Chapter 4: The Morning They Woke Up to Nothing
Daniel and Melissa woke up to the first consequences the next morning.
When they tried to pay for breakfast using the credit card I had been covering, the transaction was declined. When they tried to log into the bank account I had been using to pay their mortgage, they discovered they no longer had access.
By 9:00 a.m., Melissa was calling me.
I didn’t answer.
By 10:30, Daniel had left three voicemails.
I listened to the first one.
“Mom, what the hell is going on? The bank said our account is frozen. Did you do something?”
I deleted it.
The second voicemail was angrier.
“This isn’t funny. You can’t just cut us off. We have kids. We have bills.”
I deleted that one too.
The third voicemail was the one that made me pause.
“Mom… please. We don’t have anywhere else to go. Can we at least talk?”
I didn’t call back.
Instead, I opened my laptop and checked the security cameras at the old house.
Daniel and Melissa were standing in the kitchen, arguing. Melissa was waving her phone around. Daniel kept running his hands through his hair. Their voices were raised, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
I watched them for a few minutes, then closed the feed.
I had given them six years of support.
I had given them a roof over their heads.
I had given them my silence when they disrespected me.
May you like
Now they could figure out how to survive on their own.
Just like they had told me to do.
