‘Why, Dad?’ I whispered. ‘Why did you take things away from us? You knew we were having a hard time, didn’t you?’
‘Because she asked,’ he said, and the pathetic simplicity of it was almost worse than a complex lie. ‘Because she cried. Because she told me that I was the only one who could save her. And you… you never cried, Elena. You only paid the price. You were the strong one. I didn’t think it hurt you.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It hurt Mason.’
At that moment, a car drove up the driveway. It was Veronica. She stormed into the house, her face a mask of rage.
‘You choose her?’ she asked, pointing at me. ‘You stop the children’s tuition because Elena is having a tantrum?’
‘I choose what is right,’ said Dad, although he didn’t look her in the eyes.
Veronica turned to me, her voice shrill. ‘You have no idea what I’m going through! My marriage is over, my life is a mess, and you’re worrying about a few hundred dollars?’
‘It wasn’t about a few hundred dollars,’ I said. ‘It was about thirty thousand dollars and three years of lies. If you are drowning, Veronica, stop buying rose gold balloon arches and go look for a job.’
Then she broke down. The anger turned into hysterical crying. “I can’t pretend any longer! I’m up to my neck in debt, the house is being auctioned, and I just wanted everything to look good for the children!”
It was a house of cards. My parents stole from one daughter to feed the illusions of the other, creating a vicious cycle of resentment and debt that had ruined almost all of us.
Chapter 5: The debt money
We sat in that kitchen for hours. The truth came to light in ugly, sharp pieces. But the final blow—the blow that would change my relationship with my mother forever—came three days later.
Veronica called me in a rare moment of clarity, and perhaps with a touch of genuine guilt.
Elena, I found something. I was helping Mom set up her new iPad, and her email was open.
She sent me a series of screenshots.
They were emails between my mother and her investment advisor. There were also emails between my mother and her friends.
‘We got that “guilt money” from Elena again,’ an email read. ‘It’s so easy. She wants so badly to be the “good daughter” that she doesn’t even ask for receipts. I put most of it in that savings jar for the Alaska cruise I told you about. Arthur thinks we’re helping Veronica, but I make sure we have some left for ourselves too.’
My vision went black.
It wasn’t just about Veronica. My mother had fooled us both. She used the story of my sister, who hadn’t made it, to outdo me with money, and then pocketed it herself for her own luxuries.
I drove to my parents’ house without ringing the doorbell. I didn’t knock. I walked into the living room where my mother was sitting drinking tea and reading a magazine.
‘Debt money’? I asked, holding up my phone with the screenshot.
My mother didn’t make a sound. She didn’t cry. She looked at the screen and then back at me with a look of cold, sharp annoyance.
‘You shouldn’t have seen that,’ she said.
No denial. No excuses. Just irritation because she had been caught.
‘You used my love for you as a way to make money,’ I said, my voice trembling.
‘We raised you,’ she snarled, as her mask of the ‘sweet, struggling mother’ finally crumbled. ‘We gave you everything. You owe us something. If I want to go on a cruise after forty years of struggling with your father’s and your sister’s mess, then I have earned it.’
‘You didn’t deserve it,’ I said. ‘You stole it from your grandson.’
