I cried while accompanying my husband to the Chicago airport because he was “leaving for two years in Seattle,” but upon my return, I transferred $650,000 into my personal account and initiated divorce proceedings.

A cradle.

For several seconds, I remained frozen in front of the screen, without breathing. Then I began to read each line carefully, making sure I wasn’t making a mistake.

The lease start date coincided exactly with his scheduled flight to Seattle. He wasn’t moving to the other side of the country; he was moving less than an hour away from us.

And there was worse. Stephanie Dalton was pregnant. I slowly leaned back in my chair and felt the air suffocate me. My mind immediately went to the joint account we had at a private bank branch on Michigan Avenue.

The balance was approximately $650,000. Most of it came from the inheritance my parents had left me after their deaths in a car accident on a highway near Madison years earlier. Matthew had insisted we pool our finances in a joint account because, as he had said at the time, married couples needed to be completely transparent.

At that moment, everything became clear. His plan was both simple and cruel. He would pretend to build a life for himself in Seattle while gradually transferring money from our joint account to support his new partner and their child, without me suspecting a thing.

The day of departure from the airport arrived quickly.

At O’Hare International Airport, he gave me a tight hug in front of the boarding gates.