Chapter 4 - DIANE’S INCOME
Diane called me eight days after I left.
I answered because I wanted to hear what she would say.
Not because I missed her.
“Claire.”
“Diane.”
“We need to talk.”
“You can talk.”
“Mark says his truck insurance was canceled.”
“I didn’t cancel it.”
“You paid it.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“So I stopped paying a forty-one-year-old man’s vehicle insurance after he deliberately destroyed my work equipment.”
Silence.
“You’re vindictive.”
“No.”
“You’re punishing everyone because of one argument.”
“One argument?”
“You refused to clean up after the dog.”
I closed my eyes.
Amazing.
Not:
Mark destroyed the laptop.
Not:
Eric stood there.
The original sin remained mine.
Refusal.
I said:
“Why isn’t Mark paying his insurance?”
“He’s helping Eric.”
“Then Eric can pay him.”
“The business is struggling.”
“Yes.”
“You know that.”
“I do now.”
She went quiet.
I continued:
“Diane, how much income do you receive each month?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It becomes my business when you tell me you cannot buy groceries without me.”
Another silence.
Finally:
“About twenty-three hundred.”
Social Security plus survivor pension.
“Where does it go?”
Her tone sharpened.
“I have expenses.”
“What expenses?”
“I don’t need to justify myself to you.”
“No.”
I agreed.
“You don’t.”
That surprised her.
“And I don’t need to fund the difference.”
She hung up.
Two days later Mark texted me.
You owe me $3,200 for work on the basement.
I stared.
The basement renovation had happened almost two years earlier.
“What work?”
He replied:
Labor. Eric said you’d cover it.
There was no invoice.
No contract.
No discussion.
I forwarded it to Rachel.
She replied:
Do not argue. Ask him to send documentation.
So I did.
Mark sent four angry messages.
No documentation.
Then:
Family shouldn’t need paperwork.
I laughed out loud.
That sentence should have been framed.
Because it explained everything.
Family shouldn’t need paperwork.
Family shouldn’t need repayment dates.
Family shouldn’t need invoices.
Family shouldn’t need permission.
Family shouldn’t need boundaries.
May you like
But somehow family always needed Claire’s money.
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