\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two AM. I lay wide awake staring at the ceiling, listening to Dylan\u2019s steady breathing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My bedmate felt like he was separated from me by a balance sheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Light leaked from under the study door-his laptop was still open, screen displaying the Stellar Trust No. 1 management dashboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tiptoed inside, and with just one glance, I froze completely in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Pending Payments This Month]\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Swiss Lake Lucerne Condo Final Payment: $3,200,000 (Reserved, pending signature)]\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Stella\u2019s Mother Living Expenses: $2,000 (REJECTED \u2013 Reason: Non-essential)]\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second line was marked in red. [Rejected by: Dylan. Time: 11:58 PM]\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ten minutes ago, he\u2019d clicked \u201cDENY,\u201d then turned off the lights and went to bed, like casually flipping off a hallway switch\u00a0<\/p>\n
I exited the system, my gaze falling on the password-protected fireproof safe on the bookshelfs bottom shelf-Dylan\u2019s \u201ctreasure chest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we married, he\u2019d locked both our property deeds, stock certificates, wedding rings, and matching watches inside. Only he knew the combination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d tried his birthday, our anniversary, even his dog\u2019s name. All wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight, I decided to try one more time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I crouched down, ear against the cold metal door, fingers slowly turning:\u00a0<\/p>\n
0-7-2-1-the date he got his CPA certification.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click. It opened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I held my breath and pulled the door open. The first layer held thick file folders:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I opened one and my pupils dilated-this amended draft showed Dylan adding himself as \u201csole protector\u201d with a new clause: \u201cShould beneficiary Stella Parker lose civil capacity due to mental, health, or debt issues, her entire share automatically transfers to the protector.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Date: three days ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, if I \u201caccidentally went crazy\u2019 or fell \u201cseriously ill,\u201d he could legally swallow all my assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered he had a friend at the psychiatric hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suddenly, a deep chill and retroactive fear washed over me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the safe sat a black velvet pouch. I opened it-a 10.02 carat D color diamond ring, certificate number matching exactly the one sold at last year\u2019s Christie\u2019s New York autumn auction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sale price: $1,180,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buyer: Dylan Morrison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Payment account: Stellar Trust No. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
cheatert\u00a0<\/p>\n
16.8%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
I gripped the ring, remembering the new watch he\u2019d flaunted on Instagram last week-a Rolex Daytona, paired with this exact diamond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His reply to followers: \u201cAnniversary gift from the wife. Tacky as hell, but whatever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Twenty thousand likes, people calling him a \u201clife winner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nobody knew his \u201cwife\u201d couldn\u2019t even approve two thousand dollars for her own mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath, photographed the documents and ring, encrypted and uploaded them to the cloud, then restored the safe to its original\u00a0<\/p>\n
state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I closed it, I heard footsteps in the hallway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
(0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
You Thought Cilantro Was Just a Flavor? It\u2019s Actually My FU, Cheater! by Mark Twain 22 \u00a0 Chapter 3\u00a0 Chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cilantro-taste-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}