Mafia Desire (Erotica)

Ben frowned looking down at his big hands. He looked up at the two women who were leaning towards him with concern plain on their faces. He came to a decision. “May I show you something?” he asked quietly. They nodded. He got up and walked out of the room gesturing for them to follow. He walked downstairs and the two women stayed close. He stopped at a closed door and looked back. They saw he was struggling with something.

“This is my inner sanctum if you will. This is where I spent the years after I resurfaced from losing Wendy. After Gabriella brought me home from the hospital. I haven’t shown anyone this room.

Cat and Gabriella were both very curious and just a little apprehensive.

Ben punched in a code on a panel they couldn’t see and the lock clicked open. He pushed into the dark room and the lights came on automatically. The room was enormous and Gabriella realized it had to extend out under the backyard. There was some kind of machine shop at the far end of the room and dominating the foreground was a huge drafting table surrounded by smaller tables with papers and tools stacked upon them. Neatly organized clutter.Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

Along one wall was a series of lit display cases. Inside were objects of different sizes and shapes. Nothing was recognizable but thankfully nothing looked in the least sinister. Gabriella and Catherine both took a deep breath and they grinned because they realized they’d both been holding their breath.

Ben walked over to the first display case. Inside was a small silver valve.

“Before I left University I designed and patented this valve. Far more efficient and safe for use in nuclear power installations. I sold the patent for 4 million dollars and invested it well. I could have lived off that but for my master life plan I wanted a home, a wife, and a big family.” Ben moved over to the next display. “This was a new type of insulator which greatly reduces electric current harmonics. I sold the patent for 10 million. I invested that too.”

He turned back to the two women. “I had my nest egg. I needed the home, wife and family.” He gestured to the house. “I got one out of three. Wendy was sterile and I was pretty close to being sterile myself. No kids. She didn’t take it well. I reminded her that she would never have kids. She left me for someone who could make her happy.” He winced and turned away, tears coming to his eyes. Catherine reached out but Gabriella caught her hand as she knew Ben still needed to get through his story. “You know the next five years of my story. Drunk and good for nothing much else. I’d lost all purpose. My master life plan disappeared like the smoke it was made of. Nothing proves how stupid making plans can be like a smack in the face by life. Then the day of the pedophile. A child on MY street! One of MY neighbor’s children being abducted. I couldn’t let that happen. When I had his neck in my hands I looked at you and Miriam and I thought of the grief and pain he was going to cause you both when he went to trial and I couldn’t let that happen. I was so angry. Then he was dead. I killed him. It wasn’t an accident. It was murder. At that moment I realized how low I was willing to go. What kind of person I really was. It didn’t matter what happened to me after that. For all my careful planning I hadn’t amounted to anything in the long run but if I could protect just this one child it somehow it felt like maybe, just maybe it made up for everything.”

Ben looked at Gabriella with tears in his eyes. “I had three bullets in me and that wasn’t enough to end me. As a cosmic joke one of them deflected off a bone and finished the job of neutering me. A bullet vasectomy. Take that for the ironic twist it is. A monster who destroys children’s lives ensuring his killer can’t bring any children of his own into the world.” Ben shook his head and started to move a little further down the wall of display cases. Gabriella and Catherine followed with tears of their own in their eyes.

“When I got home I just went into automatic pilot. I fell into a routine of working out and spending time in this room. I’d find an issue someone reported on the Engineering forums and I’d come up with a solution. I’d patent the design and license it out to some manufacturing plant to provide the actual physical products. Sometimes I’d just sell the patent and invest the money. Lately I’ve done a few just for fun. Once I solved a Mexican Electrical Power Station technician’s issue and I emailed him the solution anonymously saying it was his to do with as he chose. He made a fortune and it benefited his home town immensely. Spreading the wealth.”

The women looked at the display cases and realized there were maybe fifty of so little devices each representing a small fortune if what Ben was telling them was accurate. They believed him.

“Money, I have. What I lack is purpose. My parent’s died when I was young so I wasn’t born to take care of them. I have no brothers, sister, or even cousins to love and support. I can’t produce children of my own to carry on the family name. I’m a genetic dead end and my family tree ends with me. Obviously I’m not here to make a wife happy. What do I have? I can engineer and invent solutions and generate money but money is useless without a purpose too.” Ben’s tears were flowing freely but he didn’t appear to be aware of them.

“Tina is young. Young enough to be my daughter had I been so fortunate. But her life was given a bad start. I can help her get her life back on track. It’s only money. I don’t care about that. It’s far more important to me that she not waste that brilliant mind of hers. She needs to get her life back and I can help her so I will. That gives my life just a little purpose.”

“I love this neighborhood. I don’t socialize with everyone but there are people in it who are like parts of the family I never had. I want to protect that. If I can keep a member of that family close by using some of my money to buy her house and provide her with a place to live in it, I’m going to do it. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. Like maybe, just maybe I’m worth something.”

The women couldn’t take any more so they rushed to his side and grabbed Ben in a fierce hug. The three stood there in his office crying and holding each other. Finally he pulled away and led them from the room. He locked it up tight and led them back to the living room.

“Like I told Tina, I don’t like secrets. So I’m not going to ask you to keep what I’ve told you a secret but I’d really appreciate it if you could use discretion in who you share it with and avoid talking about it if you can. Hannah is the only other one I’ve shared with and she’s only heard some of it. You two are… special to me.” Ben said looking down at his clenched hands in his lap.