“Getting a speeding ticket is messing up.A hundred grand? Are you out of your mind? Who the fuck did you get a hundred grand from, and what the hell happened to it? You don’t justlosethat much money.” I pointed to his knee. “Obviously, you know who did this.”
“And you think I’m going to tell you?” Joel said with a caustic laugh. “You’ll just call the police. I might not be a genius like you, but I’m not stupid.”
“Well, apparently you’re not the smartest if you’re getting your knee bashed in by some masked assailant because you lost a hundred thousand dollars!”
I was angry. I was terrified. But most of all, I was upset and hurt that he didn’t tell me he was in trouble before now.
I collapsed into the chair beside my books and baseball memorabilia and dropped my head into my hands. “Why didn’t you tell me something was wrong before now?”
He looked away. “Moving in here was already humiliating enough. You’re my sister.I’msupposed to protectyou.”
“I’m youroldersister.”
“By four minutes,” Joel countered the way he aways did.
I clasped my hands together. “What is going on with you? Why’d you need that much money to begin with?”
Joel closed his eyes. “I just . . . I got in a bind. I made some bad moves and needed to get the accounts back to where they were.”
“I don’t speak “finance bro,”” I deadpanned.
He huffed. “I have this big client. He’s like . . .richrich. He wasn’t happy with how conservatively I was managing his portfolio, so I made some risky investments.” He swallowed. “I lost it all. And then some.”
“So you—what? Took out a shady loan and put the money in his account so it looked like nothing ever happened?”
Joel nodded.
I raked my hand through my hair. “Why not just pull it back out and pay back whoever you borrowed it from so that they don’t come back to finish the job? Be honest with your clients and take your lumps.”
Joel swallowed. “I can’t.”
I dropped my head into my hands. “I’m trying my best right now, J. But you have to tell me the whole truth.”
“The investments I made were worse than I thought. The deficit kept growing no matter how much I threw into it.” He sighed. “I got fired.”
I blinked. “Fired?Fired!” I dug my hands into my hair. “You can’t befired.You’ve been going to work every damn day. You told me you were working late yesterday! What the hell have you been doing?”
Joel swallowed. “I’ve . . . been going to Atlantic City to try to win enough money to pay back the loan. Once I clear the debt, I’ll work on getting another job. I can . . . I don’t know. Be a business consultant or something.”
I stammered, completely unable to pick one train of thought to follow. I wanted to rage. I wanted to chew him out. I wanted to strangle him. But that wouldn’t solve the situation at hand.
“What happens if you don’t pay it back?” I asked in a barely restrained yell. The last thing I wanted was for the neighbors to come over.
Joel clammed up, and I had my answer.
My eyes burned as reality set in. It didn’t matter why. It didn’t matter how. All that mattered was getting him out of this mess.
I was realistic enough to know that the world was a dark place, but that didn’t meanmyworld was. Now, everything was bleak grayscale.
“How long?” I asked.
Joel had closed his eyes and reclined as best as he could on the couch. “How long for what?” he grumbled.
I couldn’t believe him. Here I was, trying to figure this out, and he was taking a nap. “How long do you have left to pay it back? I’m guessing this isn’t the first visit you’ve gotten.”
Silence again. So I was right.
“Joel.”
