Martha made them tea and put out a plate of store-bought cookies. “I’m sorry I don’t have more to offer,” she said quietly. “My salary at the library doesn’t go very far these days.”
“Martha, why haven’t you seen Olivia in three years?” Nancy asked gently. “She told us you were… estranged.”
Martha sighed, her eyes filling with tears. “I raised her alone. Her father left before she was born. I worked every hour I could, but it was never enough for her. She wanted the life she saw on TV. She was ashamed of this house, ashamed of me.”
“She told us she worked her way through college,” David said, his voice low.
“She did work hard,” Martha said. “But I sent her half my paycheck every month. I took out a second mortgage on this place to pay for her laptop and her clothes so she wouldn’t feel ‘poor’ at that big school. I even sold my mother’s wedding ring to pay for her graduation gown.”
David felt a sick knot forming in his stomach. “She told us she didn’t have any help.”
“She didn’t want people to know where she came from,” Martha whispered. “She told me that if I ever showed up at her school, she’d never speak to me again. She called me a ‘failure’ because I didn’t marry a rich man to provide for her. She said I was an ‘anchor’ dragging her down.”
Martha looked at David with a mixture of pity and hope. “She’s a brilliant girl, David. Truly. But she has a cold heart when it comes to the past. She wants to be someone else, and I’m the only thing that reminds her of who she really is.”
David looked around the room. He saw the sacrifices in the worn carpet and the empty cupboards. “Does she still take money from you?”
Martha nodded. “Every month. She says the city is expensive and she needs to maintain an ‘image’ for her job. I send what I can. I have my garden and my chickens… I get by.”
David reached into his wallet and pulled out all the cash he had—about $800. He pressed it into Martha’s hand. “This is from Olivia. And Martha… stop sending her money. She doesn’t need it. She’s living in a luxury condo and wearing $400 shoes. Please, take care of yourself.”
The drive back was silent. David felt like his entire world had been a lie. When he got home, Olivia greeted him with her usual perfect smile and a “homemade” dinner of Coq au Vin.
David didn’t eat. He went to the kitchen to throw something away and saw the trash can. Tucked under the liner were the receipts from the French bistro down the street. Two orders of Coq au Vin, $120.
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