“So...” I started, not entirely sure how to handle this situation. “What am I to expect next, then?”
“Support.” was all she said, in a tone like it should be obvious.
“Meaning...” I let my voice trail off.
“You’re not gonna get rid of ‘em.” she nodded with a serious expression before it lighted up and she giggled. “It’s not a bad thing, Tim. They want to prove that you can rely on them, even while they have to rely on you for other things.”
I don’t know whether she was a lot better at that therapy-thing than I gave her credit for, or if she had just accidentally hit another big doubt that had lodged itself into my thoughts, but I decided to just let it go and see where this would take us. Maybe she was right. And, if not ... I would manage.
As I got off the bed, she raised as well to give me a tight hug before letting me go. When we walked back to the others, they were already done with the last piece of furniture and happily chatting away about the best placement options for their dust catchers.
“Alright.” I said loudly to get their attention. “I think you ladies can take care of the aesthetics without my help. I’ll need a shower, and then Mom and I need to go spend some money.”
“OH!” we heard Maggie shriek in delight. “You going shopping? Can I come too?”
All of us stared at her for a second, before Granny gently smacked her over the back of her head with a disapproving look. Though, I didn’t necessarily disapprove. I thought she was just trying to lighten the mood, until Granny explained to her the reason for my need to lighten my bank account, after which Maggie quickly apologized.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t think it’s as bad as I thought yesterday.” I shrugged.
“You don’t?” Grandpa asked, making no effort to hide his skepticism.
“I thought about it the whole morning, but ultimately took the liberty of calling Mom’s lawyer. When Mom filed for divorce, I had ninety-five hundred saved up again.” I paused briefly when I heard his approving whistling. “But almost two thirds of that is pre-tax income from my developer pages, so he can’t take all of it. The court should consider this when dividing ‘their’ assets. There’re also a few expenditures I can make without owing him that money afterwards, so I can lessen that amount as a whole.”
“Which are?” Grandpa asked, and I noticed how, by now, every one of them was practically glued to my words.
“The $2,600 dollars I spend each month for rent, utilities, and groceries, for one. Then education. Enrolling Mom will be thirteen hundred, enrolling me will be seven hundred, and I paid for all of Ava’s and my school supplies after christmas break. After all that, he’ll get two grand from me. At the most.”
“That’s ... still a lot of money.” John said carefully, and I had to suppress the urge to smirk when my eyes fell on the sports bag he was holding.
“Sure. But he’ll pay me back. With interest!” I remarked with an evil grin.
That caught them by surprise, and they looked at me like I had just made a threat against my father. After a few seconds, however, Mom looked like she wanted to smack her own head.
“Child Support!” she called out, and I chuckled.
“Bingo! Apparently, the courts don’t give a shit about me having a job, being a minor and all that, but they will acknowledge that I have my own health insurance through that job, so he won’t be able to claim those deductibles for me. There are actually quite a few things he can’t claim, since he hasn’t supported me financially for quite some time. He’ll most likely have to pay about seven-hundred dollars a month in child support. Now, if we can get him to stop stalling, the divorce should go through in three months.”
As I said that number, John’s eyes widened in recognition, and I could clearly see that he immediately understood what the money I asked him to clean was for. He didn’t comment on it, but his expression brightened significantly.
“That would mean...” I continued. “ ... he’ll pay me - or, he’ll pay Mom for me - seven-hundred dollars a month for the five months until I turn eighteen. That amounts to twice of what he’ll get from me.”
There was a moment of silence, then Mom spoke up.
“If Aaron stops stalling.” she said, but it was clearly more of a question.
“Yeah. About that.” I said, feeling a little uncomfortable. “I kinda thought you could ... offer him the investment account if he agrees to an otherwise fair split.”
“WHAT!?” Grandpa thundered suddenly, causing several people in the room to flinch. “You want Claire to give up a six figure investment, just so you can get a few lousy grand for yourself! How selfish can you be, boy!?”
Most eyes in the room were locked onto him with an incredulous look. Me? I felt a familiar numbness come over me, and prepared myself for the mother of all arguments. What held me back was Mom, who wrapped her arms around me in a protective gesture and glared at her father. Before I could voice my displeasure, though, others did so for me.
“Mike!” Granny said quietly. “Shut up!”
“Excuse me!?” he retorted, still angry.
“No, seriously Dad.” John implored his father as well, though he wasn’t quiet about it. He looked as angry as Mom. “You need to shut the hell up!”
“I will not...” Grandpa started flabbergasted, but John cut him off.
“How selfish can HE be!? Do I need to remind you of that college fund disaster YOU insisted on, while he did nothing but support us all! HE went to Austin and took on those men for us. HE let Claire and Ava live with him when our guest room was already occupied by you. HE has paid for EVERYTHING they needed since Aaron cut them off completely. And while YOU’ve been sitting around in my living room, driving everyone crazy with your never ending criticism of everything we chose for this place, HE’s been spending his entire school break actually working to make this place livable!”
The vehemence with which he attacked his father took me aback. And, as far as I could tell, everyone else as well. What concerned me, though, was the way he shook the sports bag around. Like he was a hair’s breadth away from telling everyone how it was actually my money that bought this place, as well as the house the grandparents were about to move into.
“Son, we talked about this already. He only supports his family when he benefits from it!”
Now I felt the numbness being replaced by quiet anger, though I still held back from letting him know how I felt about what he just said.
“You can’t be still spouting that nonsense, Mike!” Danny remarked. “How in the world did he benefit from anything that happened during the past four years!?”
“We all heard him on Thanksgiving.” Grandpa threw his arms into the air, and sounded like he couldn’t believe none of them would see the obvious. “He didn’t go to Austin to help any of us. He called it ‘self preservation’, if you care to remember. He let Claire and Ava live with him because he needed someone to help him while he couldn’t even get dressed by himself. And he’s helping you renovate this place because, in case you didn’t notice, there’s a third room here! So, now that Claire is taking college courses as well, I bet you he’ll tell her to move here with Ava, so he’ll get his apartment for himself again.”