The Evidence in the Drain

Elena should have known when she found the long, dark hair wrapped around the shower drain. Her own hair was silver, cropped short after the chemotherapy ended last spring. This hair belonged to someone else.

She stood in the steam-filled bathroom, watching water spiral down the drain, carrying away the evidence of another woman's presence in her home. The bathroom mirror fogged over, obscuring her reflection—perhaps for the best.

Three months ago, Marcus had come home from his consulting job in Zurich with expensive gifts and elaborate explanations about late nights. She'd wanted to believe him. God, how she'd wanted to believe someone could find her desirable again, scarred and changed as she was.

Now she remembered the encrypted files on his laptop. The way his phone always faced down on the nightstand. The hushed conversations on the balcony. The corporate spy thriller he'd claimed to be working on had seemed so exciting when he first described it.

Elena turned off the water. The silence roared in her ears.

His company did business with her former firm. Her security clearance, her knowledge of their proprietary algorithms—everything Marcus had pretended to admire about her career had been target acquisition, not affection.

The bathroom door creaked open. Marcus stood there, his expression unreadable.

"Everything okay, El? You've been in here a while."

She met his eyes in the mirror's reflection. "Just thinking about how much I appreciate you taking care of me, Marcus. Really caring."

His smile didn't reach his eyes. "That's what husbands do."

Elena wrapped herself in a towel and walked past him into the bedroom, where she'd already packed her go-bag. The hair in the drain had told her everything she needed to know—she wasn't the only one being watched. And she wasn't the only one who knew how to gather intelligence.

"Leaving so soon?"

"Just running an errand," she said, sliding her wedding ring into her pocket. "I'll be back before dinner."

She wouldn't, of course. But Marcus didn't know that she'd already forwarded copies of his encrypted files to her former firm's security team. He'd played spy, and so would she.