My LGBTQ Best Friend asked if he could spend a Night with my Husband.

Babe, why are you down here? I blinked.

Tried to think of an excuse. Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to wake you. He kissed my forehead. You okay? You’ve been acting weird. I’m fine. Just stressed about work. Want me to take you out this weekend? Nice dinner. Help you relax? Dinner paid for with stolen money. Sure, that sounds great. Cole smiled. Got ready for work. left at his usual time. I sat on the couch for another 10 minutes. Then I called.

Ethan, is it happening? Rachel’s meeting with the FBI agent at 10:00. They’ll probably move by this afternoon. Okay.

How are you holding up? I don’t know. I feel numb. That’s normal. Jess, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. You were trying to protect me.

Still, you’re my best friend. You deserve to know. Did you ever suspect before Rachel found everything? Ethan was quiet for a moment. Honestly, no.

Cole was always so normal, so boring even. I never would have guessed. Me neither. and I was married to him.

That’s what makes him good at it. The most successful criminals are the ones who seem the most ordinary. I thought about that about how Cole was always so predictable, so reliable, so boring.

Maybe that was the point. I went to work, taught my classes, pretended everything was normal, but I kept checking my phone, waiting for news, waiting for something to happen. At noon, one of my students asked if I was okay. You seem distracted, Mrs. Hayes.

I’m fine, Emma. Just a lot on my mind.

Is it about your husband? My blood ran cold. What? I just mean you keep checking your phone. My mom does that when she’s worried about my dad. Oh, yes. Just checking on him. The lie came easily. Too easily. At 2 in the afternoon, I got a call from an unknown number. Mrs. Jessica Hayes. Yes. This is Agent Morrison with the FBI. I’m currently with your friend Rachel Morrison. Can you confirm you’re in a safe location? I’m at school in my classroom. Good. I need you to stay there. Don’t go home. Don’t contact your husband. We have agents at your house right now and we’re about to arrest Cole at his office. Okay. Someone will come to speak with you within the hour.

You’re not in any trouble, but we need to ask you some questions. The line went dead. I sat at my desk, stared at the wall. My phone buzzed. A text from Cole.

Something’s happening at work. FBI just showed up. Call you later. Then nothing.

I stared at that message. At those words, FBI just showed up. He knew right now in this moment, Cole knew his world was ending. Part of me felt satisfaction. He deserved this. But part of me felt something else, something complicated. Because even though he was a criminal, even though he’d lied to me for years, he was still the man I’d loved, the man I’d built a life with.

And that life was over. An hour later, two agents came to my classroom. A woman and a man, both in dark suits. Mrs.

Hayes. I’m Agent Chen. This is Agent Rodriguez. Can we speak somewhere?

Private? I took them to an empty classroom down the hall. They asked me questions about Cole, about his work, about our finances. Did you know about your husband’s criminal activities?

Agent Chen asked. No, I just found out yesterday. How? I explained about seeing the texts, about finding the USB drives, about Ethan and Rachel’s investigation.

You didn’t confront your husband? No, Ethan told me not to. told me to wait until Rachel went to the FBI. Agent Chen nodded. Made notes. Did your husband ever discuss his work with you? Mention clients? Business deals? Sometimes, but nothing that seemed unusual. He’d complain about difficult clients or long hours. Normal stuff. Did he travel frequently for work? Yes, maybe once a month, sometimes more. Did you ever accompany him on these trips? A few times, but usually I had school. I couldn’t take time off. More questions, more answers. Finally, Agent Chen closed her notebook. We’ve arrested your husband along with Vincent Palmer and three other partners at his firm.

They’re being processed now. What happens to me? You’ll need to come to the field office tomorrow to give a formal statement, but for tonight, we recommend you stay with family or friends. Your house is a crime scene.

We’ll be searching it for the next several days. Can I get some clothes, personal items? We’ll arrange that. An agent will accompany you. Am I Am I in trouble? No. Based on what we know so far, you had no knowledge of your husband’s activities. You’re a victim here, Mrs. Hayes. A victim? Was that what I was? Rachel and Ethan picked me up from school, took me to Rachel’s apartment. I’m so sorry, Rachel said immediately. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. You were doing your job.

You’re my friend. You’re like family. I hated keeping this from you. The three of us sat in Rachel’s living room. She and Ethan explained everything in detail. Rachel had been working the case for 8 months. Started with one client complaint, but the more she dug, the more she found. Cole’s been doing this for 12 years, Rachel said. Since before you even met him? 12 years? He started small, skimming here and there, but it escalated. By the time I found him, he and his partners had stolen over $30 million. I couldn’t process that number.

30 million from how many people? At least 60 families that we know of?

Probably more. 60 families whose lives he destroyed while building ours. The victims, I said slowly. Will they get their money back? Some of it. The FBI has recovered about 18 million so far, but the rest. Rachel shook her head.

Offshore accounts. Cryptocurrency. It’s gone. What about Patricia Chen? The accountant who died. Rachel’s face darkened. We found proof. Cole and Vincent hired someone to tamper with her car. Cut the brake lines. Made it look like an accident. They actually killed her. Yes. And we think there might be others. We found references to another problem from 3 years ago. An auditor named Michael Brennan. He supposedly had a heart attack, but he was 36 and healthy. You think they killed him, too?

We’re investigating. The FBI is exuming his body. This was insane. This was a nightmare. Did Cole ever I couldn’t finish the sentence. Did he ever hurt you? Ethan asked gently. Physically, “No, never. He was always He was always so gentle, so kind. That’s the scary part,” Rachel said. “These guys, they’re not the criminals you see in movies.

They’re not violent psychopaths. They’re just greedy and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to protect their money. Even kill people. Even kill people. I stayed at Rachel’s apartment that night. Tried to sleep on her couch but couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Cole’s face. Cole laughing at a joke. Cole making breakfast on Sunday mornings. Cole holding my hand during a scary movie. Had any of it been real, or had I been living with a stranger for 8 years? The next morning, I went to the FBI field office, gave my formal statement, answered more questions, then they showed me something. We need you to identify some items, Agent Chen said. She laid out photos on the table. Jewelry, watches, designer handbags. Do you recognize these? That’s my necklace, the one Cole gave me for our fifth anniversary. And that bracelet and those earrings, all purchased with stolen funds. I stared at the photos, at these beautiful things I’d treasured. These symbols of Cole’s love. All of it was stolen. What happens to them, they’ll be liquidated. The proceeds will go to the victims. Good.

They should have them. I don’t want any of it. Agent Chen looked at me with something like sympathy. I know this is hard, Mrs. Hayes, but you’re doing the right thing. was I because it didn’t feel like the right thing. It felt like my entire life was being dismantled piece by piece. The house, the car, the jewelry, the savings, all of it gone.

Everything I thought was mine had never been mine at all. Over the next few weeks, the story exploded. Local news picked it up first. Financial adviser arrested and multi-million dollar fraud scheme. Then, national news investment firm scandal. Elderly victims speak out.

Cole’s face was everywhere and by extension, so was mine. Reporters called constantly. showed up at my school at Rachel’s apartment. Mrs. Hayes, did you know about your husband’s crimes? Mrs.

Hayes, how does it feel to know you were living off stolen money? Mrs. Hayes, do you still love your husband? I stopped answering my phone, stopped checking social media, but I couldn’t escape it.

One of the victims gave an interview. An elderly woman named Margaret. She’d trusted Cole with her late husband’s life insurance money, $2 million. Cole had stolen all of it. “I don’t understand how someone could do this,” Margaret said on camera, crying. He seemed so nice, so trustworthy. And now I have nothing. Nothing. I watched that interview in Rachel’s living room, watched this woman cry. This woman whose life Cole had destroyed. And I cried, too, because I’d been part of it. Maybe I hadn’t known. Maybe I was a victim, too. But I’d benefited from his crimes.

I’d driven the stolen car, worn the stolen jewelry, lived in the house paid for with Margaret’s money. “It’s not your fault,” Ethan said, sitting beside me. “How is it not my fault? I was married to him. I should have known how.

He was careful. He was smart. He fooled everyone. I was his wife. I should have seen something. Jess, you can’t blame yourself for this. But I did. I blamed myself every day. Two months after Cole’s arrest, his lawyer called me.

Mrs. Hayes, this is Bradley Chen. I’m representing Cole. I know who you are.

Cole would like to see you to speak with you. No, Mrs. Hayes. Please. He has things he needs to say, things he wants to explain. I don’t care what he wants.

Please, just one visit. Just hear him out. I hung up, but the calls kept coming every day, sometimes twice a day.

He’s desperate to talk to you. Bradley Chen said during one call. He’s asking me to beg you to tell you he’s sorry.

Tell him I don’t accept his apology.

Mrs. Hayes, tell him I never want to see him again. Tell him he destroyed everything. Tell him my voice broke.

Tell him I wish I’d never met him. I hung up. But that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it about Cole sitting in a cell waiting to talk to me, wanting to explain. What could he possibly say?

What explanation could make any of this okay? Against my better judgment, I called Bradley Chen back. Fine, one visit, but I’m not going alone. You can bring whoever you want. I brought Ethan.

We drove to the detention center on a gray Tuesday afternoon. Sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes. Then a guard led us to the visiting area. Cole was already there sitting at a table in an orange jumpsuit. He looked terrible, thinner, older, broken. When he saw me, his eyes filled with tears. “Jess,” he said. I sat down across from him. “Ethan stood behind me like a guard.” “You have 15 minutes,” I said. “Talk.” Cole wiped his eyes. “I don’t even know where to start. How about the beginning? How about when you decided to become a criminal?” He flinched. “It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a decision. It just happened. Things like this don’t just happen, Cole. It started small. A client made a bad investment, lost a lot of money. He was going to sue the firm. So, I I fudged some numbers, made it look like he’d approved the trade, covered my tracks, and then and then I realized how easy it was, how much money was just sitting there. These people, they didn’t even look at their statements. They just trusted me. And I kept taking little bits at a time, then bigger bits, then then millions of dollars. Cole nodded miserably. I told myself I’d pay it back, that I was just borrowing, but I never did. I just kept taking more and killing people who got too close. That was Vincent. That was never me. But you knew about it. Silence, didn’t you? Yes, I knew. Patricia Chen, that accountant.

You knew Vincent was going to kill her.

I tried to talk him out of it. I swear.

But he said she was going to expose everything. That we’d all go to prison.

So you let him kill her. I didn’t let him. I couldn’t stop him. You could have gone to the police. You could have warned her and thrown away everything.

Everything we’d built. Everything you stole. You mean? Cole put his head in his hands. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m a monster. I know that. Why? I asked. Why did you do it?

We had enough. We had a good life. It wasn’t about the money, Cole said quietly. Or it was, but not the way you think. Then what was it about? Control, power, knowing I was smarter than everyone else. Knowing I could get away with it, I stared at him. This man I’d loved this stranger. Did you ever love me? I asked, “Yes, God. Yes, Jess. You were the only real thing in my life. The only honest thing. That’s not true.

Because you were lying to me the whole time. I know. But my feelings for you, those were real. I love you. I’ve always loved you. You have a funny way of showing it. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I know I destroyed everything. But I needed you to know that you weren’t part of the lie. What we had that was real. I stood up. You know what, Cole? It doesn’t matter if it was real or not because it’s over. All of it. The marriage, the life, everything. Jess, please. I hope you rot in here. I hope you spend every single day thinking about what you did, about the lives you destroyed, about Patricia Chen and her family, about Margaret and all the others. I do. I think about them every day. Good. I turned to leave.