No Reason But Us

Prologue

Hal Jacoby arrived home from his work trip out of the country, fixing his ruffled silver hair and buttoned his blazer while carrying a bouquet of flowers to give to his lovely wife he had not seen in months.

He entered his house through the main door, expecting she was there, and he knew that because her work hours were over hours ago. All of a sudden, there was a thumping noise from the second floor, so he went upstairs. It getting was louder. Not only that, he heard moaning, her moaning to be exact at the same time, with the throb.

A half-open door, Hal could see something moving under the cover. He immediately knew what that meant and quietly crept as he walked to the door and saw his beautiful redhead and olive green eyes wife, Marie, in bed being sexually pleasured by another man.

The flowers were dropped from his hand because Hal was in utter disbelief and rage. He could feel his heart sinking and that it was stomped on hard. "What the hell is going on here?!" he slammed the door wide open.

"Hal," Marie gasped. They jolted and horrified that the legal husband returned, They rushed to stop, and the lover faced him.

"Adrian?" Hal's eyes popped out that of all the people that could betray him. It was his best friend. He could only see red from this unforgivable action as he pushed all the items that were on the dresser. "How could you?!"

"Hal... I'm sorry that you have to find out this way but..." she cried, covering her bare body with a blanket.

"I love her," Adrian blurted, but he said that without any remorse and any care that he was hurting Hal's feelings.

"Adrian!"

Hal couldn't feel his body for a second, but once he did, it could get ugly. "You son of a...!!" he charged at Adrian by taking his neck and pushing him down on the bed he choked on his own words and was about to pound him.

"Hal, don't..."

From his wife's pleading voice and his good conscience, he could not punch the man who took the love of his life. Instead, he punched the bed and then started crying in front of them. "I love you so much, why?... why?" Hal sobbed.

"You're always gone..."

"It's for work! Marie! I work hard for us and for the family that we're going to build. Don't you understand that?"

"But I don't need a husband that makes me so lonely," Marie argued.

Hal took a deep breath and stopped crying. "And I don't need a wife like you. You would rather have this... loser for you, who could barely pay for his food? Fine. You two deserve each other," then he shifted to Adrian. "You heard that? you can have her, but I'm gonna need all my money back that you borrowed from me. I'll give you two months to at least give me half of what you owe me. Plus, interest would be nice if I ever find myself another woman to spend my life with."

Hal then took the bouquet by the doorway and threw it to Marie, "Here, keep this. That's for you. Consider it a happy divorce present," he added.

The woman was in tears as her husband walked out of their bedroom from embarrassment and guilt for the most part because she caused a man who had done nothing but provide for her while Adrian was mad that Hal looked down on him and insulted him to his face.

----

A month passed, and Hal was doing a lot better and seemed to have moved forward. All was well until a secretary approached him. "Mr. Jacoby, Mr. Bharr wants to see you."

"For what?" he asked.

"He just told me to call you, and it's urgent."

"Oh, alright," Hal raised a brow as he stood up from his desk and went to his boss' office. Once he got there, two cops were there, and it confused him as to what reasons why they were with his boss who seemed indignant. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Bharr?"

"Why...?" the boss grumbled with both his fists closed tightly.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why did you steal from me?!"

"What?!" Hal was stumped. "What are you talking about, sir? I would never..."

"Then what's this?" Mr. Bharr pulled out his drawer and took out a document, then angrily threw it on the table.

Hal was shaken and read the papers to see what his boss meant. He was horrified that it was a transaction receipt, that a large amount of money was transferred to his bank account. "I don't know about this, I swear. This is some kind of joke," Hal defended himself, but it was no use.

"Take him away!"

"Mr. Hal Jacoby, you are under arrest for embezzlement," a police officer said as he handed him a warrant.

"This is a mistake." Hal was dumbfounded. then the cops grabbed his arm and put the cuffs on his wrists. "It's not me!"

"YOU ARE FIRED!" Mr. Bharr shouted that the other employees could hear the echoes of his angry voice outside of his office.

Hal was dragged out where everyone could see. People were watching and whispering that one of their co-workers was being escorted by the police with such appalling accusations towards him. "I didn't do it, I didn't," he squirmed.

Once they took him out of the building. "Oh my! So it's true, you did steal money from your office." Adrian was there standing with a satisfying smirk on his face.

"Adrian?" Hal scowled at him.

"I heard it from my office. How could you do that?"

"You. You did this to me."

"I would never." Of course, Adrian denied it.

"Let's go." The cops pushed him into the car.

"First, you stole my wife, and now this? You're gonna pay for this, Adrian! You're gonna pay!" Hal yelled as he got shoved inside the vehicle and then drove off.

"But I'm not done yet," Adrian said.

Almost a year passed for the poor man to spend his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Life turned upside down for Hal since his wife cheated on him with the man whom he thought was his best friend, he lost his job and was in prison and it was all because of Adrian as well.

Hal was hoping to prove his innocence someday even though he had gotten used to prison life, but it could not happen anytime soon.

One day, it was his turn to clean the bathroom by moping the floors. He was all by himself, and Unknown to him, there was an inmate creeping up to him with a shank in his hand.

The next thing that happened, the officers and the inmates gathered around in horror, seeing Hal Jacoby lifeless on the floor with stab marks on his back.