He Didn't Ask Me to Forgive Him
Chapter 02 - He Didn't Ask Me to Forgive Him
Camden stared at the screenshot for so long I could see him calculating.
That was one of the things I had always admired about him.
He was quick.
At restaurants, he could split a bill in his head before anyone reached for a phone. At work, people called him when a deal was stuck because he could look at twelve moving pieces and see the one that mattered.
I used to think that made me safe.
Now I watched the same mind search for a lie fast enough to save him.
"Put your phone away," he said.
Sienna took another step back.
I looked at Camden.
"Why?"
"Because you have no idea what you're showing people."
"There's nobody here."
His eyes flicked toward the resort loungers.
A couple about fifty yards away had stopped reading.
A waiter stood near the bar, pretending not to look at us.
Camden lowered his voice.
"That isn't our money."
"I know."
His expression sharpened.
That surprised him.
I had spent the flight rehearsing one rule: never show him everything I knew.
My attorney had repeated it three times before I boarded.
Let him lie.
Let him commit to the lie.
Do not correct him too early.
Her name was Mara Sloan. She was fifty-eight, wore no-nonsense navy suits, and had represented my mother during a property dispute years before. When I called her at six in the morning and said, "I think Camden emptied Lila's account," she did not waste one second asking whether I was sure.
She said, "Screenshot everything. Don't confront him. Call the bank. Then call me back."
I had done two out of three.
The confrontation part had been unavoidable.
At least, that's what I told myself.
Camden glanced at Sienna.
"Go back to the villa."
She stared at him.
"No."
His eyebrows lifted.
It was subtle, but I knew that look.
I had seen it across dinner tables when someone interrupted him. I had seen it when a contractor told him a project was late. I had even seen it directed at me once or twice, usually when I asked a question he considered inconvenient.
It meant: Do what I said.
Sienna didn't.
"Whose four hundred thousand dollars is that?"
"It's business."
"Then why is Claire showing it to you?"
His jaw flexed.
I almost admired her for asking.
Almost.
Then I remembered the messages I had found.
Can't wait to wake up next to you without pretending.
Bring the green dress. The one I like.
She thinks you're at the Charleston conference, right?
Sienna had not been an innocent woman tricked by a married man.
Maybe she did not know everything.
But she knew me.
She knew Lila.
She knew exactly what she was stepping into.
Camden turned back to me.
"Where is your room?"
"I didn't tell you I had one."
"Claire."
There it was again.
That irritated patience.
The voice of a man who had decided I was being difficult.
"You flew here with a three-year-old. Where are you staying?"
"Somewhere you can't access."
His face tightened.
Good.
That answer had been Mara's idea.
I had booked under my maiden name, Bennett, at a smaller resort on the other side of the island. I had also given copies of my passport, Lila's birth certificate, our return itinerary, and every bank screenshot to Mara before I left.
If anything happened to me, the story would not disappear with my phone.
Camden rubbed one hand over his beard.
"You're making this bigger than it is."
I looked at the champagne.
The yacht receipt.
The woman standing barefoot beside our daughter's stolen money.
"I don't think that's possible."
"It's temporary."
"What is?"
"The transfers."
My stomach turned.
"You borrowed from Lila?"
"I moved liquidity."
I actually laughed then.
It came out once, sharp and humorless.
"Liquidity."
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Make me sound like some criminal."
"You took two hundred thousand dollars from a three-year-old."
"It's not gone."
"Then put it back."
"I will."
"When?"
He looked toward the water.
That was the first answer he didn't have ready.
Sienna folded her arms.
"You told me the deal had already closed."
Camden shot her a warning glance.
My pulse slowed.
Not sped up.
Slowed.
"What deal?"
Neither of them answered.
I turned to Sienna.
"What deal?"
She looked at Camden, then at me.
"A waterfront property."
"Stop," Camden said.
Sienna's mouth closed.
There are moments when you can almost hear the shape of a marriage changing.
Not breaking.
Changing.
I had spent years believing Camden and I were on the same side of every problem.
Suddenly, I was standing on a beach beside his mistress, and she knew more about our finances than I did.
"Lila needs lunch," I said.
Camden blinked.
"What?"
I put my phone back in my bag.
"She hasn't eaten since the flight."
"You can't just leave."
"Watch me."
I took Lila's hand.
Camden stepped in front of us.
Not aggressively.
Just enough.
My body noticed before my mind did.
I stopped.
"Move."
"Claire, I'm trying to protect you."
I looked at him.
"From what?"
He leaned closer.
His voice dropped.
"From documents you don't understand."
I felt Lila press against my leg.
"Move, Camden."
"You saw a transfer and panicked. You have no context. The account you found is tied to a financing structure at Hale Coastal. If you start sending screenshots around, you could create a legal problem for yourself."
"For me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
He hesitated.
Half a second.
Too long.
"Because some of those accounts are in your name."
The world did not tilt.
That happens in novels.
In real life, the world stays perfectly still while one sentence rearranges everything inside you.
I stared at him.
"What did you say?"
He looked tired now.
Almost sad.
And somehow that was worse.
"Claire, there are things we signed together. You don't remember every piece of paperwork from the last six years."
"I remember my signature."
"You signed more than you think."
Sienna's face had gone pale.
"Camden," she whispered.
He turned on her.
"Go to the villa."
This time she did not argue.
She bent, grabbed a straw beach bag, and shoved her phone inside.
As she passed me, she did not look at my face.
But something brushed my hand.
A folded piece of paper.
I closed my fingers around it automatically.
Camden did not see.
Sienna kept walking.
"Mommy," Lila said, tugging my hand. "I'm hungry."
"I know, sweetheart."
Camden's shoulders softened at the sound of her voice.
For one terrible second, he looked like himself.
The man who used to carry Lila through the hallway at two in the morning when she had colic.
The man who cried harder than I did after her heart scan came back clear.
Then I remembered the empty account.
"Come home," he said.
"No."
"Claire, please."
It was the first time he had used that word.
I shook my head.
"I'll speak to you through Mara."
His eyes changed.
"Mara Sloan?"
I wish I could describe the feeling of watching your husband recognize the name of your lawyer.
It is not satisfaction.
It is grief wearing armor.
"Yes."
"You called a lawyer before you called me?"
"I called the bank before I called either of you."
He swore under his breath.
That told me more than anything else had.
I stepped around him.
This time he let me.
Lila and I walked toward the path that led past the palms and up to the resort road.
I could feel Camden watching us.
I did not turn around.
Not once.
Only when we were inside the small shuttle I'd arranged did I open my hand.
The paper Sienna had slipped me was damp from her palm.
It had a room number written on it.
Villa 14.
Underneath were six words.
HE DIDN'T COME HERE FOR ME.
I read the sentence twice.
Then I noticed something written on the back.
ASK HIM ABOUT THE OTHER $400,000.
May you like
I had thought I was chasing money my husband stole from our daughter.
By sunset, I would learn Camden had used my name to borrow nearly a million dollars—and somebody else had signed as me.
