Darren and I were living in a state of constant, suffocating anxiety. Financial survival had become our full time job, a grueling routine of balancing past due rent notices, essential household expenses, and the crushing blow of unpredictable repairs that seemed to happen the moment we managed to scrape together a few extra dollars. We were hovering right on the edge, the kind of precarious existence where one flat tire or one missed paycheck could send us spiraling into homelessness. The pressure had stripped away our patience and turned our home into a minefield of unspoken tension and short tempers.…