Page 106 of The Teacher of Nothing
A grieving addict on the verge of losing her child.
I can understand the desperation, but it doesn’t make it right.
“Mom…” I trail off, hurt in my voice. “Does he know?”
“If he knew,” Darren says in triumph, “your mother would be in prison for a very long time.”
Mom tenses but doesn’t argue his words.
“How much?”
“Enough,” Mom croaks out.
“Last time I checked, it was upwards of what, one? Two?” Darren asks, his eyebrow arching.
“Thousands?”
Darren barks out a laugh. “You sweet, naïve child. Thousands? How cute.”
My blood runs cold. Millions of dollars? My mother embezzled millions of dollars from someone I looked up to as a grandfather. How could she do such a thing?
“How could she take so much money and not get caught?” I demand. “He had to have discovered it.”
“The old man has almost as much money as those damn Parks, so he hasn’t noticed she’s been stealing from under his nose,” Darren states. “Plus, when your mother wants something, she’s really, really good at getting it.” He pats her on the top of the head. “But no matter how good she is, it would have caught up to her eventually because the oxy was beginning to make her sloppy.”
Oxy made her a lot of things and sloppy was one of them. Once she got off those, she did better. The Xanax doesn’t make her sloppy, just sleepy. Probably because she takes a lot morethan she’s supposed to. At least she somehow manages to pull herself up to go into work, even on Saturdays.
“Before I opened my own firm, I worked for Leo,” Darren says. “I came in one Saturday to find her digging through Leo’s office, slurring her words. She confessed what she’d done and begged for me to take her to rehab.”
“That summer…” I mutter.
“That summer I did take her to rehab. But I also saw an opportunity. Your mother, despite her addictive ways, was a genius and ruthless when it served her own needs. Having her on my side could be beneficial to me. I told her I’d keep her secret if we were to marry.” He chuckles. “I reminded her she had a child to think of. That I could help care for and protect that child. No one had to go to prison. She just needed to be smarter and more careful.”
“You’re a monster,” I snap.
“No, I’m an investor. Not only do I have a beautiful, intelligent wife, but I have one who pays like interest. An annuity if you will.”
“You disgust me. You’ll pay for this.”
“Me? No, Willa, I won’t. The one who’ll pay is your mother. Over the years, I’ve kept everything that could implicate her. As long as she skims and covers her tracks, no one will be the wiser. Meanwhile, I keep several of Leo’s businesses he owns knee-deep in lawsuits with the Parks so that Leo doesn’t know he’s being robbed blind. Everyone wins.” He smirks. “Well, not the Parks or Leo, but that’s neither here nor there.” Darren releases my mother and then walks toward the door. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to bail my son out of jail. Later, we’ll sort this mess out and finally work together as the family we are. There will be no more dealings with the Parks, nor will there be any altercations between you and Levi.”
He exits the house without looking back, leaving me hollowed out by his words. Mom can’t even look at me. And she shouldn’t. I don’t think she’d like the expression on my face.
“All these years,” I croak out. “You betrayed me. You broke the law. All because you wanted to get high?”
Mom’s head snaps up, eyes bloodshot from tears. “My heart was broken. When your father died, I was destroyed. I did this so I could survive and keep you. I was managing the best way I knew how.”
“Who are you anymore?”
“I’m your mother.” Tears race down her cheeks, but her eyes are glazed over, the Xanax now numbing her to the bone. “I love you.”
“I love you too…”
“But?”
“But I can’t do this anymore. I’m leaving.”
“Where will you go?”
