The Fifth Inning

Elena ran her fingers through David's hair one last time, the silver strands catching the morning light through their hotel room curtains. Three years of marriage, seven years together, and she still couldn't decide if she loved the gray more or the man himself.

"Your flight's at two," she said, not moving from the bed.

"I know." David didn't turn from the mirror. He was already wearing that expression—the one that meant he was somewhere else, someone else.

Elena knew about the other woman. She'd known for six months, since she'd found the receipt for diamond earrings she'd never received. What David didn't know was that she'd been hired to expose him. A corporate spy for a competitor that wanted his company's proprietary algorithms. The irony would have been funny if it hadn't been eating her alive.

"Are you still going to the baseball game tonight?" she asked, watching him knot his tie with surgical precision.

"Chicago's in town. Can't miss it." He finally turned and offered that practiced smile, the one that had charmed investors and juries alike. "Maybe you should join me. We could use a night off."

A fork of lightning split the sky outside, followed immediately by thunder that shook the windowpanes. The weather mirrored the hole in her chest.

"I can't, David. Work."

"Always work." He crossed to the bed, pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You work too hard, El."

The door clicked shut behind him, and Elena waited exactly thirty seconds before picking up her phone. Her contact wanted the meeting tonight—during the seventh-inning stretch, when David would be distracted by beer and nostalgia, his guard down. She'd upload the keylogger to his laptop, which he always brought to the stadium, claiming he couldn't completely disconnect.

She'd destroy his career. She'd destroy the man who'd lied to her for half a year.

But in doing so, she'd destroy herself—the version that believed in something bigger than survival.

Elena picked up the diamond earrings receipt from the nightstand, folded it into a paper crane, and let it fall into the wastebasket.

Some betrayals, she decided, were worth surviving. Others weren't worth the cost.

She packed her bag and left before the rain began.