Chapter 8 - The Allen Family Ruins
A month later,
my father called me from a number I didn't recognize.
“Kimberly,
please don't hang up.”
His voice sounded thin.
Old.
“The house is going up for sale, Kim.”
“We can't afford the taxes without Grant’s help.”
“And Grant... he’s gone.”
Grant Ellison had taken a plea deal for tax evasion.
He had turned over the offshore accounts and left the state.
Vanessa was left with a mountain of legal bills and a closet full of designer clothes she couldn't wear.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Dad,”
I said.
And I was.
But I wasn't going to fix it.
“We were wondering... if you could help us find a place?”
“Vanessa said you might have some residential properties?”
They were still looking for the exchange.
Still looking for the hook.
“I have a two-bedroom apartment near the pharmacy where I used to work,”
I said.
“The rent is fair.”
“But you’ll have to sign a lease.”
“And I won't be paying it for you.”
There was a long silence on the other end.
“A lease?”
“For your own parents?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“A family formality.”
I hung up the phone.
I wasn't being cruel.
I was being honest.
I had landed on my feet,
just like my mother said I would.
But I was no longer interested in being the one who caught them when they fell.
I went back to my work.
I had a meeting with a new client.
A woman named Eunice Harper.
She was ninety-two now,
and she still loved “Unchained Melody.”
I spent the afternoon dancing with her in her living room.
For three minutes,
she was young again.
May you like
And for the first time in my life,
so was I.
