Chapter 1

At three in the morning, I was woken up by a bank text message. [Your credit card ending in 3386 has been charged 132,700 dollars. Payee: Regency Boutique.]

I thought I was seeing things.

I rubbed my eyes and checked again.

132,700 dollars

I turned to look beside me.

No one was lying there.

I opened the shopping app and found the order. [Delivery address: 198 Riverside Avenue, Emerald Bay, Building 7, Unit 1203.]

It wasn't our place.

Our place was up north.

I sat in the living room all night.

When dawn broke, Kayce Roper came home.

He changed his shoes and walked into the living room, spotting me sitting on the sofa. "Why are you up so early?"

I looked at Kayce. "Where were you last night?"

Kayce smiled, "There was a last-minute meeting at work, and it ran so late. So, I crashed at the office."

I nodded. "Oh."

Kayce went into the bathroom to shower.

Hearing the shower running, I picked up his phone. There was no password.

He never bothered with a password, thinking I'd never snoop.

I opened the banking app.

The charge was right there, plain as day. [Regency Boutique, 132,700 dollars.]

I scrolled through the last three months of statements.

As I kept scrolling, my hands started to go cold.

There was a regular monthly transfer of 6,000. The note said, [daily expenses.]

I had no clue what this "daily expenses" was supposed to be, but I knew for sure that our normal life never needed an extra six grand a month.

The shower stopped running.

I put the phone back where I found it.

When Kayce came out, I was in the kitchen cooking.

"Let's head out early today. I'll take Nancy to school," I told him.

"Okay," he replied.

He took a couple of bites of his breakfast and then grabbed his car keys.

"Hold on," I called out, stopping him. "Any idea how much you put on the credit card last month?"

He hesitated for a moment. "No clue. Shouldn't be much, I guess."

I said, "Yeah."

After he left, I sat at the dining table, staring at the half-eaten sandwich he'd left behind.

That address popped into my mind. 198 Riverside Avenue, Emerald Bay, Building 7, Unit 1203.

At noon, I took half a day off.

I didn't head over to that address. Instead, I went straight to the Register of Deeds to look up any property registered under Kayce's name.

The clerk printed out the list and passed it to me. Our place up north was listed there.

Then I saw the second entry. [198 Riverside Avenue, Emerald Bay, Building 7, Unit 1203.

[Purchase date: March 2021.

[Purchase price: 953,000 dollars, paid in full.]

My hand clenched around the paper.

I was six months pregnant with Nancy in March 2021.

I remembered he said to me, "Things are a bit tight right now. Do you think you could return that pregnancy pillow? 267 dollars is too much."

So, I returned it.

That month, my back hurt so much that I couldn't sleep, so I used a pillow for support.

He slept in the next room, saying my tossing and turning kept him up.

And in that same month, he dropped 953,000 dollars, paid in full, for an apartment.

It wasn't for us, but for the person who lived in that address, where the 132,700-dollar bag was sent.

I took a photo of the property details and saved it in a separate album. Then I drove back to the office.

On the way, I got a call from my daughter, Nancy Roper.

"Mom, I got an A on my math test today," she said.

"That's awesome, Nancy," I replied.

"Mom, can I have those sneakers we saw at the mall last time?"

I paused for a second.

Those shoes cost 150 dollars.

Last month, when Nancy asked for them, Kayce said, "Kids don't need designer stuff. Just buy her a normal pair."

In science, Nancy walked away with her head down.

That night, she wrote in her diary, and I sneaked a peek. [Dad says I shouldn't want designer shoes. But I see so many kids in my class wearing them. Am I being too greedy?]

So, when she asked about it again, I said, "Sure, I'll buy them for you today."

"Really? Thank you, Mom," Nancy exclaimed.

I hung up the phone.

My knuckles went white as I gripped the steering wheel.

Kayce said 150 dollars for sneakers was way too much, but when it came to a 132,700-dollar bag, he didn't bat an eye.