Chapter 5 - The Money to YolandaNia sat down before Marcus asked her to.
That scared him.
“Why did you send Yolanda forty-seven hundred dollars?”
“It wasn’t all at once.”
“I can see dates.”
“It was repayment.”
“For what?”
Nia rubbed her hands together.
“A loan.”
Marcus waited.
“What loan?”
“When Jaylen was born.”
Marcus stared.
“That was five years ago.”
“I know.”
“What loan?”
Nia looked toward the hallway.
Yolanda was not there that evening.
Marcus had specifically asked for a private conversation.
Nia lowered her voice.
“When I was on maternity leave, I borrowed money from her.”
Marcus frowned.
“I was paying expenses.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you need a loan?”
“I needed money that was mine.”
The answer landed unexpectedly.
Marcus sat back.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I hated asking you for everything.”
“You never had to ask.”
“Yes, I did.”
“For what?”
Nia laughed without humor.
“Marcus, you paid the rent. You paid utilities. You bought food. And every time I needed something personal, I had to decide whether it was worth putting on the card you were paying.”
“We were together.”
“That doesn’t make it feel equal.”
Marcus frowned.
“You think I controlled you with money?”
“I think you controlled most of the money.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It feels close when you’re the one without income.”
Marcus looked genuinely stunned.
“I never told you what you could buy.”
“No.”
“I never questioned you.”
“No.”
“I put you as an authorized user.”
“I know.”
“Then where is this coming from?”
Nia’s eyes filled.
“From being twenty-four with a newborn and realizing I had no money in my own name.”
Marcus went silent.
She continued.
“My job didn’t offer paid maternity leave. I stopped working longer than we planned because daycare was expensive. You said you had us.”
“I did.”
“You did financially.”
“What other way did you need?”
“I needed to know I could survive if ‘us’ disappeared.”
Marcus looked down.
The same fear again.
But this time he saw an older version of it.
Not born three weeks ago.
Born years earlier.
“How much did Yolanda loan you?”
“Eight thousand.”
His head lifted.
“Eight?”
“Yes.”
“For personal spending?”
“Some. Some went into savings.”
Marcus stared.
“You borrowed money to create an emergency fund?”
“Yes.”
“While I was covering the household?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
Marcus stood and walked away from the table.
He leaned against the counter.
“So for five years, you’ve had money I didn’t know about.”
“Not much anymore.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“I know.”
“No, the point is that you saw my eighteen thousand dollars and decided secrecy meant betrayal.”
Nia closed her eyes.
Marcus turned.
“You had your own secret money before I ever opened that account.”
“It was different.”
“Of course it was.”
“I was dependent.”
“You were my partner.”
“Those two things can exist at the same time.”
Marcus stared at her.
He hated that sentence because some part of it made sense.
But the hypocrisy still burned.
“How much is in that account?”
“About nine thousand now.”
His eyebrows rose.
“You said not much.”
“To you, maybe.”
“Don’t do that.”
“I’m not.”
Marcus sat back down.
“Where did the nine thousand come from?”
“Small transfers when I went back to work. Gifts. Tax refunds. Money from side jobs.”
“Our tax refunds?”
“Parts.”
Marcus rubbed both hands over his face.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“We never agreed every dollar had to be joint.”
“We also apparently never agreed mine could be private without becoming evidence I was abandoning you.”
Nia had no response.
Marcus tapped the transfers to Yolanda.
“Why repay her now?”
“She asked.”
“Why?”
“She’s helping her daughter with a down payment.”
Marcus frowned.
“I thought she said family should always protect women financially.”
Nia looked at him sharply.
“Don’t.”
“I’m asking.”
“She loaned me money when I needed it.”
“Did she charge interest?”
“No.”
“Did you tell her the repayments came from the household account?”
Nia hesitated.
Marcus laughed quietly.
“She doesn’t know.”
“She thought they were from my account.”
“Why weren’t they?”
“My paycheck goes into household checking.”
“Because we set it up that way.”
“Yes.”
“So you decided money became solely yours when it needed to go somewhere I couldn’t know about.”
“That’s unfair.”
“Is it inaccurate?”
Nia looked away.
Marcus took out his phone.
“I’m separating the household account.”
She stared.
“What?”
“I’m not taking money. I’m opening another checking account for my paycheck.”
“That sounds like you’re leaving.”
“It sounds like I no longer trust our joint account.”
“You’re proving my point.”
Marcus stood.
“No. This is what consequences look like.”
Nia’s face tightened.
“And what about rent?”
“I’ll continue paying my share.”
“Your share?”
“That’s what we need to calculate.”
She looked frightened.
“You’re changing everything.”
“You already did.”
That night Marcus slept on the couch again.
Near midnight, his phone lit up.
A message from Dana Whitaker.
I reviewed the documents you sent. Call me tomorrow. There is an additional issue in the petition we need to discuss.
Marcus stared at the screen.
He typed:
What issue?
Dana replied.
The petition requests retroactive support for twelve months.
Marcus sat upright.
He opened the paperwork.
There it was.
Buried several pages deep.
Nia had not merely asked the court to establish future child support.
She had asked for money covering the previous year.
A year during which Marcus had paid almost every major household expense.
He looked toward the dark hallway where she slept.
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For the first time since the envelope arrived, he felt something beyond hurt.
He felt afraid of what she was capable of convincing herself was justified.
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