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Kevin eyes me suspiciously. This is probably the most we’ve spoken to each other in days, if not weeks. I could have just walked by his office, but I’m trying to pretend like everything is normal.
“Well, I’ll see you in bed,” I say to end this awkward encounter with my husband.
“Don’t wait up,” he replies.
“Of course.”
I give a half smile and turn to leave. A few steps down the hall, I hear my name being called from Kevin’s office. I let out a low sigh. Maybe I should have just walked past his door.
Making my way back, I find him standing on the opposite side of his desk with his head hanging low. Looking at him while he’s pretending that he’s let his guard down, I can’t help but see signs of the version of him I fell in love with. It’s an act he’s perfected, and I’ve fallen for too many times before.
“Yes?” I ask.
Kevin raises his head and looks at me almost endearingly. Normally, this look would be the crumb I would hold onto for weeks to try to convince myself that I still love him.
“Your roots are starting to show,” he states.
Back to reality, it is.
“I’ll get my hair fixed this week,” I grit through a pretend smile.
Before I have a chance to head to my room, he’s facing his desk and putting on his glasses. Not concerned at all about my reaction. I turn around and disappear down the hallway to our bedroom.
Back in the darkly decorated room, I plop down onto our modern, black-framed bed. I love this bedroom. It’s one room that feels like mine. Since Kevin is rarely home, he didn’t mind that I redecorated this room myself instead of keeping what his interior designer—or I should say what Missy, the interior designer, created. Yes, that Missy is one and the same.
The same one I’m now going to have to sit through a dinner with soon. His assistant will surely send me a calendar invite. Kevin will expect me to clear my schedule to be there. It doesn’t matter if I have any actual plans already scheduled.
This room feels like a sanctuary for me in a way. It’s strange, since we do technically share it. But is it really sharing when days turn into weeks, and you aren’t sure if your spouse will actually show up?
I doubt Kevin will even attempt to sleep in here tonight. The fact that he was home early was startling enough. I’m sure he’ll find his way to one of the guest rooms closer to his office when he’s ready to sleep.
I pull out my laptop from my bottom bedside drawer and begin researching. I need a good attorney and to check my finances. Both my individual account and our joint account.
Our joint account has money in it that Kevin knows about. He contributes to it regularly. What he doesn’t know is that I have an individual account with all of my past assets from before we got married. When we got engaged, he asked me to put the money he knew about into the joint account.
For the betterment of our future together.
He wasn’t fully aware of what I had been given when my dad passed away, and since we decided anything pre-marriage was ours separately, I didn’t correct the assumptions he made.
That’s one decision I am grateful to have made. Somewhere in the back of my mind, in the early dreamy days of dating, I knew better than to tell him the full truth.
Another red flag I blissfully danced right around.
Looking back, he believed me so easily because he never saw me as anything more than a prize. He would never assume how much money I had because all he cared about was that he had found a blue ribbon of a wife who came from any money at all.
Fisher had hidden the remainder of my money in an account for me. He told me down the road, I could tell him about it, but I needed to protect myself first. As the closest thing I had to a father figure at the time, I trusted his guidance. He didn’t trust Kevin when he first met him.
That situation should have been another red flag I cared more about, but I just kept on dancing around that one too.
Sitting on my bed, I begin scrolling through the transactions in our joint checking account first. I notice something strange almost immediately. A lump sum was removed Friday. A very noticeable lump sum.
One hundred thousand dollars was withdrawn.
Even for a couple as well off financially as we are, that’s not something you do every day. I can’t think of anything coming up that would warrant him to remove that much. Surely, he kept a separate account as well, so this would need to be something for us.
Maybe that’s why he called me back into his office about my hair… I must be missing an upcoming event we have to attend.
I can’t think of anything offhand that I would be missing. No charity event, no one’s birthday is happening soon, our anniversary has just passed, and we haven’t firmed up any travel plans for the winter yet. He always wanted to go to Aspen. I hate Aspen.
