Chapter 13 - NINE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED FORTY-TWO

I slept four hours.

At 6:11 a.m., I opened my banking app.

At 6:12, I moved ten thousand dollars from savings into checking.

At 6:14, I stared at the transfer button for the mortgage servicer.

My thumb hovered there.

I could hear my mother's voice.

Your father will not survive it.

I could also see her note on the spreadsheet.

E - strong credit use only if needed.

I closed the app.

Then opened it again.

This is the part I wish I could make noble.

I wish I could say I stood up, chose myself, and never looked back.

I did not.

I entered the payment information.

All of it.

$9,842.17.

I was one tap from sending the money when my phone rang.

Britney.

I answered.

"What?"

"Mom says you're paying the mortgage."

"I haven't decided."

"Don't."

I sat up.

"What?"

"Don't pay it."

For a moment I thought I had misheard her.

"Why?"

"Because it won't fix it."

My stomach tightened.

"What does that mean?"

She breathed out hard.

"There are other bills."

"How many?"

"I don't know."

"Britney."

"I don't know, okay? Mom moves stuff around. She pays one thing with another thing. Dad doesn't look unless she tells him to sign something."

"You looked."

"Yeah. Because she had me doing it."

"You also forged my name."

"I know."

The words came flat.

No defense.

That unsettled me more than another argument would have.

"Why are you telling me not to pay?"

She was quiet.

Then: "Because she'll take it and be back in the same place in two months."

I closed my banking app.

Britney continued, "There's a card Dad doesn't know about."

"Whose name?"

"Mom's."

I let out a breath.

At least not mine.

"Balance?"

"Like thirty-one."

"Thirty-one hundred?"

Silence.

"Thirty-one thousand?"

"Yeah."

I stood and walked to the window.

"What did she buy?"

"Nothing, mostly. Cash advances. Transfers. Business stuff. Paying other cards."

A debt snake eating its own tail.

"Does Dad know now?"

"Not all of it."

"Tell him."

"You tell him."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm done delivering bad news that belongs to other people."

Britney went quiet.

I heard a car pass on her end.

"That's fair," she said finally.

It sounded so unlike her I did not know what to do with it.

"Where are you?"

"Motel."

"Why?"

"Mom told me to get out after she found out I gave you the drive."

I leaned my forehead against the glass.

"Do you have money?"

The question escaped before I could stop it.

Britney laughed softly.

"There she is."

I closed my eyes.

"Don't."

"Sorry."

Another pause.

"I have enough for tonight."

I did not offer more.

It felt cruel.

It also felt necessary.

After we hung up, I called Dad.

"Before you ask me for the mortgage money again," I said, "ask Mom about the thirty-one-thousand-dollar card."

He did not speak for almost ten seconds.

Then he said, "What card?"

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And somewhere in my parents' house, I heard my mother scream Britney's name.