After inheriting $100 million, i rushed home to share the news with my husband. but a sudden accident sent me to the hospital, and he never came to see me. when i called, he claimed he was too busy. days later, he appeared with his new wife, and when she looked at me, she exclaimed, βwaitβ¦ sheβs myβ¦β
My name is Llaya. That morning, standing in my Boston rowhouse, I got a call. My attorney informed me that my great-aunt Margaret had left me one hundred million dollars. The number hung in the air, and I remembered her advice from long ago: learn how money works, so it never gets to tell you who you are.
My husband, Daniel, didn’t know about the inheritance. He also didn’t know I’m the CEO of a large company with a thousand employees. To him, my work was just “at-home consulting.” He disliked “ambition,” like my dream of a new kitchen for the house I bought with my own savings. I decided I would tell him everything that weekend.
But I never got the chance. A delivery van ran a red light. I remember the screech of metal, and then, the smell of antiseptic in the hospital.
When I woke up with a fractured clavicle and aching ribs, Daniel visited. He didn’t ask if I was in pain. He asked if I had signed any forms that would cost us money, then left after five minutes.
He came back a few hours later. He stood at the foot of my bed, looking at me as if I were a crack in the wall, something for someone else to fix.
“I cannot afford to support a freeloading wife,” he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “Now you have an excuse to lie in bed. I am out of patience.”
The words hit me like a second accident. I tried to tell him about the money, but he waved it away. “You always make everything so dramatic,” he said, and left me alone with the truth of my marriage.
My nurse, Penelope, came in and quietly said, “You can be lucky to be alive and unlucky to be loved by the wrong person. That is not a contradiction.” My best friend, Norah, brought peonies and snacks, and stayed the night in the chair by my bed. They were my lifelines.
Lying in that hospital bed, I drafted the speech I would give Daniel when I went home. I would tell him everythingβthe money, the company, all of it. I imagined him full of regret, saying fear had made him cruel.
I was falling in love with a version of him that didn’t exist. Watch: [in comment] – Made with AI