Chapter 2

Hannah had no idea how long she had been sitting and rocking as she cried, but in reality it was about thirty minutes.

Looking at the clock she realized it was now about fifteen minutes to eleven.

Hannah quickly called her office and spoke to her supervisor.

After quickly apologizing for not showing up, Hannah asked to get a few days off for sick leave. Hannah pointed out that she hadn't taken a single sick day off in the ten years she had been there.

Jake her direct supervisor gave her the time off and said he would square it with the system. Jake remembered that during the birth of their first child, Hannah had taken her laptop with her to the hospital and had done a bit of system cracking to get some information they needed.

Not only had she worked almost up to delivery but she personally sprang for the cellular modem she needed on her own. They hadn't expected any progress on the file, but they were shocked to read an email from her telling them about the birth of the new baby as well as the attachment giving them the information they needed for the client.

Her supervisor Jake was always impressed with her dedication and gave the time off. Once she had the time off she needed Hannah knew she needed to dig further into what she found to stop her divorce!

But Hannah couldn't believe that David was divorcing her over a few arguments! Why was David willing to throw away twelve years together over that?!

Knowing that she needed more information, Hannah decided to look for anything David might have done on the PC for clues.

As she looked she wondered: Was David cheating on her?

Before today Hannah would have said that he would never do something like that. But of course she would have said before today that he wouldn't ever divorce her either.

With tears still breaking free from time to time she decided to start looking.

David was a creature of habit and very meticulous. He always worked out what he needed to do and followed his plan. If she could get a hold of his notes maybe she could get some idea about what was going on.

First thing she did was unhide the hard drive. Most people don't realize that most hidden and system files can be "found" by simply un-hiding the drive. As she did she found a large folder that was password protected!

That didn't make sense. David wasn't that computer savvy. He was limited to mostly Microsoft Office products and Email. But someone had clearly locked the folder.

Taking time to look at it Hannah saw that not only was it password protected but it was encrypted as well!

Hannah had stopped crying as the mystery unrolled in front of her.

Trying a few obvious passwords Hannah realized that she had no idea what it could possibly be.

Even though she didn't do it as often, Hannah had the tools she needed to easily crack this folder. Her job sometime required things like this, but always off the books.

Most men for some reason never seemed to realize that people were always listening to what they said. And if you added an attractive woman to the mix, they often told that woman things that they should have kept to themselves.

Hannah learned that early while learning the basics of system cracking. Later she mastered cracking the most difficult of systems with passing ease without having to result to using her looks as an in.

She was very good at what she did.

But even though she had male friends and a few boyfriends in college David was different. He looked her in the eyes when they talked and not at her butt or chest. He asked questions and actually listened and offered suggestions. He always made her feel like she was the most important person in the world.

Hannah knew by the end of their first date not only was she going to sleep with him but she was going to marry him. At the time David was working second and third shift at the factory and going to college during the day. The company paid for his degree.

As her thoughts came back around to David and their life together the tears started falling again.

Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand Hannah thought about the problem at hand for a minute. Sure she had the tools on her laptop to crack this encryption, but it might take days or weeks. She might not have that long to stop the divorce.

Thinking about what to do next her eyes fell on another folder in the same programs directory with it. It was a Net watcher program installed for the kids. While they might trust the boys, both David and Hannah agreed that they would sleep easier if they made it a touch harder to do the wrong thing.

Hannah smiled for the first time since this all started.

Part of the reason was that the watcher program also came with a keylogger. Hannah had forgotten she installed it. But since she had she wouldn't need to guess or crack the password. She was sure that David didn't know about it, as she hadn't ever mentioned that part of the program to him.

Firing up the program she quickly located the area that contained the folders password. Hannah gasped out loud as she read it.

The password was "mycheatingwhorebitchwife"

"What the hell is he talking about? I've never cheated on him. Not once!" thought Hannah angrily as she typed in the password for the folder.

Once it opened she saw another folder under it named "WIP" and various jpeg's underneath that folder. Hannah knew that to David WIP stood for "Work in Progress".

Opening the first picture she thought she wasn't sure if she was going to throw up or pass out. It was a picture of her in what looked to be a compromising position.

Checking another she saw that she was the subject of this picture as well. Checking the folder Hannah saw that there had to be about thirty or forty pictures in the directory. Hannah quickly went from one to the next to the next.

She stopped at one that she couldn't place.

Who was that she was with? It was a picture of her with her butt rubbing up against a man, but she had no idea who it was. By the look of the picture she was having the time of her life. Hannah saw herself laughing with her arms swinging around above her head.

Then it came to her.

It was that dance contest at "Sparkle's Night Club" four months ago. But while she remembered she had quite a lot to drink, she didn't think she was so far gone that she wouldn't remember rubbing herself on someone like she was doing.

There was something like sixty couples who entered that dance contest. They did a grease style tap on the shoulder to get couples to leave the dance floor during the contest. If the judges tapped you then you were out. Hannah was surprised how quickly some of the people she thought were pretty good disappeared from the dance floor during the contest.

All she remembered from that night was dancing with a friend of Regina who she knew was a very good dancer.

But this man wasn't that friend of Regina's.

Hannah knew that she and her partner took first place. Right after she also remembered that she danced all by herself in front of a crowd at the nightclub as the contest winner, Regina egged her on to show what she had as the winner.

She again remembered that her winning dance was kind of suggestive, but she thought in her defense she had had a little too much to drink, and that clouded her judgment a bit after winning.

As bad as that one was, the one that was the most particularly disturbing was the next one of her with her head thrown back while she was laughing at something. It was also taken later that same night after the contest. Next to her was a man who had his head close to her neck and it looked like he was nuzzling Hannah as he pulled her close while she laughed.

But that picture was taken out of context!

Hannah's mind went back to that time.

"Hey girlfriend, are you having a good time?" asked Regina as she found Hannah off to the side of the dance floor watching the people dancing.

"Of course," said Hannah as she smiled at Regina.

Regina had stood on the sidelines with a few of her friends during the contest. Afterwards a few men tried to get closer to Hannah after her solo dance, but Hannah smiled as she shooed them away. She didn't want to let them believe they were going to get lucky that night. A few men got grabby, but she also managed to handle them without issues.

Regina finally found her way back to her friend.

Earlier in the night they danced different men, but Hannah would only dance fast songs that allowed her to keep her distance. Nothing slow was ever allowed. Hannah felt that was something to personal to allow perfect strangers to do. She only danced slow songs with her husband.

But once she joined Regina they danced again with different men.

At one point they took a break, got a drink, and stood near a few of Regina's friends. Regina asked Hannah "Hey girl, got a joke for you. Man walks into the gym in piss poor condition. He looks around and spots a good looking lady. And decides he wants to really impress her.

"Walking up to the counter he said to the trainer behind it "I want to impress that hot babe over there. Which machine should I use?" The trainer takes a good look at him then looks to see which woman he was talking about. Looking back at him the trainer replied "You better use the ATM machine outside. Anything else would be a waste of time.""

For some reason the combination of alcohol and the situation made it the funniest joke Hannah could remember hearing.

Laughing she closed her eyes and threw back her head.

As she did she felt one of Regina's male model friends pulling her close as he tried to kiss her neck. Quickly taking her drink in one hand Hannah reached around the man and poured her drink down the collar of his neck.

The man jumped four miles as he leaped backwards to get free.

Everyone laughed at the man and he sheepishly smiled at Hannah. He shook his body and then pulled off his shirt. While she had to admit he looked good showing off his ripped abs, Hannah still had no interest in ever touching him.

"Why would you do that? Please don't touch me like that. I'm not ever doing anything like that with you or anyone else," said Hannah sternly.

Regina laughed as she pulled Hannah away and they found some other men to dance with on the other side of the room. And before long Hannah hadn't given that incident another thought.

Until now.

Now she was looking at that moment and it looked like she was there with the man in question and they were a couple.

Looking at another picture, it was one of her seated at a table and it looked like she had her head back while a man was kissing her. He even had his hand on her right knee.

Hannah had to think about that one. In the end it was her dress combined with room that told her when it happened.

She had too much to drink and was trying to slow down. She remembered a man sitting down next to her. He leaned in close to talk to her and to make sure she was alright.

But from the angle of the picture it looked like they were making out. But they weren't. He was just talking to her. She hadn't realized at the time he had his hand on her leg, but it wasn't anything sexual in nature.

There were quite a few more, but more and more of them were taken at an angle where it looked like whenever Regina and she went out, they were either picking up men or being picked up.

With shaking hands she had to stop.

She grabbed one hand with the other to try and calm her nerves and stared at the screen.

Why was someone out to ruin her marriage? This didn't look like Spence's work. He was a professional. He would have gotten and written everything down so that there were no misunderstandings.

Clicking on the folder she found a single excel spreadsheet in it with things that only David understood in his cryptic shorthand.

Reading the file Hannah found a few things in it that disturbed her even more.

While it was still pretty cryptic, there were a few things that she puzzled out. One was an entry that was supposed to be "last time we had sex". It was a date that was over three months old.