Gratitude mixed with something sharper.
Maybe anger that I’d been the one to unravel something she should have caught herself.
Maybe just exhaustion.
“Thank you,” she said. “For the HELOC. For protecting your parents.”
“I didn’t do it to make Derek look bad.”
“I know.”
She picked up her purse.
“I’ll make sure he takes the deal.”
She left.
Mom and Dad sat there for a while.
Mom kept smoothing the edge of the paper in front of her, flattening a crease that wasn’t there.
“Nathan,” she said quietly. “How did you have that kind of money?”
I took a breath.
“Because Uncle Ray taught me. Same way he would have taught Derek if Derek had ever asked.”
She closed her eyes.
Dad reached over and squeezed her hand.
It’s been about four months since that meeting.
Here’s where everyone ended up.
Derek took the deal on day 28.
Of course, he did.
Chapter 9: Moving Forward
Vanessa made sure of it.
He’s making monthly payments on the duplex.
And from what I can tell through the property manager I installed, the tenants are still happy and the building is being maintained.
He started working with a financial counselor in August.
I don’t know the details, and I don’t ask.
Derek and Vanessa separated in September.
She moved into her sister’s place with their daughter.
I don’t know if they’re headed for divorce or if they’ll work it out.
That’s their business.
Vanessa and I text occasionally, mostly about the duplex logistics, but sometimes she’ll send me a photo of my niece at soccer practice, and I think that’s her way of saying we’re okay.
Derek and I don’t talk much.
We were at the same family dinner last month, and he nodded at me from across the table.
I nodded back.
That’s about where we are.
I’m not expecting some tearful reconciliation.
I’d settle for functional.
My parents are different now, not in a dramatic way.
Dad calls me more, just to talk.
He asked me to walk him through his retirement accounts last week, which he’s never done before.
Mom is slower to come around because accepting what Derek did means accepting that she missed it.
And that’s a hard thing for a mother.
But she showed up at my apartment two weeks ago with a casserole dish and said, “Uncle Ray would be proud of you.”
Then she left before I could respond, which is very Mom.
Margot and I still talk every week.
She’s thinking about getting into real estate investing herself.
I told her I’d teach her everything Uncle Ray taught me on one condition.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Keep it out of the family group chat.”
She laughed.
“Fair enough.”
As for me, I’m fine.
I’ve got 10 properties now, a good attorney, a decent truck with a dent I keep meaning to fix, and a family that’s cracked but not broken.
I don’t need Derek to apologize.
I don’t need my mom to suddenly see me as the golden child.
I just needed them to see the truth and to know that when it mattered, I was the one who showed up.
Uncle Ray used to say, “You don’t build wealth to impress people. You build it so that when things go wrong, you’ve got options.”
He was right about most things.
He was especially right about…
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Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.