Hope, Ruthie and Felicity were given a verbal beating by Matt and Sarah. While the evidence was out on herbal cigarettes and birth defects, the doctors said it was better to err on the side of caution. However, there was no ambiguity when it came to alcohol. The women were warned not to do either again during their pregnancies or while nursing their babies. The women agreed.

With that said, the conference began. For four hours, the ministers, police officers, Tamara, and all the children - as well as the cops - bounced ideas on how effectively to reign in Arnold Thompson. Those who handled the finances said that time was of the essence, they only had seventy-two hours to pull it off or there would be a catastrophic run on the markets. Not to mention the possible terrorist attack. At the end of the meeting, Emily spoke up. She was holding hands with Heather.

"Man ... how did we ever get into this mess?" Emily said. "I was familiar with the concept of information overload, but this is ridiculous. I never dreamed I'd have a Dad again, and I'm so glad Patrick came into our lives, even if it was a whirlwind romance. But my sibs and I have learned more numbers, more intelligence, more bullshit, than anyone should ever learn in a lifetime. Sorry, Mom."

"It's okay, Emily," said Tamara. "Patrick and I feel we've pushed to the edge, too."

"I know Aunts Hope and Felicity have made a lot of enemies along the way, so I kind of expected our church would get some blow back. But not this much. Certainly I never thought Carrie would betray us the way she did - even if she is remorseful. I'm not sure we want to go through with this."

"How do you think the four of us feel, Emily?" said Heather, referring to herself, James and the Parkers' daughters.

"I understand, honey," said Tamara, "but we really need to stick together. And if you think you're the weakest link here, you're not. You, Chester and Kaitlyn have important parts to play. So do the other kids ... at least, the ones who can talk! You'll be fine. We all will."

"Tammy's right," agreed Hope. "This may be the worst thing we'll ever face, but we'll survive."

"Knock on wood," Emily said doubtfully.

As the meeting dispersed, Peter hung around. Ruthie and Hope were getting ready to leave, holding their hands as ever, but Peter spoke up.

"Hope, pal?" he said. "I need to talk to Ruthie about something. It's kind of private."

"Can you clue me in?" asked Hope.

"I'm not trying to take your wife back, if that's what you're thinking. But we need to be alone for this."

"Okay, Peter," agreed Ruthie. Turning to her wife, she said, "I'll be fine, Hope. I have something to say to him, too."

"All right, sweetheart," said Hope. She kissed her wife, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Peter and Ruthie looked around the huge conference room. In the middle was a large table. They agreed to take the chairs next to the head of table so they sat directly across from each other.

"Too much for you, honey?" asked Peter. He still loved his ex-wife, no matter how painful or abrupt their divorce had been.

"Are you kidding me?" replied Ruthie. "From the day I was reacquainted with Lisa Lumby, even before she and I fucked, I could only see the black in the tunnel. I still can't see the light."

There was a pause of ten seconds.

"Let me guess," she continued. "You wanted to ask me why I had sex with her. The real reason."

"Right," said Peter. "And I'm sure you want to know why and how I got into an online relationship with Felicity months before she and I really made love."

"Yes," said Ruthie, her voice shaking. "I'll let you go first. Let's not flip a coin here. You need to speak first, because you and Felicity created a baby the first time you had sex, and another just days later. I didn't get pregnant from doing another woman. So what you did is actually worse - no matter how much I love her, Isaac and Rebecca. And the one that's on the way, too."

Peter nodded. He asked for a minute to collect his thoughts. Then he began.

"Ruthie, to tell you the truth," he said, "I added Felicity as a friend to my Facebook more than a year before we started having cybersex. I was following her for quite some time before that, but after sending her a message saying I was a minister and I really liked her music and shared a lot of common ground with her, she accepted my friend request. However, to ensure 'plausible deniability', we used Jimmy Moon as the go-between to relay messages back and forth. We chatted about once a week. She barely mentioned about the fact she's an only child or how her parents died, just she was an independent woman and proud of it. But I told her all about you and our kids, and she said I was the luckiest guy in the world to have you."

"What else did you tell her?" asked Ruthie.

"That I hated televangelists as much as she did, and if there was anything you and I, Shel and Rod could do to help, we were all there for her."

"Did you flirt with each other?"

"Of course not! Well, not at first. I told her I was a married guy, several times. But then ... well, I'd say about, um, twenty-one months or so back, after another discussion about doctrine, she ended her IM with 'XOXOXO' - hugs and kisses. I was taken aback. I paused for a minute. Then I sent the same message back. That's when Jimmy backed off so she and I could talk one-on-one."

"Why did you reply that way?" asked Ruthie.

"Because," said Peter, "for the four or five months before that, you and I had been arguing about three times a week, usually in front of our kids. And you and I have to agree, our having sex was absolutely lousy! To be brief ... I actually thought I didn't love you anymore."

Ruthie sobbed. It took her a minute to stop crying.

"It's weird," she finally said. "I thought the same. Yes, our sex was pathetic. And yes, I actually started hating you, although I didn't want to say that in front of our kids. By the way, why did she send you that message?"

"She said that I was cute. She meant it as a compliment. She wasn't trying to seduce me, at least not right then."

"Why do I find it hard to believe that?"

"When we - you and I - started dating, we called each other honey and sweetheart all the time, even though we barely kissed. You said the same thing to the gals in the locker room at school. Didn't mean much."

"Peter, of course it did! I had boyfriends before but you were the first to treat me as an equal. I felt validated when you said that. You make it sound like it was all a lie!"

"I don't mean it in that way, Ruthie. It's just when you finally told me you loved me, after I got plastered and then grounded for that, that I realized I couldn't lose you. It was then I knew how much you meant to me. So every time I said it afterwards, it was the truth. And I knew I loved you. Even before we lost our virginity to each other at summer camp, I made up my mind to make you mine forever. And I thought it was going to be that way ... but I was looking for a free pass after a while. Finally, I thought I could give one to myself."

"When you had cybersex," said Ruthie, "what exactly did you say? You don't have to remember everything, just the broad outlines."

Peter decided to go into one of his and Felicity's chats. To Ruthie's shock, he admitted he used a vile word to discuss his girlfriend's private parts - how much he wanted to lick hers. And that it really turned Felicity on.

"You never, not once, used that term, even if it was in a loving way, with me!" screamed Ruthie. "If you had said you wanted to lick and get inside of me with your tongue with that word, I actually would have appreciated it. Yes, we did have oral sex and it was fantastic. I just wish you had ... you know."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Ruthie."

"So ... um, take me to when Felicity went into hiding. What happened then?"

"She and I had been having cybersex for three months, as you know. When she disappeared, or made it look like she had, I thought something really bad happened to her. So did a big chunk of the evangelical movement. Hope told me she was afraid to challenge her parents for fear something might happen to her too. For nearly two weeks, nothing ... even though I messaged Felicity every day, without the innuendo. All I said was, 'Felicity, I'm worried about you. Please tell me you're okay.' Finally, out of desperation, I actually phoned Jimmy Moon. For nearly a half-hour, he wouldn't answer my questions directly. Finally, I got fed up and snapped at him.

"'For God's fucking sake, Jimmy,' I said, 'is Felicity okay or not? And does she love me anymore?' I made it sound like she had dumped me and had fallen into his arms.

"'No, Peter, I am not fucking her,' he finally said. 'She's perfectly fine. She's holed up in a safe room in her manor on the edge of town, next to a nice sized forest. But she doesn't want to talk to anyone. Not even you. But yes, she does love you. She told me that.' It was the first time I heard the word 'love' in relation to her. Felicity had actually never said that to me online.

"'Do you know when she's emerging from seclusion?' I then asked.

"'In the next week or two. She told me she's working on one hell of a rebuttal to Harry Anderson. I've read a draft, and it's brilliant!'

"'Can I at least talk to her, Jimmy? I need to know her intentions about her and me.'

"'She'll be glad to hear from you, Peter, but any talk about sex of any kind is off limits. She made that very clear.'

"'What if she wants me to see her?'

"'Then I'll tell you the best way to get here. Back roads, so you aren't followed. But she's going to need some technical help to get back on the air. Are you a ham, by chance?'

"'Why?'

"'The local TV station won't have her on anymore. The manager is of the same mind as Harry.'

"I told Jimmy that you and I were finishing up getting our credentials, and that we had already procured the equipment for our own shortwave station."

"So let's be clear, Peter," Ruthie finally said. "You agreed to put her back on the air ... on the condition she and you stopped having cybersex. In fact, that she and you wouldn't even think about having sex, for real."

"Correct," confirmed Peter.

"Did you tell her, at any time, you and I were having issues in our marriage?"

"Not really ... well not specifics, just you and I argued all the time. I certainly didn't let her know when we had sex, or the last time we had it then stopped."

"Then why did you make love to me, before I left for Budapest?"

"I wanted to see if we still had something. Guess we didn't. Well, if there was an upshot ..."

"We made a brother and sister for James and Heather!" Ruthie smiled. "Jane and Randall. I'm so proud of them ... all of them. And I'm glad you're their father. You know I love you, just for that."

"And I'm glad you're our kids' mother. And I'll always love you."

"Okay, so here's the big question, Peter ... even though you and Felicity agreed not to talk about sex, why did you have it anyway?"

"Maybe the tension from all the weeks of cold turkey was just building up. When I finally fessed up you and I hadn't had sex for over three months, she just asked me, and I said yes. And ... it was absolutely incredible. I knew I was cheating on you ... but it was like it didn't matter. The only thing that soured it was when we realized we had unprotected sex."

"If you had brought the condoms with you ... would you have done so anyway?"

"I would have asked Felicity, not the other way around, and on the first day we were in the same room," admitted Peter. "At that moment, even though you and I had actually contemplated divorce for months, even written up preliminary papers, it wouldn't have mattered who asked first. We would still have done it. Which makes me ask this ... why did you give your engagement ring to her, if she and I did the worst possible thing to you and our kids?"

Ruthie sighed.

"If she wasn't pregnant, I would have beaten her up to a pulp," she said. "I really would have. But the fact she showed up on the very day we returned from our trips told me something had happened, and I was right. Rather than be mad, rather than lash out at her, I wanted to let her know I forgave her. Giving up the ring was the hardest thing I have ever done, believe me. But I knew she deserved it. And in the process, I gained a friend. I'm glad she is my friend. And that we're mothers together with the same sweet guy - you!"

"Thanks, honey," said Peter. "Your turn. When did you decide to cheat on me? And why?"

"When? Around the time you and Felicity started cybering. Why? I'll make this as short as I can. It wouldn't have mattered if it was with a man or a woman, because you already knew I was bisexual, before I came out as totally lesbian. When Lisa propositioned me, I freaked, but realized if I didn't let her do me, it might be another year or longer before I had the chance to do it with anyone. As it was, Hope came along and when she found out I agreed to marry Lisa and Brigitte, after years of being opposed to the idea of any same-sex marriage in a church, we had each other in the palms of each other ... and on each others' private parts!"

Peter laughed.

"We may not be married anymore, but I see her as my sister-in-law and I'm glad she's part of my life too. The two of you will be great mothers for your two children. And know this ... we may never have sex of any kind, ever again, but I do love you as well as Hope, and if you guys need help with anything, I'll always be there. You still love me, Ruthie? Do you mean that?"

"Of course, Peter. I'll say it again: I'll always love you, no matter what."

Ruthie and Peter shared a kiss - a purely platonic one, but on each others' lips nonetheless.

"So Peter," Ruthie said, "ready to take on this monster?"

"Yeah," said Peter. "But first, we need to get Samantha and Ashleigh the skankiest clothes we can find."

"I know which mall and store to go to," said Ruthie, laughing. "And ... for our sake as well as God's, I hope our plan works."

The exes left the conference room and walked down the hallway. They were met by Felicity and Hope. The four held each others' hands, hoping the worst was finally over.