My brother put his glass on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
My father read it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says here the collateral is this house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebastian stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t touch anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad raised a hand.<\/p>\n
He never spoke to him like that.<\/p>\n
Sebastian stopped.<\/p>\n
My mother seemed to have aged ten years in thirty seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur, I was going to explain it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the time was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years wasn\u2019t enough time?\u201d<\/p>\n
She took a deep breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was for Sebastian\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n
My brother opened his mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat business?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom put a hand to her chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the sneaker thing went wrong, he ended up owing a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
No one answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost forty thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebastian let out a nervous laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no. That\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI owed like ten.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was what you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now it was he who turned pale.<\/p>\n
Dad dropped the folder on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mortgaged our house to pay off Sebastian\u2019s debts?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course you had a choice!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were going to sue him!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you should have told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would have destroyed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father pointed at my brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an adult!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebastian stepped back.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep me out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been in it since page one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He glared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father slammed the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody tells her to shut up!\u201d<\/p>\n
That was new.<\/p>\n
So new that even I froze.<\/p>\n
My mother started to cry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I could solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Chloe\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence landed worse than the previous one.<\/p>\n
My father looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat money?\u201d<\/p>\n
I opened my purse.<\/p>\n
I pulled out another envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money Mom asked me for every month.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty-six payments, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I needed to maintain the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me it was for utilities, medication, taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad opened the envelope.<\/p>\n
There were printed text messages.<\/p>\n
Not all of them.<\/p>\n
Just some.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoney, I need a thousand before Friday this month.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t tell your dad, he\u2019s very stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he finds out he\u2019ll feel useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour brother shouldn\u2019t know either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad read in silence.<\/p>\n
Sebastian stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were giving a thousand a month?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes more.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
Not to guilt.<\/p>\n
To disbelief.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you made that much with your little posts?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, he stopped smiling.<\/p>\n
Dad flipped to another page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a payment here for eighteen hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat month Mom said there was a penalty fee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was,\u201d she replied quickly.<\/p>\n
My father picked up the mortgage statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. Because you were two payments behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother lowered her head.<\/p>\n
Then I understood something.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou deposited the money on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why were there late payments?\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
Sebastian did.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause she was probably paying for other things too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The silence returned.<\/p>\n
We all looked at him.<\/p>\n
My brother threw his hands up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother started crying harder.<\/p>\n
Dad spoke very slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat other things, Rebecca?\u201d<\/p>\n
She sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich car?\u201d<\/p>\n
No one needed to ask.<\/p>\n
We all looked out the window.<\/p>\n
Sebastian\u2019s new vehicle was parked outside.<\/p>\n
The one supposedly my father had given him.<\/p>\n
Dad opened his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI paid the down payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me your sister lent us the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you pay the monthly installments with?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother didn\u2019t speak.<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
I had paid those too.<\/p>\n
Without knowing it.<\/p>\n
Sebastian reacted first.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, that has nothing to do with me. Mom managed the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t help it.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s so funny?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat ten minutes ago you were mocking me because I didn\u2019t know how much it cost to live in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour car, Sebastian.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pointed outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of your car came from my fake job.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned red.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t ask you for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly. You never had to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom did it for you.<\/p>\n
Dad grabbed a chair and sat down slowly.<\/p>\n
He looked defeated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much do we owe?\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother took a while to answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifty-seven thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were refinancings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRefinancings?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd fees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat fees?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNotaries. Interest. Commissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father looked back at the first page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a second loan listed here.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there another one?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cArthur\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIS THERE ANOTHER ONE?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sebastian started pacing back and forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can\u2019t be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father pointed at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My brother put his glass on the table. \u201cWhat?\u201d My mother closed her eyes. My father read it again. \u201cIt says here the collateral is this house.\u201d Sebastian stepped closer. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-story"],"yoast_head":"\n