My Ex-husband Threw A $10,000 Card At Me While Leaving Me For A Younger Woman. Seven Years Later, I Finally Checked The Balance. Why Was There $2 Million In The Account?

“You know,” Daniel continued, his eyes glistening with tears, “when you turned and walked away in the rain, I watched you from the car in the rearview mirror. I felt like my heart was being ripped out. You bent down to pick up the card. I was both happy and hurt. Happy because you took it, which meant you would have a way out. But hurt because I knew that act had deeply wounded your pride.”

“I’m sorry. A thousand times, I’m sorry. I used the worst possible way to love you.”

I caressed his face on the screen—a gaunt face that held a love as immense as it was foolish. I wanted to tell him I had forgiven him long ago, ever since Ethan told me the truth.

But he could no longer hear me. He was forever stuck in that moment filled with remorse for having hurt me.

“I made a bet with Ethan,” Daniel said, his voice a little stronger.

“I bet you wouldn’t spend the money right away. I trusted my wife’s pride, and I knew that pride would help you stand on your own two feet in the tough times ahead. You would work twice as hard, three times as hard to prove me wrong. And that process would forge you; it would turn you from a spoiled, weak little girl into a strong, independent woman. That’s the greatest legacy I wanted to leave you, not the money on the card.”

I nodded through my tears. He was right.

He had won this painful bet. I matured through pain.

I was strengthened by hatred. But the price of that maturity was too high.

It was paid with his loneliness and his death. He taught me how to live without him, but not how to forget him.

Daniel paused in the video to breathe. His breath was a whistle like wind seeping through a crack.

He put a hand to his chest to suppress an imminent pain and then looked at me with determination. He began to talk about what I had always wondered about: the $2 million he had hidden on that old card.

“You’re wondering why I lied about the amount, right?” Daniel smiled—a weak but mischievous smile.

“I said there was $10,000 because I wanted to test you. I know my wife has immense pride. If $10,000 already seemed like a small, humiliating amount to you, how would you accept 2 million? If I had told you the real figure from the start, would you have been scared? Would you think I was involved in something illegal, or would you have returned it immediately so as not to be a gold digger?”

I nodded unconsciously, tears still streaming down my face. He was right too.

Seven years ago, I was a young woman filled with pride. I would have rather starved than accept such a large sum from an unfaithful husband.

It was the paltry amount of $10,000, combined with his dismissive attitude, that wounded my self-esteem and made me keep the card as proof to motivate myself to fight. “Those 2 million,” Daniel’s voice turned serious.

“They’re all I had left after selling the company. I knew you wouldn’t use them right away, but I left them there. I wanted them to be your safety net. Life is unpredictable, Laura. No one knows what will happen tomorrow. If you get sick, if something happens to you, or if the man you’re with in the future doesn’t treat you well, this money will give you the option to choose.”

He looked deeply into the camera as if he wanted to burn every word into my mind. “If you haven’t remarried, use this money to travel the world. Go to New Orleans like we promised. Go to the places you love. Eat the best food. Don’t save it; life is short. And if you are already married, consider it the dowry I’m giving you. With money in hand, you’ll have standing. Your in-laws won’t dare to look down on you. You won’t have to live seeking anyone’s approval.”

I listened with a broken heart. Even in his last moments, as life was slipping away, he was only thinking about my future.

He worried I would be looked down upon, that I wouldn’t have money, that I would suffer from poverty. He had prepared a perfect escape route for me—the greatest security a man can give the woman he loves.

“I know you’ll call me materialistic, that you think money is everything,” Daniel smiled bitterly.

“But Laura, when you’re facing death, you realize how important money is. It couldn’t buy my life, but it can buy your freedom and your peace of mind. I can’t be by your side to protect you anymore, so let this money do it for me. Don’t refuse it. Don’t throw away my life’s work for some false pride. Promise me.”

I buried my face in my hands, sobbing inconsolably. I didn’t despise his money.

I was hurt that this money was obtained in exchange for his life and his brilliant career. He had sold everything, accepted walking away with empty hands, just to leave me a fortune and an eternal remorse.

“I will keep your money,” I thought, but not to enjoy it.

“I’ll use it to fulfill your unfinished dreams, to live a life worthy of your great sacrifice.”

The video was nearing its end. The light in the room seemed dimmer, or maybe it was my eyes clouded by tears.

Daniel looked much more tired. He rested his head against the pillow, his eyelids drooping, but he fought to keep them open, fixed on the camera.

His breathing was heavy, his chest rising and falling with difficulty. “Laura,” He called my name, his voice a whisper.

“I know you’re crying. You cry a lot, don’t you? I already told you, don’t cry. You get so ugly with your red nose and swollen eyes. You have to smile. Smile like the day I proposed to you.”

He tried to move his hand across the screen as if to wipe my tears. “Come on, be good. When I’m gone, you have to live happily for both of us. You have to dress well, wear makeup, go out with your friends. Don’t lock yourself in the past. Don’t get depressed over a dead man. I don’t want to see you sad. I couldn’t rest in peace.”

I shook my head, the tears kept falling. How could I be happy knowing this painful truth?

How could I smile when the man who loved me most had gone in solitude and pain? “You’re selfish, Daniel. You ask me to forget you, to be happy, but you leave me with such a profound longing.”

“Find a good man,” Daniel said, his voice choked. It was each word a wound for him and for me.

“Find someone healthy who can live to be 100 to take care of you, not a wreck like me. Someone who knows how to cook, who pampers you, who comforts you when you cry. If he makes you suffer, take my money, throw the bills in his face, and leave. Don’t put up with anything. Got it?”

I felt like salt was being poured on my wound. He was giving me instructions to marry someone else.

He was pushing me into the arms of a stranger before he drew his last breath. Does such a noble and foolish man exist?

He loved me, he was jealous of a stranger, but he was willing to bless my happiness with another just because he knew he could no longer make me happy. “I’m serious,” Daniel looked at me, his eyes so sincere it hurt.

“I’m not jealous. Well, maybe a little—just a little. But I’d rather see you happy with someone else than for you to be alone your whole life. You deserve to be loved, Laura. You’re the best woman in the world. I just wasn’t lucky enough to walk with you to the end of the road.”

I buried my head on the table, sobs choking me. “Daniel, please stop. There is no one better than you. No one who would love me with their life like you did.”

“You set the bar for love so high that all other men seem insignificant. You tell me to find happiness, but my happiness left with you to that cold grave.”

The laptop screen began to flicker. The battery on Ethan’s camera must have been dying, just like Daniel’s life.

His image was intermittent, but his voice continued, weak yet longing. He looked at the camera one last time, his eyes holding a universe of love and longing as if he wanted to burn my image into his soul to take with him to the next world.

“If there’s a next life,” Daniel said, his voice breaking, “I promise you—I promise I’ll exercise every day. I’ll eat healthy. I won’t smoke. I won’t work late. I’ll have a strong, healthy body.”

He paused to take a breath, pain contorting his face, but he still tried to smile. “I’ll live a long time—until I’m 99—to be a grumpy old man next to my grumpy old Laura. In the next life, I won’t fight you. I won’t lie and say I don’t love you anymore. I won’t play the traitor. I won’t get a divorce. We’ll argue, we’ll get mad, but we’ll never let go of each other’s hand, okay?”

I nodded frantically at the screen as if he could see me. “Okay, Daniel. Yes, a thousand times yes. We got it wrong in this life. We owe each other too many tears and misunderstandings.”

“If there is a next life, I will find you. I will make you keep your promise. I won’t let you push me away. No matter what, I’ll hold on to you.”

“I’m tired,” Daniel sighed, his eyelids heavy.