James arrived home early one afternoon carrying several large boxes, looking energized and purposeful
“I am getting ahead on preparations,” he said enthusiastically. “Everything is significantly more expensive in Toronto, so I am bringing as much as I can from here.”
While he was in the shower that evening, I went into our home study to locate some notary documents I needed for one of our property transactions. His laptop computer was sitting open on the desk.
I was not searching for anything suspicious. I had no reason to snoop or investigate. But what appeared on that screen changed the entire trajectory of my life.
A confirmed email reservation sat prominently displayed.
Luxury apartment rental in Polanco. Fully furnished with all utilities included. Two-year contract with lease beginning the exact same date as James’s flight to Canada.
Two registered residents were listed on the rental agreement. James’s full name. And someone named Erica whose last name I did not recognize.
There was one additional note that made my blood run cold: “Please include a crib in the master bedroom.”
A crib. For a baby.
I felt the air completely disappear from my lungs. I sat down in the desk chair and forced myself to read every single line of that email multiple times to be absolutely certain I was understanding correctly.
The lease start date was identical to the day James was supposedly flying to Toronto. He was not going to Canada. He was moving to an apartment twenty minutes from our house in a neighborhood we drove through regularly.
And Erica, whoever she was, was pregnant with his child.
Understanding the Financial Manipulation
My mind immediately went to our joint bank account at a major institution in Santa Fe. The balance was approximately six hundred fifty thousand dollars. The vast majority of that money came from the inheritance my parents had left me when they died in a terrible car accident on the highway to Cuernavaca several years earlier.
