Look at us. We’re finally doing this right.
The screenshot showed $312,000.
I checked the current joint investment account.
$84,000.
My stomach tightened.
Where had the rest gone?
The next morning, Audrey had more answers.
Not all.
Enough.
Account 4412 belonged to an LLC.
Lakefront Residential Partners.
Organizer: Corbin Vale.
Registered eighteen months earlier.
I had never heard of it.
“Property investment?”
“Possibly.”
“Does it own anything?”
“One condo in Evanston.”
I froze.
“What?”
Audrey turned the screen.
A two-bedroom condo near the lake.
Purchased for $465,000.
Owner: Lakefront Residential Partners LLC.
Mortgage attached.
Down payment approximately $120,000.
I stared.
“Who lives there?”
Audrey looked at me.
“I had someone check public utilities and address links.”
My stomach tightened.
“Mara Ellison.”
There it was.
Not just an affair.
A home.
He had used our money to help buy her a condo.
I covered my mouth.
Audrey waited.
“She lives there with Theo?”
“It appears so.”
“And the new baby.”
“Presumably.”
I looked at the ceiling.
For almost three years, I had believed I was sending money home.
In a way, I was.
Just not to mine.
Audrey slid another document toward me.
“There’s something else.”
I almost laughed.
“There’s always something else.”
“The Evanston condo was purchased eight months before your divorce would have become relevant.”
“What divorce?”
She looked at me.
“Exactly.”
I frowned.
Then understood.
Corbin had been planning something long before I came home.
“Do you think he was preparing to leave me?”
“I think he created a separate asset structure.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean divorce.”
“It does mean planning.”
I thought of the woman at O’Hare.
Theo lifting his arms.
Corbin picking him up.
Normal.
Practiced.
I whispered, “How old is Theo?”
Audrey checked.
“Three years and four months.”
My stomach dropped.
I had been abroad for almost three years.
He had been born four months before I left.
That timeline hit me differently.
Mara had not necessarily entered Corbin’s life after I left.
She had been there before.
I called Audrey back when I realized it.
She answered immediately.
“What?”
“The boy.”
“What about him?”
“He’s older than my assignment.”
A pause.
“I know.”
“You knew?”
