cannibal; kendall roy

The After: 1

FIVE YEARS POST WAYSTAR SELLING TO GOJO.

Kendall Roy is a stoic man these days. You don't hear much about him in the press. Maybe the paparazzi will catch him at dinner with Stewy Hosseini. Or walking around New York City. Waiting for his car. Walking into the gym. You won't catch him walking with his children, unless it's a short trip to a sweets shop. You wouldn't catch him taking his wife to dinner. Unless it's their anniversary. Kendall Roy, is not like the man who's photos of the past forty years of his life have been so heavily documented. He's forty five now. He doesn't sing. He doesn't run a company.

He plays with fountain pens, reads the paper, and watches the television. He let his hair go silver, and diligently fucks his wife. He gets her pregnant. Again. Five years after she gave birth to another man's spawn. But, she's his daughter. Marianne, is his daughter, and called a Roy. Even though—it is not his sperm that made her. And the world knows it. That child is not his, and he pretends day in and day out, that she is. The child won't ever get the blame, no—he saves that for Marguerite, on the days that he fucks her, or when he finally boils over. Usually when his coffee is wrong. Or his laundry isn't done.

She does menial tasks these days. Stupid items to keep their house clean. They're billionaires. Filthy, fucking rich. But they punish one another. His wife lives without "the help", and Kendall suffers in his solitude. They're punishing one another for crimes the other so heavily committed. Part of him likes it—watching her wander after his messes, his coffee cups, his dishes, his dirt and grime. It's almost a fuck you for doing this to me. As if she was the sole reason, the only reason, he had ended up where he was.

She watches him be bored. His intellectual rotting over crossword puzzles, and drinks with Stewy. She watches him linger over Stewy's business adventures—saying no to every proposition, because of her—and drooling, whenever Waystar is brought up into the conversation. He practically salivates, or pretends not to even care. But oh, he does. Kendall Roy is bored. He cannot challenge himself, and is scared of hurting his children. He detaches from them. He grows cold and lifeless with them. He entertains himself with nothing these days.

But this is what the couple aligned and agreed to, five years ago—when Kendall Roy had returned home. They agreed to it all. They couldn't sleep with anyone else. They couldn't date or see, anyone else. They after all, were punishing one another. Kendall couldn't work, or be involved with any projects—that had been her clause. Marguerite was in charge of all household tasks, and primarily in control of all childcare—had been his. They couldn't go out with friends without asking the other. So on, so forth.

It had gotten tedious too.

Silly, even.

Kendall wanted her hair to be brown. She wanted his to be silver. Fine, done.

Their "marriage contract" was somewhat of an urban legend to the people who had once known Marguerite and Kendall Roy. Plenty of which, had never seen the pair getting back together. In fact, divorce had seemed like the only viable option for the pair. But they hadn't.
When their daughter was born, and it become fairly obvious who the father had been, everyone had though divorce would be inevitable.

They didn't.

Kendall would just grimace at the few public events they attended, and fight with his wife later. Marguerite didn't particularly care. Until Kendall requested they "even it out". Sure. They had already been sleeping together. They both had urges. They still found the other attractive. But it was mainly obligatory. And then—five years later, five years after their marriage contract, and everything else, she'd become pregnant again. Evening it out.

Their son was in Kindergarten. Their daughter was still a toddler. Young children. Playful, and loud children. Kids who liked to run and play—but quickly, knew the lay of the land. Daddy doesn't want to play. Keep quiet when Daddy is watching television. Don't go into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom. Don't go into Daddy's study without knocking. Mommy will play with you if you ask. Please don't bother Daddy. Don't take his newspaper. For the most part, they listened. And when they didn't, they learned to. Either through Kendall and Marguerite fighting. Or, Kendall ignoring his children, or blowing a fuse. Which would then cause the first option to happen. Marguerite would blow a fuse at him.