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The dog stayed close by Harlow’s side. He was almost always in her room when she woke in the morning. The pup followed her to the bathroom to keep an eye on her and even monitored her movements throughout the day, having become Harlow’s self-appointed guard dog.

She let out a celebratory whoop when she successfully landed on the barstool. “I did it.”

Woof.With tail wagging, Mort nudged her with his nose.

“Onward and upward, my furry friend.” She ruffled his ears.

“Do you want me to hang around?”

“Thanks for the offer, but it’s going to take some time to dig through what we have.”

“I’ll be on the porch. Just holler if you need help.”

After her father left, Harlow began sifting through her emails, making sure Robert hadn’t sent her a message with an explanation about why her credit cards had been canceled.

She quickly answered her most pressing messages. Halfway through, she found one from her husband, asking her to review a handful of potential projects he’d forwarded. She responded with brief and to the point replies.

He replied, thanking her. As an afterthought, he asked how she was feeling.

Getting better every day.

During the long, sleepless hours and late into the night, Harlow had done some serious soul-searching about Robert and their marriage. She loved her husband, but it wasn’t the kind of love that made her heart race and her knees weak. No one had ever made her feel like jelly except for Caleb Jackson.

Stop!Harlow scolded herself. Caleb was a part of her past. So what if he was close by? He had chosen his path. She had chosen hers. To top it off, the two were not even on the same page about what they wanted out of life.

Pushing all thoughts of her high school sweetheart aside, Harlow grabbed a pad of paper and jotted down each of the bank accounts she knew of.

Starting at the top, she tracked down Coastal California Credit Union’s site and logged in. Or at least she tried logging in. Twice, she got an error message informing her she had the incorrect password.

Harlow hit the button for “forgotten password.” A second error popped up, stating the online account was unavailable andlisted a number to call. “Great. This is getting better by the minute,” she muttered under her breath.

The front door slammed. Her father appeared. “How’s it going?”

“Not good. I’m locked out of our main bank account.” Harlow grabbed her cell phone and dialed the number. After several transfers, she finally reached the regional assistant manager, who offered to look into it. “It appears some recent changes were made to your account.”

Harlow’s scalp tingled. “I haven’t made any changes.”

“Robert Barbetz is the designated account holder, along with Harlow Wynn.”

“Which is me. You’ve already verified my information.”

“The username and password were updated last week.”

Harlow’s mind whirled. “I need to access our account and would like to change it.”

“We can take care of it now.” Clicking on the other end of the line ensued.

Within minutes, she was able to give Harlow access. “Is there any way to put some sort of note on this account so the password isn’t changed again?”

“Unfortunately, as a safety measure, all customers are allowed to change their password and account information as often as needed.”

“I see.” Harlow thanked the woman for her help. She ended the call and immediately logged in. The main account page popped up.

She clutched her chest, staring at the screen in disbelief. “How can this be?”

Her father leaned in, peering over her shoulder. “What is it?”

“The main accounts have almost zero balances.”