Chapter 6 - The Family Summit
By three o'clock in the afternoon, my mother’s living room was no longer the site of joyous Christmas morning unwrapping. It was a war room.
Luke had stormed over to our mother’s house after his payroll bounced, dragging Maya and my nine-year-old niece into the chaos whether they wanted to be there or not. When I arrived—pulled into the mess not by my own desire, but by a frantic text from my mother begging me to ‘fix this’—the atmosphere was thick with sulfur and desperation.
“How could you do this?” my mother shrieked the moment I stepped through the front door, pointing a shaking finger directly at Maya, before flicking it toward me. “And you! You started all of this with your little disappearing act yesterday!”
“Mom, shut up,” Luke snarled, pacing across the rug like a caged animal. His face was bright red, his phone clutched in his hand like a weapon. “My guys are walking off the job site right now! If I don't make payroll in the next two hours, my entire business goes under! Everything I’ve built is gone!”
“You haven’t built anything, Luke,” I said, stepping into the center of the room. My voice was calm, cutting effortlessly through his panic. “You’ve been surviving on my paychecks and Maya’s silent endurance for four years. The moment the free money stopped, the illusion vanished.”
Aunt Linda crossed her arms, glaring at me from the sofa. “He’s your brother! You’re supposed to bail him out! That’s what family does!”
“No, Aunt Linda,” I said, turning to lock eyes with her. “Family doesn’t demand a twelve-month apartment lease paid for by someone working seventy hours a week while calling them ungrateful behind their backs. Family doesn’t hand out recycled trash for Christmas while expecting a cash bonus in return.”
May you like
My mother gasped, clutching her pearls as if I had struck her. “It was just a practical joke with the mug! You have no sense of humor, Aiden! You never make a fuss!”
“That was my favorite phrase, wasn’t it?” I smiled coldly. “*You never make a fuss.* Do you know what that actually means, Mom? It means *you’re too easy to abuse, and we don’t have to care about your feelings as long as you keep paying the bills.* Well, the fuss has arrived.”
