I found a massive transfer on my boyfriend's phone.
$98,000. Labeled "dowry."
The recipient wasn't me, the woman who'd been with him for eight years.
The dowry we'd scrimped and saved for over four years.
He'd sent it to someone else.
And I had no idea.
In the closet sat the birthday surprise I'd gotten him. A brand-new phone, the latest model.
——
Rain hammered against the window, each drop striking the glass like a fist against my chest.
I held Marvin Whitney's phone in my hands, my whole body trembling.
Eight years together, and I'd never once gone through his phone. If he hadn't left it at home, I never would have touched it.
I never expected that one look would turn me into the kind of woman who couldn't stop scrolling.
I went through every bank account linked to his phone.
It confirmed everything. The dowry he'd transferred included $38,000 of our shared savings.
Marvin and I had been together since freshman year of college. Eight years. We'd planned to get married right after graduation.
But my parents wouldn't have it. They looked down on his rural background. On top of the $38,800 dowry, they wanted him to buy a place in the city.
The numbers scared Marvin off.
"My parents worked themselves to the bone putting me through school," he said. "There's no reason they should have to drain their savings for a wedding too."
"These four years of ours were worth too much and not enough at the same time."
Marvin broke up with me.
In the end, I was the one who couldn't let go.
I begged him through tears. "Please don't do this. We can save up together."
After that, I moved to the city with him behind my parents' backs.
For four years, I pinched every penny, saving alongside him for the down payment and the dowry.
And now he'd taken that money and given it to another woman as her dowry.
The down payment on our apartment had been made at the end of last year. We'd split three months of mortgage payments together.
After the down payment, we'd only had $38,000 left. Where did Marvin get $98,000?
The recipient's name contained a character I didn't recognize from anyone in my life.
Who was she?
Questions kept surfacing, one after another.
I felt like I was standing in a thick fog, unable to see what was right in front of me.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down.
I noticed the red notification dots on his messaging app and tapped in.
Other than some work messages, it was clean. Not a single suspicious contact.
I typed into the search bar: love you, baby, sweetheart. Every term of endearment I could think of.
The only results that came up were me.
The familiar chat history made my eyes sting.
Eight years. I'd been with Marvin for eight years.
For eight of those years, I'd given him everything.
I'd defied my parents and chosen to save up with him so he could marry me.
And now it all felt like a joke.
I opened app after app. Nothing.
Then I opened his food delivery account, and buried among rows of takeout orders was a second address.
The name on the deliveries had that same unfamiliar character.
He'd sent her flowers on almost every holiday. Bouquets at fifteen, twenty, thirty dollars. The most expensive one, nearly sixty.
He ordered her milk tea all the time. Her usual was matcha.
When she was sick, he'd rush-deliver medicine to her door. He'd buy her little snacks to cheer her up.
And me?
Nothing.
I looked at the dried flowers on the nightstand.
That was the only bouquet he'd given me since graduation. $1.99, from a self-serve flower stand on the sidewalk.
"Rosie, once I have money someday..."
