Husband Wanted to Be a Dutiful Son; He Broke Down

Everyone knew my husband was a devoted son.

The moment his paycheck cleared each month, he transferred every last cent of it to his mother.

Which meant every expense in our home landed on me.

The mortgage came out of my pocket.

His nights out with clients ran a few thousand a pop.

And on top of that, I was expected to buy gifts for his parents and his younger brother every holiday.

Staring at savings that were basically zero, I sighed and asked Alvin James if we could keep some money in the house.

He shook his head before I'd even finished.

"Absolutely not. I send thirty grand every month. If it suddenly drops, people will say I got a wife and forgot my own mother."

"Honoring your parents is a child's duty. You're my wife, so you should be supporting me on this."

"And stop fixating on my money. Take a look at yourself too. Maybe you're the one throwing cash around, spending on things you don't need."

I thought it over, and honestly, it made a lot of sense.

So I transferred my entire salary straight to my mom.

...

My mom called right back, surprise all over her voice.

"Narelle Fox, why did you suddenly send this much? How are you going to get by?"

I didn't explain much, just laughed and reassured her, said I'd finally seen the light and wanted to take good care of her from now on.

I hung up, looked at the few hundred dollars left on my card, and felt strangely light.

After work that evening, I skipped the grocery market. I signed up for a meal card at the office, ate there, then went home.

When we first got married, Alvin had a bad stomach and couldn't handle restaurant food.

I felt for him, so I did all the grocery shopping myself, cooking him something different and delicious every day.

That was how I slowly nursed his health back.

Now that I thought about it, that expense could stand to be cut too.

Alvin came home from work, kicked off his shoes, and headed for the dining room out of habit.

He saw the bare table and frowned, his voice thick with displeasure.

"Why haven't you made dinner yet?"

I was curled up on the couch scrolling my phone, and I didn't even look up.

"No money for groceries."

Alvin froze for a second, then walked over and stared at me.

"Didn't you get paid today? Where's the money?"

I answered in the exact tone he always used, calm and self-righteous.

"I did some reflecting, and I decided you were completely right."

"Honoring my parents is my duty too, so I sent my whole paycheck to my mom, as her retirement money."

"You're my husband, so you'll support me on this, right?"

Alvin's face darkened in an instant.

"Are you crazy? You gave all your money to your mom, so what do we live on?"

"Who pays the mortgage? Who pays for water and power? I'm taking clients out to dinner tomorrow!"

I spread my hands.

"Didn't you say honoring your parents matters most?"

"Now everyone's being a devoted child. Isn't that nice?"

"As for dinner, you make so much. Why not ask your mom for some living expenses?"

Alvin's face went livid.

"Quit being unreasonable! What I do is honoring my mother. What you're doing is picking a fight with me!"

I ignored him and kept scrolling.

Right on cue, Alvin's stomach growled.

He paced the living room a couple of times, then gritted his teeth, picked up his phone, and called his mother.

"Mom, um... could you transfer me two hundred first? I want to get something to eat."

On the other end, her voice shot straight up.

"What? Two hundred? Alvin, do you think money grows on trees around here?"

"Let me tell you, the money I've got saved is for something big. Not a single cent of it gets touched!"

"What did you marry a wife for? Go tell her to make you dinner!"

And with that, she hung up.

The air went quiet.

I looked at Alvin's face, darker than the bottom of a pot, and nearly laughed out loud.

He shot me a hard glare, then had no choice but to dig a pack of instant noodles out of the kitchen, brewing them and eating with a face like a storm cloud.

The next morning he left for work without a single word to me, just walked out the door.

It was past eleven at night, and I was drifting in and out of sleep when my phone suddenly went off like crazy.

It was Alvin.

"Babe, wire me five grand, quick. I've got to settle the bill here."

His words came out a little slurred. Clearly he'd had too much to drink.

I yawned under the covers.

"No money."

A burst of noisy laughter came through the phone.

Then a man's voice cut in.

"Alvin, buddy, your wife won't cover you? You want to borrow a little from me instead?"

Alvin panicked.

"Knock it off! My coworkers are all right here watching. We agreed I'd pick up the tab tonight."

"Just wire the money over, don't make me lose face!"

I rolled over, my voice calm.

"I really don't have any money. My whole paycheck went to my mom, out of pure filial devotion."

"If you can't afford the bill, why not ask your mom for a little more?"

"You give her thirty grand a month anyway. What's five thousand to that?"

With that I hung up on him and switched the phone off for good measure.

Half an hour later.

Alvin came storming into the bedroom reeking of alcohol, ripped the covers off me, and glared, his eyes bloodshot.

"Narelle! Did you do this on purpose today, just to embarrass me?"

"Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? I had to swallow my pride and borrow money off a coworker just to close out the bill!"

I sat up and looked at him coldly.

I could not for the life of me understand how the gentle, thoughtful man from when we were dating had turned into the person in front of me.

"When you handed your whole paycheck to your mom, did it ever cross your mind you'd end up humiliated?"

"You wanted to play the big spender and pick up the tab. What's that got to do with me?"

"If you don't have the money, don't act like a big shot!"

Alvin choked on that, then shot back.

"Look around, what other man's wife is like you? Day after day you won't even cook, and now you shame your own husband in public."

"I'm telling you, Narelle, tomorrow you go get that money back from your mom!"

"Otherwise there's no way we can keep living like this!"

Watching that shameless face of his, I just found the whole thing laughable.

I used to swallow everything and bend over backward to protect his pride.

Now I could see he wasn't worth any of it.

"There's no money for you."

"If you can't live like this, then let's not."

I said it calmly, pulled the covers back over me, and lay down again.

Alvin stamped around the room, furious, and finally slammed the door and went off to the guest room.

I thought he'd at least do a little soul-searching.

I never expected that the very next day, the moment I got off work, my mother-in-law showed up.

"Narelle, what kind of wife are you?"

"Alvin called me last night. He said you won't leave him a single cent."

"Are you trying to starve my son to death?"

She was carrying a big plastic bag, and she dropped it hard on the dining table.

I walked over and looked inside.

The bag was full of yellowed vegetable leaves, along with a few apples that were half rotten.

I frowned.

"Mom, what are you bringing this stuff over for?"

She rolled her eyes and plopped down on the couch.

"For what? To bring you groceries!"

"Didn't you say you had no money for food? I went all the way to the market and picked these out just for you."

"Running a household means watching every penny. These may not look pretty, but they're cheap, and once they're in your stomach it's all the same."

I laughed out of sheer anger.

"Alvin gives you thirty grand a month, and this is what you feed him?"

"If you're really so good at pinching pennies, why don't you take these home and eat them yourself?"

Just then the front door opened and Alvin came in.

The moment he saw his mother he hurried over to her.

"Mom, what are you doing here?"

She grabbed Alvin's hand.

"Son, it breaks my heart."

"You married a wife this clueless, and she won't even give you a decent meal."

"I brought you some groceries. Go on, tell her to cook them."

Alvin glanced at the rotten leaves on the table, and his face went a little awkward.

But he still turned to me and pressed.

"Narelle, Mom was kind enough to bring groceries all this way. Go make dinner already."

I looked at this mother and son and it struck me as absolutely absurd.

"If you want them cooked, cook them yourselves. I'm not eating garbage."

The second she heard that she was furious. She jabbed a finger at my face and let loose.

"Who are you calling garbage, you jinx!"

"My son must have been cursed for eight lifetimes to end up marrying you!"

"Hand over the money right now, or I'm not leaving today!"

I let out a cold laugh.

"Not leaving, huh? Fine."

I took out my phone and dialed building management straight away.

"Hello, security? There's an old woman in my apartment who won't leave, and she dragged in a bag of rotting garbage too. Could you come up and deal with it?"

The mother-in-law's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe I'd actually call security.

Alvin rushed over and snatched the phone right out of my hand.

"Narelle, are you crazy? That's my mother!"

"You apologize to her right now!"

I stared him down without flinching.

"Why should I apologize?"

"She brings a pile of rotten vegetables to disgust me, and I'm supposed to be grateful?"

"Alvin, get one thing straight. My family paid the down payment on this apartment, and I'm the one paying the mortgage."

"This is my home, and she's not welcome here."

The mother-in-law was shaking with rage. She dropped onto the floor and started throwing a fit.

"Alvin, look at this! This is the fine wife you married!"

"So much for filial duty. It's a miracle she hasn't driven your mother to her grave!"

Alvin hurried to pull her up, then whipped his head around and roared at me.

"Narelle, you're going to kneel and apologize to my mother today!"

"Otherwise this isn't over!"

I looked at the mother-in-law on the floor, then at Alvin's twisted face.

The last shred of hope in my heart died completely.

"Kneel and apologize? Keep dreaming."

I turned, walked into the bedroom, and locked the door.

No matter how they cursed outside, I ignored them.

The scene out there dragged on for another ten minutes or so.

Only when the building security actually came up and knocked did the mother-in-law follow Alvin out, still cursing.

The apartment was finally quiet.

I came out of the bedroom and threw the rotten vegetables, plastic bag and all, into the trash.

Then I started packing my things.

Since I was going to divorce, there were valuables I needed to take with me first.

I opened the bottom drawer of the wardrobe and took out the jewelry box.

Inside was the gold jewelry my mother had given me as a dowry.

All told, it had to be worth over a hundred thousand.

But when I opened the box, it was empty.

A ringing went off in my head.

No one had broken in.

The only possibility was Alvin.

I called him immediately.

It rang a long time before he picked up, his tone impatient.

"What do you want now? I'm out having dinner with my mother!"

"Where's my dowry jewelry?" I got straight to the point.

There were two seconds of silence on the other end.

"Sold it."

I was shaking with fury.

"That was my dowry. What gave you the right to sell it without my consent?"

Alvin wasn't the least bit guilty. If anything, he sounded righteous.

"What's yours, what's mine? Once you're married, it's community property!"

"My brother's getting engaged soon, and the bride's family bumped up the wedding gift money by a hundred grand at the last minute."

"My mother couldn't come up with that kind of money. As the older brother, was I supposed to just stand by?"

I could hardly believe my ears.

"You give your mother thirty thousand a month. Over two years that's more than seven hundred thousand!"

"And now you're telling me she can't even scrape together a hundred grand?"

Alvin had his justifications ready.

"What do you know! My brother spends a lot on his dating."

"And a while back, to keep up appearances, he bought himself a nice car."

"Whatever money Mom had was gone long ago."

I could hardly believe my ears.

"So all that money you gave your parents out of filial duty actually went straight into Oscar's pocket?"

"Seven hundred thousand isn't enough for him, so now you're selling my jewelry to plug the hole?"

Alvin flared up too.

"Watch how you talk! That's my own brother!"

"Besides, that jewelry of yours is just sitting there anyway. What's the harm in using it to help the family?"

"My brother's fiance comes from a family with real money and connections. If he marries into it, our family stands to benefit down the road too."

"You just have no head for money. Long hair, short on sense!"

Listening to him spout this shameless nonsense, my anger hit its peak.

"You took your wife's wedding gold to help scrape together your brother's wedding gift money, and you call that a head for money?"

Alvin sighed and started in on me like he was the reasonable one.

"Narelle, you used to be so sensible. What's gotten into you these past couple of days?"

"We're family. Do we really need to keep such careful accounts?"

"Fine, when my brother's doing well down the road, I'll have him buy you a few more pieces of jewelry."

"Think it over. Tomorrow's my brother's engagement dinner, and I need to stay and help out, so I won't be coming back. While you're at it, pack up the stuff at home. In a couple of days we'll be moving in with my parents."

"The bride's family insists on a house, so I've decided to give ours to my brother. Once the engagement dinner's over tomorrow, I'll bring them by to see the place."

"Babe, don't act out this time, or Mom and Dad really will make us divorce."

With that, he hung up on me.

Listening to the dial tone buzzing in the phone, I suddenly laughed.

I used to think Alvin was just too devoted, too tied to his family.

Only now did I understand. He was simply a leech with no limits at all.

He thought I had no head for money, did he?

Then I'd show him exactly what a real head for money looked like.

I opened my phone and called my best friend right away.

"Hey. Do me a favor."

I hung up and started packing my things like a woman possessed.

Clothes, skincare, my laptop.

Anything that was mine went straight into the suitcase.

As for Alvin's junk?

I got on a local app and called a junk collector.

In less than half an hour, the old man showed up on his three-wheeler.

"Miss, all these clothes and shoes, and these old game consoles too, you're selling all of it?"

He looked at the stuff spread across the floor, hardly able to believe it.

"All of it. Give me whatever you think is fair. Mainly I just need it hauled away fast."

The old man was thrilled. In the end he transferred me five hundred bucks and swept every last thing of Alvin's clean out of the place.

Money in hand, I dragged two big suitcases out and took a cab straight to my mother's.

The sight of me like that gave my mom a start.

"Narelle, what's the matter? Did you and Alvin have a fight?"

I pushed the suitcases aside, sat down on the couch, and poured myself a glass of water.

"Mom, I'm getting a divorce."

I told my mom everything that had happened these past two days, start to finish.

Including how he handed his whole salary to his mother, including how he sold my wedding gold.

When she'd heard it all, she was so furious she slapped her own thigh.

"That ungrateful wretch! I told you from the start his family wasn't up to much, but you had to marry him!"

"Divorce him! We're doing it right now!"

The next day, my mom made a point of going to the grocery market to buy the fattest crabs she could find, a welcome-home meal for me.

I sat at the table, gnawing on rich, dripping crab roe, in the best mood.

Just then my phone rang.

Alvin's name flashed on the screen.

I wiped my hands, taking my time, and pressed answer.

The second the call connected, Alvin's frantic roar came through.

"Narelle! What the hell are you playing at!"

"Why won't the front door unlock? The bride's whole family is out here waiting!"

"And why is there a stranger talking inside!"

Listening to him falling apart, I couldn't keep the corner of my mouth from lifting.

"Oh. I forgot to tell you."

"I rented the place out. It not only covers the mortgage every month, it earns me a little extra on top."

"And that pile of junk of yours, I sold that to the junk collector too. Got five hundred bucks for it."

"So? Don't I have a head for money after all?"