I Forgot to Tell My Husband the Security Camera Was Fixed Before My Business Trip

Eight months.

I’d been married to this man for six years, and for eight months he’d been living a double life.

“And now she’s pregnant,” Daniel continued.

The room spun.

Marcus let out a low whistle. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said bitterly. “Holy shit is right.”

“Does Laura know?”

“No. And she can’t find out. That’s the whole point.”

“So what, you’re just gonna steal money and run off with this other woman?”

“No,” Daniel said quickly. “No, I’m not leaving Laura. I can’t. We have the condo, her job, everything. I just… I need to make this go away.”

“Make it go away,” Marcus repeated slowly. “What does that mean?”

Daniel’s voice dropped even lower. “She wants money. The girl. She’s threatening to tell Laura everything if I don’t pay her.”

“So this is blackmail.”

“Basically.”

“How much does she want?”

“Fifteen thousand.”

Marcus let out a breath. “And you don’t have it.”

“Everything’s tied up in the condo, or in joint accounts Laura monitors. The only cash we have that she doesn’t track closely is what’s in the safe. About twelve grand. If I can get that, plus what I have saved separately, I can pay her off and end this.”

“And you think faking a robbery is the way to do this.”

“It’s the only way,” Daniel said. “If I just take the money, Laura will notice immediately. But if we make it look like a break-in, she’ll think it was random. She’ll file an insurance claim. We’ll get most of it back eventually. She’ll never know.”

I couldn’t breathe.

The calculation behind it. The planning. The cold, mechanical way he’d mapped out how to betray me.

Marcus was shaking his head. “This is a terrible idea, man. You’re going to get caught.”

“No, I won’t. Laura’s out of town for two weeks. If we do it this week, I can file the police report, act all shocked and upset when she gets home. It’ll be over before she even knows something happened.”