Jessica held up her hand.
“Mr. and Mrs. Carlson, I need you to understand the situation clearly.”
“Trinity has two options available to her.”
“First option: full repayment of $30,000, and this stays out of the courts.”
“Second option: no repayment, and we go to the police today with this recording.”
Mom wiped her face.
“We don’t have that money anymore. We already—”
“I’ve prepared a repayment agreement,” Jessica said.
She slid a document across the table.
“Full amount returned within two months.”
My mother looked at that paper like it had personally offended her.
Then she looked at me.
“Two months?” she said. “That’s impossible. We don’t have it.”
“Sell the boat,” I said.
“Sell the car.”
“You have retirement savings.”
Dad’s face went red.
“Those are our savings.”
“That was my house.”
Nobody said anything for a second.
Mom picked up the pen.
Signed it fast.
Like if she slowed down, she’d stop.
And that was it.
Meeting over.
They filed out.
Chris didn’t say a single word the entire time.
Not one.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Obviously.
For the next several days, they called me constantly.
Mom said two months wasn’t realistic.
Could I just wait a year?
A whole year?
I told her no.
I told her I’d already been working with a realtor.
I had a property I wanted.
I needed that money now.
I also told her—and I meant this—that I had spent so much on Chris over the years that if it hadn’t been for his gambling debts, I would have bought a house a long time ago.
A long time ago.
She went quiet on the phone.
“Two months.”
“Talk to Jessica after this.”
Then I blocked all three of them.