One More Chance
Chapter 44: The Painful truth

~~~I'll never stop loving you more with each breath that I take. These feelings inside never change for you, but you're not the one 'cause you don't wanna be. I might have chosen you, but you chose differently. You might make me feel whole, but I don't make you complete. I would grow old with you, but you have grown tired of me. No, you're not the one 'cause you don't wanna be~~~

-Chester See-

Samantha's POV:

He's cheating on you!

He's cheating on you!

He's cheating on you!

Those words repeatedly ran through my head until I got home and entered my room.

"H-He's c-cheating on me..."

I choked at the sobs that I've been holding since I left the cafe. I don't know how I did it but I've already done it. I reached home without having any tears in my eyes... but not at this moment.

Jack's words suddenly came rushing to me like a bullet that shoots me directly into my heart. It hurts. I couldn't believe that my intuition was right.

Tears flowed freely on my cheeks. How could he do this to me? I have given him more than four years of my life. I loved him. I waited for him. I stayed with him. I sacrificed everything, including my studies just to be a good wife and a mother to his child. All this time, I couldn't believe he was lying. He lied not just to me but also to his daughter.

I remembered what Jack told me and I couldn't help forming my fists due to anger. He's been staying at the Marriott Marquis hotel for the past week, so that means he lied to me that he's going back to Thailand for a business meeting.

I wonder if he really went there the first time he told me he had an Asian meeting.

"Argh!"

Now I know the reason why he suddenly changed and goes back to the old Luke because he fucking found someone else.

How could he do this? Didn't he ever learn to love me in those four years or even in those moments that he acted like a loving husband to me?

"Oh, G-God... w-what did I d-do to get this punishment?" I asked between my sobs while looking at the ceiling.

"Mom?"

"Huh?" I gasped and suddenly didn't know what to do when I heard my daughter's voice from the door. I hadn't even noticed her entered the room. "Are you crying?"

I immediately wiped my tears and turned to her with a smile.

"Hi, baby..."

"Mommy, are you crying?" She asked again and I gave her a slight chuckle. Well, that's all I could muster.

"No, I-I was just sad because of the---"

"Did Untie Jack made you cry?" She went up to me.

"No, my baby." I carried her on my lap and encircled my arms to her small frame. "Untie Jack didn't make me cry, it was the movie."

A sad smile curled up against my lips when I remembered a certain song titled 'Sad movies make me cry' by Sue Thompson. I didn't know I would also make use it as an excuse to my own daughter.

"A movie?" She glanced up at me.

"Yes, a movie, a very sad movie." Tears started to form around my eyes so I had to blink them away.

"Ohh... it's okay, mommy, it's just a movie. I remembered you told me that movies are far from reality, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." I smiled, nodding.

"Ahh! I have an idea, mommy!"

Her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement and at that moment, God knows how I tried not to burst into tears as I watch her being happy in front of me, having no idea what's happening in the real world... in the world of adults. Her eyes that totally resembled her father made me want to lose and cry, but I can't, because I don't want her to be hurt.

"What idea do you have, baby?"

"Let's just watch Spongebob Squarepants or Disney princess movie!"

"Yeah, sure. Where do you want to watch them, in your room or in the living room?"

"Uhm... can I watch them here, mommy?"

"Of course, my baby."

"Okay, I'll tell Rory to help me bring the CDs here."

I simply nodded when she ran excitedly out the door and the moment she closed it, I started crying again.

I don't know what to do if Cali finds out the truth. I know she's too young to understand it, but what I'm most afraid of is how would I explain to her what's going on with this family.

***

On that same day, I decided to face the painful truth. I went alone to the hotel where Jack saw Luke having another woman. I haven't told anyone about my plan, not even with Jack.

I want to confirm what she said. Well, it's not that I don't believe her or I don't trust what she said, but I want to confirm it myself. I want to see him... them in my own eyes. I want to know how he touches her, how he pulls her into a warm embrace, how he kisses her and how he lost his breath just by kissing her. All those painful things... I want to witness them in my own eyes.

It took me thirty minutes to get to the enormous and fabulous hotel located in Union Square. I held my breath the time I parked my car in the parking lot. Walking through the entrance, I remembered the floor and room number that Jack mentioned this morning. Nothing comes to my mind except the images of them doing something on top of the bed. I tried to shake them off but they keep running and dancing in my head.

The hotel was huge and I don't know where to look for them first. Yes, I have their room number, but I'm not sure if I would be able to see them there. What if they were in the lobby, in the parking lot? What if they were in the bar, watching a movie or else they decided to go out and eat in some of the fancy restaurants near the hotel?

"Whew!" I took a deep breath as soon as I reached the entrance.

But as my throat suddenly felt dry, I decided to go to the hotel bar first o take a shot. I don't know why I'm getting nervous.

I was unable to explain what I felt the moment I entered the bar, but I ignored that weird feeling as I heaved my way towards the counter. I didn't wait for any second and ordered a drink that will drown all the butterflies that dancing in my stomach.

I stayed there for almost 15 minutes and decided to carry out my mission, but the time I was about to leave, my attention was caught by a very familiar voice of a woman... laughing at the corner near the entrance.

Cherry...

My eyebrows formed a straight line when I recognized her face. It's been four years since I last saw her at the university where Luke and Dale graduated.

She was talking to someone on the phone.

I was about to take a step when she spoke.

"Oh, babe!"

So I turned to her again...

"Hi, babe, I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

And my eyes widened in shocked when I heard my husband's voice.

-'Huh!'-

My hands automatically covered my mouth when he lowered himself to kiss her and so my blood runs cold at that moment. Shock surged my whole body.

Sobs after sobs escaped my covered lips as I watched them kiss each other as if there was no tomorrow... as if they owned the world. After kissing her deeply, he also brought his lips into her forehead, a sign that he truly cared about her.

I don't know how long I stayed there hiding, covering my lips, holding my breath and taking the pain every time he held her hand and kissed each one of them.

When I no longer took the hurtful scene in front of me, I finally decided to run outside. I ran to I don't know where until my feet brought me to a spot where there were no guests and with a view of the San Francisco skyline.

And there, I let the sobs break my throat. I could feel my insides sink, my knees too, so I sat on the ground against the wall, letting it support me. I thought I knew what heartbreak felt like. I thought I had already experienced it through the past years of being 'nothing' in Luke's eyes, but I was wrong.

This is the real heartbreak. I could feel the pain surging through my veins and flowing directly into my heart, but I can't explain it in words... I just can feel it.

"Why? Why Luke?" I screamed in between my sobs. "Am I not enough? Does Cali not enough for you to stay with us? Argh!"

I closed my eyes, but behind my eyelids, I saw the image of them kissing passionately... and this time I wasn't just imagining because I really saw them.

I was pouring my heart out when I felt a hand in my shoulder and I glanced up to see Jack looking at me with tears also running down her face. "J-Jack..." I mumbled almost in a whisper and she shook her head while a half-hearted smile painted on her lips.

She slumped down next to me and hugged me. And in her arms and in her shoulders, I cried again.

"I-I saw him w-with her, J-Jack..." I could barely pronounce the words because of the choking sobs that simultaneously escaped my throat.

"You know who she is?" She asked, breaking from our embrace and looked at me.

I nodded.

"S-She's Cherry."

"Cherry? As in Cherry his ex-girlfriend?"

I nodded again, trying to wipe my tears but they were stubborn as they continued to flow down my face.

"How did you know I'm here?"

She sighed.

"You didn't notice I was in the living room when you left earlier, so I decided to follow you because I have this feeling that you would check on them and I was right."

I leaned against the wall and looked up the clear blue sky.

"I didn't see it coming, Jack."

"Yeah, and nobody saw it coming because nobody expected this to happen."

"It's been four years, I thought he had already forgotten her, so I became confident all these years that I didn't think that he had never truly forgotten her." Another set of tears washed my face.

"It happened right in front of my nose, but I didn't even have an idea!"