Chapter 4: The Morning After the Night Before
I slept at Diane's house.
She made up the guest room without asking questions, brought me a cup of tea I didn't drink, and sat on the edge of the bed until I told her everything.
When I finished, she was quiet for a moment.
"How long have you known?" she asked.
"That something was wrong?
Since the kitchen measuring."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I kept hoping I was wrong."
Diane looked at her hands.
"You weren't wrong."
"No."
I was up at six.
Grace called at seven forty-five.
"The injunction is filed," she said.
"No one enters that apartment until the court rules.
I've also contacted your building's management office.
They're changing the locks this morning as a precaution, and they've flagged the copied key as unauthorized."
"Can they do that?"
"The lease and ownership documents are in your name only.
Management was cooperative once I explained the situation.
They were not happy about the unauthorized copy."
"What about Michael?"
"He has no legal right to that property under the prenuptial agreement.
He can contest it, but he won't win.
The language is airtight." A pause.
"Caroline, I need to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"Do you want to pursue the marriage, or do you want to start dissolution proceedings?"
I looked at the ceiling of Diane's guest room.
There was a small water stain near the light fixture shaped roughly like a bird.
"I don't know yet," I said.
"That's fine.
You don't have to decide today.
But I want you to know that the prenup protects you either way.
If you stay, your assets remain separate.
If you leave, the division is already defined."
"What about the key?
Is that a crjme?"
"Unauthorized duplication of a key to a property you don't own or have permission to access is a civil matter, not typically crjminal, unless there's evidence it was used to enter without consent.
Has anything in the apartment been disturbed?"
"I don't know.
I haven't been back."
"I'll arrange for you to do a walk-through this afternoon with a witness present.
Write down anything that seems moved, missing, or out of place."
I wrote the time down on the notepad Diane kept on the nightstand.
Michael called at eight fifteen.
I let it go to voicemail.
At eight forty, he called again.
At nine, he sent a text.
*We need to talk.
This has gone too far.*
I read it twice.
Then I put the phone face-down on the bed.
Diane knocked and came in with toast I hadn't asked for.
She set it on the nightstand and sat in the chair by the window.
"He's calling," I said.
"I know.
I heard it."
"He says it's gone too far."
Diane looked out the window.
"What do you think?"
"I think it went too far the day he had that key cut."
She nodded slowly.
"What are you going to do?"
"Go back to the apartment this afternoon.
See what they've done."
"I'm coming with you."
"Grace wants a witness.
So yes."
Diane picked up a piece of my toast and ate it herself.
It was such a normal thing to do that I almost laughed.
At two o'clock, Grace met us at the building.
The new key was waiting at the front desk in an envelope with my name on it.
The building manager, a careful man named Mr.
Osei, shook my hand and told me the lock had been changed and the old key — the copied one — had been logged as deactivated in the building's system.
"We take unauthorized access very seriously," he said.
"Thank you."
"If you need anything else, Mrs.—" He stopped.
"Ms.
Reed.
I apologize."
"It's fine," I said.
"Ms.
Reed is correct."
We took the elevator up.
Grace carried a notepad.
Diane stayed close.
The apartment looked the same at first.
Same furniture, same light through the east windows, same small stack of books on the coffee table I hadn't gotten around to shelving.
Then I went to the bedroom.
The top drawer of my dresser was slightly open.
I always closed it completely — a habit from years of living alone.
I pulled it open the rest of the way.
My grandmother's ring was gone.
Not the engagement ring.
Not any jewelry Michael had given me.
My grandmother's ring — a thin gold band with a small sapphire that had been in my family for sixty years.
It had been in that drawer since I moved in.
I stood very still.
"Caroline?" Diane said from the doorway.
"The ring is gone."
Grace was beside me in four steps, notepad open.
"Describe it."
I described it.
She wrote it down.
"Anything else?"
I checked the rest of the drawer.
Everything else was there.
I checked the closet.
My documents were in the fireproof box where I kept them, and the box was locked, but when I opened it, I could see the papers had been moved.
The prenuptial agreement was on top.
It had been on the bottom.
Someone had read it.
May you like
Someone had come into my apartment, gone through my things, taken one specific item, and read my prenuptial agreement.
And they had done it before the wedding.
