Chapter 5 - The First Warning (Twenty-Three Days Earlier)The path to the freezing Atlantic had begun exactly twenty-three days earlier, starting with a leather document case hidden beneath a stack of old financial reports in Adrian’s home office.
It was a Tuesday evening. I was searching for our previous year’s tax records because a family accountant had requested them for a routine audit. Adrian was attending a high-profile fundraising dinner for a mayoral candidate, and I expected his office to yield nothing more interesting than dull invoices and investment summaries. Instead, tucked in the back of his lowest desk drawer, I found the document case secured with a small combination lock.
Ordinarily, I would have left it alone. Four years of marriage had trained me to distrust my own suspicion. Adrian often accused me of becoming intrusive or "paranoid" whenever I questioned his unexplained expenses or late-night absences. He framed privacy as evidence of trust, and questions as evidence of my growing instability. Over time, I had begun asking myself whether my instincts were unfair before I ever asked whether his actions were dishonest.
That evening, however, something primal inside me refused to retreat. My hands moved to the dial.
The lock opened after four attempts. Adrian was arrogant, but he was also predictable; he used the year he graduated from university for nearly every passcode he owned.
Inside the case was a thick stack of papers, on top of which lay a recently amended life insurance policy. I scanned the text, my blood running cold. The payout in the event of accidental death had been increased from five million dollars to fifty million.
May you like
Adrian was listed as the sole primary beneficiary.
My signature appeared at the bottom of the final page. I touched the ink. It was a flawless forgery. I had never seen this document in my life. I spent the next twenty minutes photographing every single page with my phone, my hands shaking so badly the camera kept blurring. When I was finished, I locked the case and returned it exactly as I found it.
Related Stories
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1048x378:1050x380)/Jenna-Bush-Hager-100223-c94955eb572d47ea815a340c18c6e771.jpg)
