Chapter 3

I opened the door, and there they were again, my mother-in-law and Bertram.

The second Adeline saw me, she pulled me aside and dropped her voice. "What took you so long? Mom and my brother have been waiting forever. Go make dinner, quick."

I looked at her, worn down. "I pulled two overtime days. I'm exhausted. Can we just order takeout?"

"Takeout?" Her voice shot up, like she was afraid her mother wouldn't hear. "Mom came all this way just to eat your home cooking. Takeout's so unhealthy. You're a grown man. Two days of overtime and you're this worn out?"

The heat surged up in my chest.

"Adeline! I'm a person too. I'm not made of steel! I break my back out there earning money for this family, and I don't even get the right to rest when I come home?"

Our shouting brought the others in from the living room.

My mother-in-law came over, took Adeline's hand, and shot me a sidelong look. "Addie, don't fight with him. That's men for you. They take some grief out in the world, then come home and dump it on family. Carl, I'm not trying to lecture you, but a man should cut his wife more slack. My daughter married you. She didn't marry you to take your abuse."

I was shaking with rage.

I took grief? Whose grief was I taking, exactly?

Bertram chimed in too. "Right, Carl. My sister's the one losing out being with you. What's the big deal about cooking one meal?"

I looked at the faces of these people and it suddenly struck me as absurd.

What did they think I was? An ATM? A hired hand?

That night I didn't cook. I went straight into the bedroom and locked the door behind me.

I could hear Adeline yelling outside, my mother-in-law complaining, Bertram grumbling to hurry it up.

In the end, it sounded like they ordered takeout.

In the middle of the night, I heard Adeline knocking.

"Carl, open the door!"

I ignored her.

"So you've grown a spine, huh? You think you can give me attitude? Let me tell you, if you don't apologize to my mom and my brother today, this isn't over!"

Apologize? Apologize for what?

I put on my headphones and cranked the music as loud as it would go. I didn't want to hear another word out of her.

What truly turned me cold, all the way through, was the money vanishing from the mortgage account.

When we bought the place, I opened a bank card just for the mortgage. Every month, the moment my pay came in, I moved it into that account first thing. On top of the fixed monthly payment, I'd stashed an extra fifty thousand in there, my project bonus from the first half of the year at work. I'd meant to keep it in case of an emergency.

Only Adeline and I knew the PIN to that card.

That day, out of nowhere, my phone got a text from the bank: insufficient balance in the mortgage account, payment failed.

I froze.

I opened the banking app right away, and the moment I saw the balance, the blood went cold all through me.

The card should have held over fifty thousand. Now there was a few hundred left.

I pulled up the transaction history. Just yesterday afternoon, a fifty-thousand transfer. The recipient was a name I didn't recognize.

I stormed into the bedroom with my phone. Adeline was lounging on the bed with a face mask on, without a care in the world.

"Where's the fifty thousand in the card?" I shoved the phone screen in her face, my voice shaking.

She saw the text, blinked for a second, then peeled off the mask like it was nothing.

"Oh. I used it."

"You used it?" I couldn't believe my ears. "That was my emergency money! Used it for what? Sent it to who?"

"What do you think," she said, sitting up, thoroughly annoyed. "My brother's been shopping for a car, hasn't he? He found one he liked, still fifty thousand short on the down payment. What kind of sister would I be if I didn't help him out?"

"Help your brother?" My vision went black with rage. "Adeline, that's fifty thousand! Not five hundred! Did you ask me first? That's our family's money. That's the mortgage money! Do you have any idea that a failed payment today wrecks our credit?"

"Oh, come on. So we pay a few days late. What's the big deal?" She rolled her eyes. "Credit, credit, that's all you ever talk about. My brother buying a car is a big deal. Can you not get your priorities straight?"

"Priorities?" I laughed, past the point of anger. "In your eyes, your brother buying a car is the big deal, and whether this household pays its mortgage is a trifle? Adeline, do you even think of this place as your home?"

"How is it not my home?" She flared up too, standing and jabbing a finger at my face. "Carl, don't you make this into some huge deal! So I spent a little of your money, so what? We're husband and wife. Your money is my money, isn't it? I lent my brother a little to tide him over, is that a crime? How can you be this selfish!"

"I'm selfish?" I pointed at my own chest, my heart cramping in waves. "I make fifteen thousand a month. Six goes to the mortgage, five to you for living expenses. I pay every utility, gas, water, and the HOA fee. Your brother and your mom come and eat and drink on us every few days, and have I ever said a word? Now you quietly take fifty thousand to buy your brother a car, and I'm the selfish one?"

"That's my brother! My own flesh and blood!" she screamed, hysterical. "He's in a bind, and I'm supposed to just not help him? Do you think that because I married you, I have to cut off my own family? Carl, I really misjudged you!"

Crack.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. My hand came down hard on the coffee table. The glass top rang out with a huge sound, and the shock left my palm buzzing.

Adeline jumped, startled, and stepped back.

My eyes red, I stared her down.

"Adeline, this is the last time." My voice was calm, and colder than it had ever been. "What you spent today wasn't fifty thousand. It was the last bit of goodwill between you and me in this home."

She looked at the stranger in my eyes and seemed a little afraid herself. Her lips moved, but nothing came out.

I didn't look at her again. I turned and walked out the door.

I needed to clear my head.

I walked the streets a long time with no destination, until my legs ached.

Finally it came clear to me.

Adeline, or rather her whole family, had never once seen me as one of them. To them I was just a tool that could keep supplying money and service without end.

Everything I gave, they took as their due.

And I, like a fool, had kept imagining I could trade a true heart for a true heart.

That night I didn't go home. I checked into a hotel near the office.

Lying on the soft, wide hotel bed, I slept sounder than I had in ages.

I made a decision.

If she had no decency, then I owed her none. This ridiculous marriage was long overdue to end.

The next day I went to work as usual. I didn't call Adeline, and I didn't answer a single one of her messages.