"Yeah. Mine's upstairs."
Before I could ask another question, one of the other children called her name.
Sophie ran away.
I remained crouched beside an empty table.
Across the lawn, Marcus was standing beneath the lights with one hand in his pocket, talking to my brother.
He looked happy.
Relaxed.
Handsome.
My husband.
My husband of less than three hours.
And suddenly I couldn't stop wondering whether he had married me while preparing another life somewhere else.
My best friend Tessa found me a few minutes later.
"You look like you've seen a body."
I looked at Marcus.
Then at Sophie.
"Not here."
Tessa's expression changed instantly.
"What happened?"
"Later."
"You sure?"
"No."
But I wasn't going to destroy my own wedding without knowing what I was destroying it over.
So I smiled.
I cut the cake.
I danced with my husband.
I posed for photographs.
I kissed him when guests clinked their glasses.
And every time Marcus whispered that he loved me, one sentence played in my head.
Daddy goes to see a lady every Saturday.
That night, Marcus fell asleep almost immediately.
I didn't.
At 1:38 a.m., I slipped out of bed wearing one of his old T-shirts and carried his laptop downstairs.
I knew the password.
He knew mine.
We had never behaved like people with secrets.
At least, I hadn't.
Marcus had told me repeatedly that his business was still barely surviving.
So I opened the company banking portal expecting to see exactly what he'd shown me for months.
Low balances.
Late invoices.
Debt.
Instead, I sat perfectly still.
There was money.
A lot of it.
Three months earlier, Marcus's company had received a payment of nearly $240,000 from a hotel development group.
Two weeks later, another client had paid more than $170,000.
Then another large invoice cleared.
The company wasn't dying anymore.
It had recovered.
And Marcus had never told me.
My mouth went dry.
I began scrolling.
That was when I saw the transfers.
$18,500.
$24,000.
$31,200.
$16,750.
Again and again.
Every payment went to the same company.
C. Rowan Property Holdings LLC.
I searched the transaction notes.
Eventually, I found a full name.
Camille Rowan.
My hands began shaking.
Sophie hadn't imagined anything.
There really was a Camille.
And Marcus had secretly transferred more than $150,000 to something connected to her.
Money that existed because my savings had kept his company alive long enough to recover.
I stared at my wedding ring.
Then I called Tessa.
She answered on the third ring.
"Elena?"
"I think Marcus is having an affair."
There was silence.
