Pictures Never Lie: a Love Story

More than a few of you have asked me why I turned off the feedback. I am trying to think through how two people in a heretofore loving marriage would deal with infidelity. And frankly there are just too many trolls out there whose ONLY solution is a burlap bag and a deep hole. To those who can't accept that two good people might want to work together to rescue something important to both of them, please don't bother reading this. And to those of you who see things that I don't see in my stuff, please remember that like Sigmund Freud's cigar, sometimes a story is just a story. For the rest of you, thanks for following me and e-mails are always appreciated.

~

Murphy had disappeared and Janet was still hissing and spitting like an angry cat. The situation had developed so fast that I hadn't really grasped what had happened. But I WAS sure of one thing. My former protégé was involved up to his treacherous eyeballs.

I could tell from his reaction that Murphy was the one who had done the photoshopping. I could also deduce that Janet was the target.

My voluptuous little wife is a very attractive woman. So it is understandable when the occasional strange male will hit on her. But Murphy was a trusted friend and colleague.

The level of THAT betrayal was excruciating.

Because of her striking physical beauty, Janet has had to learn how to fend off men. She has been doing that since her early teen years. I have seen her in action and her finely honed skills are the reason why I have never had the slightest reason to doubt her fidelity.

But it was obvious from the torrent of emotion pouring out of her that, something very bad had happened. And it involved Murphy. I wanted to get to the bottom of it.

I was still holding Janet by her waist, just above where her hips flared out into that firm delectable ass. I turned her around, made her look up at me, and said, "Let's do what we have always done, talk it through."

I tried to come-off controlled and sympathetic. But I was starting to get a very sad feeling.

I walked into the house and back into the kitchen. I made us a couple of cups of herb tea. I brewed Janet's favorite, she looked like she needed some chamomile to relax.

I carried both steaming cups over to the table. She was sitting in our bright and sunny breakfast nook. Because we are creatures of long married habit she was in the same relative position as she had been when she had angrily confronted me. That was not quite three hours ago.

She was back to sobbing. Her head was hanging down and her thick brunette hair hid her face. I put the tea in front of her and kissed her fondly on the top of her head.

As I sat down opposite her, she raised her tear filled eyes and looked directly at me. There was agony written there. She wailed, "Why would somebody do this to us?"

I said, "There are people in this world who just want what they want. They never think about how their selfish desires might hurt other people. Hell, they are probably not even aware that other people even exist except as agents to satisfy those desires. Murphy is obviously one of those."

"I've got to admit I totally misjudged him, both in terms of his moral compass and also his professional competence."

"I was sure that he could do a better job of doctoring the pictures but he must have been doing it spur of the moment in his room. He had to know that I would find out what he had done and that I would fire him with extreme prejudice when I did."

"I just didn't understand why he would take such a risk."

"He's dead meat now. I'm going to make his ruination a personal project and if I leave him with one cent in his pocket I will feel like I failed."

"I am only sorry for what he put you through. It must have been just plain awful to see pictures like that."

She looked at me with wounded eyes and said, "It destroyed me. I have never felt pain like that. I passed out when I saw them and then I wanted to kill myself."

I said mildly, "Why didn't you just call me up and confront me. You've never been shy about confronting me over anything?"

She said, "I teach third grade. I don't know anything about computer tricks. To me, PICTURES DON'T LIE." I had never heard such anguish in a person's voice as she said those last three words. She lapsed back into crying,

Then she snuffled and said, "You saw what I thought you were doing and I guess I couldn't face having that confirmed."

She said ruefully, "I was so devastated by your betrayal that I just couldn't talk to you. It was like you were a total stranger, somebody I didn't know. I was terrified of what you might say to me."

I said as sympathetically as I could. "I understand that. I would have felt the same way if you had cheated on me."

She visibly winced. I thought "Uh-Oh" but I wanted her to stay calm and walk me through the events of the past ten days.

I said, "When did you get the pictures?"

She said, "They came to me on Thursday afternoon after school."

I got up, walked to her laptop, which was sitting on the kitchen island, and clicked on her account.

As she said, Janet teaches third grade. She is not a heavy user of email. So the message was sitting fifth from the top after four spam ads.

The header said, "I'm Sorry" and the message said, "I had to tell you".

The timestamp was the prior Thursday at 15:38. I opened the attachment and there were two pictures.

The first was me with Jane Longworth. The second was a reasonably convincing picture of me banging a slutty looking blond.

I literally cringed from the pain that second picture must have inflicted on her.

I said with sorrow creeping in my voice, "And then what happened?"

She said, "I fainted dead away and threw up. Then I crawled into the bedroom and passed out again. I was in a total state of shock. I can't describe how frightened I was."

"I needed somebody to talk to and I had no idea what you might say to me. The one thing I knew for sure was that I wasn't ready to face you. So I called Murphy instead."

"He was a friend and he was out there with you. I was hoping he would have a logical explanation for what I saw."

"I told him about what I had seen and he told me that he was the one who had sent the pictures. He said that he had agonized about it. But he had to tell me because you did that to me at EVERY conference."

"I won't get into details about the lengthy bout of crying that ensued but long-story-short he volunteered to come back early from the conference to help me deal with this."

"I picked him up when he got back and he took me to his place and showed me six more of those hideous photographs. I am ashamed to admit that they made me so furious I visited a divorce lawyer the following morning."

"Murphy set it up with one of his college friends. I was extremely grateful for how sympathetic and masterfully helpful he was."

I was thinking, "Yeah right, he was eager to help me out of my marriage."

I decided that living in a cardboard box under a bridge was far too good a fate for that fucker. I had more substantial plans for Mr. Murphy.

Janet continued, "I went back to Sarah's totally desolated and fell asleep. It was the first sleep I had had in almost 48 hours."

"I woke up in the late afternoon when Murphy called me. He was sympathetic and completely focused on helping me through my grief."

"He asked if he could buy me dinner to get my mind off of my troubles and we could talk some more."

"I would do ANYTHING to stop thinking about the situation. So I went to a local restaurant with him. It was not a "date" as much as it was two friends commiserating and he took me right home after we ate."

"The next day he took me out all day on his boat . That was more like a date. I was just trying to cope and I was up for any distraction that anyone could provide. That was the day you came home."

"He continued to be gentlemanly and sympathetic, even though I wore one of my bikinis all day on the boat."

My heart sank out of pure jealousy and I actually audibly gulped. I know what Janet looks like in a bikini.

"Then he took me out to dinner on Wednesday. That was EXACTLY like a date. We ate danced and he kissed me and I kissed him back. It was my grief and insecurity that caused that. I just wanted a man to reassure me that my life hadn't ended."

"The woman in your picture was a lot younger and hotter than I am and I had begun to transfer my need to be wanted over to him. It was kind of like my personal version of the Stockholm syndrome."

I thought, "He might not be good at photoshopping but he is a genius at seduction. He couldn't have played on Janet's insecurities any better if he had actually been married to her for 17 years."

Then she hesitated. I didn't want to hear what was coming next but I had to get the entire story out. So I said, my voice dripping with suspicion and threat, "Was that all there was then?"

She gave a deep sigh and then after a significant pause she continued. She said that Murphy had invited her over to his place for dinner last night, just to help her get up her courage for the confrontation that the lawyer had told her she would have to have with me today.

In the middle of that sentence Janet started to cry. I finally knew for sure that he had fucked her. I said gently, "How many times?" She said in the tiniest voice, "Once".

On the day the meteor streaked across their sky, the dinosaurs must have felt exactly like I did at that moment. There was no mistaking it. Life as I knew it was at an end. My beautiful soul mate, lover and friend had spread her legs for Jim Murphy.

The little voice in my head was prompting me to be fair, since Jim Murphy had masterfully played her. But the fact remained that she had given it all up to another man, without allowing me the slightest opportunity to make it right for her.

She gave me all of the gory details. She wasn't taunting me. It was like she felt compelled to tell me EVERYTHING. It was obvious that her destruction of our marital bond was total and devastating.

In about a nanosecond I went from compassionate husband to absolutely furious cuckold. I said with cold rage in my voice, "You mean to tell me that you fucked that asshole, without even giving me a chance to explain myself."

She seemed to shrink on her chair like a pillbug.

I continued disbelieving, "We have been lovers, partners and life-companions for seventeen years and you let that incredible mother-fucker stick his cock in you before you even talked to me?"

She wailed, "But I believed the pictures! Murphy kept telling me that you had regularly fucked around on me. And I had the hard evidence to prove it right in front of me."

"What else could I think? I thought our marriage was over. Murphy was just THERE and safe and sympathetic and my need to be reassured simply got the better of me. Raw emotion drove my actions with him not my head."

I said, "You HAD a husband who LOVED you to distraction. You could have, and should have, talked to him as soon as he got home."

"I can understand your hesitancy when I was in San Diego. But you were only twelve miles away for six whole days. All you had to do was stop by."

"I wouldn't have cared if you had come through the door with a shotgun, at least I could have explained myself. In fact you could have shot me and I would have felt less wounded than I do right now."

"The fact is that your lack of trust in me and your cowardice has ruined both of our lives."

She collapsed in a gale of tears.

I knew that last statement was unfair but I was beyond angry. I said, trying to keep myself under control, "I need to get some distance on you so I can think this through."

"I am way too emotional. You can stay here. But I am going to move some things over to the Hilton. When I get better control of myself we can talk. I just don't know when that is going to be, or what we are going to say."

I went into the bedroom and packed the same bag that I had rolled off the plane a week ago. That week that seemed like about ten centuries now. I took it out to the car.

Once again, Janet did something totally unexpected. Rather than wailing, and clinging to my knees like all of the cheating wives in the movies, she dried her tears and walked calmly and determinedly out with me.

Her gorgeous face looked like it had been carpet bombed. But she stood forthrightly in front of me, looked me directly in the eye and said, "I know that we are where we are because of my lack of faith in you and our marriage. I know that this is my failure and my failure alone."

"While you are away I am going to think very deeply and honestly about the insecurities and weaknesses that drove me to this and I am going to have answers for you when we talk again."

"I WILL tell you that I am very sorry but I WILL NOT beg you to forgive me and I will not yield to self-pity. That would be pointless. Instead, I am going to fix whatever is wrong so that you will never doubt my faith in you again."

Then she looked intently at me, like a person who is about to put everything on one throw of the dice and said, "Do you still love me?"

Three hours ago I might have said something flippant but I knew that this was perhaps the most important answer I would ever give her and so I wanted to get it right.

Without hesitation I said, "I absolutely and unequivocally love you. This is not about whether I love you or not. It is about whether we can be together after this. And I know that I am the only person who can fix THAT."

She looked like the dice had come up sevens. I said to her as calmly as possible, "Do YOU still want to be married to me?"

She said, "All I have ever wanted is to be married to you. I told you I was yours for life and that is the way it is."

"Even though I am sure that you doubt that statement I will never feel otherwise. And if you decide you don't want me I will never have another man in my life."

"You probably don't believe THAT either. But you will find out it's true over a lifetime, no matter what happens."

Those words were both painful and uplifting. I had a momentary flash of Janet's face contorted with passion and her big naked tits jiggling as he rammed himself into her.

But I also believed in my heart that whatever had caused her to spread her legs for that piece of shit was not motivated by an irresistible urge to sample fresh cock.

I backed slowly out of the driveway. She stood there watching me looking strong and brave. Then she turned and walked resolutely back into the house.

As I said, she is a stunningly beautiful woman but it is the soul inside of that remarkable body that is the thing I truly adore.

My first step after booking a suite for a week at the Hilton was to call my head of security.

I told him that Jim Murphy was to be kept away from the premises and that he could not be allowed to enter it under any circumstances. I added, "This is important enough that YOUR job is on the line if he as much as comes 10 feet into the lobby."

The guy is a former SEAL. He assured me that Murphy would not be fool enough to darken our doorstep on his watch and he was smart enough not to ask me why.

The fact was that I had NOT put Murphy on the blacklist because he had just fucked Janet. It was because Murphy had an access clearance to every one of our company's secrets and I didn't want him to have ANY chance to use it.

Then I called our system manager and told him to shut off all electronic access for Murphy, from any source.

He had been to the Rodeo over his 20 years and he didn't need to know what THAT meant. I stayed on the line until he assured me that every digital access point was secured.

I added, "Now spend the rest of the weekend making me confident that Murphy doesn't have any backdoors installed."

Then I called our internal audit manager and told him that I wanted an audit of any account, or transaction that Murphy had made in the past year. I said, "I want it on my desk by close of business next Friday." He assured me that he would have it sooner than that.

I was doing all of this because I had a suspicion that Murphy wasn't quite as stupid or incompetent as he seemed to be.

He had to know that I would catch him SOONER than later. So my guess was that he had planned to whisk Janet off to some place like the Caymans. And that trip would be financed with a whole lot of MY company's cash.

The possibility of collusion made my blood run cold.

I frantically dialed Janet. She answered hope in her voice. I said in my friendliest tones, "I forgot to get the name of the lawyer you talked to. I will need to have my guy talk with him as soon as possible. Are you still planning on having papers filed on me?"

She said with absolute distress in her voice, "GOD NO!"

I laughed and said as casually as I could, like it was an afterthought, "Oh by the way, did Murphy talk about any trips with you?"

She sounded totally mystified and said, "No? Why do you ask?"

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Oh there was something in a message that he left here that indicated that he was planning a vacation."

She said, "If he planned on taking a vacation he didn't mention it to me. I'm sure that he was too busy plotting my downfall to make any vacation plans."

Then she GOT it. Like I said, Janet might not know much about computers but she is a very smart woman.

She said with horror in her voice, "You didn't think I was planning on running away with him do you? Please tell me you didn't think that!" And she began to cry.

I said, "NOW I don't. But we have a lot of bridge building to do, you and me."

She hung up still sniffing. I had been separated from her for an hour and a half and I was only eight miles away but I felt like it had already been a month and a half and I was in Antarctica.

I longed to be with her. But I had to be tough enough to beat this completely into shape.

I didn't want to do that sitting by myself in my lonely room. So I went down to the hotel bar with a yellow legal pad and a pencil and ordered a double scotch "rocks".

The kids would probably use a tablet, or netbook but I am from an earlier era. I sipped my drink and made a pro and con list.

On the pro side, there was no question that Janet had been targeted by a skillful predator. Murphy had wormed his way into her trust by being around the house over a long period of time laughing and joking with her.

Janet is a nice person and it would never occur to her to take his friendship at anything less than face value.

I also believed that she had not questioned the veracity of the photos. She is a master educator. But digital forensic science is not in her skill set.

I had taken copies of the pictures with me and I honestly had to admit that they would be plausible at first glance. That is, IF you didn't know how easy it was to alter a digital image.

I could see the pattern of seduction. First Murphy made Janet totally dependent on him using the ultimate "shock and awe" impact that those photos would have created in her.

Then he built the sexual tension by romancing her in a completely non-threatening way. All of that under the guise of being "caring" and "compassionate".

His not making a single move on her after she had spent the day parading around in front of him in a bikini was a master-stroke.

I was sure that she wore the one that shows off her body in ways that cause unspeakable yearning in any male, just to prove that she was still desirable. I can't express how jealous that made me.

She must have expected the display of her remarkable goods to pique his interest. And I am also pretty sure that she would have shot him down once she had confirmed that she still "had it".