Chapter 6 - A Mother’s Ruin
I was sitting in my favorite armchair by the window, sipping herbal tea and watching the autumn leaves fall, when my phone rang.
It was an unknown number. Out of morbid curiosity, I answered.
“Elena?”
The voice was tiny, broken, and ancient. It took me a moment to recognize it as Barbara.
“What do you want, Barbara?” I asked, my voice devoid of emotion.
“He’s gone,” she sobbed, the sound pathetic and hollow. “David is in jail. They set his bail at a hundred thousand dollars. I don’t have it. My pension barely covers the mortgage.”
“I’m failing to see how this is my problem.”
“Mark lost his job,” she continued, ignoring me, desperate to unload her misery. “His company ran a background check after your lawyers filed the civil suit for the stolen ninety-five thousand. They fired him for gross misconduct. He sits on my couch all day drinking cheap whiskey. Elena... I have nothing left.”
I listened to the woman who had tormented me for years. The woman who had sneered at my mother’s modest background. The woman who had demanded my inheritance as if it were her birthright.
May you like
“You have exactly what you fought so hard for, Barbara,” I said softly. “You wanted your family together. Now you have them. Enjoy.”
I hung up the phone and blocked the number.
