The house offer Sloan and I made got accepted, so I went to the bank to transfer money from the wedding fund Nia and I had built together.
That is when I found out she had been stealing from it for months before she even left.
Our joint savings account that should have had $23,000 in it had $15,000. $8,000 missing.
When I asked the bank for transaction records, I found withdrawals going back 6 months before Nia's supposed revelation about needing to explore other men.
The transactions painted a clear picture. Expensive clothes, high-end restaurants, spa treatments, even a weekend trip to some resort. All while she was telling me we needed to be careful with money because weddings are expensive.
I called Nia immediately.
"Where is the $8,000 you stole from our wedding fund?"
"I did not steal anything," she said. "That was our money. I used some of it for personal expenses."
"Personal expenses like buying designer dresses to wear while gold digging at upscale bars?"
Long pause. "I needed to look presentable for work events."
"Bulls***. You needed to look expensive enough to attract rich men. You were funding your husband-hunting expedition with money we saved together for our future."
That is when she broke down and admitted part of the truth.
She had been planning to leave me for months, but wanted to keep the financial safety net until she found someone better. The whole "I need to explore" conversation was just a way to break up with me while keeping access to our shared resources.
But that was not even the worst part.
Remember how I mentioned Nia's sister, Celia? She reached out to me yesterday with information that made my blood run cold.
"I cannot keep quiet about this anymore," Celia said. "Nia's been talking s*** about you for over a year. Calling your job embarrassing. Saying she was settling for a blue-collar life because she did not think she could do better."
According to Celia, Nia had been actively looking for an exit strategy from our relationship long before she asked for her exploration period. She had joined some kind of social climbing group. Started hanging around country clubs and expensive events, trying to meet men with serious money.
"She used to laugh about how trusting you were," Celia told me. "She said you were so focused on being the perfect boyfriend that you would never notice what she was really doing."
That hit different.
All those late nights she said she was working extra shifts at the bar, she was actually networking at private parties and exclusive events. Using our wedding fund to finance her transformation from small-town bartender to whatever she thought these rich guys wanted.