Chapter 9
Robert slowly turned toward his son.
“Derek?”
Derek looked away.
“Dad, I can explain.”
Robert's voice was barely audible.
“How much?”
Derek said nothing.
“Son. How much?”
Nicole swallowed.
“Almost forty-eight thousand dollars.”
Diane sat down hard.
Marissa covered her mouth.
Ryan stared at his brother.
“You used Dad's money?”
Derek threw up his hands.
“I was going to pay it back!”
Robert closed his eyes.
The silence that followed felt heavier than every argument we'd heard that afternoon.
Finally, Robert asked, “When?”
Derek looked confused.
“What?”
“When were you going to pay it back?”
“I had a business opportunity.”
Robert opened his eyes.
“What business opportunity?”
Derek rubbed his forehead.
“A fitness franchise. A guy I know was putting together investors.”
Nicole shook her head.
“Derek, the franchise never existed.”
He looked at her sharply.
“You don't know that.”
“I do. My attorney helped me verify it.”
Derek's shoulders dropped.
For the first time, I saw genuine panic in his face.
“I thought it was real,” he whispered.
Robert stared at him.
“You took money from my account without permission because you thought you could get rich?”
Derek looked toward Diane.
“Mom?”
But Diane was crying too hard to speak.
Robert stepped backward and sat down.
“I worked forty-two years to pay off that house.”
Nobody knew what to say.
Then Tommy spoke.
“Grandpa?”
Robert looked up.
The little boy walked toward him.
“Are you going to lose your house?”
Robert's face crumpled.
“Oh, buddy.”
He opened his arms.
Tommy climbed into his lap.
And Robert began to cry.
Not quietly.
Not politely.
He cried like a man who had spent his entire life believing that protecting his children meant fixing every mistake they made.
And who had finally discovered that sometimes, protecting one child from consequences meant hurting everyone else.
I watched Derek.
He was staring at his father.
His face had gone pale.
“Dad,” he said, “I didn't think—”
“No,” Robert interrupted. “You didn't.”
Derek flinched.
Robert wiped his face.
“I gave you money when your first business failed. I paid your truck loan when you lost your job. I helped with your mortgage when you told me things were difficult.”
He shook his head.
“And every time, I told myself you just needed one more chance.”
Derek looked down.
“But this isn't help anymore, son.”
Robert's voice broke.
“This is me helping you avoid growing up.”