Chapter 7 - BRANDON FINALLY ADMITTED IT
I met Brandon one week later.
Rebecca was present.
So was his attorney.
No family dining room.
No Gertrude.
No phones buzzing.
Just a conference table.
Brandon looked tired.
“You froze everything.”
“I froze my cards.”
“My mother couldn’t buy groceries.”
“Your mother has her own money.”
“You humiliated her.”
I stared at him.
“She fed Skylar instant noodles while eating lobster I paid for.”
“She was trying to discipline her.”
“She does not discipline my daughter.”
“I’m Skylar’s stepfather.”
“Then you should have protected her.”
He looked away.
That was the part he could not defend.
So he changed subjects.
“The house was supposed to solve problems.”
“For whom?”
“All of us.”
“Explain.”
He finally did.
Gertrude’s condo had become difficult for her.
Hailey was struggling financially after divorce.
Brandon had become convinced we were wasting money maintaining separate households when we could build one large family property.
I asked the obvious question.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You always say no before you consider things involving my family.”
“Because your family’s plans usually involve my money.”
His jaw tightened.
“You have more than enough.”
There it was.
The sentence beneath everything.
Not ours.
Not we can afford it.
You have more than enough.
“So that makes it yours?”
“I never said that.”
“You spent from my account.”
“Household funds.”
“You ordered a valuation on my property.”
His expression changed.
Got him.
Rebecca noticed too.
“I wanted to understand options.”
“For what?”
“Financing.”
“My house.”
“Our home.”
“My pre-marital property.”
He leaned back.
“Do you hear yourself? We’ve been married seven years and you still separate everything into yours and mine.”
“Because apparently I needed to.”
The room went silent.
Then I asked the question that mattered more than the money.
“If I had said no to the house, what would you have done?”
He did not answer.
“Would you have canceled it?”
Nothing.
“Or had you promised your mother it was happening?”
His face gave me the answer.
Gertrude already believed the house was hers.
Hailey already believed she had a suite.
The architect already believed I was financing it.
Brandon had distributed my consent before ever asking for it.
That was when I knew the marriage was probably over.
May you like
Not because of an architect.
Because my husband had replaced partnership with assumption.
