Chapter 3
I was the only one left in the living room, standing in the emptiness and chaos left behind.
Hadley had already gone home, looking pleased with herself.
I stared at the glaring "70 dollars" on my phone screen, then thought about that 200-dollar virtual rocket my husband had sent to some female streamer.
In that moment, I felt my heart turn to ice.
No, it wasn't just cold. It was dead.
There was no greater grief than a dead heart.
It hit me out of nowhere. I couldn't go on like this anymore.
Putting up with it wasn't some virtue. It was plain dumb.
A seed of rebellion began to sprout in the barren wasteland inside my heart.
It was never the last straw that broke the camel's back but every single one of them.
And what went down that weekend felt like a whole mountain crushing me flat.
Work threw a last-minute emergency project at me, so I spent the whole Saturday at the office.
By the time I finally dragged myself home that evening, I was completely wiped out. The moment I opened the door, I heard muffled sobs coming from inside.
It was my five-year-old niece, Leila.
Leila was my cousin's daughter. Her parents had been running a business out of town for years, so they had left her with us for now, promising to take her back once things settled down.
I rushed into the room and saw Leila, her cheeks burning red, curled up on the bed, trembling from head to toe.
I pressed my hand to her forehead. It was scarily hot.
"Leila, what's wrong?" I blurted out, panic rising as my heart clenched tight.
"Aunt Katelyn. I feel awful." Leila's voice was so faint, it sounded like a kitten.
I quickly grabbed the thermometer and checked her temperature. It was one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit.
"Warren!" I shouted toward the living room.
Warren was sitting in the living room, headphones on, absorbed in his game. When he heard me yelling, he took his time pulling off his headphones and strolled over.
"Why are you yelling? You're so damn noisy," he complained.
"Leila's burning up. Hurry, we need to get her to the hospital!" I yelled, fumbling to get her dressed, her hands all over the place in panic.
He glanced at the thermometer, and he even started to panic a bit. "Whoa, that's way too high. Let's go, hurry."
I scooped up Leila, who felt like she was on fire, grabbed my wallet off the table, and bolted out the door.
But when I opened my wallet, my whole body became stiff.
There were only a few crumpled five-dollar bills inside, not even thirty-five dollars altogether.
After a whole day at work, my phone was already dead and shut off.
I spun around, almost pleading with Warren. "Hurry, I need cash. I don't have enough with me."
Warren froze, awkwardly patting down his pockets for what felt like forever, his face turning red with embarrassment.
"I-I don't have any money on me either," he stammered.
"What about your phone? Don't you have anything in your account?" I was on the verge of tears, my voice shaking with desperation.
He stammered, eyes darting away from mine, "My paycheck all goes to my mom. I never linked my PayPal to any bank card.
"I just carry whatever pocket change my mom gives me, and I blew it all today for my game."
My mind went numb, like someone hit the mute button on my thoughts.
A family pulling in almost 100 thousand dollars a year, and when Leila needed cash for the hospital, we couldn't even come up with a couple hundred for the medical bills.
Seriously, how messed up is that? How tragic!
"Call your mom. Now!" I screamed at him, my voice hoarse and frantic, almost unrecognizable from panic.
Warren fumbled with his phone, dialing Hadley and putting her on speaker in a rush.
He said, "Hey, Mom, Leila's burning up with a high fever. We need to get her to the hospital right now. Do you have any cash? Can you get us some fast?"
On the other end, the background was filled with gamblers' chatter, and Hadley sounded totally laid-back and couldn't care less.
"So what if she's got a fever? Kids get sick all the time. Just slap a wet towel on her or something. Why make such a big deal and rush to the hospital?" she replied.
"Mom! She's almost one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit. We need to get her to the ER!" Warren was starting to panic too.
She snapped, "Oh, come on, I can't leave right now. I'm in the middle of a game, and I'm on a hot streak. Besides, it's so far from my place to yours.
"It'll take me over an hour just to get there and back. Figure it out yourselves. You're adults. Don't you have any emergency cash at all?"
"We..." Warren stammered, but the words just wouldn't come out.
"Alright, I'm hanging up now. It's my turn to draw a card," Hadley said, cutting him off.
The call ended, just like that. No hesitation, no concern.
As I held Leila, who was growing weaker in my arms, my tears finally overflowed.
In that moment, it wasn't anger that filled me, but an overwhelming despair and shame that swallowed me whole.
I, Katelyn, was a well-educated, modern woman with a respectable job. Yet when I needed money most, I was reduced to begging like a pauper, with nowhere to turn.
I looked at Warren's face, just as lost and guilty as mine, and any last shred of hope I had for him was gone for good.
With trembling hands and barely holding it together, I finally managed to call my bestie.
No questions asked, she instantly sent me 2000 dollars.
In the ER, the lights were harsh and cold. There wasn't a shred of warmth anywhere.