[Author's note: Cassie's husband is cheating on her with a younger woman, Lily. Cassie was ready to confront them but Lily has turned the tables, blackmailing Cassie into doing what she she's told. Lily threatens making Damian choose between the two women. It's a choice Lily is confident will only go one way: hers. Cassie has to find a way to cope, and to get back her life and her husband]
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THE PAIN IT BRINGS
Cassie always had to be on her guard. The feeling could strike her anywhere: in the coffee shop, or taking the boys to the library, or just walking along the street. Small things seemed to trigger it. Tia kissing her husband at the school gates almost brought Cassie to her knees with the weight of her failure pressing down on her. As the days passed, she began to normalise it, as if it was an injury she'd sustained that she was trying to live with. However, sitting alone at swimming lessons with the boys doing laps in the pool in front of her, Cassie had time to sit and brood.
Lily had invited her to a private chat, sending messages every so often. Nothing too inflammatory, just keeping tabs on Cassie, making sure she understood her new position. The chat description was Lily's doing, it read: 'talk with Lily's bitch'. When the phone pinged, it sent a shudder down Cassie's spine. Because it was the same alert as when her friends messaged her, she kept hearing the sound, until it felt like her own phone was victimising her, prodding her to remember what Lily had made her do in her own bedroom.
Cassie looked at her phone, opening the chat app and reading the latest set of messages from a couple of hours ago:
L: I need a night out. Your husband should take me somewhere nice. He needs time off from his sad little life with you to devote his attention to me. Please arrange.
The timestamp of the next message was an hour later:
L: Is your phone working bitch?
Cassie had screwed up her nerve and replied:
C: I won't do it
She felt a thrill of pride that she had stood up for herself against Lily's manipulations, but now she was waiting, dreading the next phone ping and Lily's response.
"Cassie!"
She looked up from her phone. Tia and Billie were making their way along the side of the pool towards her, Tia careful on the wet tiles in her high heels. Cassie raised her hand and waved, moulding her mouth into a smile.
Billie slid easily into the seat next to her, crossing her legs and arranging the folds of her skirt across her knees. Tia made it safely to the chair next to her, teetering in her shoes.
"I told you," Billie began, as if this was the tail end of a long conversation, "You are an accident waiting to happen in those things."
Billie swung a slender leg forward, showing off her ballet flats, continuing, "I'm going to live longer than you are."
"But you won't look as good," Tia crooned, shuffling in the chair until she was comfortable, arranging her dark hair so that it cascaded over one shoulder.
Billie waved and a girl the same age as Cassie's twins waved back as she hung onto one of the lane marker ropes.
"Hope's really coming along," Tia remarked, "She'll be graduating to Stingrays soon. Unlike mine."
Billie nodded, smiling at her daughter as she began her next lap.
"She moves so well through the water, don't you think?" Tia continued.
"Her mother's genes," Billie replied, "Athletic ability is nothing to do with me. I just supply the brute force and ignorance."
Tia began to clap, ignoring Billie's comment. Across the other side of the pool, her daughter Olivia jumped off the diving board. Cassie watched her two friends, their attention locked on their daughters. It felt normal, sane, just like every other week that they'd been here, and a thousand miles away from what Cassie was dealing with. Billie turned to her.
"Hey, parent drinks tomorrow night, are you coming?"
Cassie blinked, trying to focus on the question. "Uh, I hadn't really thought."
"Come on. Tia's coming, there's a bunch of us, plus other halves are invited too."
Cassie repressed the dark feeling that sprang up, trying to divert her own train of thought.
"You bringing yours?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah. Morgan's got a thing until seven but she'll be there. So?"
Her phone pinged. Instinctively, Cassie reached into her handbag and retrieved it, holding the screen so it was hidden from her friends. There was a message alert; Cassie opened it.
L: Need a reminder?
There was an attachment: a thirty second video began to auto-play on her screen. It showed Cassie stripping off her underwear until she was completely naked in front of the viewer. Cassie watched as the figure on the screen looked up at the camera and tried to cover her crotch and her breasts with her arms. The video froze on a close-up of Cassie's face, showing the shame of being forced to disgrace herself.
Cassie typed a response and then pushed her phone hurriedly into her bag.
"I'll be there," she told Billie, "But Damian has something else arranged."
Billie squeezed her knee excitedly. "Good. Girls' night. Yay!"
Cassie leaned back in her chair, ignored now as her friends focused on their children. Cassie sought her own out, finding both boys battling each other playfully in the shallow end while their teacher tried to restore order.
A girls' night, which meant Cassie on her own among her friends in the local bar, while her husband fucked the pretty, slim, younger blonde woman who was slowly, brutally destroying Cassie's life.
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Cassie meandered through the mall, checking the time every few minutes. She was on edge. For the third time, she completed her circuit of the food court, eyes nervously dancing from woman to woman, looking for the tell-tale long blonde hair of her nemesis.
"Hi Cassie."
Cassie turned to see Lily walking up to her, dressed in tight jeans and a loose cotton top. She was wearing strappy sandals with a modest heel, just enough to overtop Cassie as she came to a halt in front of her, looking down. Cassie looked up into the beautiful face of the woman who was ruining her life, the emerald-hard eyes. Lily smiled.
"I'm so excited," she said, "We're way overdue for a shopping trip."
Cassie allowed the younger blonde to hook her arm through Cassie's and lead her towards the shops.
"Are you looking forward to this as much as I am?"
Cassie didn't answer. Lily's excitement was palpable, but the feeling of being led along by the arm surfaced the dark emotions again. Too late, Cassie regretted her clothing choices, comparing the way her casual top and loose pants hid her own figure as much as Lily's tight jeans accentuated hers. Cassie felt out of place and frumpy.
"What are we doing?" Cassie responded.
