Chapter 2 - The Ghost in the Machine
The sun began to rise,
casting a pale gray light through the living room windows.
I hadn't slept a single minute.
My eyes burned,
but my mind was incredibly sharp.
I stood up,
my joints aching from sitting in the same position all night.
I needed to know everything.
I needed to know when it started,
how long it had been going on,
and how deep the betrayal went.
I walked into Calvin's home office.
It was a room I rarely entered.
He always said he needed his private space for work.
I had respected that boundary.
Like a fool,
I had respected a man who had no respect for me.
His laptop was sitting on the mahogany desk,
closed and silent.
I opened it.
The password prompt appeared.
I typed in his birthday.
Incorrect.
I typed in our anniversary.
Incorrect.
I paused,
my fingers hovering over the keys.
I thought about his ego.
I thought about the woman he was currently sleeping with.
I typed in Stephanie's birth year,
followed by his initials.
The screen unlocked instantly.
A wave of nausea hit me,
so strong I had to grip the edge of the desk to stay standing.
He had changed his password to include her.
It was such a small detail,
but it felt like a dagger twisting in my ribs.
I opened his email browser.
He had a personal account that I knew about,
but there was another tab open.
An email address I had never seen before.
An encrypted,
secure email service.
I clicked on the inbox.
There were hundreds of emails.
Not just between him and Stephanie.
But between him,
Stephanie,
and a real estate attorney.
I frowned,
leaning closer to the glowing screen.
Why would they be talking to a real estate attorney?
I clicked on the most recent email thread,
dated just three days ago.
The subject line read: "Finalizing the Transfer."
My heart began to pound against my chest,
a frantic,
terrifying rhythm.
I read the email.
"Calvin,
the LLC has been successfully registered under both your name and Stephanie's name.
The initial deposit of two hundred thousand dollars has cleared.
We are ready to close on the commercial property on 5th Avenue."
I stopped breathing.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
I read the number again.
And again.
And again.
It didn't change.
Where did Calvin get two hundred thousand dollars?
We both had good jobs,
but we lived in an expensive city.
Our joint savings account had exactly two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in it.
It was the money my grandfather had left me when he passed away,
combined with the money we had saved for a down payment on a house.
A cold sweat broke out across my forehead.
My hands finally started to shake.
I minimized the email window.
I opened a new tab.
I typed in the web address for our joint bank account.
I logged in.
The loading icon spun on the screen for what felt like an eternity.
And then the dashboard appeared.
Available Balance:
Fifteen thousand dollars.
I stared at the screen.
I blinked,
rubbing my eyes,
convinced that the lack of sleep was playing tricks on my vision.
But the number remained the same.
Fifteen thousand dollars.
I clicked on the transaction history.
Four days ago.
A wire transfer.
Amount: Two hundred thousand dollars.
Destination: A corporate account under the name "CS Holdings LLC."
CS.
Calvin and Stephanie.
They hadn't just broken my heart.
They hadn't just destroyed my marriage and my friendship.
They had stolen my future.
They had stolen my grandfather's inheritance.
They had taken everything I had ever worked for.
I fell back into the leather desk chair,
the air completely knocked out of my lungs.
This wasn't just an affair.
May you like
This was a calculated,
cold-blooded financial crime.
