Chapter 2
Mom stared at me.
“I haven’t done anything to your sister.”
“Then why did Dad ask about her money?”
“Because he doesn’t understand how many expenses there are here.”
Her voice sounded normal again. That made it harder to decide whether I had misunderstood everything.
I looked around our kitchen.
There was food in the refrigerator. The lights worked. Mom had bought new gold earrings two weeks earlier.
Maybe families could still be in trouble when their houses looked fine.
“I can wait for the shoes,” I said.
Her eyes softened.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“But did Maya get what she needed?”
The softness disappeared.
“She’s nineteen. She needs to learn to manage things herself.”
Maya had always managed things.
When I was little, she packed my lunch if Mom slept late. She taught me to tie my shoes, sat beside me during thunderstorms, and once spent her own birthday money on a helmet because Dad wouldn’t let me ride my bicycle without one.
I could not imagine her calling Dad because she simply didn’t feel like managing.
My phone vibrated.
Dad.
Mom saw his name.
“Give it to me.”
I held it against my chest.
“He’s calling me.”
“I said give me the phone.”
Her voice rose.
I stepped back before I could stop myself.
That hurt her. I saw it happen.
She lowered her hand.
“Please don’t make this worse.”
The phone kept buzzing.
I answered.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Put me on speaker.”
I did.
Mom looked toward the ceiling.
“Marcus, I’m trying to handle this.”
“Then explain where the transfers went.”
“You’re humiliating me.”
“Noah, take your phone to your room. I want to speak with you privately.”
Mom started to object.
Dad stopped her.
“He is allowed to talk to me.”
I went upstairs.
I closed my door but didn’t lock it. We weren’t supposed to lock bedroom doors.
Dad waited until I said I was alone.
“Did she frighten you?”
“She wanted my phone.”
“Did she touch you?”
“No.”
“All right. I’m arranging to come home.”
“How long?”
“Tonight. Aunt Renee will be there before then.”
Aunt Renee was Dad’s older sister. She lived fifteen minutes away and worked at a library.
“Are you and Mom getting divorced?”
He was quiet.
“I don’t know what will happen with our marriage. I do know you and Maya are going to have what you need.”
“Does Maya need the money for books?”
“Her school sent a balance notice. The payment was for her housing and fees.”
“How much?”
“Two thousand eight hundred dollars.”
I sat on my bed.
That was more money than I could picture.
“Mom spent it?”
“I’m checking.”
“On what?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Dad did not promise that everything was fine.
He promised to find out.
Somehow, that felt safer.
After we hung up, I called Maya.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey, little man.”
I could tell she had been crying. Her voice got extra cheerful when she tried to hide it.
“Did you get your school money?”
Silence.
Then she asked, “What happened?”
I told her about the shoes, Mom’s answer, and the video call.
Maya breathed out slowly.
“I’m sorry you heard all that.”
“Are they making you leave?”
“Not today.”
That was not the same as no.
“I can give you my savings.”
“Oh, Noah.”
“I don’t need those shoes.”
“You are not paying my school fees.”
“I have one hundred and sixty-three dollars.”
“I know you worked hard for it.”
“I can work more.”
Her voice broke.
“You’re eleven. Your job is to be eleven.”
I looked at the jar on my shelf.
It suddenly seemed stupid.
“I wanted something expensive.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible for what Mom did.”
“She said Dad never sent it.”
“She told me that too.”
“Did you believe her?”
“Yes.”
Maya was my sister, but Mom was her stepmother. Maya’s own mother had died when she was seven. Dad married Claire a few years later, and I came along after that.
I knew those facts.
I had never thought they changed how Mom should treat her.
Downstairs, the doorbell rang.
I heard Aunt Renee’s voice.
Mom sounded surprised.
“Marcus called you?”
“Yes. I’m here to sit with Noah until he gets home.”
“I don’t need supervision.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
I stayed on the phone with Maya.
A few minutes later, Aunt Renee knocked.
She waited until I said she could come in.
“Want to help me make sandwiches?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Can Maya come home?”
Renee looked at my phone.
Maya answered before I could.
“I have classes tomorrow.”
“Your dad is handling the school payment,” Renee told her. “He asked me to say that.”
Maya began crying again.
Not loudly.
Just enough that I wished I could reach through the phone.
After the call, Renee sat beside me.
I told her about offering my savings.
She took my hand.
“Keep your money. Your family needs your honesty, not your savings.”
Then Mom appeared in the doorway.
She was holding her phone.
“Darius is coming over,” she said.
Aunt Renee stood.
“Then Marcus needs to know.”
Mom looked at me.
“Now everybody’s involved.”
I wanted to say I hadn’t invited anybody.
May you like
But my mouth wouldn’t work.
I watched her walk away and wondered how asking for shoes had turned into something I was being blamed for.
