Airbag Thanksgiving Absolution Conclusion final

And here it is..

"Melissa?"

I ventured tentatively, not quite believing the teenager in front of me was my dead wife. Ok, not so dead wife.

The smiling teen walked up to me, grabbed me in a tight hug and whispered "Missed me much Ian?"

"Wha.." was all I was able to get out before she crushed her soft lips to mine and stuck her tongue into my mouth in a kiss that left me in no doubt that she was Melissa.

The loud crack behind us was what broke the lip lock. When we looked, it appeared that a large crack had appeared across Selena's headstone. Glimpsing the dread  written across my face, the girl in my arms giggled as she reassured me.

"Don't worry Ian, she isn't coming back."

"But you did."

"There's a big difference between her and me," she huffed.

"Such as?"

She gave me the evil eye for what she perceived as an insult before explaining.

"Selena's last act before dying was destruction, she died with hatred. That condemned her. She's been taken away for good. There are things beyond this life that I've seen that will make the worst creep out there rethink their behaviour," she said with a shudder.

"When I died, I was filled with remorse and love. I guess that was my saving grace."

My mind was filled with questions which she saw in my eyes. Slinging her arm through mine, she said "Let's go home and get this Thanksgiving dinner. I'll explain everything on the way."

And she did. The girl's real name was Cassandra. Cass had been involved in a horrific accident two years back, which left her in dire need of a heart and cornea transplant. When Melissa was brought in to the hospital, a mix up had her on the operating table and her heart and corneas were given to Cass. Both Cass and Melissa had been standing there and watching the entire operation. To Melissa's surprise, Cass had been hesitant about returning to her body after the operation. Melissa only found out later that Cass had come from a wealthy family and had been in love with a poor boy from the wrong side of town. They had run away together and pretended that she was kidnapped to get money from Cass' father. Unfortunately, their car had crashed while they were trying to evade the police and Cass' father's hired hands. The boy survived with few injuries but Cass was in critical condition until the operation.

While Cass was happy to have survived the accident and operation, she had had the opportunity to observe the people around her who supposedly cared for her. She found out that her estranged mother didn't even bother to  visit her, her father only sent money for the medical bills and even her boyfriend was only worried about the ransom money they had stashed before their accident, which he had to abandon when Cass' father set the police on him.

Sickened by the behaviour of her loved ones, Cass refused to return to her body, leaving her body in a coma. While Melissa tried.to persuade Cass to appreciate her second chance at life, she had told Cass her own story. Cass had increasingly sympathised with Melissa and when Melissa had visited her just before the climactic Thanksgiving last year, Cass had offered her the body on the condition that she was to live a good life with me and the kids. No straying or infidelity. That made me smile and Melissa swat me on my arm.

"So do I call you Cassandra from now on?"

"Nope, I had a deed poll done and I'm now Melissa Cassandra Williams. Said I wanted to honour the donor who saved my life." She smirked as she continued, "Can't have my husband screaming someone else's name while he's in  me."

Thankfully, I'd pulled up in our driveway by then since I was fairly doubled over with  laughter.

I'd thought dinner might be awkward, but I was met with a happy surprise. Though dinner was a little quiet compared to the dramatic turns Thanksgiving dinner had taken the last two years, it went surprisingly well. The kids were quiet when they were introduced to my new friend, Steve surprised everyone by clinging onto Melissa's leg after shyly observing her from his safe position between Piper and the housekeeper. When Melissa took the housekeeper aside just before dinner, I covertly observed the two women. The housekeeper's eyes widened in surprise before she gave Melissa a hug. Both women wiped tears from their eyes before Piper joined them. Piper's reaction mirrored the housekeeper's. She seemed reluctant to leave Melissa's side even when we started dinner.

Even when dinner was over and bedtime approached, the kids reluctantly left her side only after reassurance that she would be there the next day.

I was uncertain where Melissa would sleep that evening, it came as a surprise when she led me unerringly to my bedroom. She laughed at my puzzled look

“I drew a design of my ideal house in the diary so I was hoping that it would be similar. “
Out of politeness I let her use the bathroom first, and was rewarded for being a gentleman when she emerged wrapped in only a short terry towel.
I showered quickly and shaved, ok, so I expected something hey I’m only a man.
As soon as she heard the shower stop, she called out asking me for a razor. I brought one out and watched in fascination as she asked for her bag where she pulled out a bottle of shaving cream. She spread her legs, the towel parting to allow me a delightful eyeful of breasts straining against the tucked in edge of the towel plus long smooth legs and the au naturel mound at the apex of her thighs. Clearing my suddenly dry throat, I asked in a strangled voice if she preferred me to leave the room while she shaved.
“Won’t you help me?” she asked teasingly and pouted.
She covered her mound in cream and then sat back against the pillows piled behind her while I shaved her. As my fingers moved slowly across her lips, trying to shave her without nicking her, her lips swelled and the scent of her arousal rose in the air.

I wasn’t sure how I managed to  finish the job. My cock was so hard it hurt. Melissa chuckled and reached out, holding my penis in her warm hand while gently running her palm up and down the length.
“Wait,” I gasped before she could take me in her mouth. “Are you legal?”

“Yes,” she grinned before running the tip of her tongue around the slit of my cock. I couldn’t help groaning.

“Well someone’s happy,” she whispered as she cupped my balls and then attempted to deepthroat me.

“What do you expect after a year of just soft hands and lubricant.

“I know. If you’d been dicking other women, all youd have found at the grave would have been the lyrics to Better In Time.”

“You were watching me?”

“Of course, a girl has to be careful who she gives herself to.”
I grabbed hold of her and never let her go. After all, how could you let go of a loving wife who, after you murdered her, came back to love you.

Thank you to readers who have made it thus far. A computer glitch left me unable to post the original extended version. Will do so soon.

Again a huge thank you to StangStar06 for writing the original story and also DFWBeast whose joke triggered this sequel. Having said that, please direct all negative comments towards me and not either of these authors.

Airbag Thanksgiving: Absolution conclusion 3.5

A year ago I was bitter and angry because I'd found out that my 8 year marriage was a sham and the woman I'd married didn't really love me. She had had a lover for all the years we were together and had trapped me into marriage. In my anger and without real knowledge of her true feelings, I engineered her death.  At the moment she faced death, Melissa had chosen to push me out of the path of danger, an act of love; love that she had never been able to fully express or even if she had, I'd been too deafened and blinded by my wounded pride and jealous anger to understand or believe. And I'd allowed myself to indulge in the fantasy of thwarted true love that had marked my relationship with her sister Selena. Selena had encouraged the fantasy, reinforcing it with the promise that we would get together once I'd divorced her sister and that Melissa was the one keeping us apart. Selena also convinced me that she truly loved me where her sister had merely duped me and used me. I now know this all held fatal appeal for an angry ego which thirsted for love after the shock of discovery of betrayal.

 I don't doubt that Selena had feelings for me or that I'd had feelings for her after all, I had taken her virginity or rather she had cleverly engineered me into the whole incident. However, those feelings have always been complicated, on her side, by rivalry with her sister and on my side, by the guilt and the fact that whatever feelings I had for Selena certainly didn't do much to prevent me from banging her sister. And Selena had been happy  to transform that guilt into fuel for the anger that burned in me a year ago. We'd focused our anger at having been deprived of what we thought was true love on the easiest target, Melissa. Today, our illusions or delusions and excuses were all destroyed in a brilliant show of truth rising literally from the ashes. Whatever her initial motivations, Melissa had loved me, I'd have to read the diary to know more but the love that poured out of her words just minutes earlier was unmistakable. 

" I couldn't let her destroy us! Can't you see, I did it all for us. For you! I won't let that stupid bitch hurt you again!"

 I extricated myself from Selena's tight embrace, cynical distrust of the scheming sister of my dead wife rising within me, choking in its irony. 

"Selena," I uttered in a dead, weary manner. " Don't fool yourself. We both know why you burnt it. You may have thought it spare me pain but a part of it, a big part, was your fear that you'd lose to your sister, even in death."

I didn't have to hear her gasp or to see the flush that spread across her face to know I was right on the money in my words. Selena stood looking at me as I picked up my stuff and bags, moving into the guest bedroom. 

****

The next few weeks proved harrowing for the couple. Although Selena was relieved by Melissa's absence, she did look nervously around her in the first week or so, the awful feeling that it was a Pyrrhic victory began to build in her. She tried every trick, from seduction to appealing to his feelings for her to even using her baby, to get Ian to return to her bedroom. All attempts proved abject failures. It worsened as the kids and the housekeeper gave her a wide berth. Something else also preyed on her mind, what Melissa had said about the baby. What did she mean when she said it wasn't her love child? 

Selena's mind began to darken with all the wild speculation and myriad possibilities. A week after Halloween, she quietly asked her doctor for a prenatal DNA test on the child. The spiral that began on Halloween accelerated as Ian withdrew further, limiting his time in the house to activities with the children, often ignoring her or giving the shortest of replies to her questions and attempts at conversation. He spent increasing amounts of time in the garage on his Mustang. The last straw came when she spotted Ian emerging from the kids' room with what looked like Melissa's battered diary in his hands as he left the house for the office one morning. 

"What are you doing with that damn thing?" She shrieked.

He was on his way down the stairs and had turned on hearing her shrill voice. 

"What I should have done a long time ago," he said flatly. "Read it."

"No! Don't fall into her trap!"

She pleaded to no avail as Ian simply exited the front door with the journal still in hand. Selena crumbled into tears and then started drinking that very day. As the alcohol slid down her throat, she comforted herself with the thought that Ian wouldn't be able to read the worst part, since she had burnt it. That freak show that happened on Halloween had been too rapid for him to have read or understood everything. Somewhere in that morose mind was the thought that she was pregnant and wasn't supposed to be drinking alcohol. However, what egged her on was the possibility that Ian might be provoked into engaging. By the time she'd drunk enough for the housekeeper to be concerned and for her to have contacted Ian, she'd emptied an entire bottle of brandy and was asleep on the living room couch. 

Ian had been furious, asking the housekeeper how she could have let Selena drink that much in her pregnant state. After listening to the housekeeper's protests, he helped carry his wife up to her bedroom and took care of her through her drunken heaving and vomiting till he was sure she was settled for the afternoon. It was dinner time before Ian left the bedroom, the longest time they had spent together since Halloween. Selena smiled when Ian returned with her dinner. Her happiness was brief as Ian quickly left after she'd finished with her dinner and checking that she was not feeling any pain or aftereffects from her drinking. She thought bitterly that he was only concerned with the child. However, she was encouraged by his concern for her when she was drunk and proceeded to play that card for the rest of the week. 

Ian knew Selena was playing games with him and was trying to manipulate him into engaging with her again. He was furious that she would risk the health of their child just to get his attention. This hardened his resolve to distance himself from her. When he returned to find her drunk again two weeks after Halloween and heard that the doctor had called with a message for Selena, he was determined to bring her to her senses. He carried her to the car and drove her directly to the doctor's, still drunk and hardly aware of her surroundings. 

The doctor was appalled and quickly helped Selena to sober up before delivering the results of the DNA test she had requested. Ian was completely surprised when the doctor mentioned the DNA test after delivering a lecture on the dangers of alcohol for a  developing foetus. The doctor didn't notice the odd look that was exchanged by the couple and proceeded to announce that the foetus had an unusual condition. 

"Your baby is a chimera."

The blank looks of both parents told her they were completely baffled by the term.

"She has two different sets of DNA. One shows she is your child. The other, however, is a bit of a mystery."

"What do you mean?" Selena asked fearfully. 

"Well, actually, we would like to ask if you're acting as a surrogate mother for one of your family members? You see, the other set of DNA seems to suggest a family relation who's not immediate family but still a close relative to you."

"Like a niece," Selena whispered in horror as she stared at Ian.

"Yes, possibly though there are other possibilities—"

"I want this baby removed! Now!" 

Selena's screaming brought the nurse and the doctor to their feet. Ian tried to calm her down.

"You know, don't you? She created this monster so it'll never be my child. You knew and you let her!"

Selena ranted and raved, growing increasingly hysterical. The doctor tried to calm her down and after giving her a light sedative, advised Ian to keep a watch on Selena. 

"She's very vulnerable now and with the stress that seems to be affecting her moods and making her drink, I fear for the health of the child," the doctor said while eyeing Ian. 

Ian explained briefly that things were tensed at home and Selena's mood swings were making lifedifficult. The doctor listened and was sympathetic, it helped of course that she was not impressed by Selena's decision to drink or her abrasive attitude.

When Ian finally left carrying his wife to the car, the doctor wondered how such a caring husband could end up with such a nasty wife. 

Matters only deteriorated as the days passed, Selena's hostility reached new levels as she sought to retaliate against what she saw was a conspiracy against her. She drank heavily the day after her trip to the doctor's, even ordering a case of alcohol from the stores when Ian asked the housekeeper to get rid of all the alcohol in the house. When Ian got home after receiving  a call from the housekeeper, he found a very drunk Selena attempting to enter the kids' room. 

"What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna get all that bitch's stuff and dump them in the landfill."

Her words were so slurred, he had to ask her to repeat them twice before he made sense of what she was saying. Her frustration at not being able to open the door and the effort of having to repeat her words exhausted her and she slumped down against the door. Ian could only sigh as he picked her up and brought her to the bedroom. Selena whispered in his ear something which made him stiffen though he didn't drop her as the housekeeper feared. The housekeeper looked at the unhappy couple as the master carried the new mistress into their bedroom and tried to get her sober. She shook her head, the scene before her was a stark contrast to the smug happiness the new mistress had radiated just months ago. Looking at her now, the housekeeper felt a tiny bit of sympathy for the new mistress who was now suffering for her misdeeds.

****

I looked at my wife as sympathy and hate warred inside of me. A year ago, six months ago, hell, three weeks ago, I thought she loved me. Now I see she loved the idea of having me or rather the idea of winning me, snatching me like some toy or trophy from a hated rival, her sister, Melissa.

When that triumph was marred, as was the case with our child and my alleged betrayal of her with Melissa,  she became determined to destroy it. That included our child, who she labelled a monster since learning of its chimerism. After the initial shock and worry over the potential health consequences for the child, I have to admit I was secretly and perversely thrilled that I could begin to atone for what I'd done to Melissa through this last child we were to share. Hence, regardless of whatever I felt about Selena, I was determined to protect the child as best I could. Which included protecting the woman who was carrying that child, Selena.  My determination was tested the very next day after I'd brought Selena to the doctor's. What Selena whispered in  my ear as I carried her to the bedroom made me stop and stare at the woman who had professed to love me. 

"I'll tell everyone what you did last Thanksgiving, how you 'fixed' Melissa's car and caused her death. If you're going to stop me from getting rid of this monster that my sister foisted upon us, if you're never going to be mine, then I'd rather destroy you!"

The look she gave me, even in her drunken state, told me she wasn't kidding. So that was what she meant by love - winning, possessing what she thought her sister had snatched. I felt bitter irony rise in my throat like some wave of acid that threatened to burn me from the inside out. This must be divine retribution — I'd killed a cheating wife who realised too late that she loved me and now I was stuck with a bitch who claimed she loved me for years but wanted to destroy me when she felt she'd lost. 

I walked woodenly to the bedroom, laid her down and automatically began to wipe her face with the wet towel that the housekeeper had thoughtfully placed upon the dressing table. Selena looked at me with a drunken gloating smile as she waited for my answer. 

"As long as you keep my children out of this and you ensure the safety of the baby, you can do what you want. I deserve to pay for what I did to Melissa," I said evenly though my stomach was beginning to roil at the thought of leaving my children at her mercy. 

I guess I surprised her and probably enraged her further since Selena began hitting me with a pillow. She screamed as she pummelled me, "You wimp! You wouldn't fight that bitch when she was alive, now that she's dead, you'd rather fight for her, her brats and this monster she's created than me!"

I didn't react, what could I say? In our last fight before she died, Melissa had accused me of standing up to Todd, Selena's ex-husband, and fighting for Selena and yet being unwilling to fight for us as a couple. I bitterly regretted that. I'd thought there was nothing to fight for since she didn't love me while Selena openly professed her love for me and hence there was something to fight for in her case. Chalk that up to me being dumb and look where it got me. Selena continued venting for a good 30 minutes before she was exhausted from her tantrums, and simply slumped back on the bed and slept.

This scene repeated itself at least two more times that week with one occasion where we ended up in the emergency room of the local hospital. Selena had thrown  one of her small but heavy jars of moisturiser and hit me square on the brow, stunning me so I stepped back carelessly and crashed into the mirror behind me. The crash brought the housekeeper running and she screamed when she saw me unconscious with shattered glass all around. According to the kids who she prevented from coming into the room due to the glass bits all around, she quickly regained her senses, closed the door to prevent the kids from entering  and called the emergency services.  The emergency services took me to the hospital along with Selena, who was hysterical and who loudly proclaimed it was an accident. I'd regained consciousness when we reached the hospital but the doctors insisted on me being observed for the night as they were afraid of a concussion from the collision with the mirror. I noticed the nurses and doctors whispering as they tended to Selena, who was still raving about how it was all an accident and how I was the bastard who was trying to kill her. Her obvious drunken state and wild raving convinced everyone she was the nasty abusive wife and I was the hapless husband.  Even the cops were there, having been called by the housekeeper along with the emergency services. They asked me questions and I admitted it was just an accident that occurred after Selena got drunk. They looked at Selena with disapproval and when she became defensive and abrasive, even they left giving me looks of pity.

The only good which emerged from those chaotic days was Selena toning down her abrasive attitude though her erratic behaviour was now common knowledge around the neighbourhood. She even hit on  the idea of hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Her guest list was short, consisting of her brother, his lover, two of our neighbours and a few of our colleagues. I could guess what was going through her mind, she wanted to expose me in front of people we knew and therefore ensure maximum damage. I wasn't going to be a sitting duck thought he first order of the day wasn't my protection but rather that of the children. I quietly took some time out every morning to consult with the lawyers regarding custody of the kids should I be unable to care for them. We worked out a plan to help my brother gain custody of my kids and prove Selena's incompetence as a parental figure, the latter was easy seeing how Selena had built a reputation for erratic behaviour over the last few weeks. The trust fund I'd set up for the kids years ago was functioning well, so I didn't have too many worries there. The evenings i spent mainly with the kids trying to make the best of the time left with them. The day before Thanksgiving, I walked into a largely empty office and began picking up stuff that had to be handled in case I was going away for some time. After business matters were dealt with, I opened the safe and took out Melissa's battered diary and began scanning the pages I'd read, which Selena had not burnt. Reading as I scanned each page, I felt my heart break and could barely stop the tears from falling. It was almost dusk when I finished scanning the entire volume. I combined the latest scans with those I'd made almost a year ago after  ensuring they were intact. I could only read the earlier scans briefly before my eyes blurred over as tears fell. It was worse than what happened on Halloween as the words were starkly presented before me. And there was no Melissa there for me to apologise to or comfort me. I could only ensure the scans were safely stored in two different clouds before leaving the office with the physical diary for perhaps the last time.

Selena smiled as she surveyed the table settings for Thanksgiving dinner. 'Oh, she was going to serve them all up a most unforgettable Thanksgiving!' she thought as she took another swig of the brandy. She had stayed sober for the last couple of days in order to plan her revenge on Ian and her dead sister. Those bastards who crossed her were going to regret and pay for their transgressions against her. The pain in her belly was starting to become more obvious. 

'Good, the monster is dying.' A spasm of pain ran through her heart as she recalled the joy she felt just weeks ago at the thought of the child growing in her belly . The pain was quickly quashed by the rage that flared when she recalled the doctor's announcement that her child, no the monster, was  a chimera , with two sets of DNA, one of which was a close relative, like a niece. At that moment, she finally understood what Melissa's words meant. that was the moment the baby became a monster to her.

She smiled in anticipation as the doorbell rang and the housekeeper began ushering in the guests. Ted, her brother,  asked her if she was alright and she waved a hand in dismissal of his concern. She was feeling increasingly excited as the guests arrived and the adrenaline she was feeling running through her veins dampened the growing pain in her belly. 

When the guests arrived, she made small talk with them. After light banter, all were gathered round the dinner table as Ian finally arrived back in his house and joined his guests. 

"Well, since everyone is here, let me serve up the main course!"

Everyone thought Selena meant the turkey and were a little surprised when she returned with a small covered silver platter which was too small to be containing a turkey. The doorbell rang again and the housekeeper had bustled off remarking on the ridiculous ways of the Americans. As Selena opened the cover of the platter with a flourish, the guests started to whisper at the sight of a book sitting on the platter even as the smell of motor oil filled the room. 

" As most of you know, my bitch of a sister died last Thanksgiving. This is her diary and I'm sending it to join her." Her fierce glare quelled Ted's feeble attempts to rebuke her for her rude behaviour. Selena noticed Ian's fixed stare at the book soaked in motor oil on that silver platter. She leaned over and whispered with malicious glee, " Yes darling, Melissa's precious diary is finally going up in smoke. 

Noticing her latest guests joining her round the table, Selena beamed with am evil gleam in her eyes. 

"Join us, officers. I'm about to reveal  vital information."

"Ma'am did you male a report about a murder?"

She waved her hand dismissively. 

"Yes, officers, the information is related to that, she muttered impatiently. 

"While most of you think that my stupid bitch of a sister died in a car accident last year, I know the truth, she was murdered. By a cold-blooded killer. Who switched the fuses and ensured the airbag would malfunction."

Everyone stared at Selena like she was mad. 

"Are you drunk Ma'am? This isn't a joke is it?"

"No, officers. I'm dead serious. The murderer is among us today. "

Ian close his eyes and tried to remain calm.

"The murderer is none other than--"

Ian braced himself.

"Me! I switched the fuses and killed her."

There was utter silence as everyone stared at Selena. She looked in horror, her hand clasped over her mouth. She looked as if she couldn't believe what was coming out of it. 

She recovered quickly and in a flash, she whipped out her lighter and set the diary on fire. It all happened too quickly and none of the witnesses had any idea just how it was that as the diary burnt, Selena herself began to burn. All anyone really saw was Selena engulfed in flames as everyone else round the table started screaming. Selena's screams were drowned out by the tumult. 

Ted tried to douse the flames with water but the grease fire spread. Ian  ran off and returned with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire almost instantly. But by then Selena was seriously burnt. The officers called for the emergency services while Ian tried to cradle Selena's shaking body gently as she went into shock and her eyes stared at him uncomprehendingly.  

 At the hospital, the police officers who had accompanied Ian and Selena there began to ask Ian questions which were met with blank looks. They assumed he was in shock himself. the doctors scurried around trying to save Selena and the baby. But three hours later, the chaos was largely over. The doctors told Ian that the baby had apparently already been dead for a few days mad that they couldn't understand why Selena had managed to ignore all the signs that the baby was in distress. Selena herself was barely clinging to life and the doctors were not optimistic about her condition.  The staff at the hospital looked at Ian with some pity since most remembered him from his  trip there just a week or so earlier. 

An hour later, they told Ian that Selena was gone. She never regained consciousness. 

****

IAN

I don't recall getting home that night. Somehow, someone must have helped me because the next thing I knew I was in my bed. Sleep was at best fitful and patchy. So I was quickly aware of the presence in the room. I sensed her before I saw her. 

"Melissa? I thought you'd left."

 I was about to leave but i sensed something would go badly wrong. So I stuck around and observed. When I saw Selena take the diary from the kids' room where you'd returned it, I knew she was planning something. I'm sorry I couldn't save the baby but it had been dead for some days and I couldn't stop Selena from killing it. 

"Why did you stop Melissa  from exposing me? I deserve punishment."

That you do but what good would that do? Nothing.Our children would suffer. I can't  let them lose both parents within a year or so. In any case, when you read the diary, there was absolution for me. That helped me to really forgive you. 

My head hung low in shame. 

My voice was gruff when I spoke. 

"I guess I really screwed up huh?"

The rueful smile on Melissa's face helped confirm my assessment of the situation. 

"Couldn't you stay? I mean for the kids of course."

I hated the pleading note in my voice but I was desperate and on the verge of pouting and begging.

It's better for everyone to move on.

"But I'll never see you again!" I blurted out. 

The enigmatic smile on Melissa's face made me anticipate her next words.

Well, if you really hope to see me in this lifetime again, i must leave now. 

Almost as if she read my mind, she laughed and said 

No darling, you're not that lucky to be a 49 year old with a 18 year old hanging off his arm! But it will be close! 

She turned serious. 

Take the kids away for a while, help them get over what has happened. Rebuild this house and when you return, rebuild your lives. 

She took my hand and we walked over to the kids'room where we looked over the kids sleeping the sleep of the innocent. As she began to fade, she whispered

Be at my grave next Thanksgiving, your second chance will be there!

A whisper of air caressed my wet cheek and then she was gone. 

So I did as she said. No one was surprised when I said that the kids and I needed to get away. After the disasters of the last two years, friends family and everyone else were very understanding. 

Selena's death was ruled a misadventure and all witnesses, including the hospital staff and her doctor all testified that she had been erratic for the last month or so. The police suspected that the seasonal holiday triggered her deep-seated guilt and depression. 

I'd been half afraid that Selena would come back like Melissa but she never did. Thank goodness for some wives who do stay dead.

Thanksgiving 2015

I was about to give up and leave when a figure walking jauntily towards me caught my eye. Somehow that gait seemed familiar. When she lifted her head and smiled at me, my heart skipped a beat. The twinkle in her eye and the knowing smile on the teenage face was Melissa's!  

Final conclusion by Sunday! Check back for it!

Airbag Thanksgiving Absolution Part 3 (1/2)

Apologies it was supposed to be the soppy ending, but things were delayed.  Check back tomorrow for the tearful conclusion! Have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving!

Warning: this has turned into a tearjerker for some reason so if you're averse to blubbering, don't read further!

I gave her one of my usual looks that told her she was getting nowhere. 

And you're wrong to say she's done nothing to me. She knew before Thanksgiving what condition I was in. She would have sensed it but she was just too intent on winning you over so she simply didn't bother to keep her claws off you and you were so distracted by her boobs all night that you didn't think about what you learnt when you came back, such as the information about Johnny's sleeping arrangement in this house. Then it was all too late and you did what you did.

She saw my grimace and mercifully refrained from further mention of my deed. 

"That's all in the past, Melissa. Move on, we all have to."

If you've never had ghostly eyes fixed on you, you would never know the chill that ran through me when I saw Melissa's eyes flashing at me.

That's another thing Selena has stood in the way of. The truth she burnt was my path out of this limbo. Perhaps you should ask your new wife why she did that? Why was she so afraid you'd read the truth?

Her agitation was obvious as the shimmering intensified.

If you don't read the truth Ian, I will never have absolution and neither will you and neither of us will ever be freed from this situation. For all her brains, Selena simply can't understand what she did.

Then the shimmering stopped but the sinister expression that replaced it and spread across Melissa's face sent more chills running through me. 

Selena has no idea what her childish selfish act has done but soon, my dear big sister will find out the price she has to pay for it. 

"Don't you dare hurt her and my child!" I yelled at Melissa.

She's my child too Ian! But it's out of my hands now. Selena was greedy and spiteful, she happily seduced you using what she learnt from my diary but chose to kill the truth She killed a part of me and any chance I had of absolution.  The minute she burnt the truth, she set things in motion that no one can stop. Just like you did when you replaced the fuses. 

Fear pulsed in every cell of my body as I heard what she said . Of course she knew what I had done. Before I could even begin to explain myself, she disappeared.

Just what did she mean about Selena's child being her child too? What will happen to us?Questions with no answers danced restlessly through my mind till my guts knotted in anxiety. 

A tentative twist of the handle told me Selena had finally returned to our bedroom. 

"Is she gone?"

Her timid question seemed at odds with her earlier defiance and rage. She looked in equal parts fearful and angry as she walked into the room, after verifying that no apparition was awaiting her in the room.

"How could she? Why can't she leave us alone?" She whined as she sat herself down on the bed next to me. Her eyes kept watching me as she tried to decipher my mood. 

I opted for the direct approach.

"What did you do to Melissa's diary?"

She sputtered, as if outraged by my question before she replied.

"Nothing! I told you. Don't you trust me?"

"Look, Selena, whatever you did, we need to rectify it. The safety of our child and you may be at stake."

"Did she threaten us?" Her eyes rounded in shock and then flamed with rage. "How dare that bitch do this! She's not getting away with it."

No matter how I pleaded and cajoled, there was no getting through to Selena. Old rivalries never die, even death it seems could not stop the bitter struggle between the two sisters. 

                                                        ****

After several days of looking around her to ascertain she was not stalked by some ghostly apparition of her hated sister, Selena decided she was in the clear. Things were tense and what didn't help was the absence of the comforting figure that the housekeeper had become for the children. They fretted and whined and then they refused to eat. Selena saw in this the wicked scheme of her sister in interfering and therefore driving a wedge between us and the children. She continued in her determination to rid all remaining influence of Melissa. She removed Melissa's photos from all corners of the house and dumped them in the basement. Even Melissa's favourite china had to go. She virtually replaced everything that Melissa had bought or used in the house. The only place that was closed off to her was the children's room, which was a sore point for her. I couldn't resist Piper's pleading eyes and Steve's whiny tantrums so their room remained beyond the reach of Selena's campaign. Selena wasn't pleased and she showed her displeasure every chance she had. For one, she refused to cook after the children ate virtually none of the dinner she cooked the day the housekeeper left, hence we had had takeout every night. Then she wanted to hire part-time help to do the household chores which she was hopeless with. I agreed but somehow she was still unhappy, complaining that the new help didn't know how to get the chores done right. Finally, three days before Halloween, the current reversed.

The new hire quit because she couldn't take the children's mess and Selena's highhandedness. The laundry was undone, including Selena's important stuff. The kitchen sink was clogged and dishes were left unwashed. The house was in a mess. We had takeout for dinner again and even Selena was getting tired of her favourite deliveries. So when Steve started whining about how awful the limp fries were and how he needed that T-shirt for school tomorrow which was missing despite it never having left the house, Selena apparently had enough. She slapped her hand on the table, making the food and soda jump while I eyed her cautiously. 

"That's it! Get that old woman back here if you want. Just make sure she stays out of my way and doesn't interfere with us."

Selena's baleful glare as she stalked off to the bedroom was counterbalanced by the children's gleeful smiles as they realised they had won the battle. I was just relieved that I didn't have to do all the chores and would have time to work on my Mustang.  

Little did we know that disaster was just round the corner.

                                                                       ****

Halloween in our household was marked by 2 main traditions: unbelievable loads of candy, which we often had to hide from Steve who would demolish everything otherwise, and homemade costumes. Melissa never bought any of the costumes the kids wanted to wear for Halloween, she made them together with the kids. It was a great bonding process. The only time that tradition was broken was last year when she retreated into alcohol. Even then, she had helped the housekeeper put together something for the kids. Piper beg me to allow the housekeeper, who had graciously agreed to come back after the kids both got on the phone and excitedly asked when she was returning, to get Melissa's stuff which Selena had relegated to the basement along with her photos. 

"Mommy always kept her scrapbooks and sewing stuff so I'm sure we can construct a costume with the cloth she kept and all the pictures she stuck in her scrapbook."

We spent much of the afternoon sorting out through the mess that Selena had created as she tossed Melissa's stuff in a haphazard manner around the basement. I had the good grace to blush as the housekeeper tut-tutted when she saw how carelessly my late wife's belongings were treated. We were briefly distracted when Piper found an album of photos of our family. The memories of all the good years we had before I discovered her affair with Johnny came flooding back. I could hardly keep the tears from my eyes when I saw how Melissa had pieced together our wedding photos which I'd torn in my fury and stuck them into the album. She had written on abeautiful piece of paper, which I recognised as hotel stationery from our honeymoon destination, the words "I won't let us go, I will repair what I've broken" The words that followed were too smudged with what looked like water stains though I thought I could make out the words "love" at some point. I shook my head and wondered why I was letting this all get to me again. I thought I'd buried all the emotion I had in me with regards to Melissa along with the guilt when I finally decided to make my relationship with Selena a permanent one. 

The whisper in my mind echoed the doubts that rose at that point.

Would you have given us a second chance if you saw this before Thanksgiving?

I didn't need to turn around to see the whisper of air on my back to know Melissa had appeared. Then the voice of Selena sounded out and we all hurried upstairs before she could throw one of her tantrums again. Curiously, neither the housekeeper nor Piper seemed to notice the glowing figure I caught a glimpse of out of the corner of my eye before it disappeared.

Upstairs, Selena looked in growing disapproval and anger as the housekeeper and Piper brought a whole load of Melissa's stuff upstairs. They wisely scooted off to the children's room before Selena could make any noise. Selena was moody the rest of the night. Everything seemed to be the usual buzz of a Halloween bustle the next day till early evening when the housekeeper and Piper unveiled the kids' Halloween costume. I'd been working quietly in the garage on my Mustang when Steve came running in and gasped out, "Aunt Selena is going crazy on Piper!"  

I groaned inwardly thinking how my quiet evening was going to hell. I didn't know how accurate I was going to be. 

Selena was in full rage, towering over Piper, the housekeeper was in the middle trying to shield my daughter from her aunt.

"How dare you! Give me that diary and get rid of all those stupid things! You will stop helping your stupid mother torture your father and me!"

Piper looked slightly worried but the steely determination she inherited from Melissa and me was clearly there as she struggled to hold onto Melissa's scrapbooks and what looked like a battered journal that had pages torn from it. Suddenly, I realised what it was, it was Melissa's diary. 

Selena had not noticed me standing there, neither had Piper, whose focus was on the centre of contention: the diary. They struggled and Piper, for all her determination, was losing to the strength of an adult. Yet she clung on, unwilling to lose her mother's treasured journal.

"No! I won't let you burn mommy's book."

"Let go you brat!" Selena yelled, stunning both the housekeeper and me with her open hostility towards the child.

"You're just like that stupid bitch! Well, I'm not going to let her or her brat win again!"

With that Selena raised her hand, ready to slap my eldest. The housekeeper pulled Piper to her side, forcing the kid to let go off the diary. I'd started forward, incensed by the way she treated my child. Selena's  look of triumph at having won the battle was brief.The voice that rang out stunned us all.

If you ever try to lay a hand on my children again, you will hurt beyond what you can imagine. 

Selena stared in silent fear at her dead sister, her hands clutching the diary almost nervelessly. The feel of the journal in her hands might have triggered a sense of defiant rage in her for Selena began to straighten herself . Clutching the diary in one hand, she took out a lighter and began brandishing the lighter and the diary in front of her.

"I'm not afraid of you and I won't let you get away with it bitch! Threaten me one more time and this goes up in flames forever!" Selena practically snarled the last  line. As Melissa watched with anguish on her face, Piper ran forward, yelling, "No! Mommy! Your diary!" 

My little girl had ran forward, snatching at the diary at the instant that Selena's lighter touched the cover. I watched in horror as her hands were about to come into contact with the flame when Melissa was able, by some force unknown, to whisk our little girl away from harm. I'd stepped forward and grabbed my daughter before she could endanger herself once again. Looking up, I saw Melissa's face overrun with iridescent drops of tears as she watched our daughter struggling to reach out to touch her, yelling "Mommy" all the time. Whatever force she had harnessed had deserted her and her outstretched hand barely made contact with our daughter's cheek. Steve had stood beside me through much of the harrowing struggle and when Melissa stretched out her hand towards Piper, he yelled and ran forward to hug his mother. Both our kids kept yelling "Mommy" as Melissa looked helplessly at them both and faded. At the sight of my kids' faces with their expressions of devastation,my heart felt as if it were ripped out of the cavity in my chest and shredded. I knew I was largely responsible for the scene that played out in front of me. 

"Ian , I can explain," Selena stuttered. I brushed her aside with the detachment that I'd shown Melissa a year ago. She shrunk back. The housekeeper, having seen the kids were safe, had proceeded to save the diary, which had been a little damaged by the flame that scarred its cover. When she was satisfied that the book was safe to handle, she handed it back to Piper who hugged it while muttering "Mommy's book" as Steve looked at her in askance. both sister and brother eventually calmed down and were reassured enough to be persuaded to prepare themselves for the Halloween party. Neither seemed to question the curious sight of their dead mother suddenly appearing/ late mother's sudden appearance. It was only months later that Piper explained that the housekeeper had told them their mommy had gone away to heaven but would be watching over them. So neither of them were too surprised that she had reappeared that evening to defend Piper.  

After the kids were sent on their way to their Halloween candy rounds, having hidden their mother's diary in a secure place, I returned to my bedroom. Selena was sitting on our bed, looking anxiously at me when I entered. 

"Ian," she began tentatively, "I can explain."

I held up my hand and simply said," Cut out everything else, just tell me why?"

She didn't pretend not to know what I was referring to. 

"Yes, I'd gone into your office the day after Melissa's funeral and found Melissa's diary. I was curious, and-and worried because she'd hurt you so badly. I'd read the accident report and I knew why you felt so bad. So--so when I had read her diary, I was afraid that it would hurt you even more or make you feel worse. S-so..so I burnt part of her diary."

"What would have hurt me? Her words? Did she insult me? Or maybe she humiliated me by describing her 8 years of happiness with Johnny?"

I asked, hoping against hope that Selena would finally take the chance to confess since she had no idea that I'd read at least part of Melissa's diary. 

But she persisted in lying.

"Yes, most of that diary was her gloating about her affair with Johnny. She hardly mentioned you or the kids." 

I stared at the woman I'd married, who I'd thought I'd had feelings for over the years, who I thought loved me truly as she lied without even blinking. If anyone had asked me six months ago which sister was more duplicitous, I would have had no trouble answering Melissa. Now, I wasn't so sure. I began taking stuff out of my drawers and moving them into a small bag I'd taken out of the closet. Selena watched me nervously. 

"What are you doing?" 

"I can't sleep next to someone who keeps lying to me, not when we agreed that we wouldn't do that to each other," I snarled as I began movingmy stuff at a faster pace.

"But I didn't lie..."

"Save it, Selena, I read part of Melissa's diary and I know the truth," I blurted out as she paled and her hand moved to her mouth.

I spotted the small bag of ashes that the housekeeper had handed to me scarcely a month ago and took it out of the drawers that I'd stashed it in. Moving faster than I've ever seen her do so, Selena snatch the bag out of my hands and hurled it against the wall.

"Damn you Ian! How could you let that dead bitch and her pathetic words tear us apart!"

The bag of ashes hit the wall and then flopped to the ground, spilling ashes, some of which floated in the air. Then it happened. A tiny glow initially, then it seemed to burst into a glorious flame-like incandescence that spread across the walls of the room. It felt like minutes but it had to be mere seconds as pages and pages of Melissa's handwriting flashed across the walls like they were projected for my viewing. It was flashing too rapidly for me to read properly, but the emotion contained in them was palpable. It  was as if I could feel Melissa's emotions as she wrote those words. Misery, confusion, bitterness, fear, anger and above all, love. My cheating slut of a wife was in love with me but realised it only too late when I was stubbornly blind and deaf to all her overtures and her truth. I wasn't aware that tears were streaming down my cheeks till my vision blurred and the sounds of broken gasping sobs reached me. It took  a while but I recognised my own sounds of grief and realised my blurred vision was a result of the tears that poured out of my eyes unbidden. 

Thank you Ian.. I can leave now..

Melissa appeared as the glow in the room dimmed slightly. Her eyes were filled with tears and what I now recognise as love.

'No!I really need you here, please, Melissa!' I screamed in my mind as I found my voice stuck in my throat. I barely heard the background noise of Selena yelling and cursing as she threw every object  possible at the walls. 

I only felt the light whisper of air that brushed my forehead as the glow faded and Melissa shimmered till all that was left were those iridescent teardrops that coursed down her cheeks when she kissed me. 

I captured the iridescent drops in my hand, thinking that was the very last bit of Melissa I'd have left. Bringing them to my lips, I kissed them, feeling the mingling of her tears and mine. The hidden reservoir of bitterness I'd carried within me against Melissa all this time faded, leaving not just a hollow emptiness but also the ache of regret.

Check back tomorrow for the conclusion!

Airbag Thanksgiving Absolution Part 2

What does Melissa want? Most guys are asking the same question about their significant others,  mostly those alive LOL Read on! Part 2's here!

Sure, based on Melissa's diary and knowledge. Are you sure you could
have ever won him without Melissa's help?

The snide sarcastic tone of the whisper had Selena's hackles up. Why was her victory and triumph always tainted by Melissa? Even in death, it seemed her sister would not allow her happiness.


Annoyed, she was determined not to use the knowledge she had gleaned from Melissa's diary. After all, she told herself as she looked in the mirror, smoothing her hands over her impressive cleavage and narrow waist, that she was in great shape. And she was fully confident that Ian had feelings for her, so seducing him would be simple. She would just have to play up her assets, she thought as she grinned and thrust out her tits.

It didn't turn out as simple as she thought it would. There was plenty of awkwardness and Ian gave her an odd look when she fumbled. They ended up not having sex but falling asleep in an embrace, each frustrated and neither willing to ask or probe. The failure of the attempt and the humiliation she felt drove Selena to greater dependence upon Melissa's diary. She pored over every detail, determined to overcome the failure she'd experienced.

Selena did it by the numbers, Ian seemed helpless every time she employed Melissa's tactics.  The immense pleasure and satisfaction every time she brought Ian to a shuddering climax was marred only by two seemingly insignificant points. The first was the reminder that all the success she had in seducing Ian was attributable to Melissa, the idea of which was rankling at best and at worst, ate at her like acid. The second, more puzzling and insidious, though she was unconscious of it at the time was the tendency for her to black out every time she was intimate with Ian while using the approaches she had learn from Melissa's diary. 

Apart from the first time she experienced it, Selena had no real idea how she seemed to fall into unconsciousness every time things heated up between Ian and her. She barely remembered much more than kissing Ian deeply and his hands sweeping over her tits before darkness claimed her. Waking up, often the next day, she had to surmise that she had such a great time that she blacked out from the pleasure and could only tell from her sore or tender nether lips or the dried cum and her swollen, bitten nipples that Ian had spent another night making passionate love ending in an explosive climax in her. 

Ian never seemed to mention anything but he often covertly observed her, trying almost to discern if Selena detected anything amiss.

                                                                   ****

Ian

 I could never reveal it but things had become really strange just before Christmas, going into the New Year. Yes, it was fantastic when Selena and I finally got together, sexually speaking. I tried hard to get Melissa out of my mind. The guilt was what made me see Melissa. She was dead and I killed her, that was why I saw her face in the most explosive climax I had had since I separated from Melissa. 

Only after I continued to see Melissa's face every time I made love to Selena that I knew things weren’t that simple. . Gradually, it became Melissa's pussy that I pounded, Melissa's tits that I worshipped and Melissa's cries that sounded out in the bedroom. Lacking a logical explanation for all of this, I began to blame the similarity in features between the two sisters that I'd talked about before. I even suggested to Selena that she should change her appearance, such as going redhead. Unfortunately, none of it worked. Melissa never failed to appear. Though it was logically impossible, my dead cheating wife found her way back into my bed. And instead of the expected disgust, I only felt the rush of lust and perhaps a slight assuaging of the guilt that had haunted me since her death. Perhaps it was all my guilty conscience at work hoping I could somehow find peace with her after death. 

Then parts of the truth started to emerge. And it all started with the housekeeper. Now, Selena never quite liked the housekeeper. It could be because she was Melissa's hire but I doubt that was the entire story.

The housekeeper was one of those old fashioned ladies who were silent but efficient. I think that she seemed to want to tell me about something on several occasions, including the first time I brought Melissa back from the police station but she never did. I wonder now, knowing what I know, if things would have been different if she had spoken up.

Hindsight is always 20/20 but regrets are useless. As for the housekeeper, I could really find no reason to fire her. Selena may be a fantastic engineer but she was no Martha Stewart. Neither was Melissa, though before our marriage started falling apart, she was managing things pretty well. She'd only hired the housekeeper after she started her decline into alcoholism. One of the reasons why I refused to fire the housekeeper was how close the children were to her. For all of Selena's opinions about how easily the children accepted the loss of their mother, I was still concerned that the children were suppressing anxiety. While I didn't detect any sign of cruelty or neglect or anything negative in Selena's attitude towards the children, it was clear, at least to me, they were slightly uneasy with her. Particularly my eldest, Piper, and where Piper went, Steve followed. And it became worse after she moved into my bedroom openly. While life continued almost normally, Selena was taking every chance to become more intimate with me and to get pregnant. In her marriage to Todd, she failed to get pregnant and seeing my children as a bond with Melissa, she was more determined than ever to get pregnant. My children became closer to the housekeeper and a little distant from me, I didn't blame them though I felt a little hurt. Considering they had to deal with a whole lot over the last year or so: they had two relative strangers move in with their parents ; one was their mother's lover, Johnny, albeit he stayed in the guest bedroom, the other was an aunt they rarely saw apart from some holidays; my moving out, their mother's decline into alcoholism and the loss of their mother; they held up pretty well. 

The housekeeper, was not exactly doing much to ingratiate herself with Selena since she often gave her that silent look of disapproval, particularly after she started openly sleeping in my room. And there were times when I caught her staring at Selena with an odd expression on her face and making the sign of the cross surreptitiously. When Selena announced she was pregnant just before summer, things worsened and it came to a head when we got married right after her announcement. The children effectively retreated from both of us and clung almost exclusively to the housekeeper . Selena was convinced that she had an agenda and was deliberately setting them against us. To Selena, the children always seemed happy and comfortable around us until the housekeeper appeared on her daily routine. That was how things seemed to her. I never really realised how subjective Selena's views were till we lived together. I  guess I should have known when she put the blame for my marriage solely on Melissa. And because she was reluctant to blame me for my role in eventually marrying her sister, I knew instinctively that she blamed my eldest as well since Melissa and I got married largely because she was pregnant with our Piper. 

Thinking back, both sisters were manipulative. While Melissa managed to trap me with the child, Selena had strategically lost her virginity to me when we were drunk. Selena was simply outclassed and not an innocent.

It’s funny how the truth reveals itself in the least expected way. Things became tense when Selena and I turned up at a PTA meeting and my eldest, Piper, corrected the new teacher who'd mistaken Selena for her mom. Selena flushed with anger and embarrassment when my daughter said, " No, that's not my mom. She's my aunt, mom's sister. She's dad's new wife."

I suddenly felt awkward but there was no denying facts. Selena was visibly upset and ranted at me all the way home, making me glad that Piper had decided to go for a sleepover at her friend's house that night.

When we reached the house, she was almost hysterical. And she ended with a demand to fire the housekeeper, who she was convinced was behind the effort to "discredit" her with the children. In an effort to get her to calm down, I agreed to talk to the housekeeper. Selena stormed off to the bedroom while I went to look for the housekeeper reluctantly since she was probably blameless. The housekeeper listened silently as i tried to explain the aituation. She nodded and sighed before she packed up her meagre bag of belongings and stood to leave. She hesitated before turning the knob of the door. Then she handed me a small bag of what looked like burnt ashes.

"What is this?"

"New madam was burning this just before Christmas last year. Old madam," she crossed herself before continuing. "Old madam said to save this. She said she cannot leave because you didn't read these."

I was so stunned by what I’d heard that I had to run to catch up with her as she was half way down the street by the time I'd reached the front door.

"Wait, please let me drive you. I need to hear all that you know."

We were both aware that Selena was watching from the bedroom window. I ran back for the car and drove the housekeeper to her living quarters. On the way there, she described what happened that day I'd gone shopping with the children. I was flabbergasted as she confirmed having seen Melissa or rather an apparition.

So it wasn't guilt or imagination, Melissa's spirit was somehow still wandering around. I was sure fear and horror was showing on my face. Fortunately, the housekeeper, who was the only one to witness that look probably thought it was the usual fear of the supernatural. She patiently explained that according to the apparition, she couldn't leave until she had something from me.

I thought cynically if Melissa was referring to my life in return for hers. The housekeeper saw the dread on my face and explained that it all had to do with what Selena was burning. So the answers lay with Selena. The prospect of confronting her was not exactly one I looked forward to.

I returned to the house only to be confronted by an angry Selena who was angered by the fact that I'd driven the housekeeper home. She was taken aback when I set the small bag of ashes on the dining table.

"What is that?"

"It's the remnants of what you were burning just before Christmas in the backyard."

Selena's face went white but she sought to cover her guilt and fear.

"That's nonsense! I never burnt anything."

She started ranting and eventually turned it into a crying bout, blaming me for believing in an outsider rather than her, my wife.

"I love you so much, I-I even kept quiet about what you did at Thanksgiving.B-but you'd rather believe a housekeeper than me."

She sobbed and had her head in her hands. She didn't see my face or the myriad of emotions I was sure was plainly clear to anyone observing the scene. Not only did Selena know what I'd done to Melissa, she had kept silent all this time. Out of love or so she said.

Yet now, my loving wife was using her knowledge of what happened to Melissa to guilt trip me. To say that this made me see Selena in a whole new light is an understatement. I could feel a new emotion creep into the feelings I had for Selena. Vaguely, I recalled feeling the same when I'd found out about Melissa's betrayal.

I stood up with leaden feet. I'd done the dumbest thing: go from one conniving scheming bitch to another. I guess my happily ever after pronouncement was premature.

Well, better that you see the truth of it now than later.

I didn't have to search my memory for the identity of that whisper that sounded in my mind then. It was Melissa. I was about to step out of the bedroom when Selena ran up and hugged me.

"Ple-eas-ee believe m-me. I wouldn't do anything to hur-rt y-ou. I'm not like her, I really lo-love you."

I sighed. I had to make the best of the situation. A second divorce drama in a year would simply kill any chance of restoring normality to the family.

"Then just tell me the truth. What did you burn?"

I could feel Selena stiffen behind me and the shake of her head.

"I didn't burn anything," she insisted stubbornly. "Why won't you believe me?"

A sudden suspicion struck me.

"Was it Melissa's diary? Was that why it wasn't on my office desk as she said?"

Selena had backed away and was glaring at me with accusing eyes.

"No, I never saw her diary. Why won't you believe me? She's dead! Why is that dead conniving bitch more important than me?"

She shrieked that last accusation. My  ears were filled with her angry rant but the voice that rang out next overwhelmed my brain.

You lying bitch! You read and kept most of my diary after stealing it from Ian's office. You tore out the most important part, the truth, and you burnt it!

Selena's eyes were wide with fear and I knew right away that she had heard the voice as well. That and the fact that she'd been exposed.

As a vision of Melissa appeared, glowing in iridescent light, Selena shrieked and hid behind me.

You denied me the final step towards peace and you'll have to pay for it!

Melissa's face was calm and her lips barely moved but her voice clearly sounded in both our minds.

"Melissa, please, don't hurt your sister. She's pregnant with my child and she can't take the stress."

I tried to plead with the spirit of my dead wife.

Ian, are you sure it's her child? Didn't you tell her what happened every time you guys went to bed?

There was a faint mocking tone in her last words.

"Ian, what's going on? What's she talking about?"

There was no escape, it would be worse coming from Melissa.

"I don't know how it happened but every time we were in bed, somehow Melissa was the one with me."

Selena looked at me in horror, shaking her head.

That's right, you husband stealing bitch of a sister! You're carrying my and Ian's child. It's in you but it isn't your love child.

"Noooo!!!"

Selena shrieked as she ran out of the room and headed for the garage. I stared at Melissa in rage and horror.

"Why? Why destroy my chance at happiness, Melissa? Didn't you do enough the last 9 years?"

I didn't do anything Ian. The moment you decided to kill me, it set things in motion. Still, I was willing to forgive and move on. I felt I owed you that much. But after she stole my diary and denied me absolution, it was no longer possible for forgiveness and I couldn't move on. I'm stuck here.

I stared dumbstruck. Of course, I guess she'd have known that I was responsible for her death. But it never occurred to me that she could have brought herself to forgive me.

Melissa looked a little distracted as she seemed to look off into the horizon. Then she looked straight at me.

Selena ran crying from the bedroom, I was about to follow but Melissa stood there looking sadly at me. Rage and grief fought within me as I realised that in life as in death, I was still caught between the two sisters. Suddenly I felt exhausted and after hearing the slam of the nearest door, indicating Selena's retreat into the guest bedroom, I slumped down on the bed.

" Why, Melissa? Why are you still hurting me? Haven't you done enough over the last 9 years?"

She shimmered, almost as if she tried to reach out to comfort me. Her hand stopped short of my cheek and I felt only a whisper of air brush past me.

I'm so sorry for all the hurt I've caused you in the past, Ian. Things weren't supposed to turn out this way. If only I'd told you the whole truth.. If only you had known.. If only you could read the truth....

"But why hurt Selena? She has done nothing to you. She loves our kids and is helping us all move on."

If ever an apparition could look annoyed, Melissa probably looked the picture of it.

Are you really sure she loves our kids? Can't you see how she really feels about Piper and Steve? Maybe you're just too blinded by her tits to see anything.

                                                                   ****

Don't miss the conclusion! Warning: it's both too pretty and not pretty!