The Supplement

Margot arranged the **spinach** leaves on her plate with surgical precision, each leaf fanned out like a green hand waiting to be shaken. Across the table, Marcus watched her with that look—the one that had once made her feel seen, now made her feel studied.

'You're taking your **vitamin**?' he asked, nodding toward the supplement organizer she'd positioned beside her water glass.

'Always.' She swallowed the D3 capsule with practiced efficiency. At forty-two, she'd become fluent in the language of bodily maintenance, conversant in the small compromises required to keep time at bay.

What Marcus didn't know—what he couldn't know—was that she'd discovered the burner phone in his coat pocket three days ago. The encrypted messages. The coded calendar entries that didn't match his consulting schedule. The woman who wasn't a client.

The private investigator she'd hired had confirmed it yesterday morning: Marcus wasn't having an affair. He was something worse.

He'd been reporting on her for months. Her research. Her colleagues. Her private conversations about the pharmaceutical company they both worked for—conversations she'd thought were the safe intimacy of partnership, not intelligence gathering for corporate espionage.

'You seem quiet,' Marcus said, reaching across the table to cover her hand with his.

Margot looked at his hand—the hand she'd held for seven years, the hand that had stroked her hair through sickness and stress, the hand that had typed out reports on her life to god-knows-who. She remembered bringing him soup when he had the flu, how she'd blended spinach into the broth because he needed the nutrients. How she'd loved him then, in that uncomplicated way.

'I'm fine,' she said, withdrawing her hand to pick up her fork. 'Just thinking about work.'

The spinach tasted like iron and betrayal. She chewed slowly, watching him watch her, and wondered how many of their shared meals had been reconnaissance. How many quiet moments had been documented in classified files.

'You should take your omega-3,' she said pleasantly. 'Good for the heart.'

Marcus smiled, unaware that the woman across from him was already gone, had been gone since she'd opened that report. He swallowed the capsule she offered, and Margot watched his throat work, thinking about how easy it would be to add something else to his regimen.

Instead, she simply ate her salad, and planned her exit.