Chapter 3 - THE LOAN THEY NEVER MENTIONED
“What lender?” Sophie asked.
“I don’t know.”
She pushed the folder aside.
“Then we find out.”
I called Dad from her office.
He answered immediately.
“Naomi.
Thank God.
Your mother’s upset.”
“What loan are you getting?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
“It’s just paperwork.”
“For what?”
“A refinance.
To make things easier.”
“How much easier?”
He exhaled into the phone.
“You know Derek’s been having trouble.”
I closed my eyes.
“Are you borrowing against the house to pay his debts?”
“He needs help.”
“So did you.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
He had no answer.
Sophie wrote three words on her pad.
GET THE RECORDS.
“Send me what you signed,” I told him.
“Your mother has it.”
“Then ask her.”
“Don’t make this harder.”
I ended the call before I said something I could not take back.
Sophie gave me a list.
Payments.
Receipts.
Texts approving repairs.
Any promises about repayment.
I spent the afternoon downloading statements.
There were ordinary expenses I knew I would never get back.
Groceries.
Electricity.
Things I had paid willingly because we shared a home.
Then there were the larger amounts.
The furnace.
The taxes.
Roof repairs.
The plumbing job Dad had called an emergency.
The total covered by the agreement was $28,460.
I stared at the number.
That was not kindness floating vaguely through a family.
That was a down payment I no longer had.
A year of saying no to weekends away.
A dental appointment I had postponed.
At five, I went home.
Mom stood in my bedroom holding a roll of packing tape.
“You finally decided to come back.”
Three boxes sat on the floor.
One held my college diploma beneath a stack of bathroom towels.
“Please stop touching my things.”
“I’m helping.”
“You’re packing them without asking.”
“You wanted to leave in a hurry.”
“You told me to leave.”
She smiled tightly.
“Don’t twist my words.”
I collected my passport, birth certificate, work laptop, and the small jewelry box my grandmother had left me.
Mom blocked the doorway.
“What did Sophie tell you?”
I looked at her.
“I didn’t mention Sophie.”
Her smile vanished.
May you like
Then Dad appeared behind her, carrying his phone.
And I realized he had already told her everything.
