Chapter 6 - THE THIRTY-DAY NOTICE
Brian stared at me.
“You are throwing your own son into the street?”
“No.”
“I am giving you thirty days to leave a house you do not own.”
“This is my home.”
“You moved here eighteen months ago.”
“Melissa redecorated everything.”
“With my money.”
“We took care of you.”
“You replaced the handrails Evelyn chose because they did not match your videos.”
“You moved her photographs into storage.”
“You turned her sewing room into a product studio.”
“That was unused space.”
“It was not unused by me.”
Brian’s face hardened.
“You never told us any of this bothered you.”
“I did.”
“You called me sentimental.”
Claire handed him the formal notice.
He refused to touch it.
One security officer placed it on the entry table.
Melissa began crying.
Not quietly.
She covered her face and turned toward the remaining guests.
“I cannot believe he is doing this on his birthday.”
The sentence almost impressed me.
She had humiliated me publicly.
Now she was presenting herself as the victim of my response.
Her friend Ashley approached her.
“Maybe you should stay with us tonight.”
Melissa looked toward me.
“Are you afraid of us?”
“No.”
“I am tired of financing people who hate me.”
“We do not hate you.”
Brian pointed toward the dog bowl.
“That was a joke.”
“Whose idea?”
He looked at Melissa.
She looked at him.
Neither answered.
Claire asked the private chef and caterers to submit their invoices directly to the trust.
Brian had told them I would pay.
Of course he had.
The remaining guests began leaving.
Few said goodbye.
One elderly neighbor, Mrs. Talbot, stopped beside me.
“I am sorry I laughed.”
I looked at her.
“Why did you?”
She lowered her eyes.
“Everyone else did.”
“That is how these things survive.”
She nodded and left.
The dining room became silent.
The dog bowl remained at my place.
I picked it up.
Melissa watched me.
“What are you doing?”
I carried it into the kitchen.
I washed it carefully.
Then I placed it inside an evidence bag Claire provided.
Brian laughed bitterly.
“You are keeping a bowl as evidence?”
May you like
“No.”
“I am keeping the moment I finally believed what you had become.”
