Chapter 2 - GIVE MY MOTHER THE APARTMENT
Jackson followed Avery into the hallway.
“You’re not leaving.”
Avery stopped.
Not because he ordered her to.
Because Rebecca was still on speaker.
“Ms. Bennett,” Rebecca said, “do you have a clear path to the front door?”
“Yes.”
“Is anyone physically preventing you from leaving?”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed.
“No,” Avery said.
Genesis came from the dining room.
“Avery, stop this performance.”
Behind her, relatives appeared one by one.
A wall of faces.
Rebecca heard Genesis.
“Who is speaking?”
“My mother-in-law.”
Genesis’s mouth tightened.
Jackson pointed at Avery’s phone.
“Turn that off.”
“No.”
“You are not recording my family.”
Rebecca interrupted.
“The call is not being recorded by my office unless otherwise disclosed. Avery, do not argue. Leave if you can do so safely.”
Jackson laughed bitterly.
“She has a lawyer giving instructions?”
Avery looked at him.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
She did not answer.
That frightened him more.
Genesis stepped closer.
“We are family. You do not bring attorneys into family business.”
Avery stared at her.
“You brought nineteen relatives into my property.”
“Your property?”
Genesis’s voice rose.
“There. That is exactly the problem.”
Avery almost could not believe what she was hearing.
Genesis continued.
“Jackson is your husband. Everything you build should be for both families.”
“Both?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No. Explain.”
Genesis pointed toward the dining room.
“These people have been there for Jackson his entire life.”
Avery’s eyes moved toward the relatives.
Some looked almost proud.
Genesis said:
“We sacrifice for each other.”
“You’re not asking Jackson to sacrifice.”
“He already has.”
“How?”
Genesis’s expression tightened.
Jackson stepped in.
“Enough.”
Avery looked at him.
“No. I’d like to hear this.”
Jackson lowered his voice.
“My mother nearly lost everything because of me.”
The sentence surprised her.
Genesis looked sharply at him.
“Jackson.”
But Avery heard the truth beneath the warning.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“You’re demanding my apartment because your mother almost lost something because of you.”
Jackson’s face hardened.
“I said enough.”
Avery watched him.
There were truths in the Bennett family everyone seemed permitted to know except spouses.
That realization had been growing for years.
Tonight it became impossible to ignore.
Patrice called from behind Genesis:
“She supported him when nobody else did.”
Avery looked at her.
“And?”
“And maybe now his wife could stop hoarding everything.”
“Hoarding my own apartment?”
Patrice rolled her eyes.
“You don’t even live there.”
Avery stared.
“How do you know?”
Patrice’s face changed.
Slightly.
Enough.
Avery looked toward Jackson.
He had discussed her property with them.
Probably more than once.
Avery said:
“How long have you all been talking about this?”
No one answered.
Jackson tried another approach.
His voice softened.
“Avery, nobody wants this ugly.”
She looked at the sauce on his shirt cuff.
“You pulled my hair and shoved food into my mouth.”
“That got out of hand.”
“It was one minute ago.”
“I was angry.”
“You were prepared.”
His expression flickered.
Avery continued.
“You didn’t suddenly decide in the middle of dinner that your mother should own my apartment. Everyone here already knew.”
Genesis said:
“Because we have discussed what is fair.”
“Without me.”
“We knew you’d make it difficult.”
Avery looked at Rebecca’s name on the screen.
For three months, Rebecca had warned her about one mistake.
Do not use the word conspiracy simply because several people are pressuring you.
Describe conduct.
Preserve evidence.
Do not finish the story before the facts do.
Avery took a breath.
“What does the twelve hundred dollars cover?”
Genesis looked offended again.
“Do I need to submit invoices to my daughter-in-law?”
“If you want twelve hundred dollars from me every month, yes.”
Jackson shook his head.
“Unbelievable.”
“Then explain it.”
“My mother has expenses.”
“So do I.”
“She raised four children.”
“I didn’t ask her to.”
The room reacted.
Gasps.
Aunt Patrice actually put a hand to her chest.
Genesis went white.
Jackson stepped forward.
“That is my mother.”
“And I am your wife.”
Silence.
Avery heard herself say it and realized how little the sentence seemed to matter in this house.
Genesis recovered first.
“Marriage means joining a family.”
“Yes.”
“It means responsibility.”
“Yes.”
“It means you don’t sit on an asset worth almost seven hundred thousand dollars while your husband’s mother struggles.”
Avery went still.
Almost seven hundred thousand.
She had never told Genesis the recent appraisal.
Jackson knew.
Only Jackson.
Avery looked at him.
“You showed her my valuation?”
Jackson said nothing.
That answer was enough.
Rebecca’s voice came through the phone.
“Avery.”
“Yes?”
“Leave.”
Avery picked up her coat.
Genesis blocked part of the hallway.
Not fully.
Just enough to make the gesture clear.
Avery looked at her.
“Move.”
Genesis smiled coldly.
“You’re going to regret humiliating this family.”
Avery stared.
Something almost calm settled over her.
“I’m the one covered in spaghetti.”
Genesis said:
“You know what I mean.”
Yes.
Avery knew exactly what she meant.
The humiliation was not what Jackson had done.
In this family’s logic, humiliation was Avery refusing to obey quietly.
Genesis stepped aside.
Avery walked toward the door.
Then Jackson called after her.
“If you walk out, don’t come back.”
Avery stopped with her hand on the knob.
Months ago that threat would have terrified her.
Tonight it felt like an unlocked door.
She turned.
“Okay.”
Jackson blinked.
Avery left.
Behind her, the dining room erupted.
Voices.
Accusations.
Genesis asking what Avery had frozen.
Jackson demanding someone call the bank.
Patrice saying she always knew Avery was trouble.
Avery walked to her car and locked the doors before allowing her hands to shake.
Rebecca remained on the line.
“Drive to the place we discussed.”
Avery breathed.
“Yes.”
“Do not go to the apartment.”
“Why?”
“Because if Jackson knows the address—which obviously he does—it is not your safest location tonight.”
Avery closed her eyes.
Rebecca continued.
“Police?”
Avery looked at the house.
Through the dining room windows she could see silhouettes moving.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Then Rebecca said:
“One more thing. Our banking contact confirmed the alert triggered.”
Avery gripped the steering wheel.
“What alert?”
“The outgoing transaction.”
Her stomach dropped.
“How much?”
Rebecca paused.
“Ninety-five thousand dollars.”
Avery forgot the spaghetti.
Forgot the laughter.
Forgot the burning in her scalp.
“Ninety-five thousand?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“The joint reserve account.”
Avery felt cold.
“That account requires both of us for large transfers.”
“Normally.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means somebody tried to change the authorization structure.”
Avery stared through the windshield.
“Where was the money going?”
Rebecca answered carefully.
“An LLC associated with Genesis Bennett.”
For the first time all evening, Avery began to understand why nineteen people had been invited to dinner.
May you like
They had not been trying only to make her say yes.
Someone needed her to stop looking long enough for something else to happen.
