“I don’t believe you,” I said. “I don’t trust you at all.”
“If you come over and hear me out, then I’ll delete the photos,” he whispered. “Both of them.”
“Then delete them now,” I said. “Right now.”
“If I do that, will you come talk to me?” he asked. “After Danny’s gone to bed.”
“Do it first,” he responded, folding my arms.
“Okay, you know what?” he took out his phone and unlocked it, handing it over to me. “You delete them, if you don’t trust me. Go ahead.”
Quickly, I opened his photo library to delete the two naked images. But as I did, I noticed that he had other nude photos on his camera roll, including one taken from behind of a young, pretty Asian woman down on all fours. Quickly, I suppressed the temptation to scroll through the photos and instead found the two photos I’d sent him. I deleted them both, then opened up his messages and deleted the text thread between us.
“You better not have them anywhere else,” I said, handing the phone back to him reluctantly.
He shook his head, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“So, see, I’m not such a bad guy,” he smiled. “I just don’t like losing.”
“I see,” I replied coldly, pushing the door open. “I need to help Danny get ready.”
“Come talk to me after you’re done,” he said. “If we talk, maybe it’ll be easier for me to give Danny the encouragement he needs tomorrow.”
“Uh huh,” I said, closing the door and locking it behind me.
…
As I got Danny ready for bed, I felt anxious and jittery, and I couldn’t tell exactly why.
If Johan had been telling the truth, then the incriminating photos were gone, and that made me extremely relieved. But that still didn’t mean that I could trust him.
To be fair, he did genuinely seem contrite about what he’d done to me earlier that day. Yet although he’d apologized for it, he was still making brazen advances towards me. Given all of that, being alone with him in a hotel room seemed like an extremely dangerous situation to put myself in.
But on the other hand, I felt a sort of responsibility to my son. This championship in the 3×3–this world record–was the one that Danny had wanted for years now, the thing that excited him more than anything else in the world. He’d come so far to get it, and the thought of seeing him disappointed weighed heavily on my heart.
If the photos were really gone, then Johan couldn’t blackmail me with them anymore, but he could still use his influence to destroy my son’s confidence on the most important day of his life. If it was within my power to help my son achieve his dream, then it felt somehow selfish not to do what I could.
Once Danny was in bed, I went into the bathroom and called Steve.
“What’s up, babe,” he said groggily. “What time is it there?”
“About 10:30,” I said, immediately feeling a pang of guilt for waking him up. “Sorry to call so late.”
“It’s fine,” he muttered. “What’s up?”
“I’m… I’m just nervous about tomorrow,” I said. “It’s the 3×3.”
“The big one,” Steve said.
“And it’s… it’s the last record that Danny hasn’t broken,” I said. “The last one that still belongs to Johan.”