Chapter 5: Forty-Two Thousand Dollars
I pulled my wrist from Rebecca’s hand.
“Who is outside?””
She didn’t answer.
The knocking came again.
“Rebecca.””
“I don’t know.””
“You just said you knew.””
“I said I thought I knew.””
“Who?””
Before she could answer, a voice came through the door.
“Rebecca? It’s me.””
Michael.
I stared at her.
Her shoulders dropped with relief.
That reaction made me even more suspicious.
I opened the door.
“I told you to stay in the car.””
Michael looked past me at Rebecca.
“We need to talk.””
“No,” I said.
“You need to listen.””
He stepped inside anyway.
Rebecca backed toward the couch.
Michael looked furious.
Not at me.
At her.
“What have you told Sarah?””
Rebecca crossed her arms.
“Enough.””
“Rebecca.””
“Don’t threaten me.””
“I’m not threatening you.””
“You always say that right before you threaten someone.””
I looked between them.
“What is going on?””
Neither answered.
I slammed my hand against the door.
“Someone talks now.””
Rebecca flinched.
Michael closed his eyes.
Finally, Rebecca walked to a small desk in the corner.
She opened a drawer and removed a thick envelope.
“What is that?”” I asked.
“Something Michael gave me.””
Michael’s face changed.
“Rebecca, don’t.””
She turned on him.
“You destroyed her marriage.””
“You helped.””
Rebecca recoiled as if he had struck her.
I stared at them.
“Give me the envelope.””
Rebecca handed it over.
Inside were bank statements.
Photocopies.
Transfer records.
Numbers meant nothing at first.
Then I saw an account ending in 7714.
I recognized it.
Our investment account.
The one Michael had told me was locked into long-term funds.
I looked at the withdrawal.
$42,000.
My mouth went dry.
“You took it from us?””
Michael said nothing.
I flipped to another page.
Another withdrawal.
$18,500.
Then another.
$27,000.
“What is this?””
Michael stepped closer.
“Sarah, those were temporary.””
“Temporary?””
“I was moving money.””
“Where?””
Silence.
Rebecca whispered, “There’s more.””
Michael turned sharply.
“Stop.””
She ignored him.
“He didn’t just pay my debt.””
My fingers tightened around the papers.
“What else?””
“He was moving money into accounts you didn’t know existed.””
I looked at Michael.
“How much?””
“It wasn’t—”
“How much?””
He exhaled.
“About a hundred and eighty thousand.””
My knees nearly gave out.
We were not rich.
That money represented years.
Retirement savings.
Bonuses.
Money from selling my grandmother’s house after she died.
I had trusted Michael to manage part of it because he worked in finance.
“You stole from me.””
“I didn’t steal anything.””
“My inheritance was in that account.””
“It was marital money.””
“That doesn’t mean you get to secretly move it!””
Michael’s voice hardened.
“I was protecting us.””
“From what?””
He looked at Rebecca.
She looked away.
I stepped between them.
“No more looks. No more signals. Talk to me.””
Michael lowered his voice.
“My company was under investigation.””
I stopped.
“For what?””
“Accounting irregularities.””
“And you?””
“I wasn’t charged.””
“That wasn’t my question.””
He stared at me.
“I signed things I shouldn’t have signed.””
The room went silent.
Rebecca sat down.
I remembered the late nights.
The business trips.
The anxiety Michael had blamed on a difficult client.
“When did this happen?””
“Last year.””
“So before Emily?””
“Yes.””
“Why didn’t you tell me?””
“Because I thought I could fix it.””
I laughed bitterly.
“You fixed it by stealing our money and finding a girlfriend?””
“Emily had nothing to do with this.””
“Wonderful. At least your disasters were separate.””
Rebecca suddenly said, “They weren’t.””
Michael spun toward her.
“Enough.””
I looked at Rebecca.
“What do you mean?””
She swallowed.
“Emily works for the company.””
I felt the pieces rearranging.
“What does she do?””
“Compliance.””
Michael stepped toward Rebecca.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.””
She stood.
“I know exactly what I’m talking about.””
Then she faced me.
“Emily discovered the transfers.””
My heartbeat accelerated.
“Did she know Michael moved our money?””
Rebecca nodded.
“She confronted him.””
I remembered Emily crying downtown.
The way she had looked genuinely shocked to learn Michael and I still lived together.
“Then why did she date him?””
“Because Michael told her the transfers were legitimate.””
Michael shook his head.
“This is insane.””
Rebecca pointed at him.
“You told her Sarah authorized them.””
My stomach twisted.
“Did you forge my authorization?””
Michael said nothing.
I stepped toward him.
“Did you?””
His silence answered me.
I turned away because I couldn’t stand looking at his face.
Then Rebecca said something else.
“Sarah, the forty-two thousand wasn’t really for me.””
I turned back.
“What?””
“I owed money, yes. But not forty-two thousand.””
“How much?””
“Eight thousand.””
The papers shook in my hands.
“Then where did the rest go?””
Rebecca walked to her laptop.
She opened it.
Typed a password.
Then turned the screen toward me.
There was a photograph.
Michael.
Emily.
And a third person.
A man I had never seen before.
They were sitting together inside a restaurant.
A date appeared in the corner.
Nine months ago.
One month before Michael supposedly started seeing Emily.
“Who is he?””
Rebecca’s voice dropped.
“That’s the man investigating Michael’s company.””
I stared at the picture.
Then at my husband.
Michael’s face had lost all color.
And suddenly I understood why he had been so desperate to control the story.
May you like
The affair wasn’t the secret.
It was the cover.
