He Apologized to the Woman Who Burned Me

"See, the trick isn't hiding the bank statements," Daniel's voice echoed through the living room. "It's making sure the billing address doesn't even exist."

I kept the microfiber cloth pressed flat against the glass coffee table. The television had switched on by itself, shifting from a black standby screen to a live casting feed.

A young woman, maybe twenty-two, giggled. "You're so bad, Danny."

She sat straddling his lap on the deck of a sun-drenched yacht. Daniel adjusted his aviator sunglasses, leaning back into the white leather cushions.

I didn't drop the rag. My gaze slid to the top right corner of the screen.

Live Viewers: 1,402.

"Danny, they're asking questions," the girl said, pointing a manicured finger at the camera lens.

I stepped closer to the television. Sunlight bounced off the platinum Patek Philippe on his left wrist. I bought him that watch for our tenth anniversary, two years ago. I had spent six months saving for it.

I glanced down at my own wrist. It was exactly 6:15 PM on a Wednesday.

"I'm heading to Boston for jury selection," he had told me at seven o'clock that morning, kissing my cheek by the front door.

The turquoise ocean rolling behind the yacht did not belong to Massachusetts.

"Alright, let's see what we have in the chat," Daniel said. He sounded like a slick radio host. An arrogant frat boy. Never the quiet, exhausted partner who came home to me every night.

"Counselor, what about the hotel deposit?" he read aloud from the scrolling text. "Good question, User889. Always use cash for the incidental hold. Tell the front desk your corporate card is locked for travel fraud. They take the cash, and no paper trail hits the joint account."

"Ooh, smart," the girl cooed, tracing his jawline.

Twelve years of marriage. Twelve years of believing the man on screen was a stranger to this version of him.

For one second, my throat closed around something hot and sharp. The cloth in my hand twisted. I forced my fingers to relax.

Not yet. Not here.

I walked into the kitchen, picked up my phone from the marble island, and swiped down to the control center. I tapped the screen record icon. A small red dot appeared at the top of my display.

I returned to the living room and held the phone up, framing the entire sixty-five-inch television within my camera view.

"Counselor, she tracks my location on Find My Friends," Daniel read, chuckling loudly.

"Leave the iPad at the office," he instructed the camera. "Turn off location sharing on your phone, turn it on for the iPad. Have your paralegal tap the screen every few hours so it stays active."

"Does your wife ever check that stuff?" the young woman asked, resting her chin on his chest.

"Margaret?" Daniel laughed, a sharp, dismissive sound. "She thinks I'm in a federal courthouse in Boston right now. She doesn't know how to open a PDF, let alone track an IP address."

I kept my arms locked in place. The red numbers on my recording timer ticked past four minutes.

"What about the scent? Perfume on the collar?" Daniel read another question from the chat.

"Good one." He pointed at the camera. "You keep a spare bottle of your wife's exact perfume in your car console. Before you walk in the front door, you spray a tiny bit on your own wrist and rub it on your neck. If she smells anything, she thinks it's just her own scent lingering on you from the morning kiss."

The girl gasped. "Danny! That is genius."

"I know," he smirked. "Margaret wears this basic floral stuff. I spray it on my jacket before I walk through the garage door."

"Babe, hand me my wallet," Daniel told someone off-camera. A hand passed a leather bifold into the frame.

He pulled out a sleek black credit card.

"Just put the champagne on the Visa ending in 4092," he said, handing it back. "Yeah, book the suite at the Waldorf in South Beach for tomorrow night, too."

I zoomed in slightly. I had never seen a card ending in 4092.

"Danny, they want a tour of the boat," the girl whined.

"In a minute. Let me help these guys out first. What else you got, chat?"

The text scrolled furiously across the bottom of the feed.

"How do you handle the guilt?" Daniel read, raising an eyebrow. He scoffed. "There is no guilt. You have to understand the dynamic at home."

"Tell them why you need a vacation," the girl teased, tugging on the collar of his linen shirt.

Daniel leaned closer to the microphone. The recording timer on my phone hit eleven minutes.

"Guys, you want to know the real reason I need a getaway?" he asked, a cruel smile forming on his lips.

The young woman nodded eagerly.

"My wife insists on wearing socks to bed," Daniel said to the thousands of strangers. "Not just normal socks. The thick, hideous wool ones her grandmother knitted before she died. She claims her circulation is bad."

The girl wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Wool socks in bed?"

"It gets worse," Daniel continued, playing to his audience. "She actually has a whole routine. She lines up her little pill bottles on the nightstand. It sounds like a maraca band every time she goes to sleep."

"Does she make you take them too?" the girl asked.

"I'd rather swallow poison," Daniel shot back. "If I even brush my foot against her under the covers, she kicks me. Hard. Twelve years of marriage, and I have to sleep next to a porcupine who smells like mothballs."

The girl threw her head back, laughing hysterically. "That is so gross, Danny!"

"And she wonders why the spark is gone," Daniel added, shaking his head in mock pity. "I haven't touched her in six months. Who could?"

I pressed the red square on my screen. The recording stopped and saved to my gallery.

On the television, the yacht's heavy engine roared to life, drowning out whatever joke Daniel made next.

I placed my phone face down on the glass table.

For a long moment I just stood there. My grandmother's wool socks. The pill bottles for the migraines I had carried since my father died. He had taken those things, the most ordinary, fragile things in our shared bed, and traded them to a chatroom for applause.

I felt something quiet and final lock into place behind my sternum.

I walked back into the kitchen and opened the third drawer down. I pushed aside the wooden spatulas, the silver measuring spoons, and a stack of takeout menus.

My fingers found the small brass key hidden in the very back corner.

I closed the drawer.

I walked down the hallway, my bare feet silent against the hardwood floor. I stopped in front of the heavy oak door at the end of the corridor.

Daniel's home office.

"Client confidentiality," he had told me the day we bought this house. "Never go in here, Maggie. It's a federal offense if you see the wrong document."

He kept it locked twenty-four hours a day.

I slid the brass key into the deadbolt. I had copied it from his keychain five years ago while he was in the shower. Just in case of an emergency.

I turned the key.

A heavy click echoed in the quiet hallway.

I pushed the door open, stepping into the space my husband had guarded for twelve years, and reached for the light switch.