Chapter 2

Life went on as usual.

Every morning, I woke up at 6:00 AM, made him breakfast, and laid out his clean clothes for the day.

He went to work, and I pretended to go "job hunting."

Then I would change my clothes, enter Sterling Group through the back door, put on my gray uniform, and start my real "work."

Being a cleaner was actually better than I thought.

No one noticed you. No one cared about you. You could walk past anyone with a mop, and they wouldn't give you a second glance.

Using this to my advantage, I learned the entire layout of the company inside out.

The sales department was on the east side of the twelfth floor. Jack's office was at the very end, with floor-to-ceiling windows, completely private.

Chloe's desk was right outside his door. She clicked her high heels across the floor all day as she went in and out.

After watching them for a week, I noticed a pattern.

Every Wednesday afternoon, Jack would have Chloe order a bouquet of flowers to the front desk, signed "To my one and only."

Then, at the end of the day, those flowers would end up in the back seat of his car.

After that, he would take some woman to the very same boutique hotel where we had celebrated our anniversary once.

In his words, "That place has class. It’s perfect for business discussions."

I didn't call him out.

I just quietly opened my phone and added a few small "gifts" to the public areas of that hotel.

During the third week, I discovered something else.

The purchasing manager, Marcus Davis, was very close with Jack.

The two of them went out for lunch every Friday and always came back smelling like alcohol.

Once, while I was resting in the stairwell, I heard them talking on the phone just outside the door.

"Don't worry about that shipment. The quality is fine. I'll handle the inspection reports on my end."

"Sounds good. Same place tonight. I'll wire you your share tomorrow."

Their voices faded.

I stepped out of the stairwell and looked at my phone.

The recording of their conversation was high quality.

That night at home, while Jack was showering, his phone lit up on the coffee table.

A message.

The contact name was "Marcus": "Tonight’s cut will be in tomorrow. Fifty-fifty as usual."

When Jack came out of the bathroom, I was sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Honey, was work exhausting today?" I asked.

"It was alright," he said, drying his hair. He picked up his phone, glanced at it, and a smirk played on his lips.

"That's good." I handed him a glass of water.

He didn't drink it.

His phone buzzed again. He glanced at it, said something came up with the company, and went into the study.

The moment the study door clicked shut, I heard him laugh.

I didn’t move. I kept watching TV.

The news was playing a story about a corporate embezzler who had just been sentenced to fifteen years.

I took a sip of my water.

It was no longer hot. It was just right.

By the fourth week, I started tightening the net.

All those videos, voice recordings, and transaction records were organized.

I uploaded them to three different cloud drives and backed them up on a USB flash drive.

I kept the USB drive on me at all times, hidden in the lining of my bra.

I was getting better at my cleaning job.

Martha even praised me for being hardworking and gave me a fifty-dollar bonus.

As I was signing the logbook, I saw Jack walk past the lobby door.

Chloe was holding his arm, and they were laughing.

He didn't even glance at me.

I lowered my head and kept signing.

On Wednesday of the fifth week.

As usual, Jack had Chloe order flowers and left work early.

While I was cleaning the glass doors in the lobby, I saw his car pull out of the parking garage. Chloe was in the passenger seat.

The car stopped about thirty feet down the street.

Chloe got out, and another woman got in.

I didn't recognize her.

But that was fine. I would know her by tomorrow.

I pointed my phone at the license plate and snapped a picture.

Then, I sent it to my brother.

"Look up this person for me."

Three minutes later, William replied.

"Amber. Model, twenty-four, married. Her husband is currently in prison. Why?"

I replied with two words.

"Nothing."

Putting my phone away, I watched the car disappear around the corner.

Today, they were heading to a different hotel.

A hotel I had already visited.

There was a fire exit at the end of the hallway, a perfect spot to capture them entering the room.

My time was coming.