Chapter 9 - The Uncomfortable Truth
On Monday morning, Shay walked into my office.
She didn't scream. She didn't demand to see me. She sat quietly in the lobby chairs for three and a half hours, waiting until my morning meetings concluded. She wore simple jeans, worn sneakers, and had her hair pulled back into a messy bun.
Marcus knocked on my door. "Elena... she's still out there. She's been sitting there since eight AM without saying a word."
I paused, looking at my schedule. "Give her ten minutes. Send her in."
When Shay walked through the heavy mahogany doors of my corner office, she didn't look at the sweeping view of the skyline. She kept her eyes glued to the hardwood floor until she reached the leather chair opposite my desk.
"Sit down," I said.
She sat. She folded her hands in her lap. Her knuckles were white.
"I didn't come to ask for money," Shay whispered, her voice trembling. "I went to the financial aid office this morning. I applied for a emergency student loan with federal deferment. Because Dad has bad credit, they had to run an independent dependency override review."
She looked up at me, her eyes red, but for the first time in four years, there was no hostility in them. Only deep, humiliating sorrow.
"The financial aid counselor pulled Dad's historical tax returns and custody decrees from when I was twelve," Shay continued, a single tear running down her cheek. "My mom... my biological mom... she didn't abandon me without support like Dad always told me."
I went very still. "What are you talking about?"
"Dad always told me my mom walked away and never paid a dime of child support," Shay sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "He told me he had to work three jobs to keep food on the table when I was little. He made me hate her! He told me that's why we were always struggling until he met you!"
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"And what did the financial records say, Shay?"
"My mom paid court-ordered child support every single month until I turned eighteen," Shay gasped, her chest heaving. "Over two hundred thousand dollars into a restricted custodial trust that was supposed to transfer to me when I started college. And the account was emptied... by Dad... two weeks before he married you."
