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

“And you want me to be the one to fake the break-in.”

“I’ll pay you,” Daniel said. “Two thousand dollars. Cash. All you have to do is jimmy the window, make it look like someone forced entry, trash the place a little. You don’t even have to actually take anything—I’ll remove the money from the safe myself beforehand.”

Marcus was quiet for a long time, staring at his beer bottle.

“I don’t know, man,” he finally said. “This feels really wrong.”

“Please,” Daniel said, and there was real desperation in his voice. “I’m drowning here. If Laura finds out, she’ll leave me. I’ll lose everything. I just need this one thing, and then it’s over. I’ll never ask you for anything again.”

Another long silence.

Then Marcus sighed.

“When do you want to do it?”

Relief flooded Daniel’s face. “Friday night. Laura gets back next Friday, so we need to do it before then. I’ll text you the details.”

They clinked beer bottles like they were celebrating a business deal instead of planning a crime.

The footage ended a few minutes later when they both stood up and left the apartment.

I sat staring at the frozen screen, my hands clenched so tightly my nails dug into my palms.

Eight months.

A pregnant mistress.

Blackmail.

A staged robbery.

All of it planned while I was away working, while I was calling him every night from lonely hotel rooms saying I missed him.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw the laptop across the room.

Instead, I very carefully saved the video file to three different locations—my computer, a USB drive, and a private cloud account Daniel didn’t have access to.

Then I stood up and walked through the apartment, looking at everything with new eyes.

The photos on the shelves—were they lies? The bed we shared—had he brought her here? The kitchen where we used to cook together on Sunday mornings—was that all fake too?

Everything felt contaminated.

I checked the calendar on my phone. Today was Friday. The day after the robbery was supposed to have happened.

Had he already done it? Was the money already gone?

I walked over to the bookshelf and moved aside the false panel that hid the safe.

My hands shook as I entered the combination.

The door swung open.