The first time, I laughed.
The second time, I said nothing.
By the third time, I already felt uncomfortable.
It was money that came in my name.
I had worked my whole life for it.
And yet, after retiring, I did not even have twenty dollars in my own wallet.
My name is Margaret.
I was sixty-three at the time, and Robert and I had been married for almost forty years.
He had never been a loud man.
He did not yell.
He did not slam his fist on the table.
And somehow, that made it more unsettling.
He simply said things as though there were no other possible answer.
If I needed a new coat, he bought it.
If I went to the pharmacy, he paid.
If I wanted to visit our daughter, he filled the car with gas.
From the outside, everything probably looked completely normal.
But I almost never had money in my own hands.
