“Would you start dinner?”
“Can you let the dog out?”
“Would you pick up the dry cleaning?”
I said yes because I wanted to help.
Then helping became expected.
Expected became required.
Within a year, I was waking before six every morning.
I made breakfast.
Packed Noah’s lunch.
Walked their Labrador.
Cleaned the kitchen.
Did the laundry.
Picked up prescriptions.
Planned dinner.
Watched Noah after school.
And because Grant said household costs had “temporarily spiked,” I began covering the electric bill.
Then the internet.
Then several subscription accounts.
Then weekly groceries.
Meanwhile, the beautiful apartment they had promised me never appeared.
The contractors finished part of the lower level, but Grant turned the larger room into a home office.
The other finished room became storage.
My bed was placed in a narrow space beside the laundry room.
