When Love Locked by Mark Twain 7
Chapter 7 Please Come Home
Chapter 7 Please Come Home
I looked down at the frayed hem of my sweatshirt.
So you all noticed exactly how far I had to stretch every dollar.
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“Dad’s Audi payments, your condo, the mortgage, and that six thousand dollars a month I send home like clockwork-where exactly do you think I’d get extra money from?”
Mom patted my hand. “Ava, sweetie, you can’t look at it that would fall apart.
Without you, way.
this family
“Speaking of which, didn’t you just get promoted? From now on, you can just send eight thousand dollars a month for household expenses.”
Dad chimed in. “Yeah, we won’t put too much pressure on you. After three months, you can bump it up to ten thousand dollars.”
Mom suddenly perked up like she’d just remembered something important. She pressed a bag of cookies into my hands. “Oh, we brought these especially for you!
“And I heard that buyer transferred you 500 thousand dollars. That’s perfect timing because we want to upgrade to a bigger house. It’ll be so much more comfortable for the three of us… I mean four of us. All four of us living together.”
So that was what this was really about.
They’d heard about my promotion and the money from selling the condo, and all this sweet talk was just laying the groundwork to keep using me as their personal ATM.
I coldly shut them down. “Ask Stella to send you money. She’s your peace of mind and your security, remember?”
Right on cue, Stella finally showed up. “Ava, what kind of place are you renting? There’s not even an elevator! I’m exhausted!”
It had only been two weeks since I’d last seen her, but she looked completely different from head to toe. Fresh curls styled in this year’s trendiest look. A new wool coat that looked expensive. A designer bag that probably retailed for 48 thousand dollars.
I glanced down at the bag of cookies Mom had just given me. In big letters across the packaging, it said, “COMPLIMENTARY.”
The second Mom saw Stella, she turned to me. “Get your sister some water. Look how tired
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Chapter 7 Please Come Home
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she is.”
I didn’t move. “Are her hands broken?”
“Ava!” Mom caught herself quickly, remembering she needed something from me. “Ava, she’s your sister.”
“The way you’re acting, I’d think she was my boss or something.”
Stella shot me an annoyed look. “You’re seriously mad at me? You sold my condo without even telling me, and I’m not throwing a fit about it.
“I came all this way to see you. Just give us the money already.”
Dad, the eternal peacemaker, stepped in again. “Come on, Ava. Stella’s never had to deal with this kind of treatment before. She made the effort to come see you.”
“Then she can leave!” I threw the bag of cookies at them and started pushing all three of them toward the door. “Get out! I’m not giving you a single cent!”
I cut them off completely after that.
I looked into it first, though. The minimum support requirement in my state was about six hundred dollars a month, or the equivalent in essential supplies.
Last month, I sent home six hundred dollars’ worth of toilet paper.
This month, I sent six hundred dollars’ worth of flour.
I heard through some relatives that Mom and Dad were planning to sue me for elder neglect, but after everything that happened, no lawyer would touch their case.
The thing was, their retirement income was more than enough to cover their living
expenses.
But they were still fixated on getting money out of me, and they’d been going around telling relatives that I was some kind of ungrateful daughter who schemed against her own parents.
The people who accused you of things were always the ones who knew exactly what they did to you. And the ones who called you selfish were usually just mad they couldn’t take advantage of you.
I tried to ignore all of it, but I’d clearly underestimated how obsessed they were with getting their hands on my money.
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One day at work, my assistant knocked on my desk with an uncomfortable look on her face. “Ms. Henderson, you should probably check what’s trending right now.”
“People have short memories. They’ve already forgotten about the court case, and now your sister’s gone viral.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Did this family know how to do anything besides manipulate public opinion?
I clicked on the link. The trending topic read, “My Dear Sister, Please Come Home.”
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