He Wanted to Sell Our House for Her Trip, I Bought It Instead Chapter 08

Derek knelt outside all night. He didn’t leave until dawn.

I didn’t go downstairs to look.

My mom said he limped off like a stray dog that’d been kicked one too many times.

For the next two weeks, Derek didn’t come back.

I was busy handling the condemnation money. I didn’t have time for him.

Three days after the money hit my account, I sent Derek an anonymous message.

From a new number. One photo.

A screenshot of Tiffany’s social media—location tagged in Paris. Caption: [Europe is too much fun. Don’t want to go back.] In the photo, she was holding two new bags, smiling under the Eiffel Tower.

Under the photo I added: [Heard Tiffany found a sugar daddy overseas. Worth millions. She’s already forgotten about your mom’s money.]

Derek didn’t reply.

But I knew he saw it.

Because the day after I sent it, he went to his mother.

“Mom, Tiffany struck gold overseas. Millions. And we’re here starving?”

“No way. Tiffany wouldn’t abandon us.”

“She blocked you, Mom. Wake up.”

Mike gave me a live play-by-play over the phone. He knew Derek’s downstairs neighbor. Their balconies were right next to each other. He could hear everything.

“Clara, Derek and his mom are going at it. She’s crying, he’s screaming. The whole building can hear.”

“What are they fighting about?”

“Derek says he’s gonna go find Tiffany. His mom keeps saying that’s his sister, he can’t just show up and start drama. So Derek yells back—’When she cleaned me out, did she stop to think about her own brother?'”

I hung up and went back to building Legos with Leo.

Three days later, Derek actually listed his house.

That one was his parents’ place. Two bedrooms, one bath. Decent area. He listed it for $60,000.

It sold in a week.

The day he got the money, he went to his mom again.

“Mom. Where’s your money?”

“Didn’t I give it all to Tiffany?”

“You didn’t keep any?”

“I… I hid two thousand.”

“Give it to me.”

Brenda cried and pulled two thousand dollars from a shoebox under her bed.

Derek went overseas. He’d found out what country Tiffany was in.

Word was that country had plenty of girls like Tiffany—latching onto rich men, living like queens.

Derek figured if he found Tiffany, he’d get money.

He forgot that Tiffany had stolen their own mother’s money. Why would she leave him a cent?

But he didn’t think about that.

He only thought—she’s my sister. She has money now. She won’t abandon me.

Same way I used to think.

I used to think, that’s my family. I killed myself taking care of them. No way they’d abandon me.

And look what happened.

The news came back three months later.

Derek found Tiffany. He demanded money.

They fought. He left. Got hit by a car on the road. Died instantly.

I listened to the phone call, then sat on the couch for a long time.

Leo ran out of his room and climbed onto my lap.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Leo nodded like he half understood, then went back to his blocks.

I picked up my phone and deleted that number.

In my past life, Tiffany lured me overseas and pushed me off a cliff. No body. No grave.

When Derek found out, he said coldly, “Well, at least we don’t have to split the condemnation money now.”

In this life, he died the same way I did. Far from home.

Tiffany didn’t even claim him.