They showed a long, patient pattern of money leaving a commercial account I used to run my business, flowing to destinations I had never authorized, from a device that was registered to my husband’s phone.

I did not need to explain the mechanics; the pattern spoke for itself, small sums siphoned off over eighteen months and disguised in the ledger as ordinary business expenses, and I will not spell out the method here, because a manual for quietly stealing from someone who trusts you is not a thing worth writing down.

It is enough to say that when Paula set down the final statement, showing where all of it had gone, the full weight of the betrayal was laid bare on my desk.

In total, my husband had stolen over twenty-five thousand dollars from my business.