” I was stunned. They’d, had my enemies, won. I no longer had a daughter, not in any sense of the term. Well, I had, but she had evidently dump...d any semblance of me as a father to her. Uncle she’d called me. My wife, my ex-wife, may have wanted, for reasons I could not guess, to soothe things over with me; but while I had momentarily considered softening my stance in that regard, I no longer did or would or whatever. I’d be talking to her, my ex when I took my niece home Sunday night. My. You even let me touch you, remember?" What are you bringing that up for?" Again Rose was quiet for several moments."Well, what if I help?" You're not fucking serious?" I couldn't believe what she was proposing. It hadn't even occured to me to ask her. I never thought of Rose in sexual terms, well, almost never. One time I had opened the door to her room without knocking and found her standing beside the bed. I apologized and started to close the door but she said it was okay and not to worry. He let out a roar and I knew he was spurtinginside her. My world seemed to recede in all directions, leaving mealone in an empty center, at the same time that I was still physicallyclose to my shuddering spouse and her lurching lover. Their passioncrested, slowed down, and leveled out. I felt something hot and wetdrip onto my bare genitals and knew it was his spunk, one more insult tomy battered self-image.She swore and told him he was incredible. He murmured jokingly that hecouldn't have. I stopped outside The Parents’ room and looked down at the knife in my hand. If either of them was awake and they saw me coming into the room with that, who knows what they would think. But I didn’t want to put it down. I wasn’t completely and totally sure that everything was okay. And until I was completely and totally sure, I wanted to hold onto the knife.I reversed the knife and gripped the handle so that the blade was hidden against my arm. Then I carefully opened the door and peered.