I checked the account again, thinking I had misunderstood something, but the same transfer was still there. The money had gone to an account I didn’t recognize, and the date was only days after the fundraiser closed. I asked my husband about it that night, and he said it was “part of the medical expenses,” but he couldn’t explain why the account wasn’t connected to the hospital.
The next morning I called the billing office and asked them to confirm every payment made toward my treatment. They confirmed the insurance had covered everything, and there had never been a $41,000 balance. Then I found the fundraiser records and realized the amount he had told everyone we needed was almost exactly what had disappeared from our account afterward.
I confronted him with the documents, and for once he didn’t try to explain it away. He just stared at the papers and said, “I was going to tell you when you were better.” Then he admitted what the money had actually been used for, and I finally understood why he had been so desperate to keep me from looking at the fundraiser myself…
