“Some of it was supposed to be temporary.”
“Did you ever tell me?”
“No.”
“Did you ever ask me?”
“No.”
“Then don’t ask me to call it help.”
He nodded once.
“I’ll pay it back.”
“Yes,” I said.
“You will.”
His head lifted.
I had already printed copies of the statements.
I placed them in front of him with a yellow legal pad.
“Every charge you recognize goes on this list.
You and Sloan can separate yours however you like.
But I want a repayment plan in writing.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“You’re treating me like a criminal.”
“I’m treating you like an adult who owes me money.”
He sat there for nearly an hour.
By lunchtime, the legal pad was covered with amounts.
That evening Sloan exploded.
I heard her through the ceiling.
“She’s making you PAY HER BACK?”
Then footsteps.
My bedroom door shook under three hard knocks.
“Lorraine!”
I opened it but stayed in the doorway.
“Yes?”
“You let us live here because we’re family.
You can’t suddenly rewrite everything.”
“I’m not rewriting anything.
I’m ending an arrangement that stopped working.”
“Because of one birthday?”
“Because you confused kindness with surrender.”
Sloan laughed bitterly.
“You think you’re powerful because your name is on a deed?”
I held her gaze.
“In this particular disagreement, yes.”
She walked away before I could close the door.
The following weeks were unpleasant.
Sloan stopped speaking to me unless she needed something.
Harrison alternated between apologizing and trying to negotiate more time.
Meredith called twice and told me I was breaking the family apart.
The second time, I asked her a simple question.
“Would you give Sloan access to eighteen thousand dollars of your money?”
Meredith went quiet.
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
She had no answer.
“Would you let her move into your house for a year without rent?”
Another silence.
“Mom, I live three states away.”
“Distance isn’t what I asked.”
That call ended quickly.
Brenda, meanwhile, came over with a fresh lemon cake.
