Chapter 1: The Marriage I Thought I Understood
I had known Troy since we were children.
We met when we were five years old, married at twenty, and spent more than three decades building what I believed was a quiet, steady life. It was not the kind of marriage people write songs about every day, but it was dependable. We raised two children, paid bills, celebrated birthdays, argued over small things, and slowly became part of each other’s daily rhythm.
After thirty-six years together, I thought I knew the man beside me.
I knew how he drank his coffee, how he folded newspapers, how he sighed when something worried him, and how he avoided conflict when his heart felt heavy.
That was why the first missing money unsettled me so deeply.
