Thunder rolled low and menacing in the sky, kind of mimicking the storm brewing in Claudia's mind that night.
It was 12.40am and her husband, Steve, had not returned home from work.
Standing barefoot in the kitchen and holding a glass of wine, she glared at her phone screen. The screen that announced three hours earlier that Steve had emptied their joint account.
Her heart leaped when the notification came in and her stomach dropped at the implication. He wouldn't answer her calls and that riled her up real good. Now, a bottle of white wine was almost empty, the courage she needed to face Steve.
When the garage door opened and he drove in, Claudia put away the wineglass and straightened herself, waiting by the foyer.
“Why did you empty our account without my consent?” She asked just as he stepped in. His eyes narrowed, taking in her mussed hair, wrinkled t-shirt and leggings. He closed the door calmly and approached but put a few feet between them.
“It was an investment. The money was better off elsewhere than sitting there, yielding nothing.”
Claudia was sure smoke must be curling out of her ears at the ridiculous reason he gave. “Without discussing it with me?” Her tone had gone up.
Steve started up the stairs leading to their bedroom with a sigh. “Don't make this dramatic.” That was his favourite sentence whenever he had done something dramatic.
She scoffed. “I’ve had enough. I want you to get your things and leave, Steve—”
He turned abruptly and missed a step, stumbled down two more before quickly catching himself, his eyes wide. “I beg your pardon?”
She pulled out documents from a folder and held them out.
She had been preparing the documents three months earlier when she noticed subtle changes in him, changes an observant wife shouldn't ignore. The emptied account was the last straw that broke their marriage, and unexpected one. If she had known he would empty the account, she would have ended their marriage earlier.
He collected the documents, confusion in his gaze. The first one was a bank statement detailing money sent to Sally Brown and Georgina Stewart, a property valuation of the mansion they lived in that was part of her inheritance and a copy of their prenuptial agreement.
His nose flared as he looked at her as though she had betrayed him and not the other way round. “How dare you?”
“No! How dare you?” She replied, angry with herself for bearing too long with him, hoping that he would change at some point. “Your audacity is unbelievable. I want you out. Now.”
She turned from him with a flourish and a bounce in her step, or at least she hoped so, before locking herself in the study, leaving him with the lies and consequences of underestimating the woman who had paid half the bills and remembered every password.
His pleas were muffled by the thick door and her cries.
I hope you enjoyed reading this short piece. It's inspired by the Freewrite #dailyprompt phrase "with a flourish”.
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