PART 3

Panic shot through me.

I tried to close the laptop, but my fingers felt clumsy and useless. Before I could move fast enough, I heard his footsteps coming down the hallway.

Then Sean appeared in the doorway.

For one second, neither of us said anything.

His eyes moved from my face to the laptop.

Then to the USB drive in my hand.

The color drained from his face.

It was not the look of a man caught hiding an innocent surprise.

It was fear.

Real fear.

The kind that made my stomach twist before he even opened his mouth.

“Where did you find that?” he asked quietly.

I could barely speak.

“In your desk.”

His jaw tightened. He stepped closer, but I pulled the USB closer to my chest without even thinking.

“Sean,” I whispered, my voice shaking, “what is this?”

He did not answer right away.

That silence told me more than any excuse could have.

The man I had trusted for four years stood in front of me like a stranger, staring at the one thing he had clearly hoped I would never find.

I looked back at the laptop.

VIDEO 2 was still waiting.

And for the first time since I married him, I wondered if the life I loved had been built on something I was never supposed to see.