Web of Lies

Chapter 5

ALAN MATHEWS sat at his home office desk, staring at the lines and lines of computer code that filled the screen. Apart from the dark computer background, the screen was colourful with a multitude of differing text colours.

    Like with most source code editing software, depending on the functionality or meaning of each line of code would be coloured to its very own category.

    Alan wasn't all too pleased with using this software. Firstly, it wasn't his usual source code editor. Secondly, he hated coding in PHP. Which was a scripting language used to handle the server-related actions of a webpage. One that he was painstakingly using now.

    He scratched at his head as the secondary monitor on his desk refreshed its screen. Lines and lines of errors plastered the screen. Alan sighed and pushed the keyboard away from him.

    I'm never going to get this ready for the release in the next couple of days. Edward and Hector are going to flip when they find out there has been zero progress in four days.

    "Luke!" Shouted the voice of Alan's wife, Lisa. They had been married for twenty years, twenty-one this April. There had never been a single day in their marriage that Alan had not felt madly in love with her. Just as he had when they were first dating. He felt that their 'honeymoon period' had never ended. Every day with her, and now their son, Luke, was like a dream come true. He couldn't have been happier. Especially now that they had moved into their dream home.

    But ever since he had read through that email, the one from the unknown sender. The one who called himself Bryan Fish. Whoever that was meant to be. He could not get the nagging doubt out of his mind that something was going on around here that he wasn't aware of. Something that was going on behind his back. He was starting to feel paranoid. Had he spent too much time in his office again?

    "Luke!" Lisa snapped again.

    "What?" Luke screamed back.

    "Are you nearly ready for school?"

    "Err. Yeah. Nearly." He answered back and he was not even close to being ready. Alan knew that he could see that. As Luke was standing on the upstairs landing, shouting down over the bannister. Which was directly in front of the doorway to his home office.

    "Dude, don't lie to your mother. Go on. Get dressed." Luke's head spun around quickly. His eyes widened as he realised that he had been spotted. He said nothing, only turning and running back down towards his bedroom, his door closed shut.

    Moments later he hears the sound of Lisa climbing the staircase before entering into his home office. "How is it going?"

    "Yeah. Good." Lied Alan, rubbing the lie away quickly from his face.

    "Looks like it," Lisa says, giving Alan those eyes. The eyes he knows when he hasn't gotten away with a lie. Why had he even tried in the first place? They knew each other like the back of their hands. At least he thought they had. Everything he had read in that email yesterday was making him doubt every tiny little thing.

    "You still taking Luke to school today aren't you?" She asks, walking closer towards Alan. "I need to go get my nails done for tomorrow night. You remember tomorrow night don't you?"

    "Tomorrow night. That's the work thing right?"

    "Work thing? No. It's Carol's birthday."

    "Oh yeah. Carol."

Who the hell was Carol?

Alan had always found it difficult to keep up with all of Lisa's friends and co-workers. There were just too many. But that was how Alan had believed he and Lisa had such a good marriage. He was less of a talker and liked to be home and work rather than spend time around people. She was a very big talker, and wouldn't stop if you asked her about Queen. The band, not the royal one. But part of that had come with her job. She was also seeing new clients and taking on new work.