Part 2
Teresa lunged at me to grab the phone.
Not with strength.
With sheer desperation.
“Arthur, please, don’t open it.”
That hurt me more than the message itself.
Because a wife doesn’t beg like that just to protect a son’s privacy. She begs like that when she knows that behind that screen lies a wreckage that has already caught up to her.
“What are you hiding from me?” I asked.
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Teresa covered her mouth.
The phone vibrated again.
“Matt: Remember, if your old lady doesn’t fork it over tomorrow, we sell the old man’s computer. He won’t even notice anyway.”
I felt my chest tighten.
I unlocked the phone.
Daniel used the same passcode for everything: his mother’s birthday. That was the first slap to the face.
The chat with Matt looked like an absolute sewer.
Messages about gambling. Money. Threats. Photos of pawn slips. My credit card. Teresa’s card. Screenshots of small transfers that, when added up, formed a massive black hole.
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“Tell her you feel sick, moms give in fast.”
“Cry to her for a bit.”
“Your dad is an idiot, but your mom gets it.”
“Seriously, get the cash for the app today, dude, they’re already breathing down my neck.”
I looked at Teresa.
She was crying silently.
“How much?”
She didn’t answer.
“Teresa, how much money have you given him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
She sank into a kitchen chair, as if her body could no longer bear the weight of the shame.
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“Over two thousand dollars.”
I went numb.
Two thousand dollars.
Two thousand dollars I never noticed because I trusted that our household was breathing normally.
“Where did you get it?”
She closed her eyes.
“From my savings. From the neighborhood pool money. From a loan through the credit union at work. I pawned my earrings.”
I looked at her ears.
She wasn’t wearing the gold earrings her mother had left her when we got married.
I hadn’t even noticed.
In that moment, I hated myself too.
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“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he swore to me that if you found out, you’d kick him out.”
“And he was right.”
“He told me he was sick, Arthur. That he couldn’t stop. That he owed money to some dangerous guys. That if he didn’t pay, they were going to do something to him.”
I went back to the chat.
There were voice notes.
I played one.
Daniel’s voice filled the kitchen:
“Don’t worry, Matt, my mom always folds. I just tell her I’m gonna kill myself and she goes into total meltdown. It’s hilarious, but it works.”
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Teresa let out a choked wail.
I squeezed the phone until my fingers ached.
That wasn’t my lost little boy.
That was a grown man using his mother’s love as an ATM.
“Teresa…”
She covered her face.
“I thought I was saving him.”
“No. You were bankrolling him.”
She doubled over the table.
I didn’t have the strength to comfort her.
Not yet.
I kept reading.
I discovered that Daniel wasn’t just ordering food and asking for cash. He had taken out quick payday loans using Teresa’s personal information. He had sent pictures of her ID. He had sold my power drill, an old TV, the bicycle from when Nicholas, my nephew, used to come stay with us. He had promised to take my laptop the very next day.
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And the worst part was at the very end.
“Matt: Tomorrow you roll up to her apartment. Bring the lady’s card or you don’t get in.”
“Matt: And if the old man kicks you out, even better. That way you scare them.”
“Matt: Those old folks would rather pay up than see you out on the street.”
I sat down.
The kitchen smelled of the chicken and rice I had thrown away, spilled soda, and deep, old exhaustion. Outside, a car with a broken muffler rumbled down the street, as if the city insisted on making noise even when a home was collapsing.
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“We have to go find him,” Teresa said.
I looked up.
“No.”
“Arthur, he’s out on the street.”
“He’s out on the street because I put him there. And for the first time in months, he doesn’t have his mother serving him dinner.”
“But those messages…”
“Those messages prove that if he comes back right now, he wins again.”
Teresa stood up.
“He’s my son!”
“He’s mine too.”
“Then act like a father!”
That hit me hard.
I stepped closer to her.
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“That’s exactly what I’m doing. What you’re asking me to do is act like an accomplice.”
Teresa cried harder.
But she didn’t open the door.
For half an hour, we just stayed there, with Daniel’s phone on the table, vibrating every few minutes like a trapped animal.
