The truth was, I did not even know where the money was going. Then one afternoon, my friend Carol asked me to go
shopping with her. She spotted a beautiful scarf.
“This would look so good on you.”
It cost only thirty-two dollars.
I held it in my hands for a few seconds before quietly putting it back.
“I don’t need it.”
Carol looked at me.
“You don’t have any money with you?”
It was an ordinary question.
But I felt so ashamed, as if she had shouted my secret across the entire store.
That evening, for the first time, I confronted Robert.
“I want to keep part of my pension from now on.”
He did not even lower his newspaper.
“What for?”
“I just want to have some of my own money.”
Then he finally looked at me.
“Margaret, you don’t need money. I take care of everything you need.”
