Match From Hell

Laura and Diego attended the same high school. They started dating when they were 15 years old and were together for about 10 years with short breaks in between. Laura tried dating others but always returned to Diego. They were drawn to each other like two magnets, although they had nothing in common other than the fact that both of their families emigrated from Peru to Canada.

Laura and Diego would fight a lot and disagreed with each other most of the time. Even when you looked at them years before they got married they looked like an old married couple who did not get along. So one day when they announced they were getting hitched, everyone raised their eyebrows. Laura’s family and friends tried to talk her out of it. They told her that the two of them were incompatible, but she dismissed their objections.

Laura and Diego never showed affection towards each other in public which was strange. In fact, it looked like they did not even respect each other. I know it sounds awful but this is how it looked. Anyway, they got married and it was a very happy event. A few months later, the couple had a big argument and Laura expressed her desire to end their marriage.

Diego was the kind of person who never held a job for too long. He also never had a fixed monthly salary. Over the years he opened all kinds of small businesses like a pizza place, a courier company, and for a while he sold children’s clothes. But all those businesses were closed shortly after they were opened, due to poor management. Diego did not know how to run a business and didn’t even have basic management knowledge. As a result of financial difficulties, he was sometimes unable to pay his employees their salaries. Yet it did not stop him from opening the next business.

Every time he would come up with an idea for a new business, it did not work out. This increased the tension between him and his wife, because he would lose a lot of money and couldn’t contribute towards paying the household expenses. Laura was never enthusiastic about Diego’s ideas. She would plead with him to find a normal job with a fixed salary so that they could make some progress with their lives. But he was too arrogant to admit his failures and thought he knew better than her…….

Nevertheless, Laura and Diego reconciled after having the big argument. Their first baby girl was born a year later. For a while everything was OK with them, or at least it looked normal. And then you would hear complaints not only from her, but also from him.

Laura was very close to her family. She has two sisters and they used to hang out together a lot. They visited each other on a daily basis and when Diego came home, her sisters were frequently  there. Diego felt he didn’t have any privacy and that he was a guest in his own house. When he expressed his discomfort, Laura ignored his protests.

However, a few years after the first child was born, the second child was born, and Diego still didn’t have steady employment. On the other hand, Laura had a steady job for many years. Every time Diego’s businesses went into debt, she had to give him money to bail him out. And every time he would tell her “this is the last time this will happen, I’m going to get a real job.”

Laura and Diego bought a house after her parents contributed the down payment. Laura ended up paying the mortgage because of Diego’s financial problems. When they didn’t have the money to pay the mortgage payment, Laura’s parents would step in to help them out.

Laura and Diego would constantly fight over money problems as well as the fact that her family was always over at the house. At some point, Laura got fed up and told Diego she couldn’t keep going this way anymore. Even though they had two young daughters, she told him she wanted a divorce. She asked him to leave the house immediately as she was the one who was paying the mortgage plus most of the other expenses as well.

In the beginning, he tried to convince her they should go together to see a marriage councillor to work out their problems, for the sake of their daughters. But Laura didn’t even want to hear about it. Her parents supported her decision and told her they would help her get through it.

When he saw she was stubborn and refused to budge, he changed tactics. He told her if she want him to move, she has to sell the house and divide the money equally. He didn’t care that they had two small children who needed a roof over their heads. He threatened to make things difficult for her and would not agree to a divorce so quickly. He said he would fight her every step of the way. In addition, he would tell his lawyer he did not want to agree to a settlement and would drag out the process as long as he could.

Laura was naive. She thought since she paid the mortgage and her parents paid the down payment, she could easily throw him out of the house. But when she hired a lawyer, she quickly learned that Diego had the same legal rights as she did. Nevertheless, after a several year of legal battles and making their lawyers wealthy, Diego regained his composure.

He finally agreed that Laura and their kids would stay in the house while she  continued to pay the mortgage, which she did anyway….. He left the house and moved in with his parents. Diego’s financial situation was much worse than before because of the large fees he had to pay his lawyer……. In the end his desire for revenge did not lead to anything except anger and resentment……..