Chapter 5 - The Truth My Mother Finally Admitted
My mother came to Evelyn's house on Wednesday evening.
She arrived alone.
No Marcus.
No expensive handbag.
No perfectly practiced smile.
When Evelyn opened the door, Nia looked exhausted.
"Maya," she said softly.
I was standing behind Evelyn.
For a moment, I wanted to run toward her.
Despite everything, she was still my mother.
She had held me when I was sick.
Helped me with spelling tests.
Stayed awake when I had nightmares.
I loved her.
That was what made the betrayal so painful.
"Can we talk?" she asked.
Evelyn looked at me.
I nodded.
We sat around the dining table.
Tasha remained upstairs.
She had said she wasn't ready to speak to Nia.
I respected that.
My mother looked around the room.
Then she reached for my hand.
I pulled back.
Her face tightened.
"Maya, please."
"What do you want to talk about?"
She swallowed.
"Your stepfather made mistakes."
I stared at her.
"Mistakes?"
"Financial decisions that didn't work out."
I felt anger rise inside me.
"Mom, he took Tasha's trust money."
Nia lowered her eyes.
"We were planning to replace it."
"With what?"
She didn't answer.
I leaned forward.
"You received thirty thousand dollars from her account."
My mother's face changed.
For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
"How do you know that?"
"Because we have the bank records."
She closed her eyes.
I waited.
Finally, she whispered:
"Marcus told me the money was available."
"Available for what?"
"Business expenses."
"Did you know it belonged to Tasha?"
Her silence told me everything.
I felt something inside me break.
"Mom."
She began crying.
"I was trying to keep the business open."
I stared at her.
Golden Nest Interiors.
The showroom.
The furniture.
The expensive launch party.
The company she described as her dream.
"Was it failing?"
She nodded.
"Since last winter."
I remembered her long phone calls.
The late payments.
The way she became irritated whenever anyone asked about business.
"I invested everything," she whispered.
"Then why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I was ashamed."
I looked at her.
"So you let Marcus take money from Tasha instead?"
Nia shook her head.
"He said the trust permitted temporary loans."
"Did you check?"
She cried harder.
"No."
I sat back.
That single word hurt more than all her explanations.
No.
She hadn't checked.
She hadn't asked Tasha.
She hadn't called Evelyn.
She hadn't considered what would happen if the money wasn't returned.
She had wanted to save her business.
And Tasha's future had seemed like an acceptable price.
"Did you know about the car?" I asked.
Nia hesitated.
"Yes."
My stomach twisted.
"Did you know where the money came from?"
She whispered, "Marcus said he'd moved funds between accounts."
I felt sick.
"Mom, you stood beside that SUV smiling."
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I thought we could fix everything before anyone found out."
I stood.
"That's the problem."
She looked up.
"You cared more about people finding out than about what happened to Tasha."
Nia covered her mouth.
I began crying.
"Do you know she skipped meals?"
My mother looked startled.
"What?"
"Tasha skipped lunch so she could save money for school."
Nia stared at me.
"She never told me."
"Would you have listened?"
The question hung between us.
Nia lowered her head.
I had never seen my mother look so small.
But I couldn't comfort her.
Not while Tasha was upstairs wondering whether she would lose her place at college.
"Why did you treat her differently?" I asked.
Nia wiped her face.
"I didn't mean to."
"Yes, you did."
She looked wounded.
I continued.
"You always gave me the bigger bedroom. You let me use the car. You made Tasha clean up after family dinners."
"Maya..."
"You said she needed to be independent, but you still treated me like a child who deserved everything."
My voice cracked.
"Why?"
Nia stared at the table.
Then she whispered something I never expected.
"Because I was jealous."
I froze.
"Jealous of what?"
"Of the place Renee still had in Marcus's life."
I felt confused.
"Renee died years before you married him."
"I know."
Nia shook her head.
"But every time Marcus talked about Tasha, he mentioned Renee. Her savings. Her photographs. Her plans for their daughter."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"You were jealous of a dead woman?"
My mother's tears fell onto the table.
"I know how terrible it sounds."
"Then why punish Tasha?"
"I told myself I wasn't."
She took a shaky breath.
"I thought if I gave you more attention, Marcus would see how much I loved our family."
I stared at her.
"That doesn't make sense."
"No," she whispered. "It doesn't."
For the first time, she wasn't defending herself.
She was admitting something ugly.
But admitting it didn't erase the damage.
"Did Marcus know you felt that way?"
She nodded.
"He said Tasha needed to stop living in the past."
I thought about the photographs of Renee in Evelyn's hallway.
The silver necklace Tasha wore.
The way she sometimes sat alone on her birthday.
Suddenly, so many things made sense.
Marcus hadn't simply favored me.
He had allowed his daughter to become a reminder of a life he preferred not to discuss.
And Nia had benefited from that silence.
A knock sounded upstairs.
Tasha stood on the landing.
She had heard us.
Her face was pale.
"Is that why you never wanted my mother's pictures in the house?"
Nia looked up.
"Tasha..."
"Is that why you told Dad my necklace looked childish?"
My mother began crying harder.
Tasha descended the stairs slowly.
"You said I should stop talking about her because it made everyone uncomfortable."
Nia stood.
"I'm sorry."
Tasha stopped several feet away.
"You don't get to say that once and make it better."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Tasha's voice rose.
"You took my money. You made me feel guilty for needing anything. And you let Dad buy Maya a car with money Mom left for my education."
Nia reached toward her.
Tasha stepped back.
"Don't touch me."
My mother froze.
I stood beside Tasha.
She looked at me, and I took her hand.
Nia saw us together.
Her expression crumpled.
"I love both of you," she whispered.
Tasha shook her head.
"Then why did only one of us feel loved?"
Nobody answered.
Because there was no answer that could make what happened acceptable.
Nia eventually left.
Before going, she promised to provide Daniel Brooks with her business records.
Tasha didn't thank her.
Neither did I.
That night, we sat on Evelyn's porch.
The sky was dark.
Tasha rested her head on my shoulder.
"Do you think she'll really tell the truth?" she asked.
I looked toward the street.
"I don't know."
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Mom.
"I gave the attorney the transfer records. There's something else Marcus hasn't told you."
Attached was a photograph of an unsigned loan application.
I opened it.
My breath caught.
The proposed borrower wasn't Marcus.
May you like
It was Tasha.
And the application listed a debt of sixty thousand dollars in her name.
