My Wife, My Man?

Chapter Forty-seven

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." 1 John 4:7

Perli's head snapped towards the direction of the voice she recognized immediately. Her heart became a thundering drumbeat to her ears. She could feel the contraction of her lungs and for a split second, they failed to allow air into her system. She was completely paralyzed on the spot, so paralyzed that the energy that rested on her hands and arms ceased.

"Jack..." She didn't know what else to say.

Jack's eyes travelled from Matthew, then back to her. She immediately distanced herself from Matthew and that left a smirk on his face.

"It's not what you think," she tried to explain the scene Jack found her in.

"Not what I think?" His voice was calm and that alone was enough to make her anxious. He refrained from overreacting. "What are you doing here?" Still, he was calm.

"I-I," she struggled to speak, yet forced the words out of her mouth anyway, "cam-came to meet your dad a-and..."

"Meet my dad?" Jack furrowed with confusion and his eyes quickly diverted back to the restaurant.

Uneasily, Perli followed his gaze and was shocked to spot Daniel sitting by a table near a large window. Her eyes widened. No, it couldn't be! He had called her to come meet him! He did! She had heard his voice! She had—

She directed her eyes back to her husband. "Jack, I-I... He-he," she stammered, her hands shaking. She couldn't understand a thing, her mind failed to put together a suitable answer to the questions that roamed it. What was going on here? Why was Daniel sitting there with Jack while he was supposed to be meeting up with her? Was this some sort of setup? No, maybe Daniel had forgotten, he must have—

"Jack, my man," Matthew's voice cut through her train of thought. There was confidence in his voice. He outstretched his hand as if to give a handshake. "Nice to finally meet you." Through his smile, it was clear that trouble would soon follow.

Jack didn't shake his hand, rather only looked into the eyes of the one man he hated. This was the same man who was creating a rift between him and his wife. He wanted to punch him, and even when every bit of his muscles wanted to pound the stupid smile off his face, he remained calm. He told himself to stay calm.

His calmness only prompted Matthew to continue with his taunts. "I was wondering how the man who stole my woman's heart really looked like in person." His eyes studied him. "I was sure your looks were edified on camera."

Perli pulled onto Matthew's sleeves, begging him to stop. His taunt would only create more problems than there were. "Matthew, please—"

Matthew didn't let her speak. "It's quite nice that even when she's married to you, she still has time for me. A lot of time." He turned to Perli and allowed a devilish smirk to shape his lips. "Do you remember the wonderful time we spent together when he was in the US? How about the day of your father-in-law's arrival? Too bad Liz had to ruin everything." He found delight in his words.

Perli shook her head at Jack. "It's a lie, I'm tel-telling you it's a lie," her voice was shaky, and she feared that soon she wouldn't be able to hold her tears.

Even through all that, Jack remained calm. Such incidents would ruin his reputation. He was sure that somewhere around there was someone who — despite wearing a cap, still recognized him and his wife and if a scene was created it would only spark the media into a wildfire conversation about this.

He looked at Perli, his eyes trying not to show the anger that burned through them at the sight of this man. He felt his veins pounding, his muscles contracting at the temptation to explode in anger. Yet, he remained calm, trying to dwell in that little doubt about the words his father had spoken earlier.