After closing a $10 million deal, I gave the money bag to my wife for safekeeping overnight. the next day, I was stunned to find she had disappeared, and her phones were off.

Closing a $10 million deal feels like standing on the summit of the world. I’d been chasing it for months—brutal negotiations, sleepless nights. The final agreement was signed at 7:42 p.m. I remember thinking, This is the moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I was right, just not for the reasons I expected.

I brought the physical contract and the “celebratory handoff” home—a symbolic leather duffel filled with placeholder cash. The client had a flair for the dramatic; he wanted me to feel the weight of it.

When I got home, exhausted but exhilarated, my wife, Ria, was waiting in silk pajamas, a wine glass in hand. She smiled as I set the bag down. “What’s that?”