Chapter 2

The next day, I hired a private investigator.

He was expensive, but her father' s money, which was now my money too, could afford it.

I gave him a name: Leo.

And a picture from Chloe' s old college photos.

It took him less than 48 hours.

"He' s a musician," the PI told me over the phone. "Plays guitar at a high-end lounge downtown. The kind of place with VIP rooms."

"Is she there?" I asked.

"She is. Every Tuesday. Like clockwork."

That Friday, the PI got me into the security room of the venue. It was behind the bar, a small, dark space with a wall of monitors.

One monitor showed the interior of a VIP lounge.

And there, on a plush leather couch, was Chloe.

Leo was beside her, his arm draped casually around her shoulders. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear. She threw her head back and laughed, a genuine, unrestrained laugh I hadn't heard in years.

The PI handed me a pair of headphones connected to a directional mic.

"They' re talking to her friends," he said.

I put them on. The sound was crystal clear.

"…and the best part," Chloe was saying, taking a sip of champagne, "was when Ethan actually had him served with a restraining order. I mean, the drama! It was so intense."

Her friend, a woman I recognized from our wedding, giggled. "So that' s what finally won you over?"

Chloe leaned into Leo, kissing his neck.

"It was his passion," she said, her voice husky. "It was dangerous. After years of Ethan' s boring, safe predictability, I needed this. That piece of paper just made it… irresistible."

I watched as Leo' s hand slid from her shoulder down to her waist, his fingers tracing circles on her hip.

I took off the headphones and handed them back to the PI.

My sacrifice. My protection. My "boring, safe predictability."

It wasn't a barrier to their affair.

It was foreplay.

The PI looked at me, his expression unreadable. "I recorded it all. Audio and video. What do you want me to do now?"

I stared at the screen, at my wife' s smiling face.

"Nothing," I said. "Just send me the files."

My heart wasn' t broken. It was just… gone. Replaced by something cold and hard.