Chapter 2 - Negative BalanceMarcus remained beside the coffee table.
“How much?”
Tasha did not answer.
“How much debt?”
“It’s complicated.”
“No. Complicated is taxes. Complicated is a mortgage. A number is a number.”
“Not in front of the kids.”
Marcus looked toward Jayden, Maya, and Eli.
For once, he agreed immediately.
“All three of you go upstairs.”
Jayden hesitated.
“Dad—”
“Please.”
The softness in Marcus’s voice made Jayden obey.
Maya took Eli’s hand.
Before leaving, she looked back at Tasha.
Tasha nodded.
“I’m okay.”
The children disappeared upstairs.
Marcus waited until he heard a bedroom door close.
Then he faced Tasha.
“How much?”
She sat on the sofa.
“About eleven thousand.”
Marcus stared.
“What?”
“Between everything.”
“What is everything?”
“Credit cards. A personal loan. Medical bills. Some old legal fees.”
“You told me you were fine.”
“I was fine.”
“When?”
“Before they cut my hours.”
Marcus paced once toward the window and back.
“When did that happen?”
“June.”
“It’s August.”
“I know what month it is.”
“And you never thought maybe the father of one of your children should know the house his son lives in is drowning?”
Tasha stood.
“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because now you’re standing in my living room acting like an auditor.”
“I’m standing here because six hundred dollars disappeared.”
“It did not disappear.”
“You just told me your bank swallowed a hundred seventy-one dollars.”
“Because a loan payment hit.”
“What loan?”
“Brightline.”
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
“How much?”
“Twenty-three hundred left.”
“Interest?”
Tasha looked away.
His stomach tightened.
“Tasha.”
“Twenty-nine percent.”
Marcus actually laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he could not believe what he was hearing.
“You took a twenty-nine-percent loan?”
“I needed the money.”
“For what?”
“My lawyer.”
Marcus stopped.
“What lawyer?”
She looked at him.
“Kelvin.”
That name changed his posture.
Kelvin Price was Maya and Eli’s father.
Tasha’s ex-husband.
A man Marcus had deliberately kept out of his thoughts because thinking about Kelvin usually produced anger he had no legal or moral right to act on.
“What about him?”
“He stopped paying support regularly last year.”
“You told me he was behind a little.”
“He owes eighty-four hundred.”
Marcus blinked.
“And you didn’t tell me that either.”
“Why would I?”
“Because you just used money for my son to cover children he’s supposed to support.”
Tasha’s eyes sharpened.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The sentence you’ve been waiting to say.”
“I’ve been waiting to say?”
“You think because Kelvin is irresponsible, I should make Maya and Eli suffer until somebody forces him to act right.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Marcus pointed toward the stairs.
“They are children. I know that.”
“Then act like it.”
“I am not their father.”
Tasha flinched.
The sentence hung between them.
Marcus immediately regretted how it sounded, but he did not retract the fact.
“I’m not saying I don’t care about them.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I’m saying I send court-ordered support every month for Jayden, and I sent six hundred extra specifically for him.”
Tasha looked at the coffee table.
“You send five hundred fifty a month.”
“On time.”
“Yes.”
“Every month.”
“I said yes.”
“And I buy his sports stuff. Pay half his dental. Pay for camps.”
“Yes, Marcus.”
“So don’t make me sound like some deadbeat because I want six hundred dollars labeled for my son to actually go to my son.”
Tasha lowered her voice.
“I never called you a deadbeat.”
“You don’t have to.”
For a long moment neither spoke.
Then Tasha said, “Do you know what Jayden told me?”
Marcus looked up.
“What?”
“He said he didn’t need Jordans.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It should.”
“He’s twelve.”
“Exactly.”
Marcus narrowed his eyes.
“What else did he say?”
Tasha went still.
That stillness told him there was more.
“Tasha.”
“He saw me making the list.”
“And?”
“He saw Maya needed shoes.”
Marcus stared.
“And?”
“He asked if some of the money could be used for them.”
Marcus’s face changed.
“You discussed the six hundred dollars with him?”
“He asked.”
“You put a twelve-year-old in that position?”
“I didn’t put him anywhere.”
“You let my son decide whether his siblings went without.”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you just said.”
Tasha stood again.
“I told him I would handle it.”
“Then why does he look guilty?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do.”
Marcus pointed upstairs.
“Because he thinks if he gets something, they lose something.”
Tasha’s eyes watered.
“And whose fault is that?”
The question hit harder than she intended.
Marcus stepped back.
She continued.
“You walked in here asking where his Jordans were while two other children hugged discount backpacks like somebody was about to take them away.”
Marcus looked toward the stairs.
That image hurt because it was true.
But truth did not erase everything else.
“You should have called me.”
“And said what?”
“Anything.”
“Marcus, I need you to understand something.”
She stepped closer.
“You send money like instructions.”
His eyes hardened.
“I send money because things cost money.”
“You send it with labels. Shoes. Camp. Clothes. Laptop. And then you come check whether the picture in your head matches what happened.”
“It’s called accountability.”
“No.”
Tasha shook her head.
“Sometimes it feels like surveillance.”
Marcus absorbed that without answering.
His phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
Then he saw something sticking beneath the stack of receipts.
A folded white envelope.
He pulled it free.
Tasha moved quickly.
“Give me that.”
Too late.
Marcus unfolded the paper.
FINAL NOTICE — RENT BALANCE DUE: $1,462.
His eyes lifted slowly.
“Tasha.”
She closed her eyes.
“You’re behind on rent?”
She did not answer.
He read the final line.
Failure to cure may result in filing for eviction.
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Marcus looked toward the ceiling, where Jayden’s footsteps moved softly across the floor.
The six hundred dollars suddenly seemed like the smallest number in the house.
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