Chapter 85

• She heard his voice over the phone as he spoke. He was trying to talk as calm as he could but she could sense the vibration in his voice. He too had been affected by the fallacious tabloid stories. He explained to her every detail of what really happened. How he had discovered the real reason why Steve had showed up that night; how he had gone to meet with Steve during the Thanksgiving dinner after he had excused himself to go to the restroom. He told her what truly transpired between him and Steve in the guest room and also told her about his suspicions. For a long time he spoke and spoke. He was the only one talking. All he could hear was silence from the other end. But he knew she was listening to what he was saying and that was all that mattered. He apologized for putting her through all that pain saying that he never meant for it to happen. It was never in his intentions for things to turn out the way they did.
• And then she made mention of the video of him and Steve that had gone viral, saying that it had looked as though there was something more that had been going on. He explained to her that it was all a plot and a conspiracy to make him look bad. He reminded her that the audio of the video clip was switched off so no one could hear what they were actually saying. He explained that whoever uploaded the video had done it that way because they knew that what they had actually been saying in the room that night was nothing that was worthy of all the scandalous stories that they circulated. They had turned off the audio so that it would be a lot easier for them to make up stories to misinterpret what had actually happened that night.
• Jacobs also told her about how Steve had taken the whole thing that night in the room. How he seemed to be very grateful and excited about the cheque. How he never could have imagined that the same man he had spoken with that very day could turn around to spread such ill-hearted stories about them.