I straightened.
“What?”
“When you authorized me years ago to maintain the annual account archive, we retained statements from the cards Jack was permitted to use.
I haven’t reviewed them for personal conduct.
You never asked me to.
But if we’re proceeding with dissolution, they’ll become relevant.”
My stomach tightened.
I knew exactly what he meant.
For years, I had been the person who paid the bills.
But Jack had always insisted that his schedule was too demanding for conversations about individual expenses.
He was a surgeon.
There were conferences, dinners, professional memberships, gifts for staff, last-minute travel.
I had trusted him.
Trust had made me efficient.
It had also made me easy to deceive.
“Preserve everything,” I said.
“Already doing it.”
Below me, Jack had stopped trying to call.
He was now speaking urgently to Carol.
Her expression changed.
She looked at the blonde woman.
Then at Jack.
Then at her own phone.
Ashley stopped taking photographs.
The little performance of the happy family vacation was disintegrating before boarding had even started.
I could have gone downstairs then.
I could have confronted all of them.
But Gerald had taught me something years ago during my accounting work: never interrupt people while they’re showing you how careless they are.
So I watched.
Jack walked several feet away from the group and called again.
This time I answered.
“Megan?” His voice was breathless.
“Where are you?”
I looked directly at him from above, though he hadn’t found me yet.
“I thought you were in surgery.”
Silence.
Behind him, the blonde woman turned toward Carol, confused.
“Megan, listen to me.”
“Which operating room are you in?”
Another silence.
Then his voice hardened.
It was a tone I recognized.
Jack used it whenever charm stopped working.
“This isn’t the time for games.
Something happened with the accounts.”
There it was.
Not an apology.
Not a confession.
The accounts.
I felt the last fragile piece of doubt disappear.
“Something happened with our marriage too,” I said.
“What are you talking about?”
I moved closer to the glass.
“Look up.”
Jack did.
His eyes moved across the terminal until they found me.
