Chapter 5 - MEGAN CAME ALONE
Five days later, Megan texted.
Can we talk?
I stared.
Then:
Coffee shop. Saturday. 10 a.m.
She arrived eight minutes late.
Of course.
No designer bag.
No performance.
She sat across from me.
“I hate you.”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
Her eyes flashed.
“That’s all?”
“You’re allowed.”
“You embarrassed me.”
“Yes.”
“You made Jason’s parents think I’m a liar.”
I looked at her.
“Are you?”
She flinched.
Then:
“You don’t understand what it’s like.”
There it was.
The justification phase.
“What?”
“Jason’s family has money.”
“So?”
“They expect things.”
“Then say you can’t afford those things.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Easy for you.”
“Actually, yes.”
I leaned forward.
“It is easier to admit you can’t afford something than to spend two years hiding debt.”
She looked away.
Then:
“You always had everything.”
I almost laughed.
“Megan.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“You got the good job.”
“I earned it.”
“You got the divorce without falling apart.”
“That is not how I remember it.”
“You have this apartment.”
“I rent it.”
She winced.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She stared at the table.
“I made that up.”
“Why?”
“Because Jason’s mother kept asking why we weren’t investing.”
“So you invented family real estate.”
“Yes.”
At least truth had finally arrived.
Then I asked:
“Why my address?”
She closed her eyes.
“Because Jason checks the mail.”
I stared.
“That’s the point.”
“I know.”
“No.”
“You know now.”
Megan’s eyes filled.
“There was always some reason.”
Furniture.
Kids’ birthdays.
A trip.
A dress.
A credit card she planned to pay down before Jason noticed.
Then another.
Then another.
She whispered:
“I thought I could fix it.”
That part I understood.
Not approved.
Understood.
“What did you think would happen at my apartment?”
She looked ashamed.
“I thought you’d complain.”
“And?”
“Then Mom would call.”
“And?”
“You’d give in.”
There it was.
The real system.
She did not need my permission.
She needed Mom to make my no emotionally expensive enough that I would reverse it.
That had worked for years.
Until the smart lock.
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
A $230 piece of electronics had done what thirty-five years of sibling resentment couldn’t.
May you like
Made no physically enforceable.
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