My whole professional life had been built on noticing the small wrong detail in a sea of right ones, the single figure that did not reconcile.

And yet, for those first three days, I noticed nothing at all.

I have forgiven myself for that, mostly.

You do not audit the people you love.

You simply love them, and trust that the books are clean.

That is the blind spot at the heart of every intimate betrayal, and it is not a flaw so much as the price of love itself.

You cannot audit a husband the way you audit a client.