I hope the life you chose was worth the one you abandoned.
My hands started shaking.
I dropped the page.
“Jesus.”
Corinne had worked as a forensic financial analyst before we married.
Not bookkeeping.
Not household budgeting.
Forensic analysis.
She spent years tracing hidden assets, fraudulent transfers, shell payments, and financial inconsistencies.
After Owen was born, she had agreed to step away from her career.
I encouraged it.
More than encouraged it.
I told her our family needed her.
I told her I earned enough for both of us.
I told her she deserved time to be a mother.
And sometimes, when I was trying to be funny in front of friends, I joked that Corinne had traded spreadsheets for baby blankets.
She would smile.
Now I understood what I had failed to understand about my wife years.
Corinne had not forgotten how to follow money simply because she stopped receiving a paycheck.
