Chapter 3 - Nine Thousand Dollars in Brisket
The week before David proposed separate finances, I opened my records out of curiosity.
The total made me stare at the screen.
Saturday dinners alone had cost me almost nine thousand dollars in one year.
That did not include birthday gifts, school supplies, medicines for Victoria, or the two emergency payments I made when Ryan fell behind on rent.
David contributed nothing to those expenses.
He occasionally carried a case of soda inside and called it helping.
That same month, he bought a new PlayStation because he needed to relax.
On the day it arrived, I paid the utility bill, purchased groceries for eleven people, and replaced Ryan’s youngest son’s backpack after Victoria said the old one was embarrassing.
I asked David to increase his household contribution.
He sighed.
“Money is all you ever talk about.”
I did not argue.
I wrote the sentence in the notes column of my spreadsheet.
A few days later, Victoria raised the subject over dinner.
“Modern couples keep their money separate. That way no one feels used.”
David nodded.
His coworker Marcus had apparently been telling him that wives often lived comfortably from their husbands’ salaries.
Victoria looked at me while she spoke.
I understood then.
They genuinely believed David supported me.
Not because they had examined the numbers.
Because the version made them feel better.
David could be the successful provider.
Victoria could continue accepting food and money from her son’s household.
May you like
And I could remain the invisible system making the story possible.
When David finally announced that he was tired of supporting me, I agreed before he had finished enjoying the sentence.
