03

At eleven that night, a friend sent me a screenshot.

Evelyn's latest post.

In the photo she and Eugene were sitting at a curb sharing a bowl of spicy stew, both grinning like the happiest people alive.

The caption read: "True love conquers everything. Free at last from my cold-blooded mother's control."

Malcolm was the first to like it.

He'd even left a comment: "Your father will always support you chasing true love. Don't listen to your mom."

I looked at it and tapped like too.

Then I blocked them both.

Early the next morning, I went to the private international high school where Evelyn was enrolled.

I withdrew her on the spot. The refunded tuition came to a hundred and eight thousand.

At three that afternoon, an unknown number called again.

Behind the voice I could hear the background music of a shopping mall.

Evelyn's fury was barely held down, and she practically ground the words out at me.

"Why did you cut off the shared payment account?"

"Didn't I already tell you yesterday?"

"I'm your daughter! I thought you were just trying to scare me!" Her voice shot up.

"I was buying Eugene shoes, and when I went to pay it said insufficient balance. There were dozens of people behind me who all saw it."

"The clerk even asked if my card had been frozen. Do you know how humiliating that was?"

Faintly, off to the side, I could hear Eugene cursing.

"No money and still playing generous. Wasted my whole afternoon picking those out."

Evelyn panicked.

"Babe, don't go, I'll figure something out."

She was calling after Eugene, then she whipped back to the phone and unloaded on me.

"Mom, restore the limit right now."

"Eugene's had his eye on those shoes forever. They're only thirteen thousand."

I listened to that self-righteous tone, and not a ripple stirred in me.

"Go find your true love."

"If he's man enough to keep you, one pair of shoes shouldn't be a problem."

"Are you only happy when you can watch us fight?"

Evelyn started twisting everything around.

"Eugene just walked off angry because of you. Are you satisfied now?"

"Pretty satisfied, yes."

"Chloe Henson!" It was the first time she'd called me by my full name.

"You ruined my love, and I'll never forgive you as long as I live!"

"Good. I don't need it anyway."

I hung up, clean and quick.

Half an hour later, the bank sent a risk alert.

Evelyn was trying to apply for an online loan using the personal information I'd given her before.

She really had never once spared a thought for whether I lived or died.

I changed the passwords on every account right away and filed identity-theft risk statements with several banks.

Then I called an agent and put the house on the market.

This was the house Evelyn had lived in her whole life.

She knew the door code, and property management had her face on file for entry.

I wasn't about to stay here and wait for them to come bleed me dry.

The agent looked over the place and asked me.

"Ms. Henson, a quick sale means over a hundred grand below market. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"When can you move out?"

"The moment I get the deposit."

On the third day, the house sold for a hundred and twenty thousand under market.

The buyer paid in full, and the paperwork went through fast.

I rented a studio apartment near the office.

The elevator needed a facial scan, the door had a fingerprint lock, and any visitor had to register at the front desk.

The day I moved, I took only my clothes, my documents, and the old photo album my mother had left me.

Evelyn's childhood award certificates, the discontinued toys I'd bought her, all her old birthday gifts.

I packed every bit of it into boxes.

Then I shipped it straight to Malcolm's current address.

That same night, Malcolm texted me from a new number.

"Why'd you ship me all this junk? And cash-on-delivery?"

I sent back four words.

"A father's love, C.O.D."

04

My first night in the new apartment, I poured myself a glass of red wine.

For the first time in nineteen years, breathing felt easy.

No more leaving a light on late into the night, waiting for Evelyn to come home.

No more lying awake, sick with worry over whether Eugene had hit her again.

And no more watching the money drain out of my bank account, one transfer at a time, straight into that little punk's pocket.

I slept better that night than I had in almost ten years.

The next morning, an out-of-state number woke me up.

Malcolm launched straight into cursing me out.

"Chloe, you sold the house?"

"And that's your business how?"

"That house was supposed to go to Evelyn someday. What gives you the right to sell it?"

I walked to the sink and turned on the faucet.

"The deed's in my name."

"But she's your daughter!"

"Then why don't you leave your house to her?"

Malcolm stalled, his voice losing half its steam.

"I have a family now. It's a different situation."

"You have a family, so I'm supposed to cover for your daughter?"

"Evelyn had no money for food yesterday. She cried all night."

Malcolm started laying on the guilt.

"Just wire the child support to my account from now on. I'll hold it for her."

"She's well into her twenties. What child support?"

"And you never paid a cent of it. Where do you get the nerve to manage it for her?"

Seeing he couldn't out-argue me, Malcolm shuffled around on his end for a moment, then just handed the phone off.

"Ma'am, it's me."

Eugene's lazy, insolent voice came down the line.

"Selling the house to hide from us, huh?"

"I'm giving you one last chance."

"Your daughter's with me right now."

"I'm in a good mood, she gets to eat."

"I'm in a bad mood, well, you can figure out what her life looks like."

Right on cue, Evelyn's crying came through the phone.

"Mom, just give him the money."

"Eugene's under so much stress these days. He smashed the TV, and he sold my phone."

Hearing her cry, the hand around my water glass went still for a few seconds.

She was, after all, the daughter I'd raised for twenty-three years, since she was no bigger than my palm.

But her next words shattered every last shred of that instinctive ache.

"Just transfer two hundred thousand first, and Eugene said he'll redo the wedding for me."

"Mom, this is the one wish I have in my whole life. Can't you give me that?"

I closed my eyes. My voice came out cold as ice.

"Did he hit you again?"

Evelyn went quiet for a moment, then fished for an excuse, careful.

"He only pushed me."

"Then call the police."

"I won't!" She panicked at once. "If the cops come, it'll ruin the rest of his life."

I laughed, furious.

"He hits you, and you blame me for not giving money."

"He sells your phone, and you still blame me for not giving money."

"Evelyn, has it ever once crossed your mind that the problem is him?"

"He'd never be like this if you weren't pushing us!" She shouted it, righteous, nothing in her voice but resentment for me.

I had nothing left to say.

You can never argue someone out of a sleep they're only pretending to be in.

Eugene took the phone back.

"You get all that, ma'am?"

"You don't pay up, I'll bring my boys to your company and drag your name through the mud."

I looked at my own calm face in the mirror.

"Go ahead."

"I'll be waiting for you."