Protocol

Julie: "..but I was terrified when that bastard contacted me and said he would post those videos. At first I refused, but he said if I didn't cooperate he would have you or the girls hurt. I couldn't allow that to happen, I just couldn't. He proved that he could have your hurt."

===> Why all the emphasis on the 20 year old videos and reputation (his/hers/the company)? That by itself wad not a threat and in the next paragraph, she explained how she rejected that threat. Then came all the nasty stuff about following her husband, her daughters and threats of severe violence. That is REAL blackmail, so rare in LW stories.

Frankly, she didn't know squat about the company or her husband's business (wouldn't shee need some sort of security clearance at the appropriate level to be CFO of such a company?). She had no time to decide. And she caved on financials of a private company. T

This is another plot hole. If she doesn't know what the company does, who it does business with, and anything about the technology or systems or clients, then besides some dummy names or shell companies on her financial papers, how could that leaked financial information hurt the company, let alone the federal government? The latter is ludicrous. The company only by reputation or the villains trying to do an elaborate plot leaning on creditors or certain intermediate suppliers (except it is mostly software).

So since she didn't know anything (which was itself a plot hole for a CFO to at least have some clue as to business operations and their products / services), then how could what she leaked be so damaging to national security? Sure maybe the company loses its security clearance / designation and is no longer an approved vendor and gets dismantled, but she didn't even know the company needed such things.

So to recap, she was approached with a terrifying real blackmail threat (ignoring the 20 year old sex tapes), had little to no time to decide, rebuked Hal's sexual extortion, and leaked what she thought (and in reality should be) non classified financial data about a private company that would have little to no impact on the company. Hello?

Yes she should have told her husband, but with all the secrets her husband kept from her, she knew nothing of the stakes, the protocols, the dangers (some which were exaggerated regarding the leak), she made a decision that with the information she had at her disposal didn't seem that bad. Again she made a mistake not going to her husband. But she was also terrified, and scared people make bad decisions.

And so what if she slept with the asshole once or even twice, if she did it to buy time. That was actual honest to goodness, serious blackmail. Imagine she slept with Hal once, leaked the data and told her husband, soon after.

Being an Old Testament guy, the MC would have filed for divorce anyways. Grow up! She thought she was saving him and her daughters, and guess what? Hal was connected to an organized crime family. Yes she underestimated her husband and his ability to protect the family, but he never disclosed any of that.

Heck, hypothetically speaking, if my wife was approached by a mafia-connected guy and there was an elaborate blackmail conspiracy involved, and a credible threat of physical violence or murder to our kids and myself, I would hate that she felt she had to do it, but sleeping with someone would be her being raped in order to save her family. I would do all I could to help her get through the rape afterwards. Now sure if she keeps doing it for multiple times and becer tells me, then we have a serious problem. But the first one or two times may be to stall and buy time to get help wirhout raising suspicion.

If as a husband, you cannot understand that and file for divorce then you are either (a) an naive, insecure moron, (b) an egotistical asshole, or (c) you don't deserve your wife.

On a different note, since when does the NSA go after organized crime families in the US, unless they are working with a foreign power. Don't they still rely on FBI, ATF, etc depending on the situation, to be the enforcers? I do admit that I do not understand the full remit of the NSA.

Anyways story was good, though beset with some plot holes. Quite riveting in parts. Well written and a nice diversion. 5 stars.

An interesting premise, but the dialog and actions of the people lacked depth and logic. Not a horrible effort (and much better than I could produce :)), but you need to work on making the story more cohesive. One major thing that bothered me, there is no way his wife could be the CFO without having intricate knowledge of the company and government connections. If she was that ignorant, the husband would have had to purposely keep things from her, meaning he failed to trust her as well.

I get why Julie leaked the financial info. She thought her family was in genuine danger and honestly anyone would have made that call unless they were certain they had the power to stop such threats. But she should have spoke to her husband as he pointed out. To do otherwise demonstrates a disturbing lack of trust, although you could argue fear got the best of her when her family was threatened and she made a bad call. I'd still be pissed though and it would take time for that rift to heal. Fear can make people do silly things. Just look at religion's influence if you don't believe me. So many people behave in various ways because they believe some all-powerful watcher is keeping tabs and don't want to go to a bad place when they kick the bucket. Weird I know right? :)

"I'm sorry honey, I forgot" right after yelling at him about keeping secrets when they're in the whole shitstorm because she kept a secret. That little trade was both adorable and hilarious. Julie is the best actual loving wife, smart but also a ditz at times.

Why would you put a tracker in your nose? Literally one of the most likely places to get smacked and thus have any devices in it dislodged or destroyed. Dumb as fuck.

Sounds like Suzy and Monster had a wonderful marriage. 53 years and 3 kids, that's a good 'un. Shame the Big C took him but at least he had a full life full of love and fun before that, and honestly what more can you ask for? And everyone had a nice happy ending. Dawwww! :)

For a company with this level of security clearance, the wife getting the financial records out like this would have been impossible. DOD contractors have extremely strict protocols about electronic data. Flash drives would never work and would not be recognized by the computers at all. The odds of that happening is zero.

If she somehow did manage to get it out of the company, she is guaranteed to go to prison. She would need top secret clearance to work in that position, you cannot work for a DOD Contractor without that especially when dealing with financial records. No amount of influence her husband has would save her from that.

"Digging down deep I pulled as much bile I could and spit on the lousy fucker."

Thats where I stopped reading lol