When I Cut Off the Payments, My Mama's Boy Husband's Family Panicked novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Group Chat
Julie asks her husband to help pay for their own household and he smashes a glass in front of his family; she cancels every autopay and packs, and her mother-in-law blurts that the family is broke.
My husband made $8,200 a month, and for six years not one dollar of it came home.
My phone buzzed on the dining table.
Ron had posted another screenshot in the family group chat.
$8,200. Sender: Jeff Mattingly. Receiver: Ron Mattingly.
The caption was the same as every month.
"A good son is worth more than anything."
Jeff's younger brother sent three thumbs-up emojis.
"Jeff, you're the man. Mom and Dad are set for life."
My mother-in-law, Sharon, sent a red flower.
I turned the phone face down and looked at the bills spread across the table.
Mortgage, $2,100. Car loan on Jeff's SUV, $620. Daycare, $900. HOA, electric, gas and internet, a little over $400.
Last month Evie spent three nights in the hospital with bronchitis. After insurance we still owed $1,300.
My take-home pay was $4,200.
My checking account had $260 in it.
The year I was anemic after Evie was born, my credit card climbed to $13,000, and it never came back down.
That same year, Ron used Jeff's paychecks to buy Jeff's brother a $30,000 truck.
Evie banged her spoon on her high chair tray.
"Mommy, is Daddy coming home for dinner?"
I looked at the plate I was keeping warm on the stove.
"Yes, baby."
The lock turned.
Jeff came in with his work bag over his shoulder and his lanyard still on.
He saw the bills and stopped for half a second.
"Doing the bills again?"
I pushed them across the table toward him.
"I can't cover the credit card this month. Can you ask your dad to put $2,000 a month toward our house? It's your paycheck."
He didn't look at the papers.
He opened the fridge and got a water bottle.
"My dad needs money too."
"He bought your brother a truck last week."
"He's getting married. He can't show up to the Burgesses in a Civic."
"Evie's daycare is due on Friday. I have two hundred and sixty dollars."
He unscrewed the cap and drank.
"If daycare costs that much, switch to a cheaper one."
I stared at him.
"Do you know why she goes there? The church daycare had a waitlist, and your mother told me to figure it out myself. I found Little Acorns. I do drop-off. I do pickup. When she's sick, I take the day off."
Jeff set the bottle down hard on the counter.
Evie flinched, and her spoon fell on the floor.
"Don't dump all of this on me at once. I'm tired too."
I picked up the spoon, wiped it with a napkin and gave it back to her.
"I never said you weren't tired. I'm asking you one thing. Are you going to help pay for this family or not?"
He rubbed his face.
"Ask Dad yourself on Sunday. I'm not doing this tonight."
So on Sunday, I did.
Ron and Sharon's dining room had new chairs. White leather, still smelling of the showroom.
Jeff's brother was showing everyone the truck keys.
Ron was talking about the club, and the wedding, and the lake house.
I waited until Sharon brought out the pie.
"Ron, can I ask you something? Jeff and I need $1,500 a month of his pay for our house. Just that."
The table went quiet.
Sharon put her fork down very slowly.
Ron smiled at me with his whole face.
"Sweetheart, that money's being managed. For the family's future. You'll thank me one day."
"The future is my credit card," I said. "And Evie's daycare. Right now."
Jeff's brother laughed into his beer.
Then Jeff stood up so fast his chair tipped over.
He grabbed his water glass and threw it down on the tile.
It exploded.
"What gives you the right to fight my dad for his money?"
Glass skittered under the table.
Evie, in my lap, burst into tears.
Sharon pressed a hand to her chest.
"Jeff, honey, your blood pressure."
Ron went on eating his pie.
I looked at my husband.
His face was red and shaking, and he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at his mother, to see if he'd done it right.
Six years.
I had married a grown man and I had never once met him.
"Okay," I said.
I picked up Evie and her diaper bag, and I left a twenty on the table for the glass.
On Monday morning I got up at five-thirty.
Jeff was asleep on his side of the bed with his phone on his chest.
I sat at the kitchen counter with my laptop and a cup of coffee.
Mortgage autopay, from my account. Canceled.
HOA autopay. Canceled.
Electric. Gas. Water. Internet. Canceled.
The car loan on Jeff's SUV, which was in my name because his credit was too thin to get one. Canceled.
I kept two payments running: Evie's daycare and my own phone.
The confirmation emails stacked up in my inbox one by one.
Then I wrote Jeff a note and left it under his water bottle.
"The day your paycheck lands in our own account, I'll split every bill with you fifty-fifty. Until then, they're yours."
I packed two suitcases and Evie's dinosaur blanket.
I was buckling her into her car seat in the garage when the front door opened.
Sharon walked in with her own key.
She was holding a casserole dish.
She stopped in the front hall when she saw the suitcases, and she set the dish down on the bench.
"What is this?"
"I'm taking Evie to my parents' for a while."
"Over a broken glass? Julie, he's under a lot of pressure."
"So am I. I've been paying for this house for six years."
She moved in front of the door to the garage.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing to this family right now?"
"Nothing," I said. "I'm doing nothing. I'm just not paying anymore."
Her soft face went tight.
She glanced back at the stairs, where Jeff was still sleeping, and dropped her voice.
"My baby is marrying a Burgess in six weeks. Do you know who those people are?"
I did. Everybody in the north suburbs knew the Burgess trucks.
"They think we're people like them," Sharon said. "The club, the lake house, all of it."
Her voice cracked.
"If the Burgesses find out we've got nothing, that wedding is over. So you'll pay, Julie. Like you always do."
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