Jade was inside having what sounded like a very animated phone conversation. Ex-wife, I corrected. And yeah, probably calling Jared, the legendary college boyfriend who ruined her for all other men. That's the one.
Want me to find out what she's up to? Shawn used to do some private investigation work before he got into construction. Old habits die hard. Nah, I don't care what she does.
She's got two weeks left here and then she's not my problem anymore. But Shawn was curious. And when Shawn gets curious, things get interesting. Sure enough, a few days later, Jade announced she was going to visit her college friend Emma for the weekend.
Except Jade looked way too excited for a casual friend visit. She spent 2 hours getting ready, packed like she was going on a romantic getaway, and was practically bouncing with excitement when she left. Emma lives 3 hours away, Shawn said, watching from the window as Jade loaded her car. Want to bet she's not going to see Emma?
I'm sure she's not, but again, not my problem. Come on, man. Aren't you at least curious about the guy who's apparently so amazing that he ruined your wife for marriage? I was curious, but I was also trying to move on with my life.
Shawn had no such restraint. He followed her, kept a good distance, used his old ninja turtle skills to tail her without being noticed. And guess what? She didn't drive 3 hours to see Emma.
She drove 40 minutes to a hotel outside Richmond, and Jared was waiting for her in the parking lot. Shawn called me from his car. Dude, you're not going to believe this. She's here with him.
They just went into the hotel together. Are you serious? Dead serious. Shawn got video of them walking into the hotel together.
Jade looked happier than I'd seen her in months. They stayed for about 3 hours. This is gold, Shawn said when he got back. Your ex-wife just committed adultery with a married man, and I got it all on video.
Well, at least now I know she's capable of making Jared her first choice for something. Too bad it's just a Tuesday afternoon hotel visit instead of a lifetime commitment. Maybe not for your divorce, but I bet Jared's wife would be interested in seeing this. That's when I realized what Shawn was suggesting.
Jared's wife had no idea her husband was cheating. She was probably at home with their kid thinking everything was fine while her husband was hooking up with his ex-girlfriend at some hotel. That woman deserves to know, I said. Damn right she does.
Finding Jared's wife on social media wasn't hard. Small-town guy, public Facebook profile, plenty of family photos. Her name was Jennifer, and she looked like a genuinely nice person. Lots of pictures with their daughter, posts about family activities, the kind of life Jade had been trying to destroy.
Shawn sent Jennifer a message explaining who we were, and that we had information about her husband that she needed to see. We included the video along with an explanation of how Jade had been pursuing Jared and using our divorce as an opportunity to reconnect with him. Jennifer's response came 2 hours later. Thank you for telling me.
I'm so sorry your wife put you through this. Jared has been acting strange lately and now I know why. Within 24 hours, Jared's world started falling apart. Jennifer confronted him with the video and he apparently broke down and confessed everything.
She kicked him out of the house and called a divorce attorney. Jared then called Jade in a complete panic. I could hear her side of the conversation from downstairs. What do you mean she knows?
How does she know? Long pause. But you said you loved me. You said you'd been thinking about me.
Another pause. Don't you dare blame this on me. You came to the hotel willingly. And that's when I realized Jared had been playing Jade the whole time.
He'd probably been curious about his ex-girlfriend. Maybe wanted to see if the old feelings were still there. But when it came to actually leaving his wife and kid, not a chance. Jade came downstairs looking absolutely destroyed.
"Jared says it's over," she said to me like I was supposed to care. His wife filed for divorce and she's taking their daughter. "Good for her," I said.
"Good for her, David? This is all falling apart." None of this was supposed to happen. What exactly did you think was going to happen, Jade? She started crying again.
I thought... I thought if Jared and I reconnected, it would prove that what we had was real, and then maybe I could figure out how to be happy by destroying two marriages. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. Shawn looked up from his laptop.
Jade, sweetheart, you can't cheat on your husband with a married man and then act surprised when marriages get destroyed. That's literally the most predictable outcome possible. The fallout from the Jared situation was immediate and brutal. His wife Jennifer followed through on the divorce, got primary custody of their daughter, and moved across the country to be near her family.
Jade was devastated. She'd blown up her marriage, Jared's marriage, and had nothing to show for it except a divorce proceeding and an eviction notice. She spent her last week in my house crying constantly and having long phone conversations with Skyler about how unfair life was. This is all your fault, she said to me one evening.
If you hadn't been so dramatic about the therapy session, none of this would have happened. Right, Shawn said from the kitchen. It's David's fault that you cheated on him with a married man. That makes perfect sense.
"I wasn't cheating. We were separated." "You were cheating when you were thinking about Jared every day of your marriage," I pointed out.
"The hotel was just making it physical." Jade moved out on schedule, found a small apartment across town, and I thought that would be the end of our story. The divorce was proceeding smoothly, assets were being divided, and I was finally starting to feel like I could move on with my life. I was wrong. 3 months after the divorce was finalized, Jade called me out of nowhere.
She was crying hysterically and asked if she could come over to talk. I almost said no, but something in her voice made me think this was serious. When she showed up at my place, she looked terrible. She'd lost weight, her hair was unwashed, and she had that hollow-eyed look of someone who hasn't been sleeping.
She sat on my couch and just stared at me for a few minutes before finally speaking. "I'm pregnant." My first thought was confusion about why she was telling me this.
We'd been divorced for 3 months and hadn't been together for much longer than that. Then the timeline hit me and I realized what she was really saying. "Is it Jared's?" I asked.
She nodded, tears streaming down her face. Jade's face crumbled. I called him five times before he finally answered. And when I told him about the baby, he said it was my problem to deal with.
He said he never should have met me at that hotel and that if I contacted him again, he would get a restraining order. So, not only had Jared rejected her fantasy reunion, but he'd also made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her or their child. Why are you telling me this? I asked.