My card was practically empty!
Tiffany pushed the form back. “Hey sis, maybe
we should wait until your money comes
through?”
She was counting on my loan money.
Kevin wouldn’t have it,
“No! Mom, pay now! I wanna learn here!”
He was screaming and crying, and the teacher
looked at us like we had “broke” written all over
our foreheads.
Tiffany gritted her teeth and swiped her card,
As we left the school, I got a text.
The piano teacher was an old classmate,
Cho had cont me a kinkbank of $95001
く
2:55
She had sent me a kickback of $3500!
Tiffany was quiet and glum.
87
In front of me, she called Mark. “Our sis
doesn’t have any money today, I had to cover it.
She can pay us back when she gets her loan.”
Like, you’re paying for your kid’s piano
lessons?
That’s hilarious.
When we got to the BBQ place, there were like
seven or eight people inside.
Tiffany’s parents, brother, and sister–in–law.
And her brother’s in–laws and little sister!
The table was overflowing with food, they even
ordered lobster!
2:55
This was a total ripoff.
But sorry, I wasn’t a sucker anymore.
I greeted them all cheerfully.
Then I said I was starving and started pigging
out.
Right after I’d finished eating, my phone rang.
Mike had asked a friend of his to pretend to be
a court official.
“Is this Lu Ann Miller? You’re involved in a debt
dispute and have been sued…”
The phone was really loud.
The room went silent.
I quickly grabbed my phone and walked outside.
67
<
2:55
“Hi, Judge, that money was borrowed by my ex–husband, Mike, we’re divorced now…”
I walked out of the BBQ restaurant and drove
off.
Later, Tiffany called me several times, but I just Ignored her.
That meal was at least three hundred dollars,
someone else could pick up the tab. I was a
tightwad now.
Nobody was getting a dime.
I used the piano kickback to sign Lily up for
dance class, then headed back to my coffee
shop.
Sipping the coffee my barista had made for me,
with Buddy at my feet.
It was the best feeling ever.
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2:55
I was dozing off when Mike arrived.
He asked me, “Why’d you pretend to be in
debt?”
“It’s not pretend, you need to write a note to your parents. Make it out for $80,000 and then
sue me.”
The house I’m in now was paid for by my in- laws using their life savings. They put down
eighty thousand for the down payment.
Mike looked confused.
I told him, “Just do it, my mom is after this
house. If we don’t do this, I’m going to lose it!”
I knew Mike still loved me.
Last time, after I died, Mike was so wracked
<
with regret that he’d left me, that he developed
depression.
He killed himself not long after.
This time, I wasn’t going to lose him.
I urged Mike to take care of business, and I
went to the insurance company to buy policies for all three of us.
Last time, when my brother Mark got uremia, it drained us dry.
Now that I had experience, it was time to get
health coverage taken care of.
While I was reading the fine print, I ran into my
uncle.
If my brother was a tiny leech, my uncle was an
old, fat leech.
My dad worked like a dog hin whole life and my
<
My dad worked like a dog his whole life, and my
mom had just given all his money to my uncle.
When my dad died, and Tiffany married my
brother, she was strict, and my mom mostly
stopped helping my uncle.
My uncle said that my cousin was getting
married and needed money. He was there to
get a loan using his insurance policies as
collateral.
He leaned over and looked at my insurance
forms. “Lu Ann, you buying insurance?”
I made a sad face, like I was about to cry.
“Uncle, I don’t have any money! I’m trying to
get a job here selling insurance so I can get
some spending money! Uncle, I can’t help you
with this, did you ask Mom?”
2:56
67
My uncle knew Tiffany was strict, and he hadn’t planned on getting anything from my mom.
But when I said that, his ears perked up. “You think Mom has some money?”
Last time, after I signed the house over to my brother, my mom got him a new car.
She said it was because when he picked up Kevin from school he couldn’t look like a loser
in front of all the other parents.
That car was like $60,000! And she paid for it
with cash.
And that was all money they’d stolen from me!
I said to my uncle. “I don’t know if she has lots,
but there’s at least a hundred thousand dollars.
They’ve been taking money from me for years, they’re just saving it up!”
2:56
87
That night, I was making chicken wings for Lily.
Tiffany called.
She was obviously frustrated that things hadn’t
been working out.
“Hey sis, what’s your deal? You told your uncle we had a hundred thousand bucks? Are you trying to get him to ask us for money?”
I feigned innocence. “What’s wrong with that? When you and Mark needed money, you said
sisters have to help their brothers, right? Well,
my uncle is Mom’s brother.”
“You!” Tiffany was speechless!
She must have been really mad, because I could
hear a glass shattering.
<
2:56
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to the bank and take out all the money and give
it to me! If you try to give it to your brother, I’m
going to divorce your son!”
Tiffany hung up.
I started humming as I cooked. Then my uncle
called.
He was yelling at my mom and brother. His
anger was thick, like steel.
There was no going back.
Then I started crying. “Uncle, when dad was alive, he loved you so much. He told me that you’d be getting part of his house when he
died. I can’t believe how Mark’s acting. He
doesn’t even see you as his uncle anymore!”
My uncle hung up in silence.
I knew, he was on a mission to get my parents‘
Good Uncle, you have to go for it! The bigger
the drama, the better.
Because that’s the only way I’ll get my mom’s
house,
4
The next morning, my mom called.
She was being all fake nice. “Lu Ann, I’m
making pot roast tonight. I know Lily loves it.
Why don’t you bring her over to eat?”
