Then I read the letter he had never sent. In it, Gary described his plans to leave the marriage and start over. The words hurt more than I expected because they proved the lottery hadn’t caused our marriage to collapse. It had simply revealed what Gary had already decided. He hadn’t suddenly stopped loving me because we won. He had already been preparing to walk away, and the money had only changed how aggressively he acted.

Gary tried to repair the damage once he realized the situation wasn’t going his way. He called crying and promised that everything could return to normal. He told me we had spent thirty-four years together and shouldn’t throw it all away over money. I listened quietly before asking him one question: “If that ticket had been worth two dollars instead of $2.4 million, would you still have filed for divorce?” He said nothing.