A man and a woman

After hearing Jake's words, Laila replied by saying, "How do you know that they aren't just friends or that it was a business meeting? I do believe that in the past you have claimed that plenty of women you were caught with were just your friends."

While Maria was loving Laila's comeback, holding back her laughter as she was saying in a hushed tone, "Nice girl! Shove that right back into his face.", Jake was a bit taken aback and looking for the right words. He knew he wasn't on great terms with Laila at the moment but he had hoped that hearing about Noah's cheating, would cause a different reaction in her than more animosity towards him. But he regrouped and said in a calm voice, "I am not claiming that I was or have ever been perfect. I am just saying that what he is doing isn't right and I think that should be our focus. As for your question, I very much doubt them being friends or business partners of any kind, since the woman was all over your husband. She was touching his arm, grabbing his hand and she was making googly eyes at him. If that sounds like a meeting between friends to you, then I guess I never knew what friendship between a man and a woman was."

Laila didn't like hearing these details of the evening. Though she of course knew that he and Olivia had gone for dinner and in a way she had assumed that Olivia would try something if she was alone with him, hearing it still felt bad. Now her mind had details to paint a picture with and her mind was running amuck with it. She could see Olivia's teethy grin, her fake, perfectly polished nails running over Noah's hand as he tries to hide his discomfort, her leg grazing his under the table. The idea alone was making her feel more queasy than any moment during her pregnancy. But she refused to show it on her face.

With a balled fist, her nails digging into her skin to hide her anger and the back of her hand turning white, Laila put on a forced smirk as she said, "There is no argument from me there. You indeed never knew what a friendship between a man and a woman was. But regardless of that, if I do believe that anything you are saying is true, which I don't by the way, do you have any proof to support your claim? Or can I just jot this down as just another rumour from the rumour mill? After all, it was you who always said that without actual proof, it was nothing more than jealous people trying to break what they can't have. So, you must have come here prepared to give him the same courtesy, right?"

But to both her and Maria's surprise, Jake had indeed come prepared. Though they didn't understand how he had gotten his hands on such evidence of an evening he didn't know anything about until a few hours ago, Jake pulled out multiple pictures of Olivia with Noah. Though he had blurred Olivia's face a bit, Noah was in frame clear as day. He had pictures of him helping Olivia out of the car, of them walking into the restaurant with Olivia's hand in the crease of Noah's elbow, them sitting at a romantically lit table, of Olivia's grubby paws on Noah's arm, hands and on one occasion even his leg. Laila didn't know where to look, she was flipping between the pictures and her eyes had grown wide from shock. Her heart was beating like crazy and she was not liking what she was seeing at all.

Now that her mask had been cracked, Jake could see how affected Laila was by his revelation and he tried to hid his smile. Though it was bad for Laila that she was this upset over the matter for a second day, it was great for their plan as it added to the credibility of the situation. She looked just like you would expect a wife to look after finding out that your husband is probably cheating on you.

Jake tried to see how Laila was doing. Though his questions did not sound genuine after the words he had said before but he asked the questions any sane person would ask in a situation like this. "Are you alright? I know this is a lot to take in but I felt like you should know. There was no easy way for me to say it but the sooner you hear about it, the better. That is why I came so early. I was waiting by your house and came as soon as I saw him leave for work. I wanted you to have some time to process. At least now you can think of what you want to do and prepare for what to say when he gets back from work."

Laila didn't look at Jake and she was silent as she stared at the pictures with tears forming in her eyes. After a few seconds of silence she said, "I think it is best that you leave now. I appreciate you coming out here to tell me this but as you said, I need to think of what I am going to do and say to Noah when he gets back. I didn't want to believe that what you said was true but now that I have been given evidence of his infidelity, I have to sort my mind."

Jake was stammering a bit as he said, "Uh, yeah, uhm, of course. I'll leave you to it. Take your time and just know that I am here for you if you need me. I still have the same number as I did back in high school. So, feel free to reach out to me or you can come over to the hotel where I am staying. I'll be here for at least a week. Whenever you need me, whenever you are ready to talk about this, let me know." Laila didn't respond and just let Garry walk Jake to the door.