Chapter 6 - The Emergency Meeting
The legal papers were served to the Austin house on a Thursday afternoon.
At 6:00 p.m., my father sent a text message to my personal number—the first time he had texted me in three years without asking for money.
We need to meet. No lawyers. Just family. Tomorrow at the diner on 5th Street. Please, Emily.
I showed the message to Clara. "Should I go?"
"Only if you want to watch them squirm," Clara said, pouring herself a glass of wine. "But don't go alone. Take Arthur’s documents. Let them see the numbers."
The next morning, the diner was busy, the smell of grease and cheap coffee filling the air. I sat in a booth near the back, my briefcase resting on the vinyl seat beside me.
When my parents walked in, they looked like different people. My father’s hair was uncombed, his jacket faded. My mother looked exhausted, her usual perfect posture slumped as she slid into the booth opposite me.
Notably, Jason wasn't with them.
"Where is your brother?" I asked.
"He's at home," my father said quietly. "He’s... he’s trying to find a job, Emily. The local retail shops aren't hiring, but he’s looking."
May you like
"He had three years to look, Dad," I said, setting my hands flat on the table. "Why now?"
"Because we can't pay the mortgage, Emily," my mother said, her voice finally losing its sharp edge, replaced by a desperate, cracking plea. "The bank said if we don't pay the arrears by the fifteenth, they will start the formal eviction process. We don't have twenty-four hundred dollars. We don't even have five hundred."
