Finally one day, my stepmom, Donna, laiddown the law: I would follow her rules to the letter or I would be placed "inthe system," kicked out. She expl...ined to me that she was my only family andI'd lose it if I disobeyed her one more time. She announced that I would beundergoing an "attitude adjustment".First, she announced that I was being withdrawn from school and would become afulltime housekeeper for her. She also noted that I would be sleeping in herbed with her so she could keep me under. He was horrified at the very thought of what the man had just told him, but unable to discount the truth of it. Pietor had come to trust the man's careful devotion to his work, his habits of double- and triple-checking every scrap of information before accepting it as true, and the man's unswerving dedication and loyalty to their cause.Still, what he'd just heard was absolutely fantastic and almost impossible to believe."Please! Give me a moment to absorb the implications! My mind is screaming. It only means you are able to forgive the imperfections more easily. Being married for ten years meant that we did know just about all there was to know about one another, though we were foolish to believe that neither of us had secrets kept hidden, no skeletons in the closet. We hid them well from each other, though i will give Steve the bigger credit in our story. Understand that it was my secret, my dreams, that began the demise of our marriage, but ultimatly it was he who destroyed it. He. He called out to Carlos as he slipped into the bathroom locking the doorbehind. While Frankie took a shower, he thought about last night and hisfantasies of Alex.Scrubbing himself with body wash and a sponge, Frankie wondered abouthimself. Was it Helen's mysterious unavailability or was it his newfoundattraction for the older man that was pushing his buttons? He hadn'tbothered to call Helen this morning intending to get some space betweenhis jealousy and reality. Maybe she'd call him. Maybe.