These are beautiful. What’s the occasion?
I wanted to thank you.
I raised an eyebrow.
For what?
For forcing me to grow up.
David looked different. Older maybe, but also lighter somehow.
The constant tension that had lived in his shoulders for years was gone.
I brought you something else.
He pulled a check from his pocket.
It’s not everything I owe you, but it’s a start. First payment on that 400,000.
I took the check. Glancing at the amount.
$5,000.
David, you don’t have to.
Yes, I do. I’ve been looking at those receipts you showed us. Really looking at them. Mom, I let you carry us for years without even realizing it.
I gestured for him to sit down.
Tell me what’s been happening.
He settled onto the sofa, running his hands through his hair.
Oilia and I separated 2 weeks after that day in your apartment. She’s staying with her sister in Portland.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Are you?
I considered the question honestly.
I’m sorry that your marriage ended. I’m not sorry that you’re no longer with someone who treated you badly.
She did treat me badly, didn’t she? I kept making excuses for her, telling myself she was just stressed or that she’d change eventually.
What made you finally see it?
David was quiet for a moment.
The day after you terminated our lease, she spent the entire day calling everyone we knew, trying to get them to convince you to change your mind.
She told them you were scenile, that you were being manipulated by gold diggers, that you’d stolen money from your own family.
I felt a familiar sting of hurt, but it was duller now, less sharp.
When that didn’t work, she tried to turn me against you completely.
She said you were a narcissist who was destroying our marriage out of jealousy.
She wanted me to cut contact with you entirely.
And and I realized that in 15 years of marriage, I’d never once heard her say a genuinely kind word about you.
Not once.
Every conversation about you was either complaining or asking for money.
I reached over and patted his hand.
I’m proud of you for seeing that.
It took me too long.
His voice was thick with regret.
Mom, I let her treat you terribly and I’m ashamed of that.
You were trying to keep peace in your marriage. I understand that.
No, that’s just an excuse. I was being a coward.
We sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the late afternoon light filter through my small windows.
I found a new apartment, David said eventually.
Nothing fancy. Two bedrooms, decent neighborhood. I can actually afford it on my salary.
That sounds perfect.