Chapter 16 - Why Thomas Married Me
I once believed Thomas married me because he loved my confidence.
Later, I wondered whether he loved what confidence had built.
During the investigation, agents recovered old emails between Thomas and a college friend.
One was written after our third date.
She owns a place downtown and has equity in some software company. She acts low-key, but I think there’s serious money there.
Another:
If this becomes permanent, I’ll never have to start from zero again.
He did not marry me solely for money.
That truth was more complicated.
He liked me.
He enjoyed our life.
He probably believed his feelings were love.
But underneath everything was entitlement.
He saw partnership as access.
My success became a resource available to his ambition.
When I resisted risky ventures, he felt rejected.
When I protected separate property, he felt insulted.
Instead of building something, he tried to convert marriage into ownership.
The emotional betrayal hurt more than the fraud.
Fraud could be documented.
Love could not.
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I had to accept that some moments were genuine and still part of a larger deception.
That was the hardest kind of grief.
