When she made noise while cleaning, her husband became irate, but she was about to discover a sinister secret.

As she recounted, her voice wavered. Jake spent hours driving to meet Suzy. However, she wasn’t who he believed her to be.

My heart fell. “What do you mean?”

“Suzy isn’t a woman,” she went on. He is a bearded middle-aged man. He has persuaded Jake to transfer money for “plane tickets” and has been catfishing him for months. My son is inconsolable!

The ridiculousness of it struck me like a wave, and I started laughing before I could control myself! Uncontrollably deep and genuine laughter. It was satisfying, like letting go of years’ worth of repressed annoyance.

“So, he wasn’t actually working all along?” Curious, I asked.

“No, darling, he wasn’t earning much money playing video games. He sent some of what little he had to this Suzy person. “Please,” his mother begged. “He feels ashamed. He desires to return home.

I inhaled deeply as my laughing subsided. “No,” I firmly answered. Jake made his own decisions. I’ve been putting myself last for far too long. I’ve stopped doing it.

I told Jake I wanted a divorce and that I was taking everything when he tried to call to ask to return. I said he could keep his laptop. “Perhaps next time you’ll find a better ‘Suzy.’”