I (36F) have been divorced from my ex-husband (38M) for four years. We share an eight-year-old daughter, Lily, who primarily lives with me. Our divorce agreement states that he pays $850 a month in child support and has visitation every other weekend.
Mark—let’s call him that—has always been… difficult. During our marriage, he’d blow money on impulse buys while I was the one balancing the budget. That pattern hasn’t changed.
He remarried last year to Jessica (29F), who seems pleasant enough but definitely enjoys a more glamorous lifestyle. Last month, Mark called me out of the blue asking if we could “work something out” with the child support. Naturally, I thought something serious had happened—job loss, medical bills, something legitimate.
Instead, he casually told me he wanted to pause his payments for five months so he could fund a lavish European vacation with his new wife. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. On his next visitation weekend, instead of dropping off Lily, I left a large suitcase at his front door.
When he opened it, his face drained of color. On top sat a note that read:
“Since you’d prefer to ‘pause’ being a father for five months to go on vacation, here are five months’ worth of supplies Lily would need. You wanted to skip supporting her, so I figured you’d rather handle these needs directly instead of sending the money.”