“I don’t know.” Teresa looked away. “I’ve got a bad memory; I just forgot all that stuff from the past.”
Jonathan said, “Back then, I couldn’t even afford a wedding gift for you, yet you went ahead and handled everything. You even gave Grandpa money for his surgery without telling me. I just felt like an idiot.”
Teresa said, “Then just keep pretending you don’t know. I don’t want us to tally every penny between us. If you want to pay me back, it would feel like we’re just friends, not married.”
They were both stubborn and proud. People like them could bear grievances, but they didn’t want to be looked down on. They believed their efforts had been genuine and didn’t want to break everything down into numbers. Neither wanted to see their partner suffer. Neither wanted to owe the other, especially when it came to money.
Jonathan stared at Teresa. “Alright, then what about the fifth anniversary of Grandma’s passing? I was out of town and gave you 15 thousand to fix up the grave. Grandpa said you gave extra money. What’s that about?”
Teresa stayed quiet, but Jonathan insisted. Finally, she told him the truth. “Irene and Werner agreed that he would handle the first and second anniversaries, and we would take the third. Your dad wasn’t here, so you had to take care of everything yourself. You had just married me then, and your mom said you didn’t have much money. It was hard to hold the memorial, but she didn’t want to seem weak.”
“And then?” asked Jonathan.
Teresa continued, “Then the fifth memorial was Werner’s job, but he suddenly made an excuse and bailed. That was why we stepped in. Tons of people came, and a party that size costs a fortune. 15 thousand wasn’t nearly enough.”
“So? How much did you put in yourself?”
“Not much.” Teresa said, “I honestly forgot.”
Jonathan said calmly, “Fine, I’ll call Grandpa. He definitely remembers-”
“Enough.” Teresa tugged at Jonathan’s arm. Seeing he was about to call, she stopped him.
Jonathan held Teresa’s wrist gently and said, “I just want to know how much you actually spent.”
Teresa sighed in resignation. “50 thousand dollars.”
“What?” Jonathan was stunned. He thought, ‘Did she actually spend that much on my family just after we got married?’
He asked, “Did my mom know about this?”
“No, I didn’t tell her,” Teresa replied.
“Why?” He had been on a business trip and couldn’t make it back. He remembered telling Irene not to give Teresa a hard time at Grandma’s funeral, saying Teresa was new to the family and clueless.
He thought, ‘Why was Teresa the one running around doing all the work in the end?’
Teresa sighed. “Irene said I needed to step up and act like the lady of the house. I honestly didn’t know how to tell her the money wasn’t enough, so I quietly covered it myself. I never meant to brag about it.”
Jonathan was a little mad. “You gotta take credit when it’s yours. You can’t keep silent about everything, okay?”
50 thousand dollars was several months’ worth of his salary at the time. No matter how much money Teresa had, however, she wasn’t obligated to help him unconditionally, especially as a new member still unfamiliar with everything.
The more Jonathan thought about it, the angrier he became. He couldn’t bring himself to say how badly it hurt. “If Grandpa hadn’t told me, would you have never planned to tell me all this?”
Teresa said, “What’s the point? We’ve been divorced for a long time.”
“Then why didn’t you ever tell me when we were married?” he asked.
Teresa frowned. “You were busy traveling for work, so I didn’t want to bother you. Plus, we were married then, and I didn’t wanna count pennies. I’d just joined the family, but I didn’t want your relatives to think we were cheap. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, and I didn’t want you to think I was weak. I just wanted to make sure the memorial went well, no matter whose money it took. That was how I felt.”
Jonathan fell silent, looking at Teresa with a gaze full of frustration and helplessness.
Teresa finally got why he was so mad. She said, “Just call me clueless. I really was dumb back then.”
She thought she had been really stupid back then. She put in so much effort and got nothing in return. She tried so hard to look good in Jonathan’s family’s eyes, treated them sincerely, but Irene never saw her as family.
Jonathan felt even worse. He was always away for work, and whenever he came back, Teresa only told him the good news–never the pain she was going through.
Back then, she loved him with all her heart, but later she cut him off coldly. That really hurt him.
Jonathan said, “There’s gotta be more stuff like this, right? I know things have been rough for you and Mike. It would have been better if you’d saved the money you gave my family when we got married.”
Teresa said, “Does it make any difference? I’ve said everything I need to say. I don’t want to look back anymore because-”
Before Teresa could finish, Jonathan suddenly kissed her fiercely, pressing her so hard that she struggled to breathe.
She hit Jonathan’s waist hard, feeling a tingle run up her back, then let go weakly.
Jonathan kissed Teresa gently, with a touch of tenderness. After a moment, he let her go and raised an eyebrow. “Why did you respond to my kiss?”
Teresa snapped back to her senses, eyes suddenly wide. “I didn’t. And why did you kiss me?”
“Aren’t we back together now?” he said.
Teresa said, “Isn’t this all just an act? It’s just the two of us here. No need to keep acting.”
Jonathan pressed a finger on her lips. “Whatever you say.”
Teresa was speechless, finding him annoying.
Jonathan said, instinctively taking Teresa’s hand, “Let’s go. Take Mike with us to Grandpa’s place for dinner.”
Teresa glanced down at his hand. As if sensing her question, Jonathan explained, “I’m afraid you’ll get lost. There are too many people out there.”
When they got home, there were no reporters at the gate. The online gossip had mostly died down, and nobody was bothering a remarried couple anymore.
Michael ran up to greet them. “Mom, I saw the news about you two.”
Teresa’s heart sank a little. “Oh? What did you see?” She worried he would catch those nasty comments.