I started remembering small things I had ignored before, like when he suggested renting out my apartment and moving somewhere he chose, or when he wanted one person to control all shared money after marriage, or when his mother talked about my money as if it belonged to their family.
I looked at him and asked, “Was this about love or about access?”
He looked offended and said, “That is a terrible question.”
I answered, “What is worse is your mother treating me like an ATM.”
He told me to calm down and said everything was being blown out of proportion, then he added something that made everything clear.
“I thought things would be easier between us after we got married,” he said.
I asked him, “What things?”
He did not answer right away, and that silence told me everything.
That was when I understood that the agreement did not create the problem, it just made it visible.
That night we stopped arguing, and I asked him to leave.
Before leaving he said, “If you end this over money, you will regret it.”
After he left, I leaned against the door and realized I was not afraid of losing him, I was afraid of what I had almost accepted.