What the Truth May Hold

James just nodded, but was a little shaky about it.

"Great," she said with a big smile. "Then let's go."

They followed Dave down the hallway until they got to room 7M. There, they could hear the couple in the room loud and clear from the other side of the door. From the noises they were making, they were definitely having sex.

"Already?" James asked. "They just got here."

"Good," said Brandi as she pulled out her phone and turned on the camera app. "We can catch them in the act, and I can record everything on my phone to get all the evidence we need."

Dave asked for more money before he opened the door for them, and Brandi handed it to him. But just before Dave was about to open the door, James stopped them.

"Wait, I can't do this," said James, backing away as he felt another panic attack happening. "I just can't do this."

"Don't go anywhere," Brandi told Dave.

Brandi went after James and stopped him from walking away.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "They're cheating on us. Don't you want to confront them?"

"I'm sorry, I know I seem like a total coward right now," he told her. "There's a chance we're wrong about this, and those are two different people. But if it is Amanda in there, I just don't know how to face her. We're talking about my wife, the woman I love. If it is her, I don't know how to handle any of this."

Brandi took a good look at him and realized she couldn't force this on him any longer.

"You know what? You don't have to join me on this," said Brandi. "I pushed you into this, thinking you deserved the truth as much as I did. But I can see how you're feeling about this, so you don't have to come with me if you don't want to."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she assured him. "And I don't think you're a coward; I think a lot of people would feel this way in your position. To be honest, I'm scared too. Part of me hopes you were right before and that I'm just a crazy, overly jealous wife. So, I'll fully understand if you want to leave now, and I won't judge you. But I still have to go in there for myself."

Brandi walked back to room 7M, and James followed her. He figured she shouldn't have to face them alone, and he should get over his fears and face what was behind that door.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked James.

"Not entirely, but I have to know."

Brandi had her phone's camera ready again, getting ready to record everything. James told Dave they were ready, and he used his master keycard to let them in. Dave walked away as Brandi and James quietly entered the room. The couple they followed were naked under the blanket, with the man on top of the woman, fucking her hard.

"You bastard!" Brandi yelled at him while holding her camera up and recording everything.

This startled the couple, with the man covering the woman with his body in a protective measure. He looked at the people who entered his room and was surprised by what he was seeing.

"Brandi, what the hell are you doing here?" Pete yelled at her.

"Catching you in the act, fucking this man's wife," she said referring to James.

The woman she was referring to was behind Pete, who had her head buried in her pillow the whole time, sobbing uncontrollably.

"How did you know we were... oh shit, you hacked my email again, didn't you?"

"Of course, I did. Seriously, you should learn better cyber security by now."

James took a couple steps toward the crying woman on the other side of the bed.

"How can you do this to us?" James asked.

"Oh my God, I'm so, so sorry!" She said this while crying into her pillow. "I didn't know what I was thinking. Please forgive me."

"I think you did know what you were doing this whole time, Amanda," said James. "You're obviously don't care enough about our marriage if you're having fun with this asshole."

"Oh, Mike, I'm so sorry. Please forgive--" the woman stopped and slightly lifted her head up from the pillow. "Wait, did you say Amanda?"

"Who is Mike?" James asked.

The woman turned over on the bed while still covering herself with the blanket. Both she and James gave each other a long look.

"Who the fuck are you?" James asked.

"That's not Amanda?" Brandi asked.

"My name is Julie," said the woman, still crying but not as much as she was before. "I thought you were my husband. Wait, are you talking about Amanda from work?"

"Stay quiet, Julie," said Pete. "Amanda has nothing to do with this. Now, please, both of you get the hell out of our room."

James realized Brandi was only half correct. Pete was cheating on Brandi with another married woman from their office, but it was not Amanda. Julie had similar hair and body type as Amanda, which led James to believe she resembled Amanda from behind. As for the clothes, now he's theorizing they were a general style of professional clothing for women, and he just thought it looked like what his wife was wearing that morning.

James felt a great sense of relief from this revelation but felt bad for Brandi, who now had proof Pete was cheating on her.

"I'm sorry, Brandi," he said to her. "At least you now have proof your husband is cheating on you."

"Would you please put down your phone?" Pete yelled at Brandi.

Brandi was still recording the couple in bed.

"I'll put my phone away when your slut over there puts down her phone."

Nobody noticed that Julie got hold of her phone and was typing away.

"Who are you texting?" Pete asked Julie.

Julie showed him her phone, and suddenly Pete looked scared.

"Ok, everybody needs to leave now," Pete yelled.

Pete got out of bed and began to put his clothes back on, not caring that Brandi was now recording him naked. All the while, Julie was still on her phone, this time trying to make a phone call.

"I can't get through to--"

"Shut the fuck up, Julie!" Pete yelled at her. "Everybody else, get the fuck out of here!"

"I'm not going anywhere," said Brandi.

"But I am," said James, making his way back to the door. "I'm sorry to leave you like this, but I only got involved because you convinced me that Pete was sleeping with Amanda. Now I feel guilty for ever thinking my wife would ever do such a thing."

"I'm sorry I got you into this mess," said Brandi. "I really thought it was Amanda. But I'm happy for you that it wasn't her."

"Thank you," said James as he opened the door. "Goodbye Brandi. I hope things turn out better for you."

James left the room, closing the door behind him. He heard a big argument break out between Peta and Brandi. Even all the way down the hallway by the elevator, he could still hear them arguing. When he got on the elevator and the door closed, much to his relief, he stopped hearing them. He took out his phone to send a text to Amanda.

...

After James had left, Brandi finally put her phone away, giving Julie the chance to get out of bed without being recorded naked. She saw Pete grab Brandi's phone and attempted to access it to get rid of the recordings she made, but to no avail. But Brandi laughed and said even if he could break into her phone, he couldn't access the cloud, where she had everything stored automatically. Further showing how much better Brandi was compared to Pete when it came to cyber security methods.

Julie only put her underwear on before she ran into the bathroom with her phone. The door only slightly muffled the sound of Pete and Brandi arguing, which she hoped was enough to make her phone call without any interruptions.

She tried to make her call again, and this time it looked like her phone was making a connection.

"Please pick up. Please, pick up," she said over and over again.

"Hello," said a voice on the phone.

"Oh, Amanda, thank God it's you," said Julie.

"Yeah, sorry I was late. Something came up last minute at work."

"I've been trying to call and text you."

"I was driving," said Amanda. "My phone is set to the do not disturb setting when it detects that I'm on the road. I can accept calls and texts now because I just parked at the hotel. I now see all the texts and calls you were sending me. What's going on?"

Julie told her everything that had just happened, putting Amanda into panic mode.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," said Amanda. "This is not good."

"Listen to me, Amanda," Julie began to say. "It's too late for me; my husband will soon find out about me and Pete, and he'll divorce me for sure. But we covered for you; James doesn't know you're involved with either of us. He thinks your part in all of this is just a misunderstanding because Brandi is a crazy bitch."

"Apparently she's not that crazy if she's got most of it figured out," said Amanda.

"I'm sorry, babe, but it's all over."

"I'm going to miss being with you most, Julie," said Amanda sadly.

"I'm going to miss being with you too," said Julie. "Maybe when this is all over, you and I can get together, just the two of us. But for now, you need to save yourself."

They said their goodbyes and hung up.

...

Amanda felt like crying. Not only because she wasn't going to be with Julie for a long time, if ever, but also because her husband might find out about her affairs and she might lose him as well. Julie assured her that James no longer believes she was involved with Pete in any way. But even still, if she isn't careful, something will slip up and it will be revealed that she was cheating on him.

She got a text notification and read it.

James: "I'm on my way home now. Do you want to order a pizza for dinner?"

Amanda wasn't sure why he would text her about this after everything he had just been through, but she decided to respond right away.

Amanda: "Sounds great. It's been a long time since we've had pizza. Let's rent a movie too."

James: "Great idea. No Rom Com's though, I feel like I had enough drama for today."

Amanda saw this as a good sign. After everything he just went through, he wanted to spend some time with his wife with a pizza and a movie.

Amanda: "Anything you want, sweetie. I picked the last movie anyway, so you can decide this time."

James: "Thank you" with a smiling emoji.

Amanda: "By the way, things have changed. I'll be leaving to go home soon. Driving in a minute, so you can't text me."

James: Wonderful. I'll see you soon. I love you." followed by a kissy face emoji.

Amanda: "Love you too." she replied also with a kissy face emoji.

She drove away from the hotel. She didn't notice it, but James had just left the front entrance of the hotel just as she left the parking lot.

She was looking forward to spending time with James. To make him happy, she decided that after their movie, she'd wear that special piece of lingerie he loves seeing her in.

She realizes she's not only a terrible wife but a terrible person in general for what she's been doing. But despite everything, she still loved James and was willing to do what it took to keep him.