The $3 Million Escape

For fifteen years, my wife Sarah' s complaints were the soundtrack of my life.

"Eight thousand dollars," she' d whine, always about the paltry dowry my mother gave us.

It was a constant, low-level hum, punctuated by her rants about her cousin Jessica' s lavish gifts and exotic vacations.

Tonight, after a call with Jessica, it escalated.

"Hawaii again," she fumed, eyes burning with a strange, calculating fire.

Then, the unthinkable: "What if we get divorced?"

A fake divorce, she clarified, a scheme to extort money from my mother.