What would you do if a stranger sent you a plane ticket?
Would you go?
I delete it before I can post. Some confessions are too dangerous to make public.
Instead, I grab my phone and call the hospital. My mother's nurse answers on the third ring.
"Hi, this is Jade Catalano. Is my mother available?"
"She's awake. I'll bring her the phone."
There's rustling, muffled voices, then my mother's voice, weak but familiar.
"Jade?"
"Hi, Mom. How are you feeling?"
"Like I've been hit by a truck. But better than yesterday." She pauses. "The nurse said something strange this morning. Said the billing department called to tell her my account is settled. Paid in full."
My stomach drops. "That's good news, right?"
"Jade." Her voice hardens. "What did you do?"
"I took care of it."
"With what money? You don't have that kind of money."
"I got a loan."
"From who? What bank would give you $180,000?"
"A private lender. It's fine. The interest rate is good."
I'm lying to my mother while she's in a hospital bed. The guilt tastes like metal.
"Jade Catalano, you listen to me. I don't care what you had to promise or who you had to ask. You get that money back. You hear me? Don't you dare put yourself in debt for me."
"Too late. It's done."
"Then undo it."
"I can't. And I won't." I take a breath.
"Jade, I'm tired. I need to rest. We'll talk about this loan later. And you're going to tell me the truth about where that money came from."
"I'll visit tomorrow. Get some rest."
I hang up before she can argue. My mother is hiding something. I've always known it, the way you know things about the people who raised you. The way she won't talk about my father, won't talk about her past, won't talk about anything that happened before I was born.
I look at the ticket again. If I go, I'm making a choice. Accepting that the money came with strings after all, even if those strings are just expectations and curiosity and whatever this person wants from me.
If I don't go, I'm choosing safety. Choosing to live with questions that will haunt me forever.
I pick up my phone and text Chloe.
Can you come over? Now?
She responds immediately.On my way.
