He was playing on my sympathy for his daughter while Melissa was actively shopping for a four-bedroom house.

“The equity loan payment is much higher than I expected,” I said.

“When we paid the furnace repair bill for six thousand four hundred dollars, the monthly payment was only seventy dollars.”

“Interest rates go up and down, Claire,” he said.

“That’s why we need your overtime money to keep things stable.”

I understood exactly why he had pushed me to ask my manager for extra weekend work.

Every dollar I brought in was a dollar he didn’t have to spend on our daily life, which left his own money free for his hidden plans in Golden.