The first punch landed clean enough to make my wife smile

 

Not confusion.

 

Recognition.

 

Derek jerked violently.

 

“What?”

 

I loosened my position just enough.

 

 

“Claire stole seventy-two thousand from our savings and forged my name on a sixty-five-thousand-dollar equity line.”

 

His breathing changed.

 

Tiny detail.

 

Most people wouldn’t notice.

 

I did.

 

“Let go of me.”

 

“Where did it go?”

 

“You’re crazy.”

 

The clock showed 1:47.

 

Derek tried to

roll.

 

I followed.

 

He elbowed backward.

 

His glove clipped my brow.

 

I shifted.

 

“You knew,” I said.

 

“Go to hell.”

 

“Probably eventually.”

 

Then Derek did something strange.

 

He looked toward Claire.

 

Not for encouragement.

 

For instruction.

 

Claire’s face had gone pale.

&

nbsp;

There.

 

That was the moment.

 

The affair wasn’t the whole story.

 

I released Derek and stood.

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