Chapter 13 - The Cost of Staying
“I haven’t decided.”
I hated how quickly fear crossed her face.
“Because of us?”
“No.”
“Because we need too much?”
I stood.
“Come here.”
She didn’t move.
“I can help Cora after school,” she said. “I can wash dishes. I won’t ask for anything.”
There it was again.
My daughter trying to make herself affordable.
I knelt so we were at eye level.
“Your job is school. Friends. Getting annoyed when I tell you to put your shoes away.”
She tried to smile.
“My job is everything else.”
“But the money—”
“That is an adult problem.”
I said it slowly.
I needed her to believe it.
I needed to begin believing it myself.
The next morning, I called my old supervisor.
I thanked him.
Then I turned down the contract.
He was quiet for a moment.
“Are you sure?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m sure I need to be here.”
I didn’t turn into a hero after that call.
I panicked.
I opened my bank app. I added figures on hotel stationery. I called people I hadn’t spoken to in years.
By noon, I had three leads.
By the end of the week, I had a maintenance job with a local property company.
The salary was smaller.
Much smaller.
The first time I saw it in writing, my stomach dropped.
Then the manager told me the regular hours.
I would be home for dinner.
I signed.
We moved out of the hotel and into Elena’s spare room while the house and its missing contents were sorted out.
Caleb complained that my snoring was too loud.
It was the first ordinary complaint he had made since I came home.
I nearly laughed until I cried.
That afternoon, Mara called with another development.
Marco had supplied records after realizing the evidence against him wasn’t going away.
He had arranged the false email account.
Vanessa had supplied copies of my identification and old documents carrying my signature.
Each had begun blaming the other.
Neither story erased the messages.
“Will the children have to hear all of it?” I asked.
“Not from you,” Mara said. “Let the adults handle the adult details.”
An hour later, Vanessa called.
I almost didn’t answer.
“Joel,” she said.
Her voice was different.
No anger. No performance.
“I need to tell you where the deposit went.”
I sat down.
“How much is left?”
May you like
She started crying.
“Almost nothing.”
