Two weeks after the Sabres' SuperBowl victory, Tonya Clinton's world imploded. Roderick, who had been named the SuperBowl's most valuable player, had gladly ridden the resulting wave of success to its conclusion. But now all the parades were ended, the early-morning show appearances done. It was back home for them, to the enjoyable life they shared during every off-season.
Tanya should have known that something wasn't right. Roderick had been waiting naked and erect for her when she finished her shower. He rolled on a condom and she did not bother to question the gesture. Throughout their ten-year marriage, Roderick had not always been faithful. Tanya just assumed the condom was his way of telling her another infidelity had occurred while he was on the road this season.
If she was being completely honest, Tanya didn't mind the infidelities. The periods afterward were the nicest Tanya could recall in her entire marriage. Roderick's guilt led him to treat her like a queen.
That was why she did not suspect anything amiss when her husband tenderly removed the towel from about her body, lifted her into his arms, and made slow, gentle love to her up against the wall.
Afterward, Roderick swept Tanya off her feet and carried her to the oversized clawfoot tub that had been made just for a man his size. He'd bathed her gently, with a thoroughness that made Tanya blush. She'd expected it to lead to another bout of lovemaking but Roderick just nibbled her ear and used his large, blunt fingers to bring her to a screaming climax.
"I've got something for you." Roderick deposited Tanya on the bed. She had been dried and lotioned and pampered by her handsome husband.
Like a child she eagerly wondered what Roderick's surprise might be. After the first infidelity, the apology had been an enormous diamond ring. After the second, a shiny silver Mercedes Benz. The third, an obscenely large cash gift.
"Here." Roderick flung a sheaf of papers Tanya's way. Her heart seized for a moment, fearful they might be a petition for divorce. She just as quickly realized that they were ordinary sheets of writing paper.
There was nothing ordinary about these papers, Tanya quickly discovered. She read with growing alarm and dismay as Roderick silently observed. "I found them in my underwear drawer," he finally said. "It seems whoever he is wanted to make sure I found them."
The big linebacker smiled. The expression held no humor. "I've read this quite a few times now. I even counted the words. There are 924 of them, by the way."
924 words. That was the size of the letter that so emphatically blew her marriage all to hell. Nine hundred twenty-two words to be more precise – if you didn't count the insolent signature at the bottom of the page - Your Daddy.
Dates, times, positions… they were all included in the letter with devastating detail. So much detail, in fact, that there was absolutely nothing she could say in the face of it all. Zagreb had described their last encounter with vivid clarity. He had recounted her breathy cries with frightening accuracy. He couldn't have damaged her more if he had tossed a hand grenade into her presence.
Roderick began to dress. "I need to put some space between us," he said calmly, far too calmly. Tanya did not dare to even breathe until she watched him from the bedroom window drive away from the house.
Weakly she collapsed into a nearby chair. Her marriage was over. Of that Tanya was certain. Roderick would not extend to his wife the same forgiveness he expected to be granted each time he strayed.
Most of the people who knew Roderick would assume that her husband's strongest emotion at that moment would be embarrassment at such a blatant cuckolding. Tanya knew better. His strongest emotion, perhaps his only emotion, would be anger at the man who had dared to touch one of his possessions. That was what she was to him, what she had been for nine and a half years of their ten year union.
A little voice reminded Tanya that she'd known she was playing with fire the very first time she'd responded to Zagreb's advances. Roderick had laughed at the kicker's attempts to attract Tanya, supremely confident, the linebacker told Tanya afterward, that she was neither that stupid nor in possession of such bad taste.
It was Roderick's blithe dismissal of the very idea that made a tryst with the rival team's kicker more attractive than it should have been. And once Zagreb's injury and subsequent surgery put him on the Knights' bench for the rest of the season, it was like the fates were speaking to Tanya. Who better to get a little football season attention from than a man your husband did not even consider a man?
When Zagreb approached her after an NFL function to benefit sick kids, she did not immediately dismiss him as she had before. She was there representing Roderick's foundation. And Zagreb was a last minute substitute for one of his team's star players, who could not be bothered to bring his day down looking at a bunch of sick children.
They'd gone to lunch afterward, speaking of inconsequential things to stall the course of action they'd already silently decided on. Moments later, Tanya found herself flat on her back on the back seat of Zagreb's six-year-old Toyota. Her stockinged feet were pressed against the window as she gasped with pleasure at Zagreb's skill as a cocksman.
It wasn't long before she began inviting him to the house when Roderick was away. Tanya thought it was safer that way. They lived in a secluded area, free from watching eyes. As long as she remembered to turn off the cameras and kennel the Rottweilers, they were okay.
Okay. Tanya glanced wildly about the room. Because of a bit of outside dick she would lose everything around her. She had been Roderick's wife for 10 years now. She didn't know how to be anything else, wasn't equipped to function as an independent human being.
Tanya could not believe the turn her life had just taken. And to be fair, there was probably a fair amount of disbelief on Roderick's part as well. That she might have sought comfort outside their marriage would have never crossed his mind.
That he would return and kill her to soothe his injured pride certainly never crossed hers.
