— **”Have you received your salary? Give it to me, I will pay off my mother’s debt,”** my husband declared. After those words, I packed his things.
Lena and Maksim had been married seven years ago, when she became pregnant. She was only 20, he was 25. Both were young, inexperienced, but full of hope for a happy future. The pregnancy came as a complete surprise to them, but they decided to keep the baby and start a family.
The October afternoon sun cast orange streaks across the oak floors of her Naperville kitchen. Lena stood at the sink, holding her phone, staring at the dinging bank balance.
It was payday. Two weeks of grueling work as a nurse manager at Edward Hospital, including three night shifts and two weekends of overtime. The money wasn’t small, but it never stayed in her account for more than 24 hours.
The garage door opened. The roar of the Ford Mustang—the car her husband, Max (Maksim), had insisted on buying two years ago to “save face” with his business partners, even though he was a freelance real estate agent with a lackluster sales record—was gone.
Max walked into the house and tossed his briefcase on the sofa. He was handsome, still as charming as he had been at 25, when Lena—then 20, naive, and pregnant—had fallen madly in love with him.
“Honey,” Max said, not looking at her, going straight to the fridge to get a can of beer. “Did you get paid? Give it to me, I’ll pay off your mother’s debt. She just called, said the bank is threatening to repossess our house in Florida again. We can’t have her on the streets.”
Lena put the phone down on the marble counter. A cold silence filled the kitchen.
Seven years ago.
Seven years ago, they had married in haste because of the pregnancy. They were young, poor, but Lena had believed in love. She believed when Max said, “I’ll take care of you and the baby.” But in reality, she had worked tirelessly to support the family, their daughter Bella, and… her mother-in-law.
Max’s mother, Patricia, was a widow living in Florida. She always had “emergency” debts: credit card debt, roof debt, medical debt, and now a mortgage. And every month, the same pattern: Max took Lena’s salary to “save Mom,” and his meager commission (if any) went to his own expenses.
“Lena? Are you listening to me?” Max turned, frowning when she didn’t immediately transfer the money like usual. “Mom’s waiting. $3,500. Transfer it now.”
Lena looked at her husband. She didn’t see the concern of a dutiful daughter. She saw only greed and obvious contempt.
“No,” Lena said. A simple, light word that landed between them like a stone.
“What?” Max laughed, as if she’d just told a joke. “What did you say?”
“I said no. I won’t give her the money. Last month it was $4,000 for her ankle surgery. The month before that it was $2,500 for car repairs. Max, I checked. My salary isn’t your family’s charity fund.”
Max’s face was red. He slammed his beer can down on the table, foam flying out. “That’s my mother! She raised me! How dare you be so selfish? Do you want her to starve?”
“I want her to take responsibility,” Lena said, her voice strangely calm. “And neither do I.”
“You…” Max roared, pointing at her face. “Give me the phone. I’ll transfer it myself. You’re my wife, your money is my money!”
Lena took a step back. She looked at the clock on the wall. 6:15.
“Okay, Max. If you want to talk about money, let’s talk about it.”
She walked past him and into the living room. There, in the middle of the floor, were two large suitcases and three neatly packed cardboard boxes.
Max paused. He looked at the luggage, then at Lena.
“Where… where are you going? Where are you taking the baby?” he asked, his voice a little panicked. He was more afraid of losing his ATM than losing his wife.
“No, Max,” Lena smiled, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “That’s not mine. That’s yours.”
“What the hell…”
“After what you said,” Lena repeated, “I packed your things. Get out of my house. Immediately.”
Max stood rooted to the spot, then snickered. The arrogance returned.
“Your house? Lena, have you forgotten? The names on the deed are both ours. You can’t kick me out. This is marital property.”
He leaned back on the sofa, legs crossed. “You want a divorce? Fine. Under Illinois law, I’ll take half of this house, plus alimony because I make less than you. You think you’re smart? You’re just a nurse.”
Lena took a thick file from her bag. She threw it on the coffee table in front of Max.
“You’re right, Max. I’m just a nurse. But you’re forgetting one thing: My sister, Sarah, is a forensic accountant for the FBI.”
Max frowned. “So what?”
“Two months ago, when you asked me to wire $4,000 for Mom’s surgery, I was surprised. Your Mom posted a picture of herself dancing salsa on Facebook the next day. So I asked Sarah to check all of our money for the past seven years.”
Lena flipped to the first page of the file.
“You always say you’re sending money to pay off your mother’s debt. But in reality, the account number that receives the money isn’t the creditors’. It’s a joint account at a bank in the Cayman Islands.”
Max’s face began to change color.
“And the owners of that account,” Lena pointed to the yellowed text, “are Maksim Volkov and Patricia Volkov.”
“You… you’re trespassing
privacy…” Max stammered.
“You’ve siphoned off $280,000 from my paycheck over the last five years,” Lena continued, her voice icy. “You said Mom was sick, Mom was in debt, Mom was starving. But in reality, Mom was living like a queen in Florida. And that money… you didn’t use it to pay off debt.”
Lena flipped to the next page. A color print of a gorgeous beach house.
“You and Mom used my money to buy a vacation home in Sarasota. Put it in Mom’s name. How long have you been planning this? Divorce me when the house is paid off, then move back in with Mom and your mistress, right?”
Max jumped up. “The mistress? You’re crazy!”
Lena pulled out the photos the private detective had taken. Max and a young blonde were picking out furniture for a house in Sarasota.
“You’re not just a gold digger, Max. You’re a con man. You lied to me, exploited me, and used my hard-earned money to build someone else’s house.”
“So what?” Max shouted, throwing off his mask completely. “I deserve it! I’ve had to put up with your tedium for seven years! You just work and work. I need a life of luxury! My mother was right, you’re just a cash cow to be milked!”
He laughed wildly. “But what can you do to me? The money’s gone. The house is in my mother’s name. It was a gift. You can’t get it back. And this house? It’s still joint property. I’m not going anywhere until the court divides it!”
Lena looked at the man she had loved all her youth. She no longer felt heartache. She only felt disgust.
“You think I’m not prepared?”
The doorbell rang.
Max was startled. “Are you calling the police? This is a civil dispute, the police can’t do anything to me!”
“Not the police,” Lena said, going to open the door.
In came two men in serious black suits. They wore the badges of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – Criminal Investigation Division.
Max collapsed onto the sofa. In America, you can joke with the police, but no one dares to joke with the IRS.
“Mr. Maksim Volkov?” an agent asked. “We have a search warrant and an arrest warrant for tax evasion and money laundering.”
“Wh… what?” Max trembled. “I pay my taxes!”
“You pay taxes on your meager reported income,” Lena explained for the agent. “But you forgot to declare the $280,000 income that you ’embezzled’ from the joint account and transferred overseas (Cayman) and then transferred back to the US to buy real estate. It’s called money laundering and tax evasion, Max.”
Lena looked straight into her husband’s eyes.
“Sarah helped me file a whistleblower complaint with the IRS. With full evidence of the illicit money you and your mother were doing.”
“My mother…” Max whispered, his face drained of color.
“Patricia was arrested in Florida this morning,” the IRS agent confirmed. “The house in Sarasota is under arrest. And since she’s the owner of the property purchased with the money she didn’t pay, she’s an accomplice.”
Max looked at Lena with utter horror. He realized his “stupid, workaholic” wife had secretly set a deadly trap.
“You… you put your husband and mother-in-law in jail?”
“No, Max,” Lena said, picking up her handbag. “You did it yourself. If you were just having an affair, we’d get divorced in family court. But you chose to steal and cheat. You were too greedy. You wanted everything, so now you will lose everything.”
She pointed to the door.
“Please get to work. My daughter and I will go to a hotel. This house… you can seal it for investigation. The mortgage was almost overdue anyway, because Max had used the money to pay for his mistress’s plane ticket.
The agent handcuffed Max. He screamed, struggled, and cursed Lena for being cruel. But Lena didn’t turn around.
She walked out of the house that had once held the innocent hopes of her 20s. She got into the car where little Bella was waiting with her headphones on.
“Where’s Daddy?” Bella asked.
“He’s busy ‘paying off debt,’ honey,” Lena smiled, starting the car. “A very long-term debt.”
The car drove off, leaving behind the siren of the official car and the man who had once been her whole world, now just a defendant in the tax records.
Lena took a deep breath. The autumn air was cold but fresh. She had lost money, lost her home, lost 7 years of her youth. But tonight, for the first time in 7 years, she received her entire salary. And more importantly, she bought back her freedom – the most expensive thing in the world.
