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CHAPTER TWENTY

When Max arrived, William excused his other employees. After Jim, Bobby, and Minnie said their goodbyes and left, Max pulled up a chair and sat in front of the couple. He had an iPad on his lap. He opened it.

“First and foremost,” he said to Joy, “Mr. Skeffington told me about that date-stamp that was on the video you found online.”

“I didn’t find it online. William found it online. It said it was recorded four months ago.”

“Yes ma’am. I reviewed it. But that date-stamp is absolutely not accurate.”

It was what William knew all along, but Joy, he could tell, was still skeptical. “What do you mean it’s inaccurate? How can a date-stamp be inaccurate when it’s memorialized as soon as you tape whatever you’re taping?” Now Joy was sus about Max and was looking at him oddly. Was he trying to gaslight her, too, because William signed his paycheck?

“I understand what you’re saying, and you’re correct. Normally, that’s how it goes. But this particular date-stamp was manipulated. Let me show you how.”

William remained sitting back as Max pulled up that dreaded sex video on the iPad. Joy leaned in. More than anything, she wanted it to be true. She was all eyes.

“This is the original video that Mrs. Davenport’s campaign received and has since forwarded to my office,” Max said as he showed Joy the video that Diana Davenport’s campaign manager received. “You see that date-stamp?”

William pulled out his reading glasses and put them on. Then he leaned forward to see it too. Joy saw it. “Yes,” she said. It took William a little eye squinting, but he saw it too.

“As you can see,” Max said, “the original date-stamp notes that the video was taken, not four months ago, but nearly a year ago.”

Joy nodded. “I see that.”

“Mr. Skeffington knew you, as I understand it, but it wasn’t considered a serious, committed relationship at that point. Am I right?”

“We were talking,” William said, “and feelings were there surely. But that video wasn’t taped four months ago while we were planning our wedding. Or even when we committed to be in a relationship. That tape you found online was doctored.”

“And I’ll show you how,” Max said as he demonstrated to the couple how if you shine a laser on the doctored date-stamp, as Max was doing, that the original date of nearly a year ago showed through.

Joy was blown away. “I see,” she said excitedly. “I see it!”

“They overlayed the correct date with the fake date,” Max said.

Then Joy looked at Max. “But who would do something like that?”

“She believes her campaign opponent is the culprit,” said Max. “To say that she cheated on her husband four months ago sounds a whole lot better than saying she cheated on her husband nearly a year ago. They also fed that two weeks ago bullshit to the press.”

“But it’s still cheating,” Joy said.

“No doubt no doubt,” said Max as he glanced at William. He felt bad for Joy. She was so young! But context mattered too. “She would have been in hot water whether they doctored the video or not, that’s also correct. But the point is: Mr. Skeffington didn’t cheat on you.”

“Right,” said William.

“But we were talking right around the same time you were with Diana Davenport.”

“I was getting to know you, yes. But . . . I was still who I was, Joynetta. There was no commitment. There wasn’t even a discussion of one when I spent that time with Diana.”

Joy stared at him. “But you knew she was married.”

William wasn’t ashamed of it at the time. It was her decision to cheat on her husband. That had nothing to do with him. But because of Joy, and how his past decisions were eroding her confidence in his faithfulness, he was ashamed of it now. “Yes,” he admitted. “I was wrong.”

“And you cheated on your first wife. And I don’t care if she cheated on you too. You cheated on her.”

William exhaled. Another shame that wasn’t shameful at all to him at the time since they were separated and all but divorced by then. And there was never any love lost between them. But Joy would view that long explanation as a cop-out. And she’d be right. “Yes,” he admitted.

Joy had a fixed frown on her face. “Have you ever been faithful to anybody?”

Now William was getting defensive. “Yes!”