Secrets on Melody Street (Jenlisa)

15

After arriving back, I made a beeline for Jae's home office. Luckily he won't return until dinner, so I have enough time to log into his bank account. I know he must have the password scribbled down somewhere.

I've spent a hefty chunk of our marriage peering over Jae's shoulder when he's hunched over work emails, begging him to come up to bed and spend time with me, so at least that means I've been hovering behind him enough to see him enter his MacBook pin countless times.

I sat in his chair and rolled myself behind the desk. It felt weird to be sat in this seat, but I didn't have time to dwell on the peculiarity of my situation. I had to get that money to Irene.

I entered his password (121914, Luca's birthday) and I watched as the screen came alive.

The homescreen was bombarded with a million folders and legal files so I took to Google and typed in our bank. Thank god it directed me straight to our account without having to sign in.

I almost clicked on 'pay & transfer' when something else caught my attention in big red letters.

OVERDRAFT : -$168,492.37

I froze, hovering the cursor over the word "overdraft" in hopes that I'd imagined it.

How on earth were we almost $170,000 dollars in debt? This has to be some kind of mistake.

I felt baby kick me slightly, right above my bellybutton, as if they sensed something was wrong. I rubbed my hand soothingly over my stomach as I tried to calm down. Surely there's a logical explanation to this, I mustn't overreact.

Jae goes to work all the time, he tells me about how his day went, what he had for lunch, whether or not he won a case. Bottom line is, he makes money. So whatever this overdraft is about, I'm sure there's a justifiable reason.

Not wanting to increase our overdraft by an extra 3 and a half grand, I checked our other accounts. First our savings account, which if I remember correctly, should contain around half a million dollars, the majority of which was given to us by my parents when we moved to Melody Street as newlyweds. We rarely ever touch it, except for maybe when we need emergency work done on the house or for medical bills. I double clicked on our savings, only to be met with a big fat 0. Gasping in shock, I let go of the mouse, my hands clenching at the edge of the desk.  

What on earth has he done with all our money? It should be here, I don't understand.

I clicked on the bank statement and it was about a mile long, full of tiny little transactions dating over the span of years.

Casino :  -$8000

YungSae Bar : -$379.23

Horse Racing : -$3,189.76

Betties Strip Club :  -$2,669.20

Casino :  -$15,000

Hannam Country Club : -$45,749.61

Karaoke Bar :  -$1,525.99

Casino : -$25,000

No wonder he never lets me have control over the money. I've been doing my shopping for years using the weekly allowance of $500 that Jae allocates to me. It covers groceries, clothing, clubs that Luca attends and general stuff. I never complained or asked questions because $2000 a month was more than enough. I'd always have extra left over if I wanted to treat myself or catch up with Chu and Rosie for lunch. I'm privileged enough to have not had to think about finances, Jaehyun always insisted that it was his forté and I let him handle it.