I stared at the screen and my world tilted sideways. Email after email between my husband and this woman. The subject lines alone made me sick. Missing you. Can’t wait for tonight. Our future together.
“Keep scrolling,” Libby said softly.
I did, even though every word felt like a knife to my chest. The emails went back 8 months. Eight months of my husband telling another woman he loved her. Eight months of him planning a life with her while I was working overtime to save for our daughter’s education.
But the worst was yet to come.
“Look at this one from last week,” Natty said, pointing to an email dated just 5 days ago.
I read it out loud, my voice shaking.
“Jessica, I transferred the money today. All of it. $180,000 from the college fund, plus another $50,000 from our savings. It’s in the account we opened together. We can start our new life in Florida as soon as I tell Claire. I can’t wait to marry you and start fresh. The girls will understand eventually.”
I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t breathe. My husband hadn’t just cheated on me. He’d stolen our daughter’s entire future to fund his new life with his mistress.
“There’s more,” Libby said gently. “He’s been planning this for months. He already put a deposit down on a house in Tampa. He’s been transferring money little by little so you wouldn’t notice.”
I looked up at my daughters through tears.
“How long have you known?”
“Three months,” Natty admitted. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do. We didn’t want to hurt you, but we also couldn’t let him destroy our family and steal our futures.”
“So what did you do?” I asked, though I was almost afraid to hear the answer.
The girls looked at each other and for the first time since this nightmare began, they smiled.
“We fought back,” Libby said.
Natty pulled up another screen on her laptop.
“Remember how I’ve been learning about cybersecurity and digital forensics in my computer science classes?”
I nodded, not sure where this was going.
“Well, I’ve been documenting everything. Every email, every bank transfer, every lie. I created a digital trail that proves Dad committed theft and adultery. But more importantly,” she paused dramatically, “I found their joint account, the one with our money in it.”
My heart started beating faster.
“And let’s just say that Jessica Martinez is about to get a very unpleasant surprise when she tries to access that account,” Natty said with a grin that reminded me exactly of myself at her age.
Libby leaned forward.
“Mom. Dad thinks he’s so smart, but he forgot one very important thing.”
“What’s that?”
“He raised two daughters who are smarter than he is,” Libby said, “and we don’t let anyone mess with our family.”
For the first time in 24 hours, I felt something other than despair. I felt proud. My daughters had discovered their father’s betrayal, and instead of falling apart, they’d fought back.
“What happens now?” I asked.
Both girls smiled, and I saw a strength in them I’d never noticed before.
“Now,” Natty said, “we show Dad that the Thompson women don’t go down without a fight.”
I needed to know everything, every detail of how my daughters had uncovered Brandon’s betrayal and what they’d been planning for three months while I lived in blissful ignorance.
“Start from the beginning,” I said, settling back on the couch. “Tell me exactly how this all started.”
