Part 2: Their demands moved from dinner etiquette to my fortune.
Loretta’s voice filled my kitchen.
“Since you married my Vance, you both should keep a small allowance and deposit the rest of your paychecks into my account. Young people don’t know how to save. I’ll manage it for you.”
I was twenty-nine, seven years into a top consulting firm, owner of a mortgage-free luxury condo with investments and excellent credit. Vance had only finished paying off a $45,000 car loan six months before our wedding.
Yet his mother was supposed to manage me.
Vance shrugged. “It’s generational.”
“Did you give her your paycheck before we married?”
“No.”
“Does Tatum?”
“That’s private.”
I laughed.
“Her marriage is private. Mine belongs to your mother?”
He became defensive but finally declared we “wouldn’t” surrender our salaries, as though granting me special permission to keep my own income.
Then came the condo.
Loretta apparently worried Vance looked like a “kept man” living in property I had purchased before marriage. Her solution was simple.
Put his name on my deed.
“I am never putting you on the deed,” I told him.
His expression changed.
That afternoon, while I was working, Loretta and Tatum appeared outside my condo with two suitcases and shopping bags. They had not been invited.
When I arrived home, Tatum demanded a spare key.
Loretta casually explained that Tatum’s lease would expire soon and her downtown commute was difficult. Since I had a guest room, what was wrong with letting her stay “a couple nights a week”?
“No key,” I said. “No sleepovers.”
They erupted.
I opened my front door.
“If you refuse to leave, building security will escort you.”
After they stormed out, I checked the bowl where I kept three spare key fobs.
Only two remained.
I checked my building access logs.
Vance had let them into the building.
I texted him.
“You gave Tatum my spare key.”
His reply arrived five minutes later.
“She just took one. It’ll be handy sometimes.”
Something inside me became very calm.
I called the concierge and ordered an emergency locksmith.
