Then his voice softened.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t sound okay.”
“I had a difficult night.”
“I heard.”
My heart stopped.
“What did you hear?”
He hesitated.
“Your husband called the office early this morning.”
I sat up straight.
“He called you?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me there was a family situation and that you might be resigning.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
Nathan couldn’t wait.
He wanted everyone to believe the decision was mine.
Daniel continued.
“I told him I couldn’t discuss your employment with him.”
“Thank you.”
“And Sofia?”
“Yes?”
“You don’t have to resign.”
I swallowed.
“I know.”
“You earned that promotion.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you quitting?”
I looked through the coffee shop window at the traffic moving outside.
“I need to take care of something first.”
Daniel was quiet.
Then he said:
“Whatever happened, don’t make a permanent decision because you’re hurt.”
His words stayed with me.
“I won’t.”
We ended the call.
I closed my laptop.
Then I drove to the office.
When I entered the building, several people looked at me.
Their eyes went immediately to my head.
I expected whispers.
Instead, my assistant, Lily, ran toward me.
“Oh my God.”
She stopped herself.
“Sorry.”
I smiled.
“It’s okay.”
“What happened?”
“Long story.”
She looked at me carefully.
“Are you safe?”
That question almost broke me.
I nodded.
“Yes.”
She didn’t believe me.
But she didn’t push.
“Daniel wants to see you.”
“I figured.”
I walked into his office.
He stood when he saw me.
His expression changed.
“Sofia.”
“I’m okay.”
He pointed toward the chair.
“Sit.”
I sat.
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He closed the door.
“I don’t want to interfere in your personal life,” he said. “But what happened?”
I stared at my hands.
“My mother-in-law shaved my head while I was sleeping.”
Daniel went completely silent.
“She did what?”
“She wants me to quit.”
“And Nathan?”
I looked at him.
“He agrees with her.”
Daniel leaned back.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he said something I hadn’t expected.
“That’s exactly why I called you in.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
He opened a folder.
“There’s something you need to know.”
He slid a document across the desk.
I picked it up.
It was an internal report.
My name was at the top.
Below it was a list of regional accounts.
“This is your promotion package,” Daniel said.
I looked at him.
“Your new position comes with a significant increase in compensation.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t know.”
He pointed to the final page.
“This is your projected compensation for the next twelve months.”
I looked down.
My eyes widened.
The number was much higher than I expected.
Daniel watched my reaction.
“You were about to become the highest-earning person in your household.”
I stared at the page.
Then everything clicked.
Margaret’s anger.
Nathan’s sudden complaints.
The pressure.
The demands.
The shaving.
The insistence that I quit immediately.
They hadn’t been reacting to my promotion.
They were reacting to what my promotion meant.
I looked up.
“Did Nathan know?”
Daniel frowned.
“I don’t know.”
“But he called you.”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask about my compensation?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“He did.”
My heart sank.
“What exactly did he ask?”
Daniel hesitated.
“He wanted to know whether your promotion was permanent.”
I felt cold.
“What else?”
“He asked when the salary increase would begin.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
“He asked whether the company could revoke the promotion if you stopped working.”
I didn’t move.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I thought it was strange.”
It wasn’t strange.
Not anymore.
It was terrifyingly clear.
Nathan knew.
Margaret knew.
They had been counting on my income.
Maybe for much longer than I realized.
I stood.
“Can I use your office phone?”
“Of course.”
I called the bank.
After going through the security process, I asked about the mysterious account.
The representative wouldn’t give me much information.
But she confirmed something important.
The account was connected to an authorized user.
Nathan.
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The answer.
Nathan had opened another account.
Without telling me.
Money from our household had been moving into it.
I thanked the representative and hung up.
Daniel looked at me.
“Do you want me to call someone?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
I picked up my purse.
“I need to go home.”
“Why?”
“Because I think my husband has been lying to me.”
Daniel didn’t try to stop me.
He simply said:
“Be careful.”
I drove home.
The entire way, memories kept coming back.
The times Nathan said he couldn’t afford dinner.
The times he said his account was empty.
The time he asked me to cover his car payment.
The time Margaret told me that “a good wife doesn’t question her husband’s finances.”
I had believed her.
Now I wondered why.
When I pulled into the driveway, Margaret was standing on the front porch.
Waiting.
She crossed her arms.
“You’re back early.”
“I needed to get something.”
“What?”
I walked past her.
“My laptop.”
She followed me.
“You’re not quitting?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You were supposed to resign.”
“I said I’d handle it.”
“You’re playing games.”
I turned.
“No.”
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She stopped.
“For the first time, I’m paying attention.”
Her expression hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m looking at things I should have looked at years ago.”
She stared at me.
Then something strange happened.
Her confidence disappeared.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Real fear.
“What things?”
I smiled.
“Financial things.”
Her face changed.
“You don’t understand our finances.”
“Apparently not.”
I walked upstairs.
She followed.
I entered our bedroom.
Nathan wasn’t there.
I opened his desk drawer.
Nothing.
Another drawer.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the small safe beneath the desk.
I had never seen it before.
My heart started pounding.
I tried the combination I knew he used for everything.
His birthday.
Nothing.
Our anniversary.
Nothing.
His mother’s birthday.
The lock clicked.
I froze.
The safe opened.
Inside were several envelopes.
A passport.
A small black notebook.
And a stack of bank statements.
I picked up the first statement.
The account was in Nathan’s name.
I read the balance.
Then I sat down.
There was more money in that account than I had in my personal savings.
A lot more.
I opened another statement.
Then another.
Money had been accumulating there for years.
My money.
Household money.
Money I thought was being used to keep our family afloat.
I turned another page.
Then I saw something that made my hands go numb.
There were monthly payments coming out of Nathan’s account.
The recipient was a company.
A property management company.
I recognized the address listed beneath it.
My stomach dropped.
I knew that address.
It belonged to an apartment building downtown.
An apartment I had once believed belonged to a friend of Nathan’s.
A friend he supposedly helped because the man was “going through a divorce.”
But the name on the lease wasn’t his friend’s.
It was Nathan’s.
I stared at the document.
He had been paying for an apartment.
For over a year.
Why?
Before I could process it, the bedroom door opened.
Nathan stood there.
He looked at the open safe.
Then at the papers in my hands.
His face went completely white.
“Sofia.”
I didn’t say anything.
He took one step forward.
“Put that down.”
I looked at him.
“Whose apartment is this?”
He didn’t answer.
