She took a deep breath.
“Yes. I can’t keep living like this anymore. I can’t keep being invisible anymore.”
“Then let’s go in.”
She opened the door. The house was silent. We heard voices coming from the dining room. Carol and Robert were having breakfast. We walked toward it together. Our steps echoed on the marble.
When we entered the dining room, they both looked up, surprised. Robert had the newspaper in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Carol was eating sliced fruit with a silver fork. They both looked at us as if we had interrupted something sacred.
“Brenda,” Robert said. “I didn’t know you had gone out. Where did you spend the night?”
“With my mother,” she replied, and her voice sounded firmer than I expected. “At her hotel.”
Carol frowned.
“You should have told us. We were worried. We thought something had happened to you.”
“Really?” Brenda asked. “Were you really worried, or did you not even notice I was gone?”
Robert put down the newspaper.
“What’s wrong with you? Why the tone?”
“Because we need to talk. All three of us. Well, all four of us. My mother is also in this conversation.”
Carol looked at me with disdain.
“What is she doing here?”
“She lives here,” I said calmly. “Well, technically I own this house now, so I’m the one who should be asking what you two are doing here.”
The silence that followed was absolute. Robert and Carol froze like statues.
“What are you talking about?” Robert asked slowly.
“I’m talking about the fact that I bought all your debts—the mortgage on this house, the mortgage on the company, the debts to the suppliers, everything. And when you buy the debts, you become the creditor, which means that this house, legally, is mine.”
I placed the folder on the dining room table. I opened it, took out the documents, and placed them one by one in front of them.
“Here are the property deeds transferred to my name a week ago. Everything completely legal. You can check it with your lawyers if you want, although I suspect you can’t afford lawyers right now.”
Robert took the papers with trembling hands. He started to read. His face went white.
“This can’t be real.”
“It is completely real.”
Carol stood up abruptly.
“How dare you? How dare you come into my house—”
“It’s not your house,” I interrupted her. “Not anymore. And it hasn’t been for a long time. You owed the bank more than $800,000. You were going to lose it anyway. I just sped up the process.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“I am Brenda’s mother. The woman you used for eight years. The woman whose money you used to maintain your farce of wealth while you treated my daughter like trash.”
“We didn’t treat her like trash!” Robert shouted. “Brenda is my wife. She lives in a beautiful house. She has everything she needs.”
“Everything?” Brenda asked, and her voice trembled but didn’t break. “I have everything? Do I have respect? Do I have love? Do I have dignity?”
“Of course you do.”
