Chapter 12 - The Day I Stopped Saving ThemNaomi finally makes the decision her family never believed she would.
The house went into legal review.
The lender froze certain transactions.
Investigators subpoenaed records.
Derek remained missing.
My parents stopped calling.
For the first time in years, I knew what silence felt like without guilt attached to it.
Then the bills started arriving.
Mortgage.
Utilities.
Insurance.
Repairs.
The same expenses I had once covered automatically.
This time, I returned every notice to sender.
Not out of revenge.
Out of necessity.
The house was not mine.
Neither were its debts.
For years, I had confused love with rescue.
Now I understood the difference.
Sophie helped me organize a formal record of every contribution I had made.
She advised me not to make threats.
Not to post anything online.
Not to contact the private lender.
Not to discuss the investigation with relatives.
So I didn't.
I went to work.
I paid my own rent.
I bought groceries without wondering whether someone else needed the money more.
And slowly, I began rebuilding my life.
Then one afternoon, Mom appeared outside my apartment.
I saw her through the window.
She looked older.
I opened the door.
She didn't ask to come in.
“Can we talk?”
I nodded.
She sat on the small couch.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then she said:
“I was wrong.”
I looked at her.
“I know.”
She started crying.
“I thought you would understand.”
“That I should disappear?”
“No.”
“That I was less important than Derek?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
She wiped her eyes.
“I thought if I pushed you away, I could keep him safe.”
I stared at her.
“You protected him by destroying me.”
“I know.”
“Did you mean it when you called me a parasite?”
She shook her head immediately.
“No.”
“But you said it.”
“I was trying to hurt you.”
I looked down.
“And it worked.”
She cried harder.
I didn't comfort her.
Not because I wanted her to suffer.
Because for once, her pain was not mine to fix.
Mom finally said:
“Derek called.”
I looked up.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“What did he say?”
She looked terrified.
“He said he's coming home.”
My pulse quickened.
“Home?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He thinks you still have the documents.”
I went still.
“He wants what?”
“The flash drive.”
I almost laughed.
He wasn't coming home because he missed his family.
He was coming back because I had evidence.
Then Mom reached into her purse.
She pulled out a key.
She placed it on my table.
“What is that?”
“The safe.”
I stared at her.
“Dad's.”
“What is inside?”
“Everything we never told you.”
I didn't touch the key.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because I can't protect Derek anymore.”
I looked at her.
“You could have stopped him before.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
She stood.
At the door, she turned.
“I was wrong about something else.”
“What?”
“You weren't a parasite.”
Her voice cracked.
“You were the reason we still had a home.”
The door closed.
I sat alone.
Then I picked up the key.
The safe was located in my parents' old bedroom.
The house was still under investigation, but I had legal permission to retrieve personal records.
Sophie came with me.
Inside the safe were documents.
Cash.
A passport.
Two USB drives.
And a sealed envelope marked:
NAOMI. OPEN ONLY IF DEREK FAILS.
I stared at it.
Sophie said:
“Open it.”
Inside was a letter from Dad.
It was four pages long.
The first sentence made my heart stop.
Your brother has been lying to all of us.
The second was worse.
Your mother and I helped him because we believed we could fix his first mistake.
Then:
The first mistake was not the fraud.
I looked at Sophie.
“What does that mean?”
I kept reading.
The first mistake happened eleven years ago.
I felt the room tilt.
Eleven years ago, I was twenty-two.
Derek had been just starting his career.
Dad had written:
What happened then is the reason he believes we will always save him.
I turned the page.
The final paragraph contained one sentence.
Naomi, there is something you never knew about the night your grandfather died.
I stopped.
The safe room suddenly felt freezing.
May you like
My grandfather had died eleven years ago.
And for the first time, I wondered whether Derek's story had started long before the money.
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