Chapter 6 - Unraveling the Lies
"What does it say?" Evelyn demanded, limping over in her designer heels, her mascara smudged from the wind. "Is she sending a car? Did she apologize?"
Ethan stared at the screen, his face completely drained of color. "She... she changed the locks."
"She what?!" Evelyn’s voice pierced the evening air like a siren. "That is your house! You bought that house with your signing bonus from the firm!"
Ethan closed his eyes. The lies were catching up to him like a speeding freight train, and there was nowhere left to jump off the tracks.
"Ethan?" Chloe stepped forward, her eyes narrowing as she looked at her brother. "You told Mom you put down two hundred thousand dollars on that house. You said you bought it outright."
"I... I had some expenses back then," Ethan whispered.
"What expenses?" Evelyn grabbed his lapels, shaking him with surprising strength. "Ethan Calloway, look at me! Where is your money?!"
"I don't have any money, Mom!" Ethan finally roared, breaking free of her grip. "I don't have a signing bonus! I don't have an executive salary! I make seventy-four thousand a year before taxes, and half of it goes to my car payment and my credit card minimums! Clara paid the down payment! Clara paid the mortgage! Clara paid for this vacation! Clara paid for your damn kitchen remodel last Christmas!"
Evelyn froze. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. She looked at Ethan as if he had suddenly morphed into a stranger.
"You... you lied to me?" she whispered, her voice trembling with genuine shock. "You let me think you were running that company?"
"You wanted an executive for a son!" Ethan yelled back, tears of humiliation burning his eyes. "You never stopped comparing me to Uncle Richard’s sons! Every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, it was always *'Look what Marcus bought his mother! Look at Tyler’s penthouse in Chicago!'* I just wanted you to be proud of me!"
"By stealing our time and dragging my children to freeze in the mountains?!" Chloe screeched, lunging at him. "You let us pack our bags, hire a dog sitter, drive four hours out here, and you didn't have a single dollar to your name?! You pathetic loser!"
"You didn't ask questions when I bought your groceries, did you Chloe?!" Ethan fired back. "You didn't ask who was paying when Clara paid off your past-due electric bill three months ago!"
"Enough!" Greg barked, stepping between the siblings. He threw his cigarette onto the pavement and stomped it out. "I’m calling an Uber to the nearest bus depot. Chloe, grab the kids. Ethan, you can rot out here for all I care."
"Wait!" Ethan pleaded, grabbing Greg’s sleeve. "Greg, please, loan me two hundred bucks. Just enough for a taxi to a budget motel. I’ll pay you back next Friday, I swear!"
Greg looked down at Ethan’s hand, then up at his face with utter disgust. "With what, Ethan? Your eighty-dollar paycheck? Lose my number."
Greg grabbed the two largest bags, took his weeping wife by the arm, and marched toward the main road, leaving Evelyn and Ethan standing beside five lonely suitcases on the curb of Juniper House.
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The automated sprinkler system on the resort lawn suddenly activated with a loud hiss, sending an icy arc of water across the walkway, soaking Evelyn’s designer purse and Ethan’s leather loafers.
***
