“I’m trying to keep an independent consulting firm afloat in a slow quarter, Claire, and you’re treating me like an unreliable contractor who needs his supervisor to check his timecard.”

“It came out of our joint home equity balance,” I said.

“And every new consulting contract I close puts three times that amount back into this house,” he said, turning his back to me and flattening a gas receipt against the carpet.

“Let me manage the business accounts without a nightly audit.”

“Ava said her mother needed money for her household budget,” I said.

Daniel didn’t turn around.