No Job, No Money

It was almost the end of the month. A day before I received my monthly pay, my aunt, Eliza Turner, told me that my uncle, Patrick Ford, had to undergo an emergency surgery and she needed to borrow 50 thousand dollars from me.

Aunt Eliza had always been very kind to me. So, I agreed to her request right away.

I had some money in my PayPal account. It was around 70 thousand dollars. Yet, when I accessed my account to transfer the money, I found that only one dollar and 20 cents were left in that account.

I had not used any of that money all this time.

Panic rose within me. I thought that my phone had malfunctioned. However, when I brought my phone to the bank and inquired about the issue, the staff member told me a transaction had been made a week before.

I recalled at that moment how my husband, Gregory Chance, had suddenly asked to borrow my phone about a week ago. He had used it for about half an hour.

My heartbeat quickened. My voice was shaking when Gregory picked up the phone.

"You used the money in my PayPal account."

Gregory was completely engrossed in the game he was playing. He paid no mind to what I was saying.

"Jess wants to eat chicken tonight. Remember to buy some. Also, you need to clean up the trash by the front door when you get back later. It smells awful!"

"Did you or did you not use my money?"

Gregory was probably surprised when I raised my voice all of a sudden. He grumbled about how he had just lost the game and yelled at me impatiently.

"What's the big deal with me using some of your money? Jess needs to redo the concrete in her yard. So, I lent her the money for the time being!"

My breathing grew ragged in exasperation.

Gregory was my first love. We dated for nine years and had been married for two years now. Our son just turned two years old.

Gregory came from a single-parent family. They weren't well off, to begin with. His family also didn't approve of me, who had a master's degree, as Gregory's partner.

However, I was too deeply in love with Gregory back then. I ignored my parents' advice, thinking that I could convince the Chance family to acknowledge me as one of them by showing them how much I cared about them.

The Chance family gave me 66 thousand dollars, whereas my family gave them 150 thousand dollars for the wedding gift.

On the day we got married, Gregory took the money for both wedding gifts and gave it to his mother, Clara Mckinsen. Soon afterward, Clara used the money to buy a car for Gregory's older sister, Jessica Chance.

When we visited Clara's place on New Year's Day, Jessica even mocked me. "Sasha, why are you still driving a shabby secondhand car when you earn so much every month?"

I thought Clara was showing favoritism to Jessica since Gregory had a bitter look on his face at the time. I even gave Gregory around ten thousand dollars, which I had saved up for personal use. Yet, that money eventually ended up in Jessica's pocket too.

For the last two years, Jessica kept saying she was borrowing money from me. However, she hadn't returned a single cent so far. Worst of all, she would sometimes cause a ruckus at my workplace to ask me for money.

There was one time where she had harassed one of our clients. My superior gave me a hard time for the subsequent two months because of that incident.

In the end, I decided to use the money in my fixed deposit and transferred 60 thousand dollars to Eliza.

Eliza said in a choked voice, "Thank you, Sasha! I promise that I'll return the money to you!"

The ten thousand dollars I had saved up for personal use was actually from Eliza.

I told her it was no big deal. Just then, I received a message from Gregory. "We're all gonna starve to death if you don't come home soon. Harry's diaper is almost full. Hurry home so you can take care of it!"

I headed back to my office and applied for two month's leave from my department head.