That is the detail that has cost me the most sleep, in the time since — not the theft, but the eight years of not seeing.

Because I am not a foolish woman.

I am careful, and observant, and I had built a good life largely through my own good judgment.

And still, for eight years, I lived beside a man capable of this, and I did not know.

I have had to make my peace with that, and the peace I have made is not a comfortable one, but it is at least honest.

The truth is that a certain kind of person is very, very good at hiding what they are, and that the person best positioned to be deceived by them is precisely the one who loves them, because love does the deceiver’s work for them.