Chapter 6 - Teresa’s Real Plan
I thought my mother had stolen because she was entitled.
That would have been bad enough.
But entitlement was only the surface.
The truth came out because Lily couldn’t stop crying.
After Teresa stormed into the bedroom to “get her blood pressure medication,” Lily sat at the kitchen table and covered her face with both hands.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Brittany rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.”
Lily looked at me. “She told us Emily was hiding money from you.”
Emily blinked. “What?”
Kayla shifted uncomfortably.
Lily kept going. “Mom said Emily had a private account. That she was planning to leave after the baby came and make you pay child support.”
Emily’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Brittany snapped, “That’s what Mom said.”
“And you believed her?” I asked.
Kayla looked ashamed. “You were always working. Emily was always tired. Mom said she was playing weak.”
Emily stepped back like the words had touched her.
I caught her hand.
“She also said,” Lily whispered, “that if Emily left, you’d stop helping us.”
There it was.
The real fear.
Not concern for me.
Not concern for the baby.
Money.
My mother was terrified that when my wife and son became my priority, her unpaid bills and my sisters’ comfortable dependence would end.
So she made Emily the enemy before Emily could become family.
Teresa came back in holding her purse.
“I don’t know what lies Lily is spreading,” she said.
I looked at her. “Did you tell them Emily was planning to leave me?”
Teresa’s face did not move.
“She was going to,” she said.
Emily whispered, “No, I wasn’t.”
“You would have eventually,” Teresa snapped. “Women like you always do. You get the baby, get the money, and leave the man drained.”
I stared at my mother.
For years, I had thought her harshness came from being tired. Broke. Abandoned by my father. Raising four kids on her own.
But now I saw something uglier.
She didn’t want me happy.
She wanted me available.
“Get out,” I said.
Teresa laughed. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“This apartment is your family’s home.”
“This apartment is my wife’s home.”
Brittany shook her head. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“You have jobs.”
Kayla muttered, “Not enough to afford rent.”
“That sounds like something you should have thought about before stealing from my son.”
Teresa’s face hardened into something almost calm.
“If you throw us out,” she said, “I’ll tell everyone your wife did this. I’ll tell them she took the baby fund and blamed us. Who do you think people will believe? Your exhausted pregnant wife or your mother?”
Emily went still.
That was the moment I realized Teresa had done this before.
May you like
Maybe not to Emily.
But to someone.
