I drove him to the airport, and he held my hand the whole way, murmuring about video calls and how he’d miss my cooking. I watched his shoulders disappear through the terminal doors and waited for the hollow ache.

I felt only emptiness.

Chapter 4 — Uncovering the Fraud

Just as I merged back onto the highway, my phone buzzed with an alert from our joint bank account. I read it and swerved onto the shoulder.

Transaction Alert: $15,000.00 charged to Authorized User Card at Lumina Jewelers, Peachtree Street, Atlanta.

Fifteen thousand dollars, just spent at a luxury jeweler downtown. Everett’s flight was supposedly boarding right now — so why was the card on our joint account buying diamonds on Peachtree Street?

There were only two explanations: a brazen thief, or my husband was never at the airport at all. And a thief doesn’t stroll into a guarded boutique to buy diamonds; they grab something they can flip fast.