He thought he was so smart. He had no idea that his wife was smarter. And she was about to prove it. Simone called in sick to work the next morning. She never called in sick. In 6 years at her company, she’d used maybe three sick days total. But today, she needed time. She needed to think clearly without the distraction of meetings and phone calls and client demands.
Dererick left for work at his usual time, 8:15 a.m. He kissed her forehead and told her to feel better to get some rest. She watched him walk out the door and waited until she heard his car pull out of the driveway. Then she got up, made herself coffee, and opened her laptop. First, she downloaded every single video file from the nanny cam system, every angle, every room, every day for the past 6 months.
It took 3 hours, but she got it all. She saved everything to an external hard drive, then made two backup copies. One she would keep in her office at work. One she would keep in a safety deposit box at the bank. She wasn’t taking any chances. While the files downloaded, she went through their shared computer. Dererick used it mostly for personal stuff since he had a work laptop.
She found his email still logged in. She spent an hour reading through months of messages. Most were boring work stuff, emails from his mom, spam. But then she found a separate folder. He’d labeled it projects, but when she opened it, there were dozens of emails to and from someone named Amber.
Amber. So that was her name. The woman in the red dress. The woman who’d been in Simone’s bed. The woman who’d been sleeping with Simone’s husband for months. The emails made Simone’s stomach turn. Dererick and Amber talked about everything. Their feelings for each other. How much they missed each other between their meetings.
How exciting and dangerous it felt. how they wish they could be together all the time, but Dererick was working on leaving his wife. That line made Simone laugh bitterly. Working on leaving his wife. He’d never said a single word to her about being unhappy. Never mentioned wanting a divorce. Never even hinted at problems in their marriage. She kept reading.
Amber knew Dererick was married. She knew everything and she didn’t care. In fact, some of her messages suggested she enjoyed the thrill of being with a married man. She called Simone the wife like she was just an obstacle, not a real person, like she was nothing. Simone screenshot every single email. She saved them all to the external hard drive with the videos.
Then she went through Dererick’s text messages. He deleted most of them, but she had a recovery program from when she’d accidentally deleted some work files last year. She ran it and recovered hundreds of deleted texts between Derek and Amber. More evidence, more lies, more betrayal. By noon, Simone had a complete digital file of Dererick’s affair. She had video evidence.
She had emails. She had text messages. She had dates, times, and details. She had everything she needed. But she still didn’t confront him. Not yet. Instead, she spent the afternoon researching. She looked up the laws in their state about adultery and divorce. She learned about asset division and how fault could impact settlements.
She learned about her rights. She made a list of everything she owned before the marriage and everything she’d brought into it. The house was in her name only because she’d bought it two years before she met Derek. Her car was paid off and in her name. Most of their savings had come from an inheritance she’d received from her grandmother 3 years ago.
Dererick had contributed some money over the years, but not much. He spent most of his paycheck on his hobbies and going out with friends. She’d always been the responsible one. The more she researched, the more she realized Dererick didn’t have much ground to stand on. She had been the primary bread winner. She owned the house.
She had put away most of their savings. And now she had proof that he’d been cheating for months. By the time Derek came home that evening, Simone had a plan forming in her mind. She greeted him at the door with a smile. She asked about his day. She made dinner while he watched TV. She acted completely normal.
And Dererick suspected nothing. That became her routine every day. She acted like the perfect wife while secretly building her case against him. She would check the nanny cam footage every morning after he left just to see if he brought Amber over. He did like clockwork every Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesdays, Amber would arrive around 9:30 a.m.
Leave a Comment