And she had left him the moment he lost the very things that had made him worth having, revealing that what she had loved was never Julian at all, but his salary, his status, his expense account, the shine of a successful man.

He had betrayed a wife who loved him for a woman who loved his money, and when the money vanished, so did she, and he was left with neither.

I felt no need to gloat about it.

It was simply what happens, in the end, to people who mistake shine for substance: the shine goes, and they find they are holding nothing at all.

The last I heard, Julian was working as an entry-level accounts manager for a small logistics firm across town, earning a fraction of his former salary, and paying half of what remained back to me in legal settlements and child support.