Chapter 6 - The experiment

    

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Mary was not in the mood to go out anywhere but she knew she had no choice and she couldn't let Peter know that she was in any way suspicious of him. 

"Let me just dress properly, then we can go and watch a movie or something."

"That sounds exciting. We haven't been to a movie in ages. Anything specific you want to see? "

"I don't mind..you choose.." Mary said halfheartedly as she disappeared in the bathroom.  

She was really not in the mood to go out, but for her own sanity she had to play along.  If she had to stay at the hotel she might just go out of her mind. At least if she goes with, she can keep an eye on Peter. She didn't trust him anymore, and that hurt more than she would admit.  

She tied her hair in a ponytail and put on a light jersey. She did not even bother to put on any make-up and honestly didn't care what she looked like. The one person she cared about was busy betraying her and she had no idea what to do about it. 

Peter chose a comedy and even though she didn't enjoy comedies, the laughter took her mind off things. She felt a little better after the movie and felt even better when they ran into old friends outside. They all went for a few drinks and she was utterly relieved that she didn't have to talk to Peter the whole night. Peter had way too much to drink.  It was after two when they arrived back at the hotel and they went straight to bed. 

Peter fell asleep within minutes but Mary couldn't.  She rolled around and couldn't get her mind of the whole episode that took place the previous afternoon. She had to find out what they were up to, but she did not have a clue how and where to start.  She took two pain killers, and hoped that it would help her sleep, but an hour later she was still awake. Numerous questions rushed through her mind and she just wished that she had the answers.

She realized that she was not going to sleep, and got up to pour herself some water. Then she remembered about his laptop. She didn't want to make any noise and took the laptop to the bathroom with her. She locked the door just in case, then closed the toilet lid and sat down to open the laptop. If there was anything suspicious to find here, she was determined to find it. 

For the next hour, she tried every single password she could think of, and was so frustrated that she felt as if she could throw the laptop against the wall. Then finally... she unlocked his computer.  

"Not so clever now Peter are you?" she thought to herself and immediately started searching.  She started off with his emails and couldn't find anything interesting or suspicious. She searched through every folder and eventually found what she was looking for. 

The folder contained his backup emails and it started from when they recruited him for his current job.  

Perhaps meeting each other in the cafeteria after so long, was not incidental....how could she have been so stupid to fall for this?  Peter was not interested in her, he was only interested in her research! 

She felt like her head was going to explode and she knew that she had to get out of there.   

To be continued