AUTHOR'S NOTE: This part of the story overlaps Part 6 as a separate, parallel timeline. It is a first-person account narrated by Chelsea, so in this part "I/me/my" is her voice. This part follows her and begins moments after she found Cassandra restrained in Jason's bed.
In Part 8 the separate timelines will rejoin and continue as one with Jason narrating again.
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"Right. Now, you rudely interrupted us just as I was about to be punished for my bad behavior. Get your things and get out. You're going to enjoy your time with Antwon tonight, tell him I said hello."
Those were Cassandra's last words to me. I had intended to take a shower before heading over to Antwon's house next door but there was no way I would stay here while they "played", so I quickly gathered what I needed for spending the night with Antwon, stuffed it in my bag, and ran out of Jason's house thinking that I might never return.
I was a chaotic mess of emotions when I fled Jason's. I had so many questions. Who was the man-monster I lived with? He beat women! I enjoyed having my ass smacked but nothing like this! And what was worse, the woman in there was gaslit to the point where she was convinced that she enjoyed it! Did Crissie know? If she did, how could she not tell me? Omigod! Did he beat his daughter too?! I was suddenly scared out of my wits. I thought that I could never feel safe in his home again. I had questions, so many questions!
My mind was a jumble of emotions and I couldn't reconcile the events that I had stumbled into with the man I'd come to know. He was the most gentle, caring, man, I've ever met. The few times that I had lashed out at him in frustration he had remained calm. Even when I acted a fool last night on the patio, threw a fit, and stomped off into the house, he was calm. That weekend when Crissie came home he was the calming influence in the house. Crissie had been angry at him, she had yelled at him, a lot! Yet he had remained calm. How could someone like that be the same man that participated in what I'd just seen?
Then there was this woman, Cassandra. Damn, she was sexy. Tall, long-legged, with flaming red hair, perky breasts, and an amazing ass. An ass that she enjoyed having spanked. She's everything that I'm not. And worse, I felt an attraction to her. The woman was so calm, almost nonchalant about being discovered bound in Jason's bed. I thought that she seemed incredibly sexy and powerful, even though she was naked, save for the chain choker adorned with a small jeweled lock that nestled within her jugular notch, and the two leather cuffs around her wrists. There had been a fleeting moment where I had wanted to kiss her pouty mouth.
All of these emotions rattling around in my head made me feel nauseous, and as I approached Antwon's door I was suddenly overcome. I saw Antwon standing in the window, watching me approach, but I couldn't make it to him. I stepped onto his lawn and tumbled to my knees, vomiting. Antwon dashed out the door to my side.
"Hey, hey! What's wrong, girl? Are you sick? Here, let me help you up."
"Give me a minute," I said as I rolled off my knees and sat on his lawn.
"What happened?" he asked as he sat near me on the lush green suburban lawn.
"I was just overcome with nausea. I've got so much rattling around in my head."
"Okay, but why now? What happened?"
"I just walked in on Jason and Cassandra, and --,"
"Say no more, I can guess what you saw."
"He beat her, Antwon!" I said as tears gathered in my eyes, "I mean, I didn't see him hitting her but her ass was red and she was tied to his bed! What kind of monster am I living with? I'm afraid to go back in there!"
"He's no monster, Chelsea. She wants him to do that."
"That's what she said, but Jesus, how sick do you have to be to enjoy getting beaten?" The tears escaped my eyes and ran down my cheeks.
"It's not like you're thinking Chelsea, he's not striking her out of anger, and not as hard as you might think. It's strange to me, but if anything, he cares more for her than any other woman he's ever been with, maybe more than he did his wife."
"This is all just too much. What if he starts beating me? I can't do that, where will I go?" The full-blown crying began.
"Chelsea, you don't need to be afraid of Jason. He and Cassandra have this thing, but I've never known him to be anything but kind and caring. Before just now, have you ever been afraid of him?"
"NO! He's always treated me kindly, almost like a father figure. Even when Crissie was here and found out we were having sex, he was calm while she screamed at him."
"That's Jason, the real Jason. What you saw was a persona that he assumes for Cassandra. When you interrupted them did he get angry? Did they seem angry with each other?"
"No, they didn't get mad, and they didn't seem mad at each other. It seemed like she was in charge because when she told him to remove the restraint he didn't argue, he just did it."