My ex-husband’s selfishness ruined our family, but I thought we had left the worst behind after the divorce. Then, one night, I woke up to my daughter’s scream, and what I discovered had me sending her away and installing security cameras only for my ex to show his worst side.

A few weeks ago, my divorce from Liam was finalized, and as I prepared to go to sleep one night, I remembered all he put me through. Honestly, the entire process had felt like trying to pull a thorn out of my side.Liam gave me only years of irritation and pain. I’m not saying marriage should be easy, but life with him wasn’t just hard; it was unbearable.He had this incredible ability to make everything about himself. We were always second place to his gadgets, schemes, and so-called “investments.”

Let me give you an example. About two years ago, when our daughter, Danielle, was 10, she begged me for ballet lessons. I was ready to make it work by cutting some costs here and there to make her happy. Any parent with a child in ballet can tell you that lessons and clothes are expensive.But just as I had arranged everything and was about to call the academy, Liam came home grinning like he’d won the lottery. He said he’d used all of our savings to invest in a cryptocurrency his buddy said would soon blow up.He swore we were going to be rich. That didn’t happen. The entire thing was a scam in the end, and I had to tell my daughter was ballet wasn’t possible for us at the moment. As you can imagine, my husband just shrugged it off, saying, “These things happen all the time. The next venture will be our golden ticket!”But I was tired of going broke with insane “investments” or having someone buy gadgets to their heart’s desire without thinking about what was best for the family.

Months after the scam fiasco, I found Liam watching videos about trading and finally sat down with him for a serious talk.

“Liam, you can’t keep doing this,” I urged. “You have to think about our family’s future. We might have an emergency. We have to build our finances properly. Not only that, but we also have to think about Danielle’s college.”