“And I’m supposed to?”
“You have a career.”
“So that makes their mortgage mine?”
His face tightened.
“You know what I mean.”
Actually, I finally did.
He meant that responsibility had become my punishment.
I worked, therefore I paid.
I saved, therefore I sacrificed.
I stayed steady, therefore everybody else was allowed to fall apart.
Dad pointed at the papers on the table.
“That will has nothing to do with this.”
I almost admired the confidence required to say it.
I opened the folder to the section that left the house to Lucas.
Then I placed one of my transfer records beside it.
“The house has needed my money repeatedly for years.
The mortgage shortfalls, the taxes, the repairs, the utilities when you were behind.
But when you decided who should benefit from that house later, you chose Lucas.”
Mom reached for my arm.
I moved it away.
“We explained this,” she said.
“You don’t need as much.”
“That is not an explanation.
That is a calculation.”
She looked wounded.
I continued anyway.
“You decided Lucas’s need mattered more than my contribution.
Fine.
You are allowed to leave your property to anyone you want.
I am also allowed to stop financing property you have decided belongs entirely in his future.”
Dad’s face reddened.
“So this is revenge.”
“No.
Revenge would be me trying to hurt you.
I’m just not rescuing you anymore.”
Lucas scoffed.
“You’re really going to let them lose the house over a piece of paper?”
That was when I pulled out the last page I had brought.
I did not have the studio loan document itself.
I did not need it.
I had written one number at the top of my notes after David’s phone call.
Thirty-five thousand dollars.
I turned the page toward my parents.
Mom went pale.
Dad stopped talking.
Lucas looked at them before he looked at me.
That reaction told me everything I needed to know.
“David told me,” I said.
Mom closed her eyes.
Dad muttered something under his breath.
Lucas snapped, “He had no right.”
I looked at him.
“No right to tell me about the debt I was apparently expected to help absorb?”
“It’s not your debt.”
“Exactly.”
He opened his mouth and then stopped.
