\u201cWe need to call the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
But curiosity is a powerful drug.<\/p>\n
And fear makes people stupid.<\/p>\n
Five minutes later we were standing inside the garage.<\/p>\n
Together.<\/p>\n
The air smelled like cardboard, paint, and old tools.<\/p>\n
Everything looked normal.<\/p>\n
At first.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed something.<\/p>\n
A small brown package sitting beside the boxes that still held some of David\u2019s old belongings.<\/p>\n
It hadn\u2019t been there earlier.<\/p>\n
I was sure of it.<\/p>\n
David saw it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ignored him.<\/p>\n
Carefully, I approached.<\/p>\n
No label.<\/p>\n
No address.<\/p>\n
No shipping sticker.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Just a plain cardboard box.<\/p>\n
The kind you could buy anywhere.<\/p>\n
I slowly lifted the lid.<\/p>\n
Inside was a stack of papers.<\/p>\n
And on top sat a pink label.<\/p>\n
The exact same kind I had once placed all over my house.<\/p>\n
Except this one had different words written on it.<\/p>\n
PROPERTY OF CHLOE.<\/p>\n
UNDER INVESTIGATION.<\/p>\n
A chill ran through my entire body.<\/p>\n
I looked underneath.<\/p>\n
The stack contained photographs.<\/p>\n
More photographs.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of them.<\/p>\n
Some were recent.<\/p>\n
Others weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Some dated back months.<\/p>\n
Others nearly a year.<\/p>\n
There were pictures of me leaving work.<\/p>\n
Pictures of David entering his office.<\/p>\n
Pictures of Victoria.<\/p>\n
Pictures of Ryan.<\/p>\n
Pictures of Sarah.<\/p>\n
Pictures of the kids.<\/p>\n
My stomach turned.<\/p>\n
Whoever this person was\u2026<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t watching one of us.<\/p>\n
They were watching all of us.<\/p>\n
David looked sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t Marcus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
I flipped through more photos.<\/p>\n
Doctors\u2019 offices.<\/p>\n
Restaurants.<\/p>\n
Parking lots.<\/p>\n
Family gatherings.<\/p>\n
Even one taken during the infamous Saturday dinner months ago.<\/p>\n
The same dinner where Victoria first suggested separate finances.<\/p>\n
The same dinner that started everything.<\/p>\n
My pulse pounded.<\/p>\n
Then I found the envelope.<\/p>\n
A yellow folder hidden beneath the photographs.<\/p>\n
Inside were documents.<\/p>\n
Printed emails.<\/p>\n
Screenshots.<\/p>\n
Financial records.<\/p>\n
Names.<\/p>\n
Dates.<\/p>\n
Transfers.<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
Because one name appeared repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Victoria Miller.<\/p>\n
I looked up at David.<\/p>\n
His face had gone pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
He took the papers.<\/p>\n
Started reading.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
Then read them again.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice cracked.<\/p>\n
And suddenly I realized what terrified me.<\/p>\n
David wasn\u2019t angry.<\/p>\n
He was devastated.<\/p>\n
There is a difference.<\/p>\n
Anger means you expected bad behavior.<\/p>\n
Devastation means you expected better.<\/p>\n
Finally he handed me the first page.<\/p>\n
I read the heading.<\/p>\n
ACCOUNT ACTIVITY SUMMARY<\/p>\n
Below it was a list of transactions.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of them.<\/p>\n
Transfers.<\/p>\n
Withdrawals.<\/p>\n
Deposits.<\/p>\n
Small amounts.<\/p>\n
Large amounts.<\/p>\n
All linked to Victoria.<\/p>\n
And another name.<\/p>\n
A name I recognized instantly.<\/p>\n
Marcus Hayes.<\/p>\n
The room spun.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
David grabbed another page.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Each one worse than the last.<\/p>\n
Victoria.<\/p>\n
Marcus.<\/p>\n
Victoria.<\/p>\n
Marcus.<\/p>\n
Victoria.<\/p>\n
Marcus.<\/p>\n
For almost two years.<\/p>\n
I looked at David.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat am I looking at?\u201d<\/p>\n
His mouth opened.<\/p>\n
Closed.<\/p>\n
Opened again.<\/p>\n
Then finally:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother knows Marcus.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve never met through me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The garage suddenly felt twenty degrees colder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
David sat heavily on a storage bin.<\/p>\n
Like his legs no longer worked.<\/p>\n
Then he whispered something that made my blood freeze.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ve been talking for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
A short nervous laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the dates.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did.<\/p>\n
The earliest communication predated the separation argument.<\/p>\n
Predated the pink labels.<\/p>\n
Predated everything.<\/p>\n
Months before Marcus ever started filling David\u2019s head with poison.<\/p>\n
Months before Victoria started pushing separate finances.<\/p>\n
Months before the Saturday dinner confrontation.<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
Because suddenly a terrible possibility emerged.<\/p>\n
One so ugly I didn\u2019t want to believe it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t finish.<\/p>\n
David did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if this wasn\u2019t an accident?\u201d<\/p>\n
The silence that followed felt endless.<\/p>\n
What if it wasn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
What if Marcus hadn\u2019t randomly influenced David?<\/p>\n
What if Victoria hadn\u2019t coincidentally encouraged it?<\/p>\n
What if somebody had been steering this entire disaster from the beginning?<\/p>\n
The thought made me nauseous.<\/p>\n
Then David found another page.<\/p>\n
And everything got worse.<\/p>\n
Far worse.<\/p>\n
Because this wasn\u2019t just communication.<\/p>\n
There were payments.<\/p>\n
Large payments.<\/p>\n
Repeated payments.<\/p>\n
Marcus had been sending money.<\/p>\n
To Victoria.<\/p>\n
Thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
Over and over.<\/p>\n
David stared at the records.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither did I.<\/p>\n
Why would Marcus pay Victoria?<\/p>\n
What possible reason could there be?<\/p>\n
Then we found the answer.<\/p>\n
Folded inside the final envelope.<\/p>\n
A handwritten letter.<\/p>\n
The handwriting was messy.<\/p>\n
Rushed.<\/p>\n
Almost frantic.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t signed.<\/p>\n
But the contents changed everything.<\/p>\n
The writer claimed Marcus had been obsessed with proving that women manipulated men.<\/p>\n
Obsessed.<\/p>\n
Not annoyed.<\/p>\n
Not bitter.<\/p>\n
Obsessed.<\/p>\n
And apparently, he had become fascinated with David and me after learning that I earned more money than my husband.<\/p>\n
The letter described us like a science experiment.<\/p>\n
A case study.<\/p>\n
A challenge.<\/p>\n
The writer claimed Marcus believed every successful woman eventually humiliated her husband.<\/p>\n
That every marriage like ours would fail if enough pressure was applied.<\/p>\n
And according to the letter\u2026<\/p>\n
He wanted to prove it.<\/p>\n
My hands shook as I read.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
David took the page.<\/p>\n
Read it himself.<\/p>\n
Then sat down again.<\/p>\n
For several minutes neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
Because if the letter was true\u2026<\/p>\n
Then someone had intentionally helped destroy our marriage.<\/p>\n
Not because they loved David.<\/p>\n
Not because they hated me.<\/p>\n
But because they wanted to win an argument.<\/p>\n
Finally I broke the silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho wrote this?\u201d<\/p>\n
David pointed toward the last page.<\/p>\n
There was one sentence.<\/p>\n
Only one.<\/p>\n
I tried to warn you.<\/p>\n
\u2014 J<\/p>\n
Jessica.<\/p>\n
The room fell silent.<\/p>\n
The woman from the photographs.<\/p>\n
The woman everyone thought might be having an affair with David.<\/p>\n
The woman who reported Marcus.<\/p>\n
The woman who apparently knew far more than either of us realized.<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed again.<\/p>\n
Another message.<\/p>\n
Unknown Number.<\/p>\n
This time there was no photograph.<\/p>\n
No threat.<\/p>\n
Just an address.<\/p>\n
A downtown office building.<\/p>\n
And beneath it:<\/p>\n
SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n
MIDNIGHT.<\/p>\n
COME ALONE.<\/p>\n
David stared at the screen.<\/p>\n
I stared at the screen.<\/p>\n
Then we looked at each other.<\/p>\n
Neither of us said what we were thinking.<\/p>\n
Because we were both thinking the same thing.<\/p>\n
If Jessica really knew everything\u2026<\/p>\n
Then midnight was going to change all our lives.<\/p>\n
And somewhere out there, whoever had been watching us already knew we were going\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to call the police.\u201d But curiosity is a powerful drug. And fear makes people stupid. Five minutes later we were standing inside the garage. Together. The air smelled … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1541\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}