Chapter 5 - The Mother’s Plea
By Friday evening, the ripple effect of Bennett’s exposure had torn through my biological family like a tornado.
I was sitting in my living room, sipping a glass of white wine while watching the sunset over the trees, when the doorbell rang. It didn't just ring; it rattled under the force of someone repeatedly hitting the button.
I walked to the door, checked the security camera display, and saw my mother, Helen. She looked completely disheveled, her expensive coat wrinkled, her hair wild from the evening wind.
I opened the door, but I didn't step aside to let her in. I stood firmly in the threshold.
"Helena!" she cried, reaching out to grab my arms, but I stepped back, leaving her hands hanging in the empty air. "Thank God you’re home. You have to call off your lawyer. It’s a catastrophe! Bennett has been suspended from his firm! The bank has locked Naomi’s apartment door because the rent check bounced, and she’s sitting on my living room floor with a crying newborn!"
"Good evening, Mom," I said, my face completely expressionless.
"How can you be so cold?" she wept, her face twisting into an expression of desperate manipulation. "He is your husband, Helena! Yes, he made a mistake. Yes, Naomi made a mistake. But they fell in love! You can’t force love, Helena! Your marriage was already dead because you couldn't give him what he needed. Why are you trying to ruin an innocent baby's life over your own jealousy?"
I looked at the woman who had raised me. I looked at her and realized she had never actually seen me as a daughter. I was just the reliable one. The strong one. The one who could be used to carry the weight of everyone else's failures.
"I stood outside the room, Mom," I said, my voice quiet, yet it cut through her histrionics instantly. She froze, her mouth slightly open. "On Sunday at 2:00 p.m., I stood by the cracked door of Naomi’s hospital room. I heard you call me 'useful.' I heard you say I was 'the cold one' whose body couldn't give anyone children. I heard you encourage Bennett to keep draining my bank account until his promotion went through so they could dump me."
My mother’s face drained of color, turning a pasty, translucent gray. She took a step back on the porch, her hands trembling.
"Helena... I... we were just trying to comfort Naomi," she stammered, her voice losing its aggressive edge. "She was so scared of being a single mother... we didn't mean those things..."
"You meant every single word," I said. "And because you think I’m so useful, I’ve decided to be useful to myself for once. The house we are standing in is currently being listed for sale tomorrow morning. Since the down payment came from my inheritance from Dad’s side, and Bennett’s name was never added to the primary title deed, you have exactly forty-eight hours to help him remove his personal belongings from the garage."
"Helena, please... where are they supposed to go?"
May you like
"Naomi has an apartment in Bloomington, doesn't she?" I smiled coldly. "Oh, wait. I cancelled the card that paid for it. I guess she can move back into your guest room, Mom. After all, family should support family. Isn't that what you always say?"
I closed the heavy oak door in her face and turned the deadbolt. The click of the lock sounded like a victory march.
