When I Cut Off the Payments, My Mama’s Boy Husband’s Family Panicked Chapter 04
What finally broke me was a Family Day event at Lily’s daycare.
The daycare sent the notice a week early. Every child was encouraged to come with both parents. Lily was happy for three straight days after hearing it. Every night before bed, she asked me, Daddy come?”
I asked Ethan Walker. At first, he said he would see if he could make it.
The night before the event, I asked again.
“Will
He was sitting on the sofa, scrolling through Robert’s social media account. Robert had recently become obsessed with livestreaming, filming himself every day and showing off how well he had raised his sons. The comments were full of people praising him as a great father who had raised such a devoted son.
Ethan scrolled through them with a faint pride on his face.
I stood in front of him.
“Take the afternoon off. Lily’s Family Day starts at two tomorrow.”
“I have a project meeting tomorrow.”
“You promised her last week.”
“I said I’d see how things looked.”
Lily poked her little head out of her room.
“Daddy, are you not coming?”
Ethan turned his phone facedown.
“Daddy will try.”
Adults understand what try means. Children do not.
The next afternoon, he did not come.
In the family relay race, the other children had their fathers carrying them on their backs while their mothers waited at the finish line. I carried Lily through the relay myself, then scrambled to the finish line to hold up our sign.
Lily pressed against my shoulder with her arms tight around my neck.
“Mommy, am I heavy?”
“No.”
In truth, my vision was going black, and my legs were weak.
After the event ended, the teacher sent out the group photos. Every child had two adults beside them. Lily only had me.
She was very quiet on the way home. When we were almost at the apartment complex, she asked in
a small voice, “Mommy, does Daddy not like me?”
I stopped walking.
“No.”
“Then why does he never come?”
I crouched down and smoothed the bangs stuck to her sweaty forehead.
“Daddy is busy with work.”
She lowered her head.
“But Chloe’s daddy works too. He came.”
I had no answer.
That night, Ethan came home with a children’s toy.
“I bought this for Lily. To make it up to her.”
Lily glanced at it, did not open it, and carried her little stuffed rabbit into her room.
Ethan looked awkward. He set the toy on the coffee table.
“What’s wrong with her?”
I handed him the photo from Family Day.
“She asked me if you don’t like her.
His expression stiffened.
i found the video the teacher had sent and showed it to him. In it, I ran with Lily in my arms. When l reached the finish line, my foot slipped, and I nearly fell. Lily burst into tears and clung to me,
crying for Mommy.
Ethan watched the video without saying a word.
I took my phone back.
“Ethan Walker, I cannot keep holding this family together by myself.”
He rubbed his hair in frustration.
“I know you’re tired, but I’m under pressure too. You know how brutal things are at work.”
“Your pressure is work. Mine is raising this family alone while protecting your image as a perfect son.”
His head snapped up.
“Don’t twist my taking care of my parents into something ugly.”
“I’m not making it sound like anything.”
I took out the printed bank records and placed them on the coffee table.
“Six years. $230,000. Every payment is recorded.”
He flipped through two pages. His expression grew darker with every page.
“You prepared this a long time ago?”
“I should have prepared it a long time ago.”
He slapped the papers back onto the table.
“Olivia Carter, I don’t even recognize you right now.”
I looked at him.
“I haven’t recognized you in six years.”
That night, he slept in the guest room.
I sat on the master bedroom floor and opened my mobile banking app. In the automatic payments section, a long list filled the screen: mortgage, car loan, HOA fees, internet, Lily’s health insurance,
gas, water, and electricity.
I opened them one by one.
Cancel.
Confirm.
Cancel.
Confirm.
When the last payment was canceled, my phone screen went dark. My own face stared back at me from the glass.
Thin. Pale. Dark circles under my eyes.
But for the first time, I did not think that face looked pitiful.