Ethan did not need to be smarter to avoid his fate.

He needed only to be less sure of himself, curious enough to read a document, humble enough to check a deed, uncertain enough to wonder whether his wife might be more than she appeared.

He was none of those things, because he had never once, in his comfortable life, been made to be.

His certainty had always been rewarded.

It had never before met a wife who read the fine print for a living.

I did not defeat Ethan with a clever trick.