Chapter 1

During our cold war, my boyfriend suddenly made it official with his new girlfriend online.

I let out a sigh of relief and just commented "Bye." under his post.

But Jacob wasn't having it. He slid into my DMs.

He said: [What's with that? I'm literally trying to mess with you here.]

Jacob added: [Olivia, she's been all over me lately. If you apologize and make a self-reflection post on your feed, I'll let it slide.]

I nodded.

Just like he wanted, I grabbed my phone and made it official. I posted our breakup online.

*****

Three days ago, Jacob and I got into a fight.

Work had been crazy lately, and I was pulling late nights at the office, so I couldn't always reply to his messages right away.

Jacob was super sensitive and insecure, always accusing me of seeing someone else behind his back. He'd pick fights with me over the smallest things, every single day.

He kept saying I didn't love him.

I patiently explained that this was a crucial stage in my career. Whether I could get a raise or promotion next year depended on my performance now.

Besides, ever since he started grad school, I'd been the one paying for his living expenses and tuition. I still had to pay my own rent and support myself. If I didn't work hard, how could I afford to support both of us?

But Jacob still didn't get it.

In the end, he suggested I just give him my entire paycheck, and he'd dole out my spending money.

He said, "Is money really that important to you? More important than me? If you really loved me, you'd hand it all over!"

I was just so tired of fighting with him every single day. So, I actually transferred my whole paycheck to him.

But I never expected things to get even messier after that. It was like he had me completely under his thumb.

I had to ask him for money every time I needed to pay rent or utilities. I had to ask him for money just to buy groceries or eat out.

Even my daily spending money was doled out to me one day at a time, and I had to send him photos of everything I bought to prove it.

Going through all that was more exhausting than filing an expense report at work.

But the worst part was Jacob's mood swings. Every time I asked for money, he'd always throw shade at me.

He'd say, "You never message me unless you want something, huh? You're always so slow to reply, but you sure know how to ask for cash in a hurry.

"Olivia, you pissed me off yesterday, so your allowance is getting cut in half today. Figure out your own meals! Let's see if you dare do that again."

He kept me on a financial chokehold, like he was squeezing the life out of me, never giving me a chance to catch my breath.

I was working my ass off every single day, but I was left with nothing to my name.

There were times when I was so broke, I couldn't even afford to charge my electric scooter.

Over time, I just felt completely worn out. Most days, I barely had enough to eat.

I didn't want to keep living with my hand out all the time, but if I tried to take my paycheck back, Jacob would make a huge scene. He might even threaten to break up with me.

We'd been together for eight years, and we were supposed to get married after he finished grad school.

But now, I felt stuck.

Honestly, I was starting to think maybe I didn't even want to be in this relationship anymore, let alone get married.

Then I thought Jacob was almost done with grad school. Once he graduated, we would no longer be long-distance, and things would get better.

We really did love each other once, and we had been together for a long time.

I kept telling myself that long-distance was brutal, and Jacob grew up in a pretty rough home. Maybe he just loved me too much and didn't know how to express it.

I couldn't bring myself to break up with Jacob, but I was so done with living under his thumb, having to report every cent I spent.

So I started hustling food deliveries after work.

Some days it was barely ten dollars, other days I could pull in over 50 dollars.

Finally, I had some money I could spend freely again.

But it didn't take long for Jacob to catch on.

He checked my step count in the app and started interrogating me, demanding to know why I was hitting ten or twenty thousand steps every single day.

After I came clean and told him the truth, he just kept calling me a liar, accusing me of deceiving him over and over.

Jacob snapped, "You said you were going to bed early, but you were actually out delivering food? Why'd you have to lie? Can't you just tell me the truth?"

He pressed, "Are you really doing food delivery? Screenshot every single order and send them to me! Who knows what you're really doing when we're so far apart?"

I kept explaining, saying I just wanted some spending money. But Jacob just wouldn't believe me.

In the end, it blew up into the biggest fight we'd ever had since we started dating.

We both stuck to our guns, and this time, neither of us was willing to back down.

Jacob was so mad, he just blocked and deleted me.

In that moment, I felt a little sad. But honestly, it was like someone finally loosened their grip around my throat. I could finally breathe again.

Being with Jacob was just way too exhausting.

On the third day of our cold war, Jacob finally unblocked me. He sent me a message. [Paycheck.]

It was just a singular word. No apology, no soft words, didn't even ask if I was okay.

I clutched my phone, feeling pretty hurt.

Sure, I hadn't messaged him these past three days, but it wasn't easy for me either.