Grand performance

Laila was still sitting in the living room with Jake and she had just begun with her grief stricken and heartbroken role as the pregnant wife who had just found out her husband had cheated on her. She started with a nod in response to Jake's questions and followed it with some sobbing sounds. This of course caused Jake to immediately jump into comfort mode. "Did he confirm it?! He is such a bastard! I knew he couldn't be trusted. Always claiming to be your friend. Pretending to be better than everyone. All the while he was the worst of the worst. Cheating on his pregnant wife. Who does such a thing?!? What did he say when you asked him? Did you show him the pictures?"

Since Laila had always wanted to do theatre and had spent very little time on stage, she was now able to use all her hard work and practice for this grand performance. She had used her time turned away from him to muster up some actual tears to match the sobbing sounds she had made before, and now made a dramatic turn towards Jake. Facing him with reddened eyes and looking like she was on the verge of crying even more tears.

With quivering lips and a broken voice Laila said, "After you left I called him. I asked him where he had been the evening before and who he had been with. He just said that he had been at the office until late and had been with no one. When I told him that you had visited me and had shown me pictures. That you had told me all about where he had been and who he had been with. But then, instead of explaining his actions, he got angry at me for talking to you. Asking me how I can believe anything an ex tells me."

Jake was either genuinely believing Laila's words or he wanted to believe them so badly that he did, since he wanted to see Noah as a villain. Either way, he was fully going along with Laila's words. "That jerk! How dare he try and turn things around on you. He knows damn well that he is in the wrong but since he has no way of defending himself, he tries to push the blame on you. We call that type of toxic behaviour gaslighting. Don't fall for it. You are fully in the right here."

"Thank you! I didn't know there was a word for it (*lie*) but I did feel that what he was doing wasn't right. He kept going too. Saying all kinds of things like, that I should be trusting him over you. That he should be the one questioning my fidelity for inviting you into the house while he is away at work. Asking me how many times you have visited me without him knowing and all kinds of awful accusations. Can you believe it? To think you know a person, only for them to turn around and act like this."

Laila of course knew full well about gaslighting as it was what he himself had done to her many times when she was married to him. But she had been blind to it then. Only after she had woken up from her rose coloured dream did she begin to see his true nature. But now it was helping her in her act to fool him, which just goes to show that all struggles and hardships serve a purpose.

While Laila was thinking about her married life with Jake, he was happily participating in painting a bad picture of Noah. Going along with all the negative things Laila had to say and adding to them with his own. Feeling like the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived. "I can certainly believe it. He has always been a person like this. A two-faced person. You were just too close to him to realize. Everyone that stood at even the slightest distance could see that he was far from the good person he was trying to show himself as. I am just glad that your eyes have now been opened to his true nature as well. But I am sorry that it had to happen in this way. You don't deserve to be treated in this way. You were far too good for him then and you are far too good for him now. He just doesn't realize it yet."

Through her sobs Laila said, "Well, you might be able to but I can't believe it. He was always so loving to me. This came as such a surprise. Such a big act of betrayal. And to top it all off? He didn't even come home last night. God knows where he went. To be betrayed by my best friend and husband all on the same night. How will I recover from this? What will I do from here on out? I quit my job. I have no money of my own. All our assets are combined and Noah has always been the one in charge of the finances. I can't believe I trusted him so blindly. How could I have been so stupid. Now I have myself backed into a corner with no way to provide for myself or my son." This is when Laila grabbed hold of Jake's arms before throwing herself in them. Burying her face in the all too familiar chest in order to get his phone away from him and complete her part of the mission.