The Message He Never Wanted Me to See

My husband froze when I read the message out loud. “Thank you for paying my tuition. I promise I’ll pay you back one day.” The text was from his younger sister, Maya. I looked across the kitchen at him. “Why is Maya thanking you for tuition?” Ethan stopped cutting the vegetables in front of him. His knife stayed pressed against the cutting board, but his hand was no longer moving. For a few seconds, he said nothing. That silence scared me more than any answer could have. I had only picked up his phone because it buzzed beside me. Ethan and I had never been secretive about our phones. At least, I thought we hadn’t. “She needed some help,” he finally said. “How much help?” Ethan put the knife down. “It’s complicated.” That was when my stomach tightened. Maybe he had paid for a textbook. Maybe Maya had missed a small bill. Maybe he had sent her a few hundred dollars from his personal account. I opened our banking app. Ethan moved toward me. “Claire, wait.” But the account had already loaded. For almost three years, we had been saving for our first house. We had skipped vacations, dinners, weddings, and anything that felt unnecessary. Last week, the account had held $42,680. Now it held $28,680. I stared at the missing amount. Fourteen thousand dollars. I looked up at my husband. “Tell me this is a mistake.” Ethan’s face answered before he did. “It wasn’t a mistake,” he said. “I gave it to Maya.”