So that’s what I did. I waited. One of them approached my window.
“Ma’am, you called about retrieving an item from your husband’s vehicle?”
I nodded. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“Alright. I’ll have you wait here with Officer Garcia while I speak with the residents.”
He walked up the driveway with purpose and knocked on the door.
Almost immediately, a woman appeared. Three minutes passed. Then five.
Then the officer returned with Jason a step behind him. But something was wrong here, something more than my husband’s infidelity. Jason was wearing an old gray hoodie I thought he’d thrown out months ago and jeans covered in sawdust.
His hair was messy, his face flushed, and he paused in the doorway to say something to the woman. She smiled at him and disappeared back inside. I got out of my car before I could think better of it.
The officer reached me first. “Ma’am, your husband is working here. He’ll open his car for you now.
It seems this was a misunderstanding, so we’ll be going.”
“Working here?” I turned to Jason, who still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “But you work across town at the warehouse.”
I just stared at him. My brain couldn’t process what he was saying.
He gestured vaguely toward the house. “Elise, the woman who lives here, hired me for a full basement renovation. It’s my biggest project yet!
She’s paying me $3000.”
He smiled like he expected me to be proud, but I felt like I was going to be sick. It was bad enough when I’d thought he was cheating, but this was so much worse. Jason stepped forward and reached for my hands, his expression softening.
“Because I knew you’d worry, and you don’t have to. Yes, finances are rough right now, but that’s just because the business is new. It takes time to build a client base.
More jobs will come in.”
His voice dropped. “Trust me, this is going to be good for us in the long term. I’ll be able to spend more time with you and Stephanie.
And one day, maybe soon, we’ll make far more money than I ever did in that warehouse.”
“You made a huge decision without consulting me. You lied to me for months. How am I supposed to trust anything you say now?”
“Mira, please, just listen—”
But I was already walking back to my car.
Jason called after me, his voice rising with desperation, but I got in, slammed the door, and drove away. By the time I got home, my anger had crystallized into something cold and focused. I’d left Stephanie with my mom while I went hunting for her rattle, and Mom, miraculously, had gotten her to settle.
I put Stephanie down for a nap. Then I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop and opened our bank accounts. Jason had always handled the money, and like an idiot, I’d trusted him.
It took me two hours to go through our joint checking and savings accounts and double-check what I was seeing. Our savings account was cut in half, and the checking account was almost empty. I stared at the numbers on the screen until my tears blurred them.
“I looked at our bank accounts,” I said. Jason stopped in the doorway. He raised his hands in a gesture somewhere between apology and defense.
“I know it looks bad right now, but it’s going to get better. I promise you, Mira, this investment is going to pay off—”
“Call your old boss and ask for your job back, or apply somewhere new. I don’t care.
Just cut your losses before it’s too late. We have a daughter to think about.”
Jason flinched like I’d physically struck him. “I can’t do that.
Not when I’m this close to making it work. I know you saw those numbers and thought the worst, but there’s something you don’t know yet—”
His jaw clenched. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you yet.
I knew you’d freak out before I could explain the whole plan.”
“The whole plan,” I repeated flatly. “I applied for a business loan, and the bank approved it. I’ll get the funds sometime this week.
Fifteen thousand dollars for marketing, better tools, business cards, everything I need to really get this off the ground.”
My brain raced ahead, calculating worst-case scenarios. We were already teetering on the edge, and Jason wanted to jump off the cliff entirely. “You know what really hurts?” Jason said quietly.
“That you have such little faith in me. I’m doing this for us, and all you can do is tell me I’m going to fail.”
My eyes snapped open. “Do you hear yourself right now?
You risked our daughter’s stability on a dream I didn’t even get to vote on, and you want to make me the bad guy?”
“I need space,” I said. “I need time to think.”
I walked upstairs and started packing. When I came back downstairs with Stephanie in her carrier and the bags over my shoulder, Jason was standing in the hallway with wide eyes.
“I’m going to my mom’s,” I said. “She’ll watch the baby while I look for work, since you refuse to find a job. And I’m going to look into legally separating our finances so you can’t drain what’s left of our savings.”
His face crumpled.
“Mira, please—”
But I was already walking out the door, closing it firmly behind me. I strapped Stephanie into her car seat, and she gurgled at me, completely unaware that her parents’ marriage had just fractured. I envied her innocence.
As I backed out of the driveway, I glanced at the house one last time. Jason stood in the window, backlit by the living room lamp, watching me leave. Share this story with your friends.
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