Mark initially tried to dismiss my concerns with weak jokes but eventually fell completely silent when I revealed that I had seen the hidden items with my own eyes. He finally confessed that he had secretly lost his job almost two years earlier and eventually resorted to taking valuable property from empty homes after his financial loans ran out. He had been living a dangerous double life by entering vacant properties and using our safe country getaway to store and sell the acquired goods.
I looked at the man I married and realized I would have vastly preferred discovering a romantic betrayal rather than facing this terrifying reality.
