“Of course you didn’t know. Do you know why? Because you never cared to know. In three years, not once did you ask me how I was financially, if I needed anything, if I had enough money for my medicines or my personal expenses.”
“But Mom ”
“But nothing, Daniel. An hour ago, I canceled all automatic transfers from my account. Starting today, I will not pay one more cent of that house’s expenses.”
“What? You can’t do that. How are we going to pay the mortgage?”
“That is no longer my problem.”
“Mom, please. We can’t lose the house.”
“Then you’d better find a job that allows you to pay for it yourself or sell some of the expensive things you’ve been buying with my money.”
“But I didn’t know it was your money.”
“Did you never wonder where the money came from when your salary wasn’t enough? Did it never seem strange that there was always money available for everything Samantha wanted?”
Daniel was silent.
“Son,” I continued, my voice softer, “for three years, I became your unpaid housekeeper. And on top of that, I financed your lifestyle. All because I loved you and wanted to help. But on Friday night, I realized that to you, I am not a person who deserves respect. I’m just a source of money and free labor.”
“Mom, that’s not true. We love you.”
“You love me? When was the last time you asked me how I felt? When was the last time you invited me to go out with you? When was the last time you treated me like part of the family instead of the help?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“I’m going to tell you something else, son. I have $243,822 in my bank account. Money your father and I saved for decades. Money we planned to use to travel, to enjoy our golden years. After he died, I thought I could use it to help my son and create beautiful memories together. But instead, I used it to subsidize a life in which I was invisible. No more.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I am going to use that money for myself to create the life I deserve. A life where I don’t have to clean floors with dirty mops to earn a place in my own family.”
“Mom, please. We can fix this. Come home and we’ll talk.”
“No, Daniel. This conversation ended three days ago when you decided it was acceptable for your wife to humiliate me and for you to support her.”
I hung up the phone and turned it off.
For the first time in years, I felt like I was in control of my own life.
On Thursday morning, I was quietly having breakfast at Grandma’s Kitchen when I saw Daniel enter like a hurricane. He had deep circles under his eyes, disheveled hair, and that desperate look I remembered from when he was a child and had broken something valuable.
He saw me immediately and headed toward my table with long, nervous strides.
“Mom, thank God I found you,” he said, dropping into the chair across from me without being invited. “I’ve been looking all over the city for you.”
“Good morning, Daniel,” I replied calmly, without looking up from my newspaper.
“Mom, we urgently need to talk. There is a very serious problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
His hands trembled as he placed them on the table.
“The bank called us yesterday. They say the mortgage payment was rejected. The power company is also going to cut off service on Monday if we don’t pay. And… and… we don’t have the money to pay for any of it.”
I took a slow sip of my coffee and looked him directly in the eyes.
“That’s too bad.”
“Mom, you can’t be serious. They’re going to take our house.”
“They’re not going to take anything from me, Daniel. That house is in your name, not mine.”
“But you said you had been paying ”
“And I was,” I said. “But not anymore.”
The waitress approached our table.
“Is your companion going to order anything, ma’am?” she asked.
“No,” I replied. “He’s leaving very soon.”
Daniel looked at me in disbelief.
“You see?” I told him. “Here, they treat me like what I am a customer who pays for a service and deserves basic respect.”
“Mom, please stop playing games. This is serious. Samantha is hysterical. She hasn’t stopped crying since you left.”
“Is she crying because she misses me,” I asked, “or because she realized she won’t be able to keep living the lifestyle I was financing?”
Daniel lowered his gaze.
“She… she didn’t know you were paying so much. Neither of us did.”
“Really? You didn’t know? Did you never wonder how you could afford a four-bedroom house with a yard in a Dallas suburb when your salary was $3,000 monthly and Samantha’s was $2,500?”
“I thought I had saved more than I remembered. Or maybe Dad had left something.”
“Your father did leave something, Daniel. He left it to me, his wife. And I decided to share it with you because I thought we were a family.”
“We are a family.”
“Oh, really? Do families force their mothers to clean the floor with dirty mops in front of strangers?”
Daniel ran his hands through his hair.
“Mom, I told you that was a mistake. Samantha was nervous. She’d had a little wine.”
“Daniel, stop making excuses for your wife. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
“What do you want me to do? Get a divorce?”
“I want you to take responsibility for your decisions and stop expecting me to finance the consequences.”
He leaned forward, desperate.
“Mom, how much money do you need? $5,000? $10,000? I promise we’ll pay you back as soon as ”
“Daniel, stop.”
“Twenty thousand? Whatever. Just tell me what it costs for you to come back and for things to go back to the way they were.”
“There is no amount of money that can buy that,” I said.
“Why not? You always said family is the most important thing.”
I got up from the table and put down enough cash to cover my breakfast and a generous tip.
“You’re right,” I said. “Family is the most important thing. That’s why I’m going to create a new one.”
“You can’t leave. I’m your only son.”
“And I was your only mother,” I replied. “But that didn’t stop you when you decided it was acceptable to humiliate me.”
Daniel followed me to the café door.
“Mom, please. I promise things will change.”
“How are things going to change, Daniel? Is Samantha going to start treating me with respect? Are you going to defend me when she disrespects me? Are you going to invite me to dinner with you instead of having me serve the food? Are you going to ask me how my day was?”
“Yes. Yes. All of that. Whatever it takes.”
“You don’t even believe yourself, son.”
“Mom, you are destroying our family.”
“No, Daniel. Our family was destroyed last Friday when you decided it was appropriate to treat me like a servant. I’m just saving myself from the wreckage.”
That afternoon, from my hotel room, I called my cousin Helen in Phoenix.
Helen and I had been very close when we were young, growing up together in a small Oklahoma town before life took us different directions. After I married Robert and we moved to Dallas, we had lost touch except for Christmas cards and the occasional phone call.
“Beatrice, my goodness, I can’t believe it’s you,” she said when she picked up. “How are you, cousin?”
“Hello, Helen,” I said. “I’m starting over.”
“What do you mean?”
I told her the whole story. I told her about the Thanksgiving dinner, the mop, Daniel’s words, the hotel, the bank, everything.
Helen listened without interrupting, and when I finished, there was a long silence.
“Beatrice,” she finally said, “come to Phoenix right now.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. I have a big house in the suburbs here. I’ve been living alone since Frank died, and I’d love to have company. Plus, there’s a great community of people our age. You could start over. This city is full of snowbirds and retirees who decided they were done taking care of everyone else.”
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
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