Chapter 5 - The experiment

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The alarm clock went off just after four o clock. Mary wanted to sleep some more but then remembered about their trip. She woke Peter and jumped in the shower. They had to be at the airport at five and both of them were  ready to go at four thirty.  The shuttle arrived just as they stepped outside the apartment building and within minutes they were off on their way to the airport. 

Their flight was delayed with half an hour so they had a chance to grab some coffee. While the two of them were having coffee, Peter told her how excited he was. They both loved New York, and it was their ultimate dream to move there one day. It was perhaps not the best place to raise kids, but despite the crowds and costs of living, New York had the best theaters, museums and parks, and they both loved the hustle and bustle.

The three hour flight was uneventful and it felt like they were coming home when they stepped out the plane. They took a taxi to their hotel and after packing out their clothes they decided to go down to the swimming pool to relax. They stopped at the hotel shop to buy some suntan lotion and once they were at the pool Peter ordered drinks. It was a little early during the day to start drinking but she didn't protest. This was their weekend, and they had a lot of time to make up for.  

After a few hours in the sun, they went for lunch at the hotel. Mary decided to go take a nap afterwards but Peter wanted to go back to the pool. He was going to take full advantage of this weekend and there was nothing to stop him. Peter walked with Mary to the elevator and kissed her before returning to the pool. Mary was about to step into the elevator when her eye caught a man standing at the front desk. He looked extremely familiar but she could not place him, but she knew that she had seen him somewhere before.  

Instead of going upstairs she quickly went into the hotel shop so that she could keep an eye on him. She grabbed a magazine and kept it in front of her face so that nobody would recognize her. It looked like he was waiting for someone and when she turned around she saw Peter walking back from the swimming pool. 

"Perhaps he changed his mind and he also wanted to take a nap..." she thought, but to her amazement Peter walked past the elevators and walked straight to the man at the front desk. She was stunned when Peter followed the man to the lounge. She immediately wanted to go and confront them, but decided against it. She knew that Peter had been lying to her, but she did not want to make him suspicious of her. She reluctantly slipped out of the shop and made sure that they did not see her enter the elevator.  

Once in the room she immediately went through Peter's bags to see if she could find some type of clue as to why this man was even having a conversation with Peter. She couldn't find anything suspicious in his bag, and then looked through his laptop bag. It was weird in the first place that he even brought his laptop with as they were supposed to relax, but when she opened his laptop bag she knew exactly why he brought it with. She was totally shattered to find most of her research printed and in an envelope hidden in the back. 

She was so disappointed in Peter. Has this all been a scam from the beginning...what was he doing with her research and is he the reason why her experiment never worked out?  How was she supposed to spend a weekend with someone that she thought loved her, but he was not being truthful.  He had a lot of explaining to do.  

She took her research out and carefully hid it in her bag. She was not going to say a word when he came back and she wondered what he was going to say. Perhaps she was imagining things but that meeting did not look innocent to her at all. He definitely had some explaining to do and she was waiting anxiously for him to come back.

She felt totally disgusted in Peter and literally all she wanted to do was to leave and never look back. How could she ever trust him again?

She poured herself a stiff drink to try and calm down, and knew that she had to find out exactly what was going on. When Peter finally came back to the room, she was sitting on the edge of the bed. 

"Hey baby did you have a good nap?"

She realized that she could not ask him directly and just nodded.  "Did you have a good time at the pool?"

"I loved it... I'm just sorry you couldn't join me...I'm going to take a quick shower then we can go and have some fun somewhere else. 

He did not say one word about his meeting and Mary felt upset about his secrecy. Peter was definitely betraying her in some way and she couldn't prove anything. He left his phone on the bedside table and when he stepped into the bathroom she quickly grabbed his phone to search his texts. It seemed like he cleared his message history and Mary knew that she had no other choice but to play along with his little game.   

To be continued