Chapter 6 - The Uninvited Guests
Two weeks later, the war arrived at my front door.
It was a Saturday morning. I was sitting at my small kitchen table, working on VeraNode’s second-quarter security architecture, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants.
Downstairs, the heavy door of the laundromat creaked open, followed by the loud, heavy thump of boots coming up my private wooden staircase.
There was a frantic, aggressive knock at my apartment door. THUD-THUD-THUD.
"Liora! Open this door!"
It was my mother’s voice.
I froze. My apartment address was not listed publicly. My lease was registered under my company’s LLC name to protect my privacy.
I walked over to the door and looked through the tiny peephole.
Standing in the narrow, dimly lit hallway was my mother, my father, and Corbin.
My mother was wearing a faded floral blouse, her hair frizzy and unkempt. My father looked ten years older, his stomach sagging over his belt, his posture slouched and defeated.
And Corbin... Corbin looked like a ghost of the arrogant prince who had stood in our kitchen a year ago. He wore wrinkled jeans, a cheap polo shirt, and dark circles under his eyes.
Beside them stood Maya—my high school friend.
I felt a cold wave of realization hit me. Maya’s mother was close friends with my mother. Maya had visited my studio apartment two months ago after I ran into her on campus. She had given them my address.
"Liora! We know you’re in there! Maya showed us where you live!" my mother yelled, beating her palm against the thin wood.
I unlocked the door and pulled it open six inches, keeping the heavy steel security chain attached.
"How did you get up here?" I asked coldly.
"Is that how you greet your mother?!" my mother gasped, trying to push the door wider, but the chain held firm. "We drove three hours in your father’s old truck! We don't have gas money to get back!"
My father stepped into the frame, glaring at me through the crack in the door. "Unchain this door, Liora. Right now."
"No," I said. "State your business from the hallway."
Corbin stepped forward, looking down at the wooden floorboards. "Li... please. Just let us in. It’s hot out here."
"You have thirty seconds to tell me why you’re standing on my landing," I said, looking directly at my brother.
My mother began to weep loudly, burying her face in her hands. "The bank took the house, Liora! They served us with the eviction notice on Thursday! We have to be out by the end of the month! Everything... everything is gone!"
"Where are you staying?" I asked flatly.
"In a cheap motel near the highway," my father said, swallowing his pride with obvious difficulty. "Corbin’s bank accounts are frozen because of the lawsuits. The county marshal came to the shop yesterday and seized my equipment to pay off the business credit line."
"I told you no on the phone," I said. "Coming to my home doesn't change that."
"We aren't asking for a handout!" my mother snapped, wiping her nose with a napkin. "We’re asking to stay here! Just for a few weeks until Corbin gets his new consulting job setup! You have an apartment! You have a roof! We are your family!"
I looked past her at my tiny six-hundred-square-foot studio. It had one queen bed, a small sofa, and my workstations.
"There is one bed in this apartment," I said. "And I pay for it."
"We can sleep on the floor!" my mother pleaded. "We’ll put blankets down! Liora, you can't leave your father and mother sleeping in a motel like homeless people while you sit in your nice city apartment!"
"You left me sleeping in a truck stop with six hundred dollars in my account," I reminded her.
"That was different!" she shrieked. "You were young! You had no responsibilities! We are your parents!"
"That made it worse," I said softly.
Corbin looked up at me, his eyes wide with desperate panic. "Li, please... they’re going to indict me. The attorney general’s office sent a letter. Lone Star Freight claims I committed willful fraud. If I don't pay fifty thousand dollars for a corporate defense attorney by next week, I’m going to prison. You have to help me. You’re my sister!"
"You didn't care that I was your sister when you took forty-three thousand dollars from my future to buy a gold watch and an Audi lease," I said, my voice cutting through the hall like a razor.
"I was going to pay you back!" Corbin yelled, his composure breaking. "I was going to give you double! You think I wanted this to fail?!"
"I think you didn't care if it failed," I said, "because it wasn't your money you were burning. It was mine. It was Grandma’s. It was Mom and Dad’s house. You’re a parasite, Corbin. And the host just died."
My father’s face turned bright red. He lunged toward the crack in the door, grabbing the wooden frame with his thick hands. "You talk to your brother like that again and I swear to God I’ll break this door down!"
"Touch this door," I said, my voice dropping an octave, "and the security alarm under my desk will dispatch the Austin Police Department in four minutes. I have two security cameras pointing at this landing. You are currently trespassing on private commercial property."
My father froze. He looked at the tiny black camera lens mounted in the upper corner of the doorframe.
He pulled his hands back like the wood was on fire.
"You’re a monster," my mother whispered, looking at me with pure hatred. "We gave you life, Liora. And you’re leaving us to starve."
"No," I said, looking at her one last time. "You gave Corbin everything. Go ask him for dinner."
I closed the door, slid the deadbolt shut, and turned the heavy iron key.
May you like
Outside, my mother began to scream obscenities, beating her fists against the wood until the landlord downstairs came running up the steps shouting that he was calling the cops.
I walked back to my desk, sat down, and put on my noise-canceling headphones.
