Chapter 5 - The Price of Being Useful
“Chad!”
My mother crossed the driveway as if she owned it.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Chad turned.
“Why?”
“Because Briona is manipulating you.”
I almost laughed.
Constance pointed at me.
“She has been waiting for this moment.”
“For what moment?” Chad asked.
“To destroy Brittany.”
“By owning a house?”
Mom froze.
Chad continued.
“By paying her debts? By paying for our rental? Which part is the attack?”
Brittany climbed out of the passenger side.
Her face was red.
“You told him?”
“He asked.”
“You had no right.”
“No right to tell him what I paid?”
“You’re making it sound like I used you.”
I stared at my sister.
“Did you?”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Mom stepped between us.
“Enough. Families do not keep score.”
Marlene had come outside.
She laughed once.
Constance spun around.
“What are you doing here?”
“Apparently ruining the aesthetic.”
Even Chad smiled.
Mom didn’t.
More relatives appeared behind the glass.
For the first time, Constance was standing before people she had spent years separating.
She couldn’t control the conversation anymore.
Naomi opened the door.
“You told me Briona didn’t want me at her graduation.”
Constance stiffened.
“This is not about you.”
Marlene said, “You told me the same thing.”
Uncle Ellis appeared.
“And you told Briona I skipped her twenty-fifth birthday because I was drunk.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
Ellis stared at me.
“I was in the hospital with pneumonia.”
My mother’s face changed.
There it was.
The truth none of us had understood.
This wasn’t merely about money.
Money had been one tool.
Shame was another.
Constance kept herself at the center by convincing everyone that everyone else was unreliable.
Chad turned to Brittany.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“About the loans?”
Brittany looked down.
“That’s different.”
“Did you tell me your dad paid them?”
She whispered, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because—”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because your family asked what my parents did.”
The sentence hung there.
Not what Briona did.
What her parents did.
My sister had erased me because my generosity complicated the image she wanted to sell.
Chad stepped backward.
“I need space.”
“Chad.”
“I mean it.”
Brittany grabbed his sleeve.
He gently pulled away.
My mother turned on me.
“Are you happy?”
“No.”
That surprised her.
“You think I wanted this?”
“You invited everyone here!”
“Yes.”
“To embarrass us!”
“No. I invited them because you didn’t.”
That stopped her.
For a moment, the only sound was wind through the trees.
Then Constance looked past me at the house.
Her expression hardened.
“This should belong to the family.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“You’ve hidden all this while your sister struggled.”
“Brittany’s struggle included Bali.”
“She’s your sister!”
“And I was your daughter before I became your emergency fund.”
My voice didn’t rise.
It didn’t need to.
“I paid because I wanted you to love me.”
Brittany looked at me.
That sentence finally reached somewhere money couldn’t.
I continued.
“I thought every emergency was my chance to become important enough that you’d keep me around when there wasn’t an emergency.”
Mom’s lips parted.
“I never—”
“Yes, you did.”
I looked at Brittany.
“And you learned the same thing. You called when you needed something. When you didn’t, I was embarrassing.”
Her eyes dropped.
I looked back at Mom.
“You gave my seat to a dog.”
“That was Brittany’s decision.”
Brittany snapped her head up.
“What?”
Mom immediately knew she had made a mistake.
“You said it was your idea!” Brittany shouted.
“You agreed.”
“Because you said Chad’s parents didn’t like Briona!”
Chad turned.
“My parents barely know Briona.”
Brittany stared at him.
“What?”
“They never said that.”
Another lie collapsed.
Constance’s face went pale.
Then she did what people like my mother do when reality stops cooperating.
She changed the battlefield.
“You’re all attacking me.”
“No,” Marlene said quietly. “We’re finally talking to each other.”
Mom left twenty minutes later.
Brittany followed.
Chad did not go with them.
He drove away alone.
I thought that would be the end of the evening.
It wasn’t.
At 10:42 p.m., Elena walked into the living room holding her phone.
“Briona.”
I knew that tone.
“What now?”
“Your mother posted publicly.”
I looked.
Constance had written a long statement claiming I had lured relatives to a “secret party,” used my wealth to turn the family against her, and was retaliating because she had tried to arrange a peaceful Aspen vacation.
Then came the final paragraph.
I am deeply concerned about my daughter’s behavior and the activities taking place at that property. Appropriate authorities have been notified.
Marlene read over my shoulder.
“She called the police?”
Apparently.
Less than twenty minutes later, headlights appeared at the gate.
May you like
And when Elena looked at the security monitor, two local patrol vehicles were coming up my driveway.
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