We didn’t have much, but we weren’t worried about it. Life felt easy for the longest time, like the future would take care of itself.

Then came the kids: first a daughter, and a son two years later.

We bought a house in the suburbs and took one vacation a year, usually somewhere we could drive to, while the kids asked, “Are we there yet?”

It was all so normal that I didn’t even notice the lies until it was too late.

Life felt easy for the longest time.

We’d been married 35 years when I noticed money missing from our joint account.

Our son had sent us some money — a partial repayment of a loan we’d given him three years back. I logged in to move it into savings, same as always.

The balance just about gave me a heart attack.

The deposit was there, sure. But the account balance was still thousands lower than it should have been.

I scrolled down and found several transfers had been made over the past few months.

I noticed money missing from our joint account.

“That can’t be right.”

The knot in my stomach tightened as I checked the numbers again.

There was no mistake. Thousands of dollars were missing.

***

That night, I slid my laptop toward Troy while he was watching the news.

“Did you move money out of checking?”

He barely looked up from the TV. “I paid the bills.”

“How much?”

There was no mistake.

“A couple of thousand. It evens out.”

“Where?” I turned the screen toward him.

“Troy, this is a lot. Where is it all going?”

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