Chapter 10 - The Smear Campaign
|
By Monday evening, the fallout had officially begun.
My phone blew up with paragraphs of venom from Lorraine.
“You are a selfish, greedy woman. A good wife supports her husband’s family. You are pulling Garrett away from the people who truly love him over a few dollars.”
Tabitha sent a dramatic voice memo, crying about how my "greed" was causing her immense stress and affecting her breastmilk supply for her youngest child. She called me a heartless bitch.
And Garrett? Garrett stopped defending me altogether. He painted himself as the martyr caught between his loving family and his cold, corporate wife. He began sleeping in the guest room, sulking like a teenager who had his allowance revoked—which, effectively, he had.
He started coming home late, smelling like cheap beer, ignoring the mounting pile of bills on the kitchen counter. Without my income buffering his lifestyle, his average salary was suddenly drowning under his car lease, his expensive golf club membership, and the secret stipends he had been giving his mother.
“You’re ruining this marriage,” he spat at me one morning as I made breakfast.
“No, Garrett,” I replied without looking up from my eggs. “You ruined it. I’m just refusing to fund the funeral.”
May you like
The tension in the apartment was suffocating. We were two enemies trapped in a beautifully decorated war zone. But despite the toxicity, I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on a divorce. A stupid, naive part of me still hoped he would wake up, realize the magnitude of his betrayal, and beg for forgiveness.
That delusion lasted exactly until Saturday morning.
