Joanne Brennan — The Husband Who Thought He Could Come Home

Instead of making assumptions, I prepared a table of discrepancies and brought it to her the next morning.

“That’s exactly how I want it done,” Sheila said.

“You didn’t panic, and you didn’t hide a number because it looked awkward.”

I thought of my first day in Melissa Chen’s office, when I had been afraid even to admit that I didn’t know how much we owed on our mortgage.

I wanted to send that frightened woman a letter.

Not to tell her everything would be easy.