Remember how James was so sure I’d fall apart without him? Well, karma had other plans.
It started when I finally landed a job at a local company. Nothing fancy, basic customer service stuff, $16 an hour. But here’s the thing: the office is in the same building as one of James’s biggest clients, you know, the ones he’s always trying to impress. I didn’t plan this. I just saw the job on Indeed and applied.
First day at work, guess who I run into in the elevator? James, wearing his important-meeting suit, the one he maxed out our Nordstrom card for, with Aurora trailing behind him like a lost puppy. His face when he saw me in work clothes carrying my new laptop bag? Priceless. Aurora just stood there awkwardly, probably wondering why her successful boyfriend suddenly looked like he’d seen a ghost.
But here’s where it gets good. Remember how James always handled our finances because I was too scattered to understand them? Turns out my new manager, Matthew, actually likes how detail-oriented I am. He asked me to help organize some spreadsheets for the office. While I was learning Excel, thanks, YouTube tutorials, I started applying those same skills to organizing all the evidence of James’s financial mess.
The best part? I didn’t have to do anything dramatic. I just handed over my neatly organized folders of bank statements, credit card bills, and screenshots to my divorce attorney. She actually smiled when she saw how thorough I’d been.
“This is perfect,” she said. “We won’t even need to hire a forensic accountant.”
James found out about this during our first mediation meeting. He showed up all confident, probably expecting me to be a mess. Instead, he walked into a room where I had printed copies of every shady transaction he’d made in the last year, including the charges from hotels near Aurora’s apartment that he claimed were business meetings. His face when the mediator started going through the evidence was better than any revenge I could have planned.
But wait, it gets better. Remember that Peloton he bought me for Christmas, the one he said I never used? I finally logged into the account last week. Guess what I found? Workout history showing him and Aurora using it together at our house on days when I was visiting my sister.
Yeah. In our house.
I mentioned this casually during mediation, just slid the printed activity log across the table. James actually stuttered trying to explain that one.
The real karma hit when Aurora finally realized James isn’t as wealthy as he pretended to be. Apparently, she found out he’s still paying off that Tiffany promise ring, which, by the way, wasn’t even from the actual Tiffany store. I found the receipt. It’s from one of those lookalike websites.