I DROPPED LILY AT SCHOOL AND WENT HOME

For three hours, I downloaded everything.

Bank statements.

Mortgage information.

Tax returns.

Investment accounts.

Lily’s education fund.

My studio accounts.

Adrian’s retirement statements.

Credit cards.

At first, nothing looked dramatic.

Then I noticed a transfer.

$9,800.

From our general investment account.

Five months earlier.

Memo:

Strategic consulting.

Another.

$12,400.

Three months later.

Capital advisory.

Then $7,500.

A month ago.

I had approved none of them.

But Adrian managed most of our investments.

We had always agreed he could move money between accounts if he told me afterward.

Had he told me?

Maybe.

I searched emails.

Nothing.

Then Lily’s education account.

The balance seemed slightly lower than I remembered.

Not catastrophically.

Enough that I would have missed it.

There had been three withdrawals.

$4,900.

$4,950.

$4,850.

All deliberately below $5,000.

My stomach tightened.

Our bank required additional confirmation for education-fund withdrawals above five thousand.

Anything below could be initiated through our shared financial login.

Adrian knew that.

I called Monica again.

She said:

“Do not accuse him yet.”

“He’s taking money from Lily.”

“We don’t know that.”

“It’s gone.”

“We need to know where.”

“I’m going to the airport.”

Silence.

“Claire.”

“I need to see them.”

“Seeing them won’t tell you where the money went.”

“No.”

“But it will tell me whether the rest is real.”

She sighed.

“Document. Don’t create a scene.”

“I won’t.”

I meant it.