Chapter 14 - THE LAST WAY OUT
Friday afternoon, Derek arrived at 4:42.
He carried no accounting.
That told Rachel everything.
Helen was packing the dining room china into newspaper.
She had signed a listing agreement that morning.
The house would go on the market the following week.
Derek stared at the boxes.
“You’re actually selling?”
Helen did not look up.
“Yes.”
“Because of her?”
Rachel stayed near the window.
Helen wrapped another plate.
“Because I can’t afford this house without Rachel paying for it, and I’m not asking her to keep doing that.”
Derek looked toward Laura.
“You’re okay with this?”
Laura stood beside the hallway.
“I’m not okay with any of this.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting today.”
Derek placed both hands on the dining table.
“I can repay it.”
Helen stopped wrapping.
“How?”
“The company will recover.”
“No.”
“I have jobs coming.”
“No more someday.”
He looked toward Rachel.
“This is what you wanted.”
Rachel shook her head.
“If I wanted revenge, I’d keep paying the mortgage until Mom hated you enough to make me look generous.”
Derek frowned.
Rachel continued.
“I don’t want to own anybody’s gratitude.”
The sentence seemed to irritate him because he understood it.
Helen reached into a drawer and placed a printed document on the table.
Her attorney had prepared a demand for an accounting and proposed repayment arrangement.
Nothing had been filed.
Yet.
“You can take responsibility now,” Helen said, “or we handle it formally.”
Derek stared at the pages.
“You’d sue me?”
“I don’t know.”
His face changed.
Helen continued.
“That uncertainty is the last kindness I’m giving you.”
Laura stepped forward.
“I need you out of our house by Sunday.”
Derek looked at her.
“You’re kicking me out?”
“I’m asking for a separation.”
“What about Mason?”
“We’ll figure out Mason like adults.”
“He hates her.”
Derek pointed toward Rachel.
Rachel finally lost some of her calm.
“He’s twelve, Derek. He hates who you taught him to hate.”
Derek flinched.
Laura closed her eyes briefly.
Helen sat down.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Derek picked up the repayment proposal.
Rachel thought he might tear it.
Instead he folded it.
Once.
Twice.
He put it into his coat.
“I need time.”
Helen looked at the boxes surrounding her.
“So did I.”
Derek walked out.
No apology.
No confession.
No promise.
Just the door closing behind him.
Laura watched through the window as his truck backed away.
Then her phone buzzed.
She read the screen.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Rachel asked.
Laura looked up.
“He just sent me the password to the company’s full financial account.”
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For the first time, Derek had stopped hiding.
Whether that meant accountability or simply surrender was something they would discover next.
