Queen of Pain (Things YouCan't Tell Mama)

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Copyright October 2013

by

Danny T. Pollard

Original non-text Image used on cover
by

Beercha

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Completed cover image authored by

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1

Tara was walking down the thirty two steps from the second floor of the twenty thousand square foot mansion that she called her primary residence in The Hamptons, New York when the incoming text alert on her phone sounded. Tara knew it was from her husband who on his way to Europe on business and she paused to read the message. The smile Tara had on her face from hearing the unique text tone she had selected for Brandon’s incoming messages slowly dissolved into an expression of puzzlement and shock.

             
“Tara, I regret to inform you that I have filed for divorce and you will be receiving formal notification from my attorneys. The terms of our prenuptial agreement will be followed to the letter,” Brandon.

Thirty-one year old Tara Wilson Larson blankly stared at the text message on the screen of her phone in disbelief. Brandon Larson, her billionaire technology tycoon of a husband had just dispatched her and their marriage as quickly as he would dismiss a product idea he didn’t endorse. It had all came down to two sentences of black text displayed inside a gray speech bubble displayed on her mobile phone’s touch screen. Was she supposed to reply to this, Tara thought? What kind of cold-hearted bastard sends a text message to his wife telling her that he was divorcing her after they had passionately made love the night before? Brandon Larson would because that’s the world he lived in. What a cowardly, spineless and heartless man, Tara thought, and she never knew it until that moment that was now time and date stamped on her phone and in her mind. It was on a Monday at eleven twenty two in the morning the time stamp displayed.

Suddenly the sprawling mansion in The Hamptons where Tara lived with her husband, when he was around, seemed to swallow her up whole. Tara was sitting on the bottom step of the spiral staircase with her bare feet resting on a cold imported black Italian marble covered floor. Tara now longed for the comforting closeness she remembered in the arms of her mother when she was a child inside the warm confines of that single-wide mobile home sitting off a blacktop road in Texas. Tears rolled down Tara’s face as she didn’t have to wonder how she got in that situation, because she knew exactly how it happened.  

“Gary, I don’t think we should get married,” Tara said.

“What are you talking about? We love each other. Everything is planned. You’ve picked out your dress. This is crazy! Is this some kind of prank you’re pulling on me?!” Gary said with a puzzled look on his face.

Tara looked at Gary with tears running down her face.

“I’m sorry Gary. I’ve fallen in love with another man. I’m sorry,” Tara said with tears flowing and her voice cracking.

“What?!
Another man, how did you fall in love with another man?! We’ve been engaged for six months! We’re supposed to be getting married in three months! What the hell is going on?! This is crazy!” Gary said with confusion.

“Gary, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Tara said as she looked at the pained expression on Gary’s face.

“I don’t understand this! How do you come to me after all of the time we’ve been together and everything we’ve shared to tell me this?! We’ve told everyone we know that we’re getting married. We’ve been together for three years!” Gary said while slapping the back of his right hand into the palm of his left hand for emphasis.

“I know Gary and I don’t want you to hate me, but I couldn’t go forward with my feelings the way they are. You’ve been the best man and don’t deserve what I’m doing to you,” Tara said.

“Who is he? I at least deserve to know that,” Gary said as he looked at Tara.

“Gary. I’m afraid to tell you. Please don’t hate me,” Tara said.

“What, it gets worse than it already is? How could it be any worse?! Is it one of my friends?!” Gary asked.

“His name is Brandon, Brandon Larson,” Tara said with a tremble in her voice.

Gary sat upright and had a look on his face like a man that suddenly had a revelation of something so unexpected that his mind needed to catch up and reset his emotions.

“Wait a minute. Brandon Larson, that’s the name of the CEO of my company. You can’t be talking about him, are you?” Gary said with complete wonderment.

“Yes, I am,” Tara said.

“What?!
You’ve only met the guy once at a recognition event, at least that’s what I thought. He lives in New York! This makes no sense. You need to tell me how this happened so I can have a clear head, because right now I’m about to explode,” Gary said.

“After he came by our table and introduced himself, we ran into each other later on and he asked me if I would stop by his room and see him, because he wanted to talk to me about you. I didn’t know what to think so I told him yes. He was the head of your company and I thought maybe that he was going to tell me how great a job you were doing, but that wasn’t what he wanted,” Tara said.

“Well, what did he want, as if I don’t already know,” Gary said.

“He said that he wanted to get to know me, but understood that I was engaged to you. He asked if he could call me and talk,” Tara said.

“What did you say?” Gary asked.

“I told him yes. I didn’t know what to do. He runs your company. I thought that he would cause trouble for you if I told him no,” Tara said.

“So you’re telling me that you talked to him and fell in love with him over the phone? That doesn’t make any sense,” Gary said.

“No, I didn’t. I went out to dinner with him when he came to Dallas to visit your office and we just talked, but when I went on that business trip to
New York, I went to see him at his house in The Hamptons. Something happened and we were together,” Tara said.

Gary sat very still. Anger and feelings of the ultimate betrayal welled up inside him. Gary looked at Tara and felt he didn’t even know who she was.

“Together, by that you mean you had sex with him?” Gary said.

“Yes, I’m so sorry Gary,” Tara said.

“Get out,” Gary said calmly and coldly.

“What?” Tara said startled.

“I want you to get out of my house right now,” Gary said.

“Gary, why are you talking to me like that?” Tara said.

“You’ve betrayed me in the worst way possible! I can’t even get away from this! My friends, my family and my coworkers, they will all know about the kind of gold digging whore I was engaged to! This is the most complete humiliation I can imagine! You need to leave right now. I’m a calm guy, but I don’t see the woman I thought I knew anymore. All I see is a self-centered, self-absorbed bitch willing to sleep her way to the top. Tara, I don’t want to remember you that way, but that’s all I can see right now, so leave right now, before I do something I regret,” Gary said with an angry tremble in his voice.

“Gary, please don’t hate me,” Tara said crying as she stood.

“Don’t hate you! I loved you and then you just shitted all over me, my family and my friends!” Gary said.

“I’m sorry, Gary! Bye,” Tara said as she ran out of the door crying

Gary just sat there on his couch in stunned disbelief that his world had just exploded all around him. While Gary Johnson appeared to be an intact human being, he was broken into a million pieces emotionally and that pain was manifested physically as he sobbed like an infant out of anger and pain. Tara told her mother that she was leaving Gary, but she never told her how much she was sneaking around behind his back while he thought they were still getting married.

2

Tara knew what she did was wrong, but she simply couldn’t help herself. Tara and Gary felt they were soul mates as they were two young professionals ready to take on the world. Gary was a driven sales professional and Tara was a training manager for her company. Together Gary and Tara thought they could do anything. Gary was a handsome man with brown hair, stood about five feet eleven inches tall and was fairly athletic. Over three years Gary and Tara had built a bond that they both thought was unbreakable.

Gary loved her with all his heart and Tara had no doubt about that, but he simply faded into the background when she entered the world of billionaire Brandon Larson. It wasn’t that Gary became less significant, but it was more like how the sun is so bright that you can’t see the stars in daylight although they are still there. Brandon’s wealth, power and status simply overwhelmed and seduced Tara over time to the point that she couldn’t walk away after being invited in to stay. Gary was not a pauper by any means. Compared to the humble roots Tara came from, Gary had more than she would have ever dreamed, but it wasn’t enough. Tara saw a chance to be on top of the world and just could not resist that temptation.

Brandon was an impressive man with dark hair, brown eyes and an ever present tan from golfing or spending time basking on the deck of his yacht. Brandon still worked hard, but at the level his business had attained, he cut just as many deals outside of the boardroom as he did inside. Tara moaned as Brandon kissed her on the neck as they soared high above the Pacific Ocean on their way to Hawaii. Poor Gary, Tara thought as Brandon revealed her flesh as he removed her clothing one garment at a time. Her wedding to Gary was supposed to be the next week, but there was nothing more attractive to some men than a woman wearing another man’s engagement ring. That ring meant that she had something about her so special that a man wanted to spend the rest of his life only with her. What did Tara possess that would make a man publically announce to family, friends and God that he would forgo all the other women on earth to be exclusively devoted to her? From the time that Brandon first saw Tara at Gary’s company recognition event in Canada, he fell in lust with her and her mystery. Brandon thrived on challenges and finding a way to wrest this woman from her commitment to be with Gary forever was a supreme adventure. The fact that Tara was a stunning woman was added motivation for Brandon. With a petite figure, long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes, Tara would be a perfect accessory in Brandon’s
environment where making an impression counted and the perfect woman on his arm would complete his personal portfolio.

As Tara gave herself to Brandon he basked in the knowledge that Tara was something else he saw that he wanted and once again he achieved his goal. Brandon always knew that in his world love for him was always influence by the wealth and power he wielded, but those exposures were tempered by legal agreements if things progressed to the point of matrimony.

Brandon was the Chief Executive Officer of Gary’s company and met Tara briefly at a formal dinner awards presentation ceremony. Brandon visited each table for a few minutes and when he stopped at the table where Tara was sitting, Gary introduced her as his fiancée. Brandon congratulated Gray, told him that he was a lucky man and wished them well. Tara was beaming with excitement to meet such a wealthy and powerful man.

Soft kisses landed on Tara’s shoulder as she reflected on how she came to be in the sleeping area of Brandon’s private jet wrapped in his arms. Brandon was a business wunderkind and founded the high technology firm where Gary was one of its most productive advertising sales consultants, but that didn’t deter Brandon in his pursuit of Tara. Tara saw Brandon’s determination to have her as a
testament to her desirability and worth as a woman. Tara kept up with what was going on in the business world and Brandon was a superstar that was shaping the way people conducted their daily activities and that was someone exciting to be around.

Tara had a wave of guilt that she buried deep in her mind as Brandon kissed her deeply. This is what Tara always longed for. Tara was no longer one of the little people that had to hang on in life by their fingernails as the currents of life that swept over them created by the movers and shakers threatening to take them under. As of that moment Tara was in the arms of one of the Tsunami makers in the world. As Gary laid her down Tara looked at her fifteen carat diamond engagement ring and made peace with her conscience. Tara buried the thoughts of how many broken hearts, damaged egos and destroyed dreams she had left in her wave to get to where she ultimately wanted to be, on top. This was as far from that single wide mobile home she grew up in as she could imagine.

Tara enveloped this man and had a surreal sensation of exclusivity. How many women in the world, at that moment were making love to a billionaire at thirty thousand feet? Tara surmised that it was an exclusive club that was difficult to join. Tara didn’t have a burning kind of love for Brandon that she had for Gary, but she made the calculation that her love for Brandon would grow as they became more familiar with each other. Brandon had shown how he felt about Tara in the manner he pursued her affections. Tara just seemed to be something that Brandon craved and he convinced her that being with him was her best option. Given where she was at that moment Tara agreed with Brandon’s assessment.

“Brandon, I love you. I’m going to make you the happiest man on earth,” Tara said as Brandon ran his fingers through her long blond hair.

“I already am the happiest man on earth. With you, I now have everything I’ve ever wanted. I told you that would show you the world and I meant it. With me you are in a different dimension now. We will go places and do things that very few people get a chance to do. From the time I laid eyes on you I knew that you needed to be with me because I saw that spark and yearning to know more, to do more and to be more,” Brandon said.

While there was passion, love and bliss at thirty thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean, misery existed on the ground as Gary Johnson tried to reconcile his pain, embarrassment and depression over how the woman he loved tore his soul from him. Tara Wilson was his everything and Gary had planned his future life around her, but she did the unthinkable. Tara not only left Gary, but she did it in a way that didn’t allow him any shelter from the shame because she left him for the founder of the
company he worked for. There was no safe harbor for Gary, because everyone he knew understood what happened to him. Brandon even called Gary and asked him to stay on with the company and not allow what happened to cause him to leave because he was one of the top revenue producers in the entire organization. Gary had no intentions of leaving his job, but the pain of what Tara did to him was hard to absorb.

“Gary, are you still looking at that engagement ring?” Gary’s mother Loretta asked.

“Yeah, I’m still looking at it. Tara sent it back by overnight delivery like it was nothing. I saw the one that Brandon gave her. Our friend Shannon showed me a picture of it that Tara sent to her. I guess she traded up pretty good didn’t she?” Gary said.

“Well, I guess you know what kind of person she really is now. It’s a good thing you found out before you married her. You need to count that as a blessing. What kind of woman does that? You’re still young, you’re twenty eight years old and there are a lot of women out there that would be lucky to have a man like you,” Loretta said.

“I know, but she had me completely fooled. I found out that she went to see him when we were in Canada. Someone I work with saw her go into his hotel room when I was out on some tour. I mean everybody in my company that was on that trip knew that my fiancée, that I was hugged up with on the way back from the resort when we were on the bus coming out of the mountains, was with the head of the company. They all think she slept with him. When I found that out, I felt like the biggest joke on earth. Tara said she just talked to him, but I don’t know what to think. What kind of woman is she?” Gary said to his mother.

“She’s one that’s not good enough for you, that’s the kind of woman she is and if she did that to you, she’ll do it to him, it doesn’t matter how rich he is. Look, I’m going
shopping, you need some food in your refrigerator. I had already paid for my ticket to be out here for your wedding and figured that this next week was going to be rough for you. I’ll be back in a few hours,” Loretta said.

After Loretta left, Gary picked up his cell phone a clicked on a picture of Tara, she might be heartless, but she was beautiful and he still loved her.