The folder opened with a soft scrape against the kitchen table.
Bennett stood just inside the front door, one hand still wrapped around the handle of his black suitcase.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
His eyes moved from Elise to the sealed boxes stacked neatly along the wall, then to the laptop beside her elbow.
His laptop.
The color changed in his face.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Elise found the question almost unbelievable.
Not What did I do?
Not Can we talk?
Not I’m sorry.
What did you do?
As if the danger in their marriage had begun when she stopped accepting his lies.
She rested one hand on the folder.
“I took your advice.”
His expression hardened.
“What advice?”
“You told me to call a lawyer.”
Bennett’s grip tightened around the suitcase handle.
Then he gave a short laugh.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
Elise had heard that tone before.
It was the voice he used whenever he wanted her to doubt her own memory.
She did not argue.
She simply turned the first page toward him.
A printed copy of the Lake Tahoe reservation sat on top.
Bennett glanced at it and immediately looked away.
“So you invaded my privacy.”
“The cabin was paid for with our joint credit card.”
“It was a work trip.”
Elise slid the next page forward.
Couples massage.
Romantic dinner package.
Complimentary champagne.
Bennett’s jaw moved.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No,” Elise said.
“It doesn’t prove everything.”
She turned another page.
Restaurant charges.
Hotel bills.
Jewelry purchases.
Then the transfers.
Eleven months of money moving out in careful amounts.
Bennett stopped pretending to look bored.
His eyes locked onto the page.
“Where did you get that?”
“The laptop you forgot.”
“You had no right.”
Elise almost smiled at the word right.
For years, Bennett had treated trust like a door he was entitled to walk through while locking it behind himself.
Now that the door had opened both ways, he was furious.
He abandoned the suitcase near the entryway and came toward the table.
Elise did not move.
“Give me the laptop.”
“No.”
