He Used My Money, I Left Him

Chapter 1

Damian Calloway and I went to high school together.

We dated for a little while back then.

Then, two months before graduation, he broke up with me out of nowhere.

I just stared at him, lost. Damian spoke slowly.

"Vivian, I want to get into a good college. I want to build something, make a real future for us."

The way he looked at me when he said that, so full of feeling.

I bought it. I got swept up in that beautiful dream he was spinning and nodded along.

After the breakup, we never spoke again. Not once.

I ran into him again three years after college.

His latest business had just collapsed. He was broke and deep in debt to the bank.

He looked older now, worn down in a way I hadn't seen before. The bright, sunny boy I remembered had turned into someone quieter, steadier, but somehow smaller.

He told me he'd been single ever since the breakup. That he'd always wanted to find me again and that he just never knew how to start.

I smiled. I didn't quite believe him. But something in my chest still shifted, because the truth was, I'd been waiting too. Waiting for him to come back.

Eventually, Damian and I found our way back to each other.

Every morning I'd wake up to a text from him. He'd say he had my favorite breakfast and was waiting downstairs. I'd get in his car, finish eating, and we'd pull up right in front of my office building. It was like clockwork.

On holidays, he'd bring gifts to my parents' house. The money was mine, sure, but Damian had a real gift for picking things. Every single time, he'd land on exactly what my mom, my dad, or my older sister Natalie Bennett had been hoping for. He made them so happy.

He was good to me. Good to my family. So good that every day I felt like the luckiest woman alive.

With all that old history reignited, we started talking about marriage pretty fast.

Neither of us came from money, but I'd been working for years and had built up a decent cushion. After paying off Damian's bank debt, I had about two hundred and eighty thousand left to bring into our new life together.

Damian didn't have much. I was ready to tell him not to worry about contributing anything at all.

He must have felt awkward about it, because somehow, in the end, he managed to scrape together a hundred thousand as seed money for our household.

We didn't use that money for a house.

After the wedding, Damian still wasn't working. He stayed home and took care of everything there. Laundry, meals, cleaning. He ran that house like a machine. It was spotless.

I thought we had something good. Something that worked.

Then I went to dinner with some friends, and someone started talking about their experience building a company.

Damian stayed quiet through the whole conversation. But I saw it. That flicker in his eyes.

It sat heavy with me all night.

When we got home, I took his hand.

"Damian, let's do this. Let's start a business. I'll go through it with you again."

I believed all those years of failed ventures must have taught him something. This time would be different. I was sure of it.

He swallowed hard and pulled me into his arms.

"Vivian, thank you."

And just like that, in a rush of adrenaline, I handed over everything I had left. Every bit of my savings. I wanted to see that fire again, the boy who had so much spirit he practically glowed.

Building a business was brutal. Damian got busier and busier, and I barely saw him.

Six months in, I found out I was pregnant.

The morning sickness hit hard. One day at work, I started spotting. I collapsed, and my coworkers panicked, scrambling to get me to the hospital.

"Vivian, you need to call your family. The doctor said you need bed rest here at the hospital. Like, monitored bed rest."

"Yeah, they said at least three months. You can't mess around with this. You need to tell someone and get them here to take care of you."

I nodded. "I texted my sister just now. She's on her way. And thank you guys. Seriously. If it weren't for you, I'd still be on the floor somewhere trying to figure out how to get here."

My coworker waved it off. "Oh, please. We've been working together for years. The boss is on his way back from a business trip. He knows what happened. He said you should rest up and don't worry. He said he could get you approved for unpaid leave. Your job will be here when you're back."

Damian didn't make it to the hospital until eight that night. His parents came with him.