“Of course he did.”
“But your old door camera account still works.”
I had forgotten the system was registered under my email.
I logged in.
Most of the footage was useless.
Daniel leaving.
Deliveries.
Lauren arriving twice while I had been working late.
That hurt.
But then I found something from three months earlier.
A FedEx driver approached the door.
He carried a legal envelope.
The label showed:
Rachel Sloan — Bennett Family Trust
I watched Daniel open the door.
Sign.
Carry the envelope inside.
I remembered that package.
Rachel had asked me weeks later whether I received a preliminary trust disclosure.
I told her no.
She assumed it had been lost.
It hadn’t been lost.
Daniel had taken it.
I fast-forwarded.
Twenty-three minutes later, Daniel left the house.
The envelope was in his hand.
Opened.
He stood beside his car photographing pages with his phone.
I stared at the screen.
There it was.
No mysterious military leak.
No sophisticated hacking.
No shadow conspiracy.
My husband simply opened mail addressed to me.
Then photographed confidential financial documents.
Rachel watched the recording twice.
“I can work with this.”
I almost smiled.
“That’s the happiest I’ve seen you all day.”
“I enjoy evidence.”
“So do I.”
The next recording hurt more.
Lauren arrived that night.
Daniel handed her copies of the papers.
She hugged him.
Then kissed him.
Three months.
Their affair had been going on for at least three months.
But as I watched, I noticed something.
Lauren kept pointing to the documents.
Daniel kept shaking his head.
They were arguing.
Which meant whatever story he had told her might not match reality.
That mattered later.
Part Six — Lauren Came Back
Two days after Clara was born, Lauren asked to speak with me.
My first answer was no.
Then Rachel said:
“You should hear what she has to say.”
So Lauren entered the room without the cream suit.
No diamond ring.
No perfect makeup.
Just jeans, a sweater, and swollen eyes.
She sat across from me.
“I owe you an apology.”
“Yes.”
She blinked.
Apparently, she expected me to make it easier.
