Chapter 7 - WHAT ERIC HAD REALLY BEEN PAYING FOR
Full financial discovery revealed why Eric was so desperate for the house refinance.
His finances were worse than mine.
Much worse.
He earned approximately $165,000 in sales management.
Good income.
But his spending consumed nearly all of it.
Credit cards.
Truck payment.
Golf club.
Trips.
Electronics.
Restaurants.
And over the previous year:
Tessa.
Not payments to her.
A lifestyle built around the affair.
Hotels.
Weekend rentals.
Jewelry.
Airfare.
The Charleston ceremony.
He had also accumulated approximately $74,000 in unsecured debt.
Some predated the affair.
Most did not.
Then we discovered a personal loan:
$52,000.
Purpose listed:
Home improvement.
Very little reached our house.
Instead, funds went toward debt consolidation and expenses tied to the life Eric was building before formally leaving mine.
Again:
Not every dollar spent during marriage automatically became some dramatic fraud.
The lawyers sorted classifications.
Dates mattered.
Purpose mattered.
State law mattered.
What mattered emotionally was simpler.
Eric had looked at me in a hospital gown and said:
“You can’t afford to fight this.”
He was the one who could not afford the life he had already promised someone else.
That was why he needed me compliant.
Not because he was a mastermind.
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Because his math required my surrender.
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