Watching News Report from Paris, Man Recognizes Beggar as His Wife Who Disappeared 12 Years Ago – Story of the Day

Wealthy businessman Larry is watching a news report on a bomb threat in Paris when a beggar runs into the reporter. He instantly recognizes the beggar as his wife, Susan, who stole $500,000 from him and disappeared 12 years ago. He leaves for Paris immediately to find her and get answers.

Larry quickly sidestepped as he entered his penthouse apartment to avoid colliding with his robotic vacuum cleaner. The machine beeped, and Larry smiled as he watched it zoom off.

"See you later then," he muttered.

A short, sharp pang of embarrassment needled at him as he realized he'd become one of those people who spoke to their appliances. It didn't matter here at home, where it was only him, but he'd have to be careful he didn't start talking to the coffee machine at work.

Larry didn't bother to turn the lights on as he strolled toward his bar. The glittering lights from his neighboring apartment buildings in Manhattan gave him enough ambient light to navigate, and he preferred the dark.

Drink in hand, he settled on the sofa, flipped to the news channel, and idly watched a few reports on world news as he waited for the business segment to come on. His company had recently made an important acquisition, and he needed to keep tabs on the market response. There'd been far too many unlucky incidents lately for him to relax at such a critical time.

"... going live to our correspondent in Paris for an update on the bomb threat made at a museum housing the reconstructed studio of a famous sculptor in France early this morning," the reporter on the TV announced.

Larry frowned at the screen and sat up straight. One of his subsidiary companies imported turbines from France. He watched intently as the Paris correspondent appeared on screen to discuss the bomb threat.

Larry let out a sigh of relief as the reporter stated that the police suspected the threat was likely part of a recent wave of hoax threats. Then, a shabby, unkempt woman dashed in front of the camera and collided with the reporter. The beggar only faced the camera for a few seconds, but that was all it took for Larry to recognize his missing wife.

The sight of Susan's wide, green eyes filled with fear, her soft, blond hair hacked short, and her lips cracked from exposure to the elements had a strange effect on him. Worry and a fierce urge to protect her from whatever had scared her rose inside him, only to evaporate moments later as he was overcome by rage.

He tossed back his drink as he remembered the day 12 years ago when he'd come home from work and discovered Susan missing. He'd searched all over Manhattan for her as scenarios of her getting mugged, kidnapped, or worse played through his imagination.

It was the most frightening time of his life until the bank informed him she'd withdrawn half a million dollars. He hadn't wanted to believe she'd left him at first, but as the days drew on, he'd been forced to accept the truth.

He'd hired several private investigators to find her over the years, all to no avail. Her trail died at JFK airport, and Larry was left to wonder what had happened to drive her to such drastic action.

Larry jumped up and poured himself another drink as all the pain and anguish of Susan's betrayal resurfaced. The money she'd taken wasn't as significant to him as the fact that she'd stolen it. And although it would've hurt immensely if she'd divorced him, at least then he would've known what he'd done wrong.

Instead, he'd spent months stuck in an endless loop of overthinking every argument, every sad look on her face, every smile that seemed even a little bit fake in search of clues as to why she'd left. Now, he could finally put an end to all that.

"You won't get away from me again, Susan," he muttered, downing his drink. "I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth if that's what it takes to get an answer out of you."

Larry booked a ticket for the next flight to Paris. He'd just started packing when his doorbell rang. He tried to ignore it at first, but then his visitor called his name through the door.

Larry rushed to the door and tugged it open. His best friend, Roger, grinned at him and raised a bottle of expensive champagne.

"Time to celebrate, bro!" Roger said as he sidled past Larry to enter the apartment. "It looks like our run of bad luck has finally come to an end. That, or your secret plan to uncover our office spy is working."

"I found her, Roger," Larry replied. "Susan is in Paris, and I'm going after her."

Roger's grin slowly transformed into a confused frown. He lowered the champagne bottle and set it on the kitchen counter.

"Are you sure?" Roger asked. "Has she been in France all this time, living the high life?"

"It looked more like she's been living on the streets." Larry clenched his jaw as he remembered the shock of seeing Susan on TV. "God knows what she did with the money she stole from me, but it's obviously all gone now."

"So you've seen her?" Roger placed his hands on Larry's shoulders. His expression was all business now. "Where did you see her, and is she still there now?"

Larry returned to his bedroom to continue packing as he told Roger everything.

"Can you take the reins while I'm looking for her in Paris?" Larry asked.

Roger frowned. "I don't know, bro. This is a critical time for the business, and we still need to catch that office spy you think is selling our info. I'm happy to keep the wheels turning, but only if you promise me this isn't going to turn into a repeat of that time you went on sabbatical to that cabin in Wyoming."

"I promise." Larry met his friend's gaze as he threw several shirts into his duffel bag. "You know I only stayed in Wyoming so long because I was in shock about Susan. And what man wouldn't have been after the way she left?"

Roger cleared his throat. "Larry, why don't you let me handle this? This woman broke your heart and emptied out your joint account. You don't need to travel halfway across the world when you have a friend who'll be happy to search Paris on your behalf, find Susan, and bring her back here for you."

Larry smiled. "Thanks, Roger, you're a good friend, but I need to do this. It's the only way I'll be able to put Susan behind me and move on. You understand, right?"

"Of course." Larry nodded and folded his hands together. "I'll hold down the fort. I just worry about you, you know. You're like a brother to me, and the thought of you facing that woman alone...you don't have any unresolved feelings for her, do you?"

Larry gave Roger a friendly thump on the shoulder. "I just have to know what the hell happened all those years ago. We were happy, Roger. I have to know why she did what she did."

"Of course you do," Roger replied. "Just let me know how it goes in Paris, okay? And if you need anything..."

"I'll call," Larry promised.

Larry would've loved to spend most of the seven-hour flight to Paris sleeping, but his thoughts were in turmoil. He tried to distract himself by scrolling through French language apps, but he kept thinking of how Susan looked in the news broadcast and comparing it to the last time he'd seen her.

They'd met at a popular coffee shop for lunch that day. Larry had noticed something was bugging her lately and had hoped the casual atmosphere might make it easier for her to confide in him. He'd tried his best to get her to open up, but she just gave him her fake smile and insisted everything was okay.

He'd leaned in to kiss her when they parted, and she'd turned so his lips pressed against her cheek instead. For some reason, that was the moment that stood out most clearly. In the days following her disappearance, it played in his memory on an endless loop.

Acquaintances and relations had quickly suggested that Susan had stolen the money to run off with a lover, but Larry simply couldn't imagine her doing that.

A gasp from the seat behind him distracted Larry from his dark thoughts. He glanced out the window and glimpsed the Eiffel Tower. Finally, they'd arrived! Now, all he had to do was track down Susan and get answers out of her.

Roger had hired someone to help Larry get around and act as a translator while he searched Paris for Susan. As he wove through the crowds of excited tourists, he spotted a woman holding a sign with his name on it.

"Bonjour!" The woman grinned broadly when Larry introduced himself. "I am Alba. Mr. Harris told me you have come to Paris to find someone and that you will need help translating and navigating the city. Is that correct?"

Larry nodded. Alba had an unusually gravelly voice, which, combined with her accent, had an unexpected effect on him. If he hadn't been searching for his runaway thief of a wife, he might even have hit on her.

"Monsieur Sawyer?" Alba looked at him curiously.

"Ah, yes." Larry set aside his distracted thoughts to focus on the task at hand. "I'd like to start looking for her immediately after I've checked into my hotel."

Alba arched her eyebrows. "This woman must be very important. Where was she last seen?"

Larry and Alba climbed into a taxi together. As they drove to his hotel, he told Alba about seeing Susan on the news report featuring the renowned museum.

"I want to start looking for her in the neighborhood surrounding the museum," Larry said. "But I'll need your help to find and question the homeless people who frequent that area."

Alba let out a little laugh. "You will not need to search far to find beggars in Paris, Mr. Sawyer. And so long as you have some Euros to offer them, I believe they will be helpful."

An hour later, Larry hit the streets of Paris with Alba at his side. The museum in the 14th Arrondissement was still closed due to the bomb threat. The museum wasn't as famous as the Louvre, but it was a must-see for art tourists, according to Alba. This made it a good place for beggars.

They walked along the narrow street, hedged in by tall buildings on one side and a high wall concealed behind trees and creepers on the other. Alba informed Larry that there was a cemetery on the other side of the wall where many famous artists and writers had been laid to rest. Soon, they encountered a man holding a cardboard sign.

Larry had looked up the news report earlier, taken a screenshot of Susan, and printed a few copies. He removed one of those pictures from his pocket and passed it to Alba.

"Ask that man if he's seen this woman, please," he said, nodding toward the man with the cardboard sign.

"This is the lady you are looking for?" Alba frowned at the image. "It is not a very good picture."

"I destroyed or deleted all the other photos I had so that's the best I've got," Larry replied.

The beggar studied Susan's picture with a furrowed brow, then glanced at Larry and grinned broadly. He gestured animatedly as he chatted excitedly.

"He says he's seen the woman you're looking for," Alba translated.

"She has been begging in the area surrounding the museum and the cemetery for the past few days," Alba continued. "But he hasn't seen her since the police arrived yesterday."

"Ask him about what happened to her yesterday, when the news reporters were here." Larry removed a 5 Euro note from his wallet and showed it to the man.

The beggar greedily eyed the cash in Larry's hand. He glanced around the street, leaned in closer, and lowered his voice to a whisper. Alba listened closely, a frown forming on her forehead.

"He says something frightened her," Alba said. "The police were questioning everyone in the area, but when she spotted the news crews, she ran."

"Merci." Larry handed the man his money and turned to Alba. "Is there a shelter around here she might've gone to?"

Alba bit her lip and turned her gaze skyward. "I think she would not have stayed nearby if she was afraid, Mr. Sawyer. But she would also not have traveled very far on foot."

Alba spoke to the beggar briefly, then gestured to Larry to follow her. She strode to the end of the street and hailed a cab.

"There are several shelters in the area where she might have gone. The man suggested one where he has seen her before," Alba said.

Alba spoke animatedly with the taxi driver all through the short trip. Larry made a mental note to thank Roger later for finding him a guide who was not only helpful but seemed fully committed to his quest to find Susan.

The taxi let them out outside a plain building a few streets from the museum.

"May I have one of those pictures?" Alba asked. "We want to waste as little time as possible so it will be easier if I go in to ask questions alone."

"Sure." Larry gave her one of the pictures of Susan. "But what about money? Don't you think it will loosen their tongues if I'm there to offer a donation?"

Alba smiled and shook her head. "We must be quick, Larry, if we hope to speak to all the shelters in the area, and, no offense, but I can ask questions faster if I do not have to translate for you. We do not want this woman to have time to leave the area and lose us, no?"

Larry agreed. He watched Alba enter the building and groaned. He felt useless standing here on the street. Larry paced along the sidewalk and considered how to put his time to more productive use. When he turned around to walk back, there she was.

Susan stared at him as though he'd stolen her breath. Tears slowly trickled down her cheeks, leaving tracks in the dirt on her face. Everything else fell away as Larry looked into her eyes. Susan's shabby clothes and unkempt appearance briefly stabbed at him. He moved toward her, and Susan ran.

"Wait!" Larry cried as he sprinted after her. "Get back here, Susan!"

Susan glanced over her shoulder. When she realized he was chasing her, she dashed out into traffic. Tires squealed as cars braked hard to avoid hitting her. Larry looked on in horror, his heart frozen in his chest. Then he realized he would lose her if he didn't act fast.

Larry chased Susan all the way to the busy main street nearby, where she turned North, heading back toward the heart of the city. Larry was soon puffing for breath, but he felt sure that if he let Susan slip through his fingers now, then he'd never see her again. This was his last chance to get answers about why she left him.

Susan suddenly ran into a small formal garden in front of an old building. She hurdled hedges and ducked around trees like an Olympic athlete, and Larry was obliged to follow.

He burst through an overgrown shrub less than a minute behind Susan and stopped short. His lungs burned as he scanned the small parking lot before him for any sign of his quarry, but it was entirely deserted. There weren't even any cars she could've hidden behind.

Larry shoved back through the bush, but it didn't seem like she'd doubled back to evade him. This made no sense! People couldn't just vanish into thin air.

He fell to his knees and beat the ground with his fist as a furious snarl escaped him. Tears stung his eyes as he confronted the hopelessness that flooded him. He had to find her. He couldn't spend the rest of his life wondering about Susan. He deserved to be free of her.

Then, he noticed the open manhole partially concealed by the overhanging branches of a dense shrub. He crawled toward it. When he peeped inside, he spotted the glimmer of light below.

Larry cautiously climbed down the ladder of thick iron bars set into the concrete. Near the bottom, he was forced to continue his descent using an old rope. Wherever he was, Larry was sure he wasn't supposed to be there. He couldn't escape the nagging thought that he was about to find himself in a serial killer's hideout.

Although every instinct in Larry's body screamed at him to turn back, he had to go on. Eventually, he reached the bottom and found himself in a dark tunnel. The only light came from a flashlight in the middle distance.

"Susan!" Larry flinched at the sound of his voice echoing through this eerie place.

The light ahead of him stopped. The person holding the flashlight turned, and he was blinded as the bright beam of light hit his eyes.

"Stop chasing me, Larry!" Susan's voice was thick with emotion.

"Never!" Larry cried.

Larry removed his phone and activated the flashlight app. It gave him just enough illumination to see the next few steps in front of him while Susan's flashlight guided him onwards like the North Star.

Larry stumbled through passages so low and narrow that he had to duck his head, galleries decorated with vivid graffiti, and past eerie pools of water. Despite the famous cartoon characters depicted in the graffiti, he felt like he'd been transported to a different world.

It felt like he'd been down there forever by the time he lost track of Susan's light. One moment, it was there, floating a couple of yards ahead of him, and the next, it was gone. He hurried toward the spot where he'd last seen it.

There was an arched entryway set into the wall. It looked ancient. Larry rushed through it, convinced he'd find Susan inside, but instead, he seemed to be in the serial killer hideout he'd dreaded finding the moment he started down the ladder.

Thousands of human skulls stared down at him from the walls, where they'd been tightly packed together. It took him a moment to realize that the oddly shaped knobs arranged neatly between the skulls were the heads of longer bones, like femurs. The color and damage to the bones convinced him that every single one was real.

Larry screamed. He fled from the bone room and out into the tunnel as fast as his feet could carry him. Fear electrified him and temporarily erased Susan from his thoughts as he became consumed by the urge to escape.

He was moving so fast that he didn't see the rubble littering the floor ahead of him in time to avoid it. Larry tripped. His phone flew from his fingers and landed with a distinct smash somewhere ahead of him. The flashlight died immediately, leaving Larry alone in the dark.

Larry felt along the floor as he cautiously crawled forward. He couldn't even tell if his eyes were open or closed; it was so dark. Sharp bits of unidentifiable debris poked into his hands and knees. He encountered several roughly rectangular objects, but none were his phone.

He was forced to give up trying to locate his device after something sharp sliced his palm. Larry gingerly felt around the painful wound and discovered he was bleeding.

He needed to return to the tunnel he'd used to enter this awful place, but how? Susan had taken so many twists and turns that there was no way he could retrace his steps, even if he'd had a way to see where he was going.

Larry hugged his knees as the eerie atmosphere pressed down on him. Back home, they always advised people who got lost in the woods to stay put and wait for someone to find them, but who would ever find him down here?

A distant crunching sound reached Larry's ears, and every nerve in his body snapped to attention. He held his breath as he listened and stared into the darkness, waiting for some sign that he wasn't as alone as he seemed.

Another crunch, and another, like footsteps on gravel, but there was no light in the direction the sounds were coming from. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

He remembered being a child terrified of encountering the alligators his nanny had told him lived in New York's sewers. He couldn't help wondering what monsters might slither and crawl through these creepy tunnels beneath Paris.

Larry shook his head and straightened up. He couldn't just sit here in the dark and let his fears take over. If Susan came down here so readily and could navigate this hellhole with practiced ease, then surely other people came down here, too.

"Hello?" Larry called out. "I need help, please."

The crunching sounds stopped. Larry desperately thought back to the app he'd scrolled through on the plane that listed helpful words and phrases in French. He couldn't quite remember the French word for 'help,' but he did recall noting how similar it was to an English word.

"Aid?" He yelled. "S'il vous plaît! Aid! I'm hurt...er, injured. Oh God," he sighed as the pathetic tone in his voice echoed around him, "I'm going to die down here and some weirdo is going to stack my bones into that wall along with all the other corpses."

An amused snort sounded somewhere to his right. "No cataphile would dream of adding your bones to one of the ossuaries, Larry. Where are you injured?"

"Susan?" He started moving toward the sound of her voice.

"Stop! Don't come any closer. Just tell me how badly you're injured."

There was a note of worry in Susan's voice. Larry didn't know how to answer her. It seemed clear that she'd only spoken out because he'd said he was hurt. Once she knew it probably wasn't a bad injury, she'd take off again.

"I'm not sure," he replied. It wasn't a total lie.

Susan sighed. A light flashed on, blinding Larry. He raised one arm to shield his face. Rapid footsteps crunched over the grit and dust toward him.

"I don't see any injuries," Susan said.

Larry reached out and grabbed Susan's wrist with his good hand. "Don't leave me here! You can't abandon me again."

Susan flinched. She looked at him as though he'd slapped her. He even glimpsed tears in her eyes before she averted her gaze.

"I didn't want to leave you, Larry," Susan muttered. "I had no choice. He was trying to kill me! If I hadn't left you—"

"Who was trying to kill you?"

Susan shook her head and pulled back against his hand. "I can't tell you! I've already said too much and stayed here too long. I've got to get out of here, now! If you're here, then he won't be far behind."

"No, please! Tell me what happened, Susan. I've spent every day of the last 12 years wondering what I did to make you hate me so much that you'd leave me like that. You can't just drop a bomb on me about someone trying to kill you and run away again. I deserve to know the truth!"

"You're right, Larry, it's time you knew about the viper that's been shadowing you all this time," Susan replied, "but we really can't stay here. Walk with me and I'll tell you everything."

Susan quickly bound a strip of cloth around Larry's wounded hand and then beckoned to him to follow her. Larry walked at Susan's side as she led the way down the tunnel.

"It started when you went on that business trip to Washington DC to meet the people from those tech companies. You were supposed to be gone for two weeks..."

"But it turned into a month and I missed our anniversary." Larry sighed.

"I was so mad at you!" Susan said. "He came over one night with dinner and wine, to cheer me up, he said. Now I know better. I'm sure he planned to seduce me all along."

Larry's heart skipped a beat. "Are you telling me you had an affair?"

Susan sniffed and nodded. "I missed you so much, Larry! I was so lonely and so drunk, and it was so nice to have someone hug me and tell me everything was going to be okay. It just... happened."

Larry was crushed. All this time, he'd thought his marriage was almost perfect right up until the day Susan vanished. He'd replayed memories of their lives together so many times and never encountered any pattern to suggest Susan was unhappy, never mind having an affair!

"I'm ashamed to say it carried on for a few months after that," Susan continued. "He just had a way of making me feel special and cared about on the nights when you were working late or had to leave the city for some meeting. I didn't realize that I was just one part of a scheme to bring you down until it was almost too late."

"What are you talking about?" Larry stopped and stepped in front of Susan to face her directly. "Who was trying to bring me down?"

"Roger." Susan looked into his eyes. "I know you might find this hard to believe, Larry, but Roger is not the friend he pretends to be. He's the one who seduced me. I wanted to tell you everything when I found out he was selling information about the business to your rivals, but he said he'd kill me!"

Larry was stunned, and yet, it all made sense now. He'd suspected for a very long time that somebody in the company was selling information for insider trading.

He'd assumed the spy was using more high-tech means to gather that information—bugging offices, hacking emails, and the like—but now that Susan had named Roger as the culprit, Larry realized how everything had pointed to him all along.

Roger had always been privy to secret company information, the same information that had so frequently been used against them. Roger had also played a key role in several strategic business maneuvers that had imploded without any apparent cause.

"But why?" Larry asked. "What did I ever do to him?"

"You were better than he was at reading the markets and predicting what was going to be the next big thing," Susan replied. "Maybe there was a time when he was happy to ride on your coattails and let you make him rich, but I think deep down, Roger always wished he was the star of the show."

Voices and hurried footsteps echoed down the tunnels behind them. Larry and Susan both turned in their direction.

"Cataphiles," Susan said. "We should move on. Believe it or not, but it can get pretty crowded down here and I don't want to get stuck in a bottleneck."

Larry was about to ask what a cataphile was when a woman's voice rose above the others. A chill ran down his spine as he recognized Alba's gravelly timbre. Roger had hired her to help him find Susan... what other instructions had he given the woman that Larry wasn't privy to?

"Where's the nearest exit?" Larry asked. "I think those people might be working for Roger. We have to get out of here."

Susan swore. She started jogging down the tunnel, and Larry followed her. The sound of hurried footsteps and Alba's barked-out orders filled the tunnels as Susan and Larry fled down seemingly random twists and turns. Eventually, Susan stopped and pointed her flashlight upwards, illuminating a ladder leading to the surface, but all the bottom rungs were missing.

"You'll need to use the bricks sticking out of the wall to reach the ladder," Susan said. "I'll light it up so you can get up there, but you have to hurry, Larry."

Larry climbed up the wall and soon reached the ladder. He glanced over his shoulder and watched Susan follow him. When her hand grabbed the bottom rung, he rapidly climbed up to the surface.

They paused once or twice when the sounds of pursuit passed a little too close for comfort. Susan switched off her flashlight while they waited for the sound of voices to move onward, leaving them in the dark. Their breath echoing in the enclosed space seemed loud enough to give them away, but it didn't.

Eventually, Susan's flashlight revealed the utility hole cover sealing the entrance to the tunnels. Larry gripped the top rung tightly and leaned out to press against the heavy circle. He bit back a shriek as the rung he was holding gave a little. He quickly pulled back and grabbed the rung below it.

"I'm not sure we can get out this way," he whispered to Susan. "The top rung is loose and I'm not sure I can lift that manhole cover."

"You have to try, Larry!" Susan hissed. "There isn't another way out for miles and Roger's people will find us if we go back to the entrance near the post office."

Larry released a deep sigh. Keeping a tight grip on the rung second from the top, he leaned out again and pushed against the manhole cover. He clenched his teeth as he strained against it, but eventually, it started to move.

A thin sliver of light appeared above them, growing larger as Larry steadily pushed the utility hole cover aside. When the gap was large enough, Larry squeezed through.

But he had to use the loose top rung to reach the outside. It gave beneath his weight. Susan let out a cry, which was soon followed by a sequence of resounding clangs as the rung crashed its way to the bottom of the shaft. Somewhere not too far away, Alba let out a triumphant cry.

"I can't reach it," Susan wailed as she tried to climb out after Larry. "Give me your hand."

Larry stared down at Susan as he caught his breath. Alba and whoever else Roger had hired to take care of Susan once and for all would surely be closing in on her from below. All they'd need to do was climb the ladder and pull her off. The fall down the narrow shaft to the hard floor below would be enough to silence Susan for good.

And if Larry ran now, Roger would never know that Susan had told him everything before Alba got to her. He could oust Roger from the company before his supposed best friend knew what hit him.

"Please, Larry!" Tears glittered in Susan's eyes.

Larry had gotten what he came to Paris for. He now knew exactly why Susan had left him and stolen that money. He could've left her to her fate and considered it karma for what she'd done to him, but his heart wouldn't allow it.

He took Susan's hand and pulled. She dug her fingers into the narrow edge between the manhole and the sloped cement surrounding it and heaved her torso out of the hole. Larry gripped her arms and pulled Susan the rest of the way out.

An angry cry resounded from the tunnel below. Larry and Susan moved as one to the utility hole cover and heaved it up. Together, they moved it back over the entrance to the tunnels and dropped it. All sounds of pursuit were cut off as it fell into place with a loud clang.

Larry and Susan raced to the street, where Larry hailed a cab. He directed the driver to take them straight to the airport, where Larry bought them both tickets to New York.

Their flight didn't leave for a while, so Larry bought a cheap phone and called his lawyer and several trusted business connections while Susan cleaned up in the airport bathroom. His jaw dropped when he spotted her heading toward him. It felt like the first time he saw her, all those years ago.

"Are you ready?" Susan asked.

"Uh, yes." Larry pulled himself together and nodded. "Everything's in place. Now, I just need to get home."

Larry and Susan boarded their flight and were soon in the air, headed back to the States. They sat together in awkward silence at first but soon found themselves chatting like they used to when they first started dating.

Eventually, the conversation turned to more serious topics. At Larry's request, Susan explained in greater detail how she'd caught Roger passing information on to the CEO of a rival company when she went to surprise him at his apartment one day.

"He cornered me in his kitchen and threatened me with a knife," Susan whispered. "I kicked him between the legs and tied him up with the iron's power cord. I left the city that same day."

Larry nodded. It was a relief to finally see how all the pieces fit together and understand what had driven Susan to steal his money and leave him. The only part he still couldn't understand was why she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him what was going on.

Larry left the airport in a hurry. He needed to get in touch with his lawyer ASAP so they could spring their trap to capture Roger. All the years of betrayal and backstabbing were going to end.

He jogged up to one of the cabs waiting outside the main entrance to the airport and asked the driver to wait. He then turned to Susan, who'd stayed at his side since the plane landed.

"Where do you want to go? I'll pay for the cab," Larry said.

"Oh." Susan frowned. "I thought... don't you want me to come with you?"

Larry looked down and shook his head. He couldn't bear to see the hope, hurt, and longing in Susan's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Susan," he said. "I might never fully get over what you did to me but I hope, now that I know the truth, I'll finally be able to move on. Part of me wishes we could have a second chance, but too much has happened. We'd never be able to trust each other."

Larry removed $50 and tucked it into her hands. "Have a good life, Susan."

Larry ran off to catch a cab that had just pulled in at the curb. He told the driver to head straight to his office, then sent a message to his lawyer to let him know he was en route.

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