She Chose Her Abuser Over Me

02

I looked at his entitled face and, for a moment, didn't know what to say.

"What startup money?"

"I'm opening a motorcycle club. Evelyn's already agreed to buy in."

Eugene shoved his payment code right up in front of me, even jiggling it for emphasis.

"You've got plenty. A hundred grand is nothing to you."

Evelyn chimed in too.

"This is the last time I'll ever ask you for help."

"Give the money to Eugene, and whether we do well or not from here on, it's none of your business."

I took out my phone.

"Fine. I'll take care of it right now."

They thought I was about to transfer the money. Smug little smiles spread across both their faces as they leaned in.

I opened my banking app.

Right there in front of them, I cancelled every one of Evelyn's supplementary cards and her shared-payment access.

The second the deactivation notice popped up on the screen, Evelyn's face changed.

"What is this supposed to mean?"

"Didn't you want to cut ties?"

I revoked every family spending privilege under her name, not pausing for a second.

"You want it cut, then let's cut it clean."

"From now on, what you wear, what you eat, where you live, who you date, whatever you start up, none of it has anything to do with me."

Evelyn panicked and snatched the phone out of my hand.

"What gives you the right to freeze my cards?"

I pulled it back.

"The cards are mine. The money's mine."

"But I'm your daughter!" she shrieked.

I looked at her. "Who was it, just now, that told me to pretend I never had a mother?"

Shame flipped straight into rage.

"Eugene's starting this business for our future. Helping him is helping me."

"You won't even part with this little bit of money. That's not love, you just want to control me!"

I didn't have a scrap of extra feeling to spare her.

"Are you done?"

"If you're done, get out."

Eugene couldn't keep his face straight anymore. He spat on the floor and dragged Evelyn toward the door.

"Fine, we're leaving. Who wants her dirty money anyway."

"Baby, even if I have to live on instant ramen, I'll never let you go hungry."

Evelyn started crying again, moved to tears, and spun around to yell at me.

"Don't think I can't live without you."

"Eugene can take care of me."

"A cold-blooded freak like you, all you know how to do is count money. You deserve to die alone!"

I shut the door and cut her voice off completely.

I called Lawyer Lambert.

"Draw up a statement severing the mother-daughter relationship for me."

He was quiet for a few seconds on the other end.

"Ms. Henson, a biological mother-daughter relationship can't be dissolved by a statement under the law."

"Then sever everything that can be severed."

I stood by the window, looking down at the two figures clinging to each other below.

"Revoke her access to my bank cards, my car, and my house."

"From now on, if she borrows money, cosigns anything, or collects funds in my name, none of it has anything to do with me."

That night, an unknown number called.

I picked up, and my ex-husband Malcolm Summers's voice came exploding out of the receiver.

"Chloe, how could you throw your own daughter out?"

I twitched the corner of my mouth.

"News travels fast. So you do remember you have a daughter."

"What kind of thing is that to say! She's my flesh and blood! She says you cut off her living expenses."

Malcolm cursed and grumbled.

"What kind of mother are you, this cruel?"

I reached over and switched on the call recording.

"Malcolm, ten years ago you cheated on me with your secretary. At the divorce you said the company was short on cash and paid not one cent of child support."

"And now you come lecturing me on how to be a mother. Are you even fit to?"

There was a beat of hesitation on the line, then he forced out one last shred of dignity.

"I may not have given money, but I've always loved Evelyn, in my heart."

I laughed out loud.

"Can the love in your heart pay tuition?"

"When she was three, in the hospital with pneumonia, I asked to borrow five thousand from you. You said you were out celebrating some other woman's birthday."

"When she was ten and had her appendix out, you said your new wife didn't like you contacting your ex."

"Now she's eighteen, and suddenly you show up playing the doting father."

Shame turned into rage.

"Isn't that because you raised her wrong?"

"All you ever cared about was making money. She was starved for love, that's why she fell for Eugene."

So that was where he'd been leading.

"Right. You've got love."

"Then from today, she's yours to manage."

With that, I hung up and blocked the number.