What I felt then was not heartbreak. I want to name it accurately because the story deserves accuracy. What I felt was a cold, settling recognition of a number that doesn’t reconcile, a column that won’t balance. Something was wrong in the ledger. I had known this feeling in most audits I’d ever run. Facts, like numbers, never lie.
Because it was my area, I began paying attention to money. Money is where the truth lies when people are lying. Small withdrawals. A credit card I didn’t recognize on a statement I nearly missed. A hotel charge in a city he told me he hadn’t visited since February. He had been there in April.