“I was a kid, too, Mom. Sometime around my fifth birthday, I think you and Dad forgot that.”
“Don’t you dare speak ill of your father.”
“Why?”
She flinches, staring at me like I slapped her.
The silence lasts too long, and I finally say, “I have repaid you for every cent Icostyou as a child. All of the medical bills, all of the club fees and custom uniforms. I paid off this house, and you took that money and spent it on yourself and my siblings, who have never worked a day in their lives, without a single thought for me. Don’t you dare try to tell me I owe you anything else.”
Her brow pinches, her lips tremble, and before she starts crying, I say. “Use whatever’s left of your refi money to carry you over until you find a job and then?—”
“No one wants to hire an old woman!” She sets her coffee cup down on the table too hard, and the porcelain chips.
“Well, you’re going to have to find the person who does. Or, you’re going to have to figure out how to get Jeremy to get off hisass and start pulling his weight. The only other option is to sell the house.”
“Never.” The word is dark, as if it somehow transformed into a threat.
“If you don’t find a job and don’t sell the house, the bank will eventually take it from you. And then, you will havenothing.”
She stares at me in silence.
“Did you ask me to come home so that we could figure this out? Or did you expect me to agree to keep paying your debts until one or both of us die?”
Pressing her lips together, she doesn’t answer, and that’s answer enough.
“I think coming back was a bad idea. Call me if there’s an actual emergency… otherwise, I think you need to sort some things out before we can talk again.”
I stand to leave, expecting her to say something, and when I’m halfway to the door, she does.
“You could buy the house and let us live in it.”
“I already did.” I look back at her. “You took that for granted.”
Again, she’s silent.
“Goodbye, Mom.”
The sun is even brighter when I step outside, and I hate it. I want to go back to MiNo and forget about the ugly coil turning in my gut right now, but when I’m five steps down the sidewalk, the front door opens.
“Hey!” Jeremy yells after me.
I almost keep walking, but the gate closes behind him with a sharp rattle, and I have a feeling that he’d follow me all the way across the city if I don’t stop.
Taking a deep breath, I turn and prepare myself for yet more nonsense.
“I didn’t expect you to crawl out of your cave.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Jen? You come home, you make Mom cry and then you leave? You don’t deserve to set foot in our house again.”
I’ve never liked my brother or wanted him to like me. If he thinks he has a better chance of getting me to do what Mom wants, he’ssadlymistaken.
“As the only person who’s paid the mortgage on that house in a decade, I am probably the only one who deserves to set foot in it.” I look him up and down and already know the answer to the question before I ask it. “Doyouhave a job?”
“What do you care?” That’s a “No.”
“Get a job. Pay some bills instead of trying to hand them off to someone else and grow up. Mom will baby you as long as you let her, but someday, she’s going to be gone and no one else is going to put up with this.”
“You don’t leave family to fend for themselves if you love them.”
