I Cleared Our Shared Life

Synopsis

My husband, Edward Landon, made 300 thousand dollars a year, and he wanted to split everything down the middle. I didn't argue or make a scene. Instead, I nodded. "Sure." Edward looked surprised, probably not expecting me to agree so easily. "You agree?" "You said it yourself. Fair is fair," I said, loading the dishes into the dishwasher. "From today on, you pay your half of the mortgage. I'll pay mine. We'll split the utilities and property fees fifty-fifty." He let out a sigh of relief and leaned back on the couch, scrolling through his phone. "That's the spirit. Everyone's all about being independent these days." I didn't respond and went back to the bedroom. We'd been married for three years. I quit my job at a foreign company and started a small design studio with a friend. It was still new, so my income was all over the place. Some months I made about 10 thousand dollars, other months a few thousand. Edward was a regional director at a publicly traded real estate company, making 300 thousand dollars a year, plus quarterly bonuses. The night he brought up splitting everything down the middle, I scrolled through my phone's notes app. Over the past three years, I'd paid for more than seventy percent of everything at home, from big stuff like renovations, furniture, and appliances to small things like groceries, fruit, and snacks. Edward saved his money, invested it, bought some funds, and every now and then treated himself to a watch or a pair of shoes. I never made a big deal out of it. But since he was the one who brought it up, I wasn't about to back down.