“A fuss?”
I stared at the plate.
“Mom, why are you eating alone?”
Heavy footsteps came down the wooden staircase.
My younger brother Lucas appeared a moment later.
His surprise at seeing me lasted only a second before irritation replaced it.
“Don’t start creating drama the minute you walk through the door,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Drama?”
“Mom doesn’t like steak or seafood. She prefers simple food. And she told us she likes being down here because it’s quieter.”
I didn’t answer him.
Instead, I looked directly at my mother.
Her hands were clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles had gone pale.
“Is that true, Mom?”
She said nothing.
“Did you choose to eat down here?”
Her gaze dropped to the concrete floor.
That silence told me more than any answer could have.
Then Janelle’s voice floated down from above.
“You’ve been gone for ten years, Brandon.”
She stood at the top of the staircase, one hand wrapped around her wineglass.
“We’re the ones who actually live here with her. We’re the ones managing the house every day. You don’t get to come home after wiring money from another state and act like the perfect son.”
Something tightened painfully inside my chest.
“I built this house for my mother.”
Janelle gave a humorless laugh.
“And if Lucas and I weren’t here, who exactly would look after her?”
I slowly turned toward the dining room.
Her family was still gathered around a table overflowing with food.
Then I looked back at my mother.
Cold beans.
Stale biscuits.
A chipped plate.
For three years, I had been transferring Lucas $1,800 every month specifically for Mom’s living expenses.
That didn’t include the extra money I sent whenever he told me she needed medication, repairs, new appliances, or help with household bills.
My phone suddenly felt heavy in my pocket.
I pulled it out.
Lucas frowned.
“What are you doing?”
I dialed my old friend Mason, a property lawyer.
“Mason,” I said when he answered, “I need you to pull the deed for the Red Creek house.”
Lucas’s expression changed.
“If the property is still entirely in my name,” I continued, looking straight at him, “I want to discuss listing it for sale.”
Lucas stepped toward me.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“No.”
“You’re going to tear the family apart over a dinner?”
I lowered the phone.
“This family started falling apart the moment Mom stopped having a seat at her own dining table.”
Behind me, I heard a soft sob.
My mother wiped her eyes with the edge of her apron.
“Brandon, please. Don’t sell the house.”
Her words surprised me.
“Mom—”
“Where would Lucas and Janelle go?”
That question hurt more deeply than anything Lucas or Janelle had said.
I looked at her.
“Mom, you’re worried about where they’ll live?”
She nodded weakly.
I swallowed.
“You’re the only person in this house who seems to have nowhere to live.”
Then another thought struck me.
I had designed a beautiful bedroom for her on the ground floor because I wanted her to avoid climbing stairs as she grew older.
I walked toward it.
Lucas hurried after me.
“Brandon, wait.”
I opened the door.
And stopped.
The room was almost unrecognizable.
Boxes of expensive liquor were stacked against one wall. Designer clothes hung from portable racks. Shopping bags filled the corners. Shoe boxes were arranged beneath the windows.
The room looked like storage for a luxury boutique.
“We just use it for extra things,” Lucas said behind me.
I turned around slowly.
“Where does Mom sleep?”
He looked away.
“Lucas.”
Nothing.
I walked toward the rear of the house.
Beside the laundry area was a narrow storage room I vaguely remembered using for tools when the house was built.
The door was half open.
Inside was a small twin mattress pressed against the wall.
There was no real window.
The concrete smelled damp.
A wooden crate served as a nightstand.
On top of it sat one possession that made my throat close instantly.
A framed photograph of my father.
That was it.
My mother had been sleeping in a damp storage room beside a washing machine while the bedroom I had built for her was filled with expensive clothes and liquor.
I stood there staring at that little photograph until my vision blurred.
All those years in Denver suddenly felt different.
Every overtime shift.
Every missed Christmas.
Every birthday phone call.
Every transfer I had sent home believing money was protecting her.
I had been wrong.
The next morning, our longtime neighbor, Mrs. Gable, came through the back door carrying homemade soup.
She had apparently heard enough of the previous night’s argument from her driveway to understand something was wrong.
When the subject of the money came up, she frowned.
“What money?”
“The money Brandon sends for Abigail,” Lucas said quickly.
Mrs. Gable stared at him.
“For Abigail?”
She set the soup on the counter.
“That’s strange.”
Lucas stiffened.
“Why?”
“Because Abigail borrowed twenty dollars from me two months ago.”
My stomach dropped.
Mrs. Gable continued.
“She didn’t have enough money to buy her medicine.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
I turned toward Lucas.
His face had gone white.
At that moment, I understood something terrifying.
The cold beans were not the whole story.
The storage room was not the whole story.
They were only what I had happened to see first.
And whatever had been hidden from me for the past several years was much worse.
PART 2
That afternoon, I opened my banking records.
At first, I simply stared at the screen.
Then I began adding the numbers.
Month after month.
Year after year.
Transfers for groceries.
Transfers for household bills.
Transfers for repairs.
Transfers for medication.
Transfers for emergencies Lucas said could not wait.
In three years alone, I had sent him more than sixty thousand dollars.
I carried my laptop into the kitchen and set it on the counter.
“Explain this.”
Lucas glanced at the screen.
“I already told you. It went toward the house.”
“Sixty thousand dollars?”
“Utilities. Groceries. Furniture. Repairs. Everything costs money, Brandon.”
I pointed into the living room.
“Janelle’s parents bought the leather sofa.”
