She would be looking at her phone, her heart rate rising.

A second text from Julian appeared. “I am coming to the office. Meet me in the basement garage.”

The screen remained silent for two minutes.

Then, Isabel’s name appeared at the top of the chat thread.

“I can’t do this at work, Julian,” she wrote.

“You will do it when and where I tell you,” Julian replied.

I leaned closer to the screen, my coffee forgotten.

“I have a document for you to sign,” Julian wrote. “A standard non-disclosure regarding the department accounts.”

“The accounts?” Isabel wrote back.

“The consulting fees we discussed,” Julian replied. “It protects us both.”

“I am not signing anything without a lawyer,” Isabel wrote.

My fingers tightened around the edge of my phone.

This was the crack in his foundation.

Julian was desperate now, trying to lock down every leak before the divorce discovery process began.

But Isabel was twenty-four, and she was beginning to realize that Julian’s promises of a shared future were empty.

“If you don’t sign, the board will see those transfer approvals,” Julian typed.