha said again, "do you promise that you will never do anything that would injure us or make us sick?"

"I promise that too," Nate added.

"Okay, then," Martha nodded. "I agree."

"Rule six," Nate continued. "You will never wear a bra. You do not wear underpants while in this apartment. Otherwise, you can wear what you want among the clothing I bought you, unless I tell you otherwise. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Rule seven. You will accept and thank me for any discipline or punishment I deem necessary, even if you disagree with my reasons or method of discipline. Do you understand?"

"Well, you have already said you will not injure us or make us sick, so yes, I understand."

"Last rule, for now," Nate offered. "When Briana gets here, you will be responsible for her actions. You must teach her all these same rules. If she disobeys me, or does something to displease me, I will discipline you, as well as her. Do you understand?"

Martha closed her eyes blew out a long breath. She knew Briana had already entered into her own agreement with Nate, but now she was responsible for enforcing a contract for Briana's behavior. She wanted to protest, but she had no leverage. "I understand," she said quietly, "but I am worried I will disappoint you."

"You will do better than you think," Nate assured her. "I will help you." He paused for a moment. "Do you have any more questions?" She shook her head no. "Use your words," he admonished.