Chapter 8 - Lucas Was the Only Person Nobody Had Asked What He Thought
I did not call Lucas.
Not immediately.
He was fifteen.
A child.
Adult financial conflict should not become:
his courtroom.
Vanessa made that impossible.
She told him:
“Aunt Rachel is cutting off your school because she’s having her own baby now.”
I learned because Lucas texted me.
Is that true?
I stared at the message for twenty minutes.
Then called.
He answered quietly.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Your mom told you?”
“Yes.”
I chose every word carefully.
“Your school is paid through this semester.”
“Okay.”
“Nothing is happening tomorrow.”
“Mom said I’m going back to public school.”
“That decision has not been made.”
Then:
“Did you say you’d pay until graduation?”
There it was.
Not Vanessa.
Lucas.
I closed my eyes.
“I said I would make sure you didn’t lose school during your parents’ divorce.”
“That’s not what I remember.”
I swallowed.
“What do you remember?”
“You said:
‘I’ve got you through graduation.’”
Did I?
Maybe.
I could hear myself saying it.
I asked:
“When?”
“Dinner at your place.”
“Dad had just stopped paying tuition.”
Yes.
I remembered the evening.
Daniel pouring wine.
Vanessa crying.
Lucas pretending not to listen.
Me saying:
“I’ve got him.”
Daniel:
“Through high school?”
Me:
“Whatever it takes.”
There it was.
I had not signed:
a contract.
I had made:
a promise.
Those are different legal things.
Morally, not always different enough.
I told Lucas:
“I need to be honest with you.”
“I’m angry at your mom.”
“I’m angry at Daniel.”
“I said things at lunch because I had just been hit and shoved.”
“But you did not do anything to me.”
He was silent.
“I’m going to figure out what I actually promised you, not what I promised everyone else.”
Then Lucas asked:
“Is the baby okay?”
My eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
No jealousy.
No:
stealing.
That had been Vanessa.
Not her son.
Then he said:
“I don’t want you paying if you hate it.”
That broke something in me.
“I don’t hate helping you.”
“I hate when adults decide helping once means I’m never allowed to stop.”
Lucas understood faster than:
May you like
we had.
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