People who get married for other reasons than love, why and what's your story? What are the benefits?

I think our relationship just evolved differently. We first met at the lake my family visited during the Summers while I grew up. I got along with my now-wife really well from the first time we met, but I never had any interests beyond friendship until we were in our teen years. As time went on, her family eventually moved to a suburb in Chicago near Lake Michigan where I lived. I began spending more time with her and this is where the issues began to come up. She was and always had been extremely attractive and I thought more with one head than the other. Our families friendship grew as well and it was almost a given that we would marry and have children one day. While the good times were good, the bad times were worse. She was stubborn, to the point where when she felt that she was right or justified there was no reasoning with her. She was cheap as well, and expected money from me before we even lived together. Simple expenses like toll bridges and parking became daily battles. She threatened our relationship over a measly $3.50 constantly. I felt stuck in a life that I was scared to walk away from and I found myself drinking more and thinking less. We eventually got married but I think it was more out of necessity than anything else. It took an epiphany while driving to work one morning when I realized that I had created a life that everyone but me wanted me to have. I turned around, drove home and told her everything. Her entire expression changed, and she became violent and angry. She charged me and pushed me back over the arm rest of the loveseat. While I processed what was happening, she stared at me expressionless and demanded that I give her "about tree fiddy". I suddenly realized that my wife was 8 stories tall and a crustacean from the paleozoic era. That goddamn loch ness monster had tricked me again.

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