With something she and Leo could not argue against.
By the time gray light crept through the blinds, I already knew exactly what to do.
I would take her exactly at her word.
I slipped out of bed while Leo still slept, careful not to wake him.
I went downstairs, opened my laptop, and started typing.
Camila had made one thing very clear: she considered the mortgage being gone an invitation.
So I put exactly what that invitation included in writing.
I printed the first draft, read it twice, and felt the knot in my chest finally loosen.
So I put exactly what that invitation included in writing.
At nine sharp, a courier picked up the envelope.
I poured myself another coffee and waited.
Camila arrived faster than I expected.
She did not knock.
The front door flew open, and I heard her heels hitting the floor before I saw her.
Camila arrived faster than I expected.
“Leo!” she shouted. “Leo, where are you? You have to stop her! Make her take it back!”
Leo came stumbling down the stairs, still half asleep.
He blinked at the papers she was shaking in the air.
“Mom, what is going on?”
“Your wife sent me this. This… this insult.” She thrust the pages at him.
“Leo, where are you? You have to stop her!”
Leo took the papers.
“She wants me to pay rent,” Camila finished. “Rent! In your house!”
That was the moment I’d been waiting for.
Not because Camila was angry — I knew she would be — but because Leo was finally hearing what she’d expected from him all along.
Now, the only question was whether he’d side with her or me.
That was the moment I’d been waiting for.
The rental agreement was three pages long and completely professional.
Monthly rent that matched the going rate for a room in our neighborhood.
A fixed percentage split on utilities.
House rules. Quiet hours. A cleaning schedule.
I set my coffee down and spoke calmly.
“But you said you wanted to make this house your own. I thought you wanted to live here.”
“I thought you wanted to live here.”
Camila spun toward me, her face flushed.
“A mother does not pay rent to live with her own son.”
“Funny,” I said. “I paid for this house for years, and you still acted like it belonged to you.”
The room went quiet for a moment.
Leo looked down at the agreement in his hands, actually reading it now.
Before he could say anything, Camila’s phone buzzed.
Camila spun toward me, her face flushed.
Camila glanced at the screen.
Worryingly, some of the anger left her face.
“Good,” she muttered.
She looked at me and lifted her chin.
“I’m not the only one you’ll have to answer to for this insult.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I’m not the only one you’ll have to answer to for this insult.”
Before Camila could answer, the doorbell rang.
Then it rang again.
Leo frowned. “Are you expecting someone?”
“I am,” Camila replied.
She marched toward the door and opened it.
When I saw who was waiting on my doorstep, my jaw dropped.
“Are you expecting someone?”
Leo’s brother, Josh, and Aunt Dahlia stepped inside.
“What’s this about?” Dahlia looked at me. “Camila called in a panic this morning, saying you’d done something terrible and cruel.”
“Mom said we needed to see it for ourselves,” Josh added.
They both stared at me.
For a moment, I worried that I was outnumbered and my plan was about to blow up in my face.
Leo’s brother and aunt Dahlia stepped inside.
“That’s right! Look at it!”
Camila snatched the papers away from Leo and passed them to Josh.
He frowned as he scanned the page.
Dahlia read over his shoulder.
“She’s charging you rent?”
“That’s right! Look at it!”
“Exactly! Nearly a thousand dollars!”
Josh looked confused.
“But that’s less than what you currently pay, and you’re moving into their house. Why wouldn’t you pay rent?”
Camila’s face tightened.
“Because the mortgage is paid off! Why should she bleed me dry when they don’t even owe the bank anything anymore?”
Camila’s face tightened.
Leo looked at the agreement one more time.
