“But I came home and he was here,” I said.
Sophia’s gaze softened. “Was he? Or was someone who looked exactly like him?”
“No,” Sophia agreed gently. “Not without resources. Planning.”
Before she left, she handed me an encrypted phone and told me to act normal.
I spent the afternoon in suspended animation until I heard a key in the lock. Aiden. Or the man who might not be Aiden.
I chose the dish with intention. Shrimp scampi—my grandmother’s recipe from Naples.
The real Aiden had a severe shellfish allergy. He wore a medical alert bracelet. Shellfish was listed as life-threatening.
“Your favorite,” I said, setting the plate in front of him.
“You haven’t made this in ages,” he said.
That was true. I hadn’t made it because my husband would end up in an ambulance.
“This is incredible,” he said, taking another bite. “Your grandmother would be proud.”
I watched him eat, cataloging every gesture, looking for the seams in his performance.
“So,” I said, “we should visit your mother this weekend.”
The real Aiden would’ve produced an excuse instantly. His relationship with his mother was poisonous. Visits were rationed like medicine.
“That sounds wonderful,” he replied. “She’ll be thrilled to see us.”
Thrilled. His mother had never been thrilled about anything involving me.
“We could stay the whole weekend,” I pressed. “Help with the garden project she mentioned.”
The real Aiden would’ve preferred dental surgery without anesthesia.
This man failed every test and yet succeeded perfectly at being a better version of my husband.
In the bedroom, I changed into pajamas while he brushed his teeth. When he climbed into bed, his breathing evened out within minutes. The real Aiden was a chronic insomniac who usually read past midnight.
I waited, counting breaths, until I was certain he was deeply asleep. Then I slipped out of bed.
His briefcase sat in its usual spot beside the dresser. Inside, beneath a stack of investment portfolios, I found an envelope.
A pay stub made out to Marcus Webb—address in Queens. An actor’s union card. And handwritten notes—pages documenting my life in excruciating detail.
Ava likes her coffee with one sugar, no cream. She calls her sister every Tuesday and Thursday. Anniversary is October 15th. Sensitive subject: father’s death three years ago. She tears up during the final scene of Casablanca every time.
Our marriage reduced to bullet points. A character study for an audition.
At the bottom of the last page: 3 months maximum. Maintain cover until transfer complete.
Three months. This performance had an expiration date.
I photographed each page with the encrypted phone, then crept back into bed where the stranger wearing my husband’s face slept peacefully.
The next morning, I manufactured an urgent client crisis. The moment he left, I locked myself in my office overlooking Park Avenue.
The forensic software I used to dismantle corporate fraud would now dissect my personal finances.
The last three months revealed transfers of $9,999—just below reporting thresholds—moving to offshore accounts. Each transfer was authorized with my husband’s credentials during times when Marcus had been sitting across from me at dinner.
The real Aiden was somewhere else, bleeding our accounts while his hired double kept me distracted.
Then I accessed my professional client database—and found something worse. Login records from IP addresses I didn’t recognize. Downloads of sensitive audit materials. Information that, in the wrong hands, could enable trades worth tens of millions.
I pulled up Madison Vale’s professional profile. Her connections included hedge fund managers who operated in legal gray zones. Her travel history aligned with suspicious activity in pharma stocks just before major regulatory announcements.
They weren’t just stealing from me. They were using my access to commit crimes that would trace back to my name.
I called Grace Morrison. We’d been friends since she was an ambitious prosecutor and I was an expert witness in fraud cases.
“I need your help,” I said.
She arrived looking like she’d grabbed the first clothes within reach. I showed her everything—the transfers, the stolen files, the photos, the notes in Marcus’s briefcase.
“This is sophisticated,” she said finally. “Professional-level identity theft, financial fraud, corporate espionage. But everything is technically authorized. Your husband’s credentials were used. Without proving he wasn’t actually present, you’re looking at a he-said, she-said situation.”
My encrypted phone buzzed. A new message: Check Aiden’s old phone.
We drove to my apartment. Marcus was at the gym. I went straight to the desk drawer where Aiden kept old electronics.
His previous iPhone sat there, screen cracked. I pressed the power button. The screen flickered to life. Five percent battery. Still receiving messages.
A conversation with Madison Vale going back eight months.
The wife suspects nothing, Aiden had written three months ago. Marcus is perfect. By the time she figures it out, we’ll be untouchable.
The most recent message—yesterday: Tomorrow, we finalize everything. Our usual place in Paris, then disappear forever.
Grace stared at the screen. “Tomorrow is Monday. If they’re planning to finalize everything, we act tonight.”
I moved to my laptop. “I’m setting a trap.”
My fingers flew across the keyboard, creating a financial virus disguised as routine investment files in our shared cloud storage. It would activate the moment anyone accessed our joint accounts from an international IP address, freezing every linked transaction and alerting federal investigators.
I embedded the code in documents labeled Q3 investment review and tax materials. Aiden’s arrogance would be his downfall. He always checked our investments before major decisions.
Marcus returned from the gym, whistling.
“Working on Sunday again?” he asked lightly.
“Just finishing up,” I said. “Grace stopped by to discuss a case.”
“Actually,” I said, standing, “I was thinking we could have lunch at that place in Astoria. You know—where we went after our honeymoon. The grilled octopus was amazing.”
Marcus’s smile held, but I caught the flicker of panic.
We’d never been to Astoria together. Aiden and I had honeymooned in Santorini.
“Astoria,” he repeated, buying time. “The little taverna where we danced until dawn.”
Grace watched the exchange.
“Of course,” he said finally, “though I thought it was closed for renovations.”
A complete fabrication to cover ignorance. The place I described didn’t exist.
After Grace left, I made three phone calls to Aiden’s biggest clients—planting seeds of doubt that would trigger internal reviews by Monday morning.
My phone rang—my mother’s assisted living facility.
“Your mother is fine,” Nancy said. “But she’s quite agitated. She insists someone is lying about your husband visiting her.”
The drive took ninety minutes.
“That woman is lying,” my mother said the moment I walked in. “I told her Aiden was here last month.”
My mother’s dementia made her unreliable, but she had moments of startling clarity.
“Tell me about his visit,” I said softly.
“He came on a Thursday. He asked about your father’s life insurance. Wanted to know if there were other policies.”
My blood turned to ice. There had been another policy—five hundred thousand dollars. Few people knew it existed.
“Did he ask about anything else?”
“The safe deposit box. He wanted to know which bank. What was in it. I told him about your father’s coin collection.”
Nancy pulled up security footage. August 15th, 2:47 p.m. Aiden walking through the front door, signing in, spending forty-three minutes with my mother.
But the archived sign-in sheet showed a gap, as if a line had been skipped. Someone had digitally altered the record.
Aiden had been planning this for months—even targeting my mother, mining her fragile memory for financial details.
Sunday evening, Kaye sent photos. Her flight had landed at Charles de Gaulle. Aiden and Madison at currency exchange. Then a taxi. Then the Hotel Lancaster on the Champs-Élysées.
Madison wore a diamond bracelet I recognized—the one Aiden claimed he bought for his mother’s birthday.
Back at the apartment, I made a decision. Sitting across from Marcus at our dining table, I pulled out my phone.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said. “Our anniversary is coming up next month. Eight years since that dinner party where we met.”
Marcus nodded, despite the fact that we’d been married seven years, not eight. Another test failed.
“I want to do something special. A surprise gathering Tuesday morning before the markets open. Invite all your colleagues, your biggest clients.”
His eyes flickered with confusion. “Tuesday morning. That’s… unusual.”
“You always said the best deals happen before breakfast. I’ll handle everything. You just need to send the invites tonight.”
Marcus hesitated, trying to decide if this was in his script. But refusing would break character.
“If that’s what you want,” he said finally.
He composed the message with reluctant fingers. Within minutes, replies rolled in.
While I prepared dinner, unexpected sympathy hit me for Marcus Webb. A failed actor from Queens who’d thought he was getting a break. Instead, he’d become an accessory to serious crimes.
“Marcus,” I said quietly.
His entire body went rigid.
“I know who you are.”
Silence stretched between us.
When he spoke, the British accent was gone, replaced by pure Brooklyn. “How long have you known?”
“Since Tuesday morning. When my sister saw the real Aiden boarding a plane while you sat in my living room.”
He put his head in his hands. “I didn’t know about the crimes. I swear. He told me you were separated. Said he needed someone to keep up appearances for business reasons. Paid me twenty grand to pretend to be him for three months.”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said, “federal agents are going to arrive. The people you invited will be here to witness it. You can either be arrested as a co-conspirator—or cooperate as a witness.”
“Witness,” he said immediately. “I have documents. Recordings. He made me keep everything.”
Marcus spent the night on our couch. We barely slept.
At 5:47 a.m., my phone rang. “They got them,” Kaye said. “French police arrested them at Charles de Gaulle. They were trying to board a connecting flight to Switzerland.”
By 7:30, guests arrived. Robert Steinberg from Steinberg Industries. Jennifer Woo from Phoenix Capital. Junior partners. Clients whose portfolios represented billions.
At 7:58, footsteps sounded in the hall. The doorbell rang. “Federal agents. We have a warrant.”
Six FBI agents entered.
“Agent Sarah Brennan, FBI Financial Crimes Division,” the lead agent said. “We’re looking for Aiden Mercer.”
“That’s me,” Marcus said. Then he swallowed. “Except it’s not. I want to cooperate. I have evidence. I was hired to impersonate him.”
Silence fell like a dropped curtain.
“Mr. Webb,” Agent Brennan said, “you’re under arrest for conspiracy to commit fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.”
As agents cuffed Marcus, he looked at me with gratitude. “The storage unit on Queens Boulevard. Unit 447. Everything’s there.”
My laptop chimed. The virus had activated. On my screen, accounts across multiple jurisdictions froze simultaneously.
Agent Brennan approached me. “Mrs. Mercer, we need you for a formal statement.”
“Of course,” I said, “but first—these people deserve to know why they’re here.”
I pulled up the recording of Kaye’s call and pressed play. Her voice filled the room. “Ava… I need to ask you something strange. Your husband… is he home right now?”
“Your husband,” Agent Brennan addressed the room, “has been stealing corporate secrets and facilitating insider trading using information obtained through his wife’s forensic accounting work.”
Agent Brennan’s phone buzzed. “French authorities confirmed they have Aiden Mercer and Madison Vale in custody. They’ll be extradited to face charges here.”
Months later, the apartment stood empty around me. Furniture sold or donated. I stood at the windows overlooking Manhattan, keys heavy in my palm, waiting for the building manager.
The divorce moved fast. The judge had been unsympathetic to a husband who hired an actor to replace himself while draining marital assets.
The settlement left me with more than I expected: proceeds from the apartment sale, recovered funds, damages paid.
My phone chimed with a client reminder. The office space I leased in the Flatiron District bore a simple brass nameplate: CHIN FORENSIC CONSULTING. Specialist in marital asset protection and identity verification.
What started as word-of-mouth became a waiting list of women who suspected their realities had been edited.
The building manager arrived, accepted the keys.
As I rode the elevator down, my phone buzzed. A text from Kaye: Giovanni’s at 7. My treat.
Giovanni’s hadn’t changed in forty years—still the same red sauce recipes our grandmother declared the only acceptable Italian food outside of Naples.
Kaye waited at our usual corner booth, Chianti already open. She stood and pulled me into a hug that lasted longer than necessary.
“You did it,” she said, pouring wine. “The apartment’s really gone.”
“Handed over the keys twenty minutes ago.”
“To the woman who figured out her husband was in two places at once and brought down an international fraud ring,” she said, raising her glass.
“To the pilot who made the call that saved my life,” I countered.
We drank, ritual more important than taste.
“I have something for you,” she said, pulling out an envelope. “Return address is Dayton, Ohio.”
Marcus Webb.
Inside was a letter:
Dear Ava, I wanted to reach out now that the legal proceedings are finished. Thank you for not pressing additional charges. I’m teaching acting classes at a community college here—finally using my skills for something honest. I tell my students about those three months… how the best performance of my life was also the worst thing I’ve ever done. Some roles aren’t worth playing. I think about you sometimes—how someone recovers from what Aiden did. Then I read about your new firm, about the women you’re helping, and I understand you’ve turned poison into medicine. With sincere regret and genuine admiration, Marcus Webb
Inside was a photograph from our wedding—Aiden and me cutting our cake, both of us laughing.
I studied my younger self, trying to remember what had been funny. The memory wouldn’t come.
“He seems genuinely sorry,” Kaye observed.
“He was a victim too,” I said. “In his way.”
We ordered our usual—enough garlic bread to worry a cardiologist. The familiar flavors tasted like home.
“What’s next?” Kaye asked.
“Rebecca Harrison tomorrow. CEO of a tech startup. She thinks her husband might be using AI to fake business trips. Then Thursday—the Whitman case.”
She pointed her fork at me. “I meant for you. Not work-you.”
I considered the question. Six months ago, I thought my future was mapped in comfortable predictability. Now, at thirty-seven, I was single, successful in a field I’d invented, and uncertain about everything except my next appointment.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, surprising myself with the honesty.
And somehow, that felt oddly liberating.
