He called me the following week and asked if I wanted to understand my husband’s financial situation better. He said it might help explain why he was fighting so hard to stay in my house. I met Liam at a coffee shop near the courthouse. He was younger than I expected, maybe 30, with glasses and a laptop covered in legal aid stickers.
He pulled up credit reports and bank statements he’d obtained through discovery requests. What he showed me made everything click into place. My husband had been living beyond his means for years. Credit card debt over $40,000. Car payments on a truck he couldn’t afford. Personal loans he’d taken out to cover other loans.
His salary was decent, but not enough to support his lifestyle and pay rent anywhere. My house had been subsidizing everything. I’d been providing free housing while he spent his entire paycheck on himself. The discovery made me feel vindicated, but also used. I realized he might have proposed partly because marrying me solved his money problems.