I tilted my head.
“Yes, it does.”
My voice was calm, but my heart was racing.
“But you made your choice. You let them treat me like garbage, and you laughed right along with them. So now you can all deal with the the consequences together.”
His jaw clenched.
“We’re married.”
“For now.”
That shut him up.
Linda, still clutching the paper like a lifeline, finally seemed to realize that screaming at me wouldn’t fix this. She turned to Daniel, her voice trembling.
“You have to fix this,” she whispered. “Talk to her. Make her change her mind.”
Daniel hesitated, looking at me with something that almost resembled pleading.
“Emily, letun just talk about this later, okay?”
I let out a breathy laugh.
“Oh, Daniel. There is no later.”
I stood up, grabbing my purse.
“Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you enjoy your gifts.”
And with that, I walked out the door, leaving them to sit in their perfect little holiday scene. Except now, the reality of what I had just done was settling over them like a storm cloud.
For the first time, they were going to have to face the world without my money. In that, I thought as I stepped out into the cold night air, was the best Christmas present I could have ever given myself.
As I stepped outside, the crisp winter air hit me like a refreshing slap. It was freeing, liberating, almost poetic.
Behind me, I could still hear the muffled chaos unfolding in the house. Linda’s shrill voice, Daniel’s panicked attempts to calm her down, the general hum of a Christmas celebration gone horribly wrong.
I smiled.
“Merry Christmas to me.”
Sliding into my car, I took a deep breath. The weight I hadn’t even realized I was carrying suddenly felt lighter.
But I knew this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
Linda wasn’t the the type to let go of her golden goose without a fight. And Daniel, well, he had been under her thumb for so long I wasn’t sure he even knew how to think for himself anymore.
Sure enough, before I even had a chance to pull out of the driveway, my phone started buzzing.