“I need you to tell me why you did this,” I said.
Seth leaned back against the table.
“I was trying to help my sister.”
“By giving her my time?”
“By helping our family.”
“Heather’s your sister. Those are your nieces and nephews. Why aren’t you the one staying home with them?”
He frowned.
“You know I can’t just stop working.”
“Neither can I.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“My job pays more.”
That was mostly true. Seth’s a licensed electrician. He works a lot of overtime. He makes more than I do.
But I support myself. I have health insurance through my job. A retirement account. And I love what I do.
I’ve spent years learning insurance billing, scheduling, staffing, all the hundred little things that keep a dental office running.
And he was brushing all of it aside like it was nothing.
“What happens to my health insurance?” I asked.
“You’d go on mine after we got married.”
“My retirement contributions?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“My promotion?”
“Natalie, people change careers all the time.”
I stared at him.
“I don’t want to change careers.”
He sighed.
“You always said you wanted to spend more time with family.”
“I meant our family. Someday. When we decided together.”
“That’s what this is.”
“No. This is a decision you made without me.”
His patience snapped.
“Heather’s drowning, okay? Do you know what she pays for daycare?”
“Yes. She’s told me.”
“Then you know how much we could help her.”
“We?”
He looked away.
“You know what I mean.”
And suddenly I noticed how much he said we.
We could help Heather. We’d figure it out. We’d make it work.
But I was the only one giving anything up.
I pictured Monday morning. Heather pulling into my driveway at seven-thirty with Maddie, Ben, and Owen. Seth leaving for a job site. And me. Making breakfast. Changing diapers. Cleaning up spills. Breaking up fights. Getting all three down for naps.
Every weekday. For a year.
And Seth coming home every night to tell everybody how much we were helping his sister.
“I’ve watched those kids before,” I said. “You know I have.”
“Exactly.”
“For a few hours. When Heather asked me. When I was free.”
“So what’s the difference?”
That question stunned me.
“The difference,” I said, “is that I said yes.”
He didn’t say anything.
I studied his face.
“You knew I wouldn’t agree to this. Didn’t you?”
He crossed his arms.
“I knew you’d have concerns.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Natalie, we’ve been planning this wedding for a year. You’ve been stressed out. Every single conversation about money turns into a whole thing.”
“Because you keep saying it’ll all work out without ever explaining how.”
He laughed. Bitterly.
“And this is exactly why I didn’t bring it up earlier.”
Silence.
I waited. I waited for him to hear what he’d just said.
He didn’t.
“I figured once the wedding was over,” he said, “once we were settled, you’d be more open to it.”
“So you waited on purpose. Until I was your wife.”
He shifted his weight.
“I wouldn’t put it like that.”
“How would you put it?”
“I thought you’d come around.”
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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