Chapter 6 - Unmasking the Truth
Arthur walked into the nursery and placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. ""Let's go into the living room, kids. It’s time for the final audit.""
Caleb slowly dragged himself up from the floor, wiping his eyes with the back of his dirty sleeve, and followed us to the dining table. Arthur pulled a thick manila folder from his leather briefcase and tossed it squarely onto the center of the table. The sharp slap of paper against wood made Caleb jump.
""What is that?"" Caleb asked, his voice trembling.
""That,"" Arthur began, pulling out a pair of reading glasses, ""is the full financial audit of your consulting firm and your personal spending for the past eighteen months. You see, Caleb, when you told your wife that utility bills were going to bankrupt this family, I found that claim rather hard to believe. You billed over three hundred thousand dollars in corporate consulting fees last year.""
My breath hitched. I looked at Arthur, then snapped my head toward Caleb. ""Three hundred thousand? You told me your business was struggling because of the tech downturn! You told me we were running at a monthly deficit!""
Caleb swallowed hard, unable to look either of us in the eye.
""He lied to you, Tessa,"" Arthur said plainly, opening the folder and pushing a spreadsheet across the table toward me. ""Look at page three. Caleb didn't put you on a shower timer because he was worried about the electric bill. He put you on a timer because he wanted to punish you for taking your attention away from him. And more importantly, he was hoarding cash to fund an offshore commercial crypto venture with two of his fraternity brothers.""
I stared at the numbers printed on the page in black and white. Thousands of dollars transferred each month into private trading accounts. Thousands spent on high-end steak dinners, country club memberships, and bespoke suits. Meanwhile, he had stood in our kitchen screaming at me because I bought organic baby formula that cost five dollars more than the store brand. He had stood in our hallway with a wrench, cutting off my water to save pennies while funneling hundreds of thousands into speculative gambling.
""Is this true?"" I asked, my voice deadly calm. All the exhaustion, all the sadness, and all the lingering affection I had felt for my husband evaporated into thin air, replaced by an icy, diamond-hard resolve.
Caleb looked up, panicked. ""Tessa, it was an investment! If it paid off, we would have been set for life! I was trying to build generational wealth for Elodie! I just needed to keep our household operating expenses down to maximize our liquidity!""
""By starving your wife of basic human dignity?"" Arthur snapped, slamming his fist onto the table. ""You bought yourself a four-thousand-dollar titanium watch two weeks after your daughter was born! And you told Tessa she couldn't hire a postpartum doula for three hundred bucks because 'times were tough'?""
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""I was going to surprise her with the returns!"" Caleb cried, reaching across the table to grab my hands, but I pulled them back as if he were covered in venom. ""Tessa, please! You have to believe me! I wanted us to have an empire!""
""I didn't want an empire, Caleb,"" I whispered, standing up slowly. ""I wanted a partner. I wanted a father for my daughter. I wanted a husband who cared whether I was warm or cold.""
