Chapter 5
Michael didn't ask any more questions.
But Richard was getting restless.
The next day, he didn't contact me directly.
He had Margaret call me.
I didn't answer.
Then he had Linda send me a message. [Jane, Michael really can't wait any longer to start school. Is there any way you could help us out?]
She called me Jane.
I took a screenshot of the message and sent it to Emily.
Emily replied with a string of puke emojis.
*****
On the third day, Richard came to see me in person.
This time, he didn't drive his Audi. He took a cab instead.
When he walked in, he was a lot more humble than last time. "Jane, I was out of line last time. Don't take it to heart."
I poured him a glass of water and stayed silent.
"About that money you brought up, I went home and thought about it. Honestly, I haven't handled things properly all these years," Richard said.
"Yeah," I replied.
"But coming up with over 145 thousand dollars all at once is really hard for me."
"I never said you had to pay it all at once."
He looked at me, waiting for me to go on.
"You can pay it in installments. But I need something in writing," I said.
"What kind of things do you mean?"
"An IOU. It needs to spell out the amount and when you'll pay it back."
His face twitched. "Jane, do we really have to put this in writing? We're family."
"If you won't write it, then you can forget about getting the identification documents."
Richard took a deep breath. "You've changed.
"Have I?" I shot back.
"You weren't like this before."
"Back then, I still had a son."
Just saying it made my heart ache.
But I didn't let him see it.
He lowered his head and stayed silent for a long time.
"Fine, I'll write it," he finally said.
I pulled out the paper and pen I'd already prepared.
He stared at the paper, his lips twitching. "You even had the paper ready?"
"That's just being prepared. You know how it works."
He picked up the pen and wrote the IOU.
After deducting the 8,667 dollars he's given over the years, he still owed 137,266 dollars.
He had three years to pay it all back, settling up at the end of each year.
He signed his name and set the pen down.
"There are two more things," I said.
He looked up.
I said, "First, you're responsible for all of Michael's high school expenses, including tuition, room and board, and living costs."
"That's no problem."
"Second, I want to see Michael at least once a month. I'll decide when and where."
He frowned. "Well—"
"This isn't up for discussion. It's a notification," I cut him off.
He looked at me like he was trying to figure out who I really was, almost as if I was a stranger to him.
"Fine," he said.
I took the identification documents and school records out of the drawer and set them on the table.
He reached out to grab them.
I kept them in place. "Richard, let me say one last thing."
His hand froze in midair.
"Michael is my son. I'm the one who brought him into this world and raised him.
"Since he chose to go with you, I'll respect that. But he'll always be my son. If you ever let him suffer..." I looked him straight in the eye. "Believe me, you'll find out what regret really means."
He took the identification documents.
He left in a hurry, walking out faster than he came in.
Once the door closed, I stood by the window and watched him get into the taxi.
This time, he didn't look back.
Just like his son.
I folded up the IOU and slipped it into my account book.
137,266 dollars.
Honestly, I wasn't holding my breath for him to actually pay me back.
But that didn't matter.
What mattered was that he wrote that number down himself on that piece of paper.
He finally admitted it.
He finally admitted that he owed me for every single one of those fourteen years.
*****
That night, I opened my phone and pulled up my chat with Michael.
The last message was still there: [Mom, why are you giving Dad a hard time?]
I stared at it for a long time.
Then I closed the chat and opened a job site.
I worked as a supermarket stock clerk for only 1200 dollars a month.
It had been six years. That was enough for me.
I started scrolling through job listings one by one.
I kept scrolling until 1 a.m., saving seven or eight openings.
The next morning, I handed in my resignation at the supermarket.