How did it go? Call me if you want to talk.
I sent her a quick text on the way home, explaining what had happened. Now I realized I desperately needed a voice other than Wyatt’s—someone who understood me without defending me, who validated my feelings instead of telling me I was overreacting.
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I went into the bedroom and closed the door before calling her.
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“Tell me everything,” Rachel said immediately. No preamble, no small talk.
So I did. I told her about the empty plates and the crowded dining room table, about Addison’s careless cruelty and Payton’s deliberate meanness, about how Roger nodded in agreement as if it were all perfectly justified. I told her about Wyatt’s defensive reaction and the spreadsheet detailing $134,000 in support for people who didn’t bother to love my children.
Rachel listened without interrupting, and that was one of the things I appreciated most about her. She didn’t try to fix it, minimize it, or spout empty nonsense. She simply listened until I was speechless.
“I’m not surprised,” she finally said, a hint of sadness in her voice. “Leah, I’ve been observing this pattern for years. I tried to gently change it, but you weren’t ready to hear it.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I understand why you didn’t see it. You so desperately wanted a family after losing your parents. Wyatt’s family seemed to give you everything you needed.” But they used that desire against you, used your generosity as a weapon.
“What should I do?” I asked, my voice breaking. “How do I fix this?”
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
I thought for a moment, wondering what effect I wanted to achieve. Did I want an apology? Did I want them to change? Did I want to somehow salvage the relationship?
I wanted them to understand what they had lost, what they had wasted, by treating my children like disposable items.
“I want them to suffer the same way they hurt my children,” I said quietly. “Is that wrong?”
“It’s human nature,” Rachel said. “And honestly, maybe it’s necessary. Some people only learn when they’re faced with real consequences.”
“I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Actually,” Rachel said, and I heard her tone shift from friend to lawyer, “you may have more options than you think. Weren’t you a co-signer on their mortgage?”
“Yes. Three years ago, when they refinanced their mortgage. Their credit rating was severely damaged by a previous foreclosure.”
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“And you were making payments. Significant payments. The property taxes alone are enormous. What about Roger’s truck? You mentioned a loan.”
“I guaranteed it with my credit history. They wouldn’t have approved it themselves.”
Rachel paused, and I could almost hear her legal mind weighing her options.
“Leah, do you understand what this means? You’re not just giving them money. You’re legally responsible for their debts, which means you also have the right to be released from those obligations.”
My heart started beating faster.
What are you saying?
“I’m saying that if you want to send a message—a very clear and powerful message about what happens when you take someone for granted—you have the right to immediately stop all child support payments. You can withdraw your mortgage guarantee. You can cancel your truck loan guarantee. You can stop all payments you’ve made on their behalf.”
“What would happen to them?”
“They would have to cover these costs themselves. And given what you told me about their financial situation, they probably can’t. They would lose their house to foreclosure. Their truck would be seized. They would have to radically change their lives.”
I sat with this information, pondering it. The power I had held all this time without realizing it. The influence I had willingly given them, while they abused it, harming my children.
“How soon can this happen?” I asked.
“If you call tomorrow, the banks will let you know within 48 hours.” Foreclosure proceedings take about 90 days, but panic sets in immediately.
I thought about eighteen minutes. Eighteen minutes my children spent with empty plates while their nieces and nephews ate. Eighteen minutes away.
