Chapter 4
For a moment, the traffic around me seemed to disappear.
“What?”
“Your full name. Your old address. Your passport information.”
A memory returned.
Three years earlier, Jason had handed me several documents before a business trip.
“Just bank paperwork,” he had said. “Spousal verification for an international account.”
I had signed them without reading every page.
Because he was my husband.
Because I trusted him.
I called an attorney.
By that evening, I had been warned not to confront Jason about the offshore company until specialists reviewed the records.
But Jason called me first.
“What did you say to Chloe?”
I ignored the question.
“Why did your company report almost half a million dollars less revenue than its bank deposits last year?”
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
“Who gave you access to my books?”
“You did, Jason. For four years.”
Another silence.
“Come home,” he said.
This time, it wasn’t anger in his voice.
It was fear.
And I was about to learn that the husband who had cheated on me had done something much worse than betray our marriage.
He might have used my identity to protect himself.
PART 3
Jason was waiting in the living room when I returned.
He didn’t apologize for my bruised face.
He didn’t ask whether I had seen a doctor.
He pointed at the folder in my hand.
“Talk.”
I sat across from him.
“Your company underreported revenue. Vendor payments don’t match invoices. Money was transferred offshore. And there is a company registered in my name that I never created.”
His jaw tightened.
“Who’s been digging through my accounts?”
“Nobody hacked anything. These are records I was legally authorized to see when I handled your books.”
“You hired a lawyer?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“Because I slapped you once?”
I stared at him.
He realized too late what he had said.
“I didn’t mean—”
“That is exactly what you meant.”
“I had been drinking.”
“You hit me hard enough to make my nose bleed.”
“It was one mistake.”
I placed the urgent-care photographs on the table.
Then I added formal separation papers.
Jason looked down.
“What is this?”
“A temporary financial agreement. Neither of us transfers, hides, sells, or destroys marital property while the divorce is pending.”
“You think you’re taking my company?”
“Your company existed before we married. But it tripled in value during the marriage. I spent eighteen months working without salary. I built your accounting system and personally guaranteed the first warehouse lease.”