She nodded toward the folder.
“Then take that.”
On Saturday, Mark came home for clothes.
He found me at the kitchen table.
“You’re really going to show my mother those papers?”
“She called me selfish.”
“She’s worried.”
“Because of what you told her.”
“I told her we were struggling.”
“You told her I wouldn’t help.”
“Well, you won’t.”
I pushed Rebecca’s email toward him.
“You hid $400,000 in debt. You accepted money connected to my property. Then you staged a fake prize to get me alone.”
“I was desperate.”
“I believe you.”
He looked surprised.
For a moment, I remembered the man who’d brought soup to my mother when she was sick and held me after her funeral.
I wanted him to admit what he’d done.
Instead, he said, “If you’d just agree to sell, none of this would matter.”
Something inside me settled.
He still thought the problem was that I wouldn’t say yes.
“I’ve made an appointment with a lawyer,” I said.
His face hardened.
“Over this?”
“I need to protect myself.”
He gathered his clothes and left.
I didn’t follow him.
Sunday dinner was at his mother’s house.
Mark arrived before me.
His mother hugged me stiffly.
His sister arranged plates while his brother sat at the table.
We ate through an uncomfortable first course.
Then his mother set down her fork.
“Mark says there’s a way to save the business, but it means making sacrifices.”
“What sacrifices?” I asked.
“Moving somewhere smaller.”
“And selling my house.”
She glanced at Mark.
“Well, yes.”
I took the cream-colored envelope from my bag.
“This is how he approached me.”
His mother unfolded the letter.
“Congratulations. You’ve won $1,000,000.”
His sister frowned.
“What is that?”
“A fake prize notification. Mark hired two men to bring it to my door. They drove me into the woods, where he was waiting at a cabin.”
His mother stared at him.
“You did what?”
“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Mark muttered.
“A surprise about selling her house?”
“I was trying to get her to listen.”
I placed the debt summary beside the letter.
“His business owes about $400,000. I didn’t learn that until the cabin.”
His brother turned toward him.
“You said she knew how bad it was.”
Mark tightened his jaw.
“I told her the business needed help.”
“Not how much,” I said.
Then I showed them Rebecca’s email.
His sister read it first and passed it to their mother.
Silence settled over the table.
Woman Ordered a $2,000 Dinner for Friends at Her Sister’s Expense – Then Her Sister Arrived Before the Bill
Three Teenagers Tease a Fast-Food Worker for Cleaning Toilets – But One of Them Was Her Own Son
Woman Rescued a Dog Mistreated by Children – When a Neighbor’s Daughter Treated It like a Toy, Her Husband Stepped In
Finally, his brother asked, “You already took $25,000?”
“It was an advance.”
“From someone trying to buy Tanya’s house?”
“Yes.”
“Did she agree to sell?”
Mark stared at his plate.
Nobody needed another document.
His silence answered the question.
His mother read the email again.
Then she looked at him.
“You told us she wouldn’t help you. Did you ever tell her the truth?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
“Mark,” she said quietly, “you let us blame her.”
“I was trying to keep the business alive.”
“By lying to your wife?”
He pushed back his chair.
