The mistake of Jack - Chapter 7 - FICTION

All kinds of emotions ran through Miranda’s heart. She was surprised, shocked, horrified and mostly confused. This isn’t something a spouse wants to hear, especially if it sounds so suspicious. A million thoughts came to her at once. Don’t go where? Go as in away or go as in leave for good? Cindy who? She knew three Cindy’s. Why would he want Cindy not to go somewhere? What is he dreaming about and what the hell is going on in this dream of his? Is it really just a dream or is it something going on in his subconscious mind?

For a while Miranda was thinking of ways to deal with this. She started to doubt whether she heard wrong or not and tried to think of different scenarios which he could have been dreaming of. It made her feel uncomfortable thinking about things she should probably not be worried about. People can’t help what they dream about, can they? It was the way Jack said it that bothered her most. She's a jealous wife and can’t stand it when Jack looks or speaks to other women. He's an attractive man and she has always been a bit jealous when other women give a little too much attention to Jack.

Miranda stood up and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. For the last twenty minutes or so she lay awake, just to hear if Jack said anything else. She wasn't even sleepy any more. Cook! that’s what she should do now! Cooking is what she does best and it always helps her to think and focus. She hasn’t been to the grocery store for the last couple of days so she looked around in the kitchen cupboards to see what ingredients she has. She decided to bake some muffins. Jack isn’t really crazy about muffins but to hell with Jack! Muffins it is!

She made the mixture, filled the muffin cups, placed it in the oven and set the clock for twenty-five minutes. There! That feels better, she thinks. She made herself another cup of tea and sat down at the kitchen table to wait for the muffins to be done. She hasn’t spoken to her sister Audrey since their conversation at the hospital. Audrey always knew what to say, and although they were sisters they were also best friends. She knew that Audrey would already be sleeping but she decided to send her a message anyways so that she could read it the next morning.

She typed:

“Sorry for being so quiet today. Was a long day. You up for coffee tomorrow? Let me know! xxx”

Miranda sat staring at the oven. She was thinking about absolutely nothing and was startled by the noise of the oven timer. She took the muffin trays out of the oven and screamed as she burned herself against the oven door. What is wrong with me? she thought. She is never clumsy like that. The last time when she felt this way was when she found out Jack had been cheating on her with their previous neighbor just after she had the miscarriage. Is that what this is all about? she wondered. Perhaps that was the reason why she felt so strongly about him hiding things and acting all weird. No! Jack would never do that again. He promised!

Curiosity got the better of her and she decided to find out for herself what was going on. She might not be able to find out what she was looking for but she felt that she had to try. Quietly, she removed the little key chain flashlight from her car keys and sneaked to the main bedroom where Jack lay fast asleep. She tiptoed around the bed and started to look around his bedside table for his cellphone. It wasn’t there but she could see the charger’s cord going into the drawer. Slowly she opened the drawer, trying to do it as quietly as possible. The small blue light flickering from the phone helped her to find it faster. She picked up the phone, removed the cable and sneaked out of the room, hiding the phone inside her pajama top.

After switching the phone on, she felt very disappointed with herself for having to go through her husband’s phone because of a hunch. She should be able to trust him without sneaking around and invading his privacy like that but the thought passed quickly as she scrolled through his messages. Nothing out of the ordinary came up so she moved on to the picture gallery. With each photo that she scrolled by, she reminded herself of her wrongdoing. There were many pictures that they took at the zoo the other day and lots of all the cars that he loved at the rally. She decided to stop this nonsense and to return the phone as she was just being silly, but as she pressed the button to go back, a picture caught her eye. This was a totally different album, definitely renamed and it was marked "work". Why would anyone want to store work documents on their phone?

When she opened the folder, she knew exactly what he had been hiding from her.

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Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-1-fiction
Chapter 2: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-2-fiction
Chapter 3: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-3-fiction
Chapter 4: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-4-fiction
Chapter 5: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-5-fiction
Chapter 6: https://steemit.com/fiction/@bdmomuae/the-mistake-of-jack-chapter-6-fiction