When we left Houston, I also stopped working in full-time corporate hospitality. He now co-owned a business with the shady friend from back when we first met. It was the same industry, but he would now travel the majority of the time for the events instead of being based at one location. When we moved back, the house in my name (we had been renting it out while living out of state) had been destroyed by the tenant and her family. He found the tenant and claims to have done a background check. Birds of a feather, I suppose? It took us a year to put it back together. We moved back in during my third trimester for my first child.
For the next few years, he was out of town more than he was home, and I was essentially a single parent. During this time, he would check in on the road and I would know where they were working at all times. When he would come home, he would confide in me anytime the business partner was talking to another woman behind his current wife's (there have been several) back, painting a picture of the business partner as untrustworthy and obviously I could trust him since he was telling me all of these things, right? Moreover, when the older kids would come to visit he always shared his location with them. If I ever questioned that, he would chalk it up to a lack of compatibility for Android to Apple products. He always mocked my preference for Apple products and was a die-hard Android person. He seemed to change vehicles every few months; sometimes he would come home in a different truck than he left in that morning and when I would question it, he would respond in such a way to make me feel ridiculous for even asking. He would act as though it was no big deal & a completely normal thing, to the point it made sense....? I guess I was the weird one for looking at a car purchase as a big deal? Surely it couldn't be anything bad, right? We have a child together, he loves me, he loves us....right?
In the summer of 2019, I found out I was pregnant again. I was immensely nervous as I had had three miscarriages following the birth of my son, but thankfully this one "stuck". I was due at the end of March 2020. I could not wait to welcome our baby girl. I had no idea how I would handle two basically solo most of the time, but I had prayed for this for so long that I trusted it would work out.
Just in case anyone forgot, the world essentially shut down March 14, 2020, and my spicy gal arrived a week later. Due to COVID restrictions & precautions, he was the only one allowed to be with me in the delivery room and we were discharged to go home after 24 hours. Within the 24 hours we were in the hospital, his business essentially lost every event they had scheduled from April through July as no one knew what was ahead.
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