Triple Threat
I was checking out at the grocery store when my payment was declined for insufficient funds. My paycheck, which had landed in my account that morning, was gone.
I called Marcus Dean to ask him about it. That was when I noticed he'd texted me three minutes earlier.
Marcus: [Hey, babe. Ryan's 4,000 dollars short on the down payment for his car. I went ahead and used the money in your account to cover it.]
I stared at the message, frozen in place.
After expenses, Marcus and I usually managed to save about 700 dollars a month between the two of us.
But now, five years into our marriage, our savings account was back to zero. Again.
During our first year of marriage, his brother Ryan started college. Marcus covered all four years of his tuition and wired his mother, Rachel Cole, another 7,000 dollars on top of that.
The second year, he wanted to renovate his parents' house. The renovations cost 11,400 dollars. We didn't have enough saved, so I even had to borrow 1,400 dollars from my own parents.
During the third and fourth years, Marcus always found some excuse to hand over whatever we managed to save each month, about 700 dollars, to his family.
This past New Year's, we'd agreed that we were finally ready for a baby. He promised he'd start saving more.
But now my paycheck, the one that had just come in, was gone.
Five years of marriage, and he'd handed every dollar we'd saved to his brother.
And there I was, stuck at the checkout counter over a 6.10-dollar grocery bill, unable to move forward or turn back.
Then another text came in.
Marcus: [Babe, Ryan's still short on the car money. Think you could ask one of your coworkers to lend you some?]
I didn't answer.
I went home and handed him a set of divorce papers.
Marcus stared at me in shock. "Why?"
I shrugged. "No reason. We're getting a divorce."