“Trouble that you made for yourself. You had money, but you spent it on a PlayStation. You were counting on me to save you, but I’m done. I was already planning to stop doing this after tonight, and now fate has decided for me.”
“So you’d rather watch your own brother drown? So much for family, huh, Maya?”
She held her ground.
She folded her arms. “Family doesn’t mean I pay for every mess you make.”
“You always do this,” he said. “You act like I’m asking for the world. I just need help.”
“I helped last time, and every time before that.”
“Fine! Throw me to the wolves, but not tonight.” His face hardened. “You said you had it, now give me the money!”
A door across the hall opened two inches. Someone inside was watching through the crack.
Darren lowered his voice in a way that was somehow more threatening than yelling. “Do not play games with me.”
“Give me the money!”
That was when I stepped forward.
“I have it.”
Both of them turned.
Maya froze. Then her eyes dropped to the envelope in my hand. “I put the tip in there. I was holding it when I packed your order…”
“It must’ve accidentally fallen in the bag,” I said. “I’m sorry I opened it.”
Darren held out his hand. “Great. Problem solved. Give it here.”
Both of them turned.
“No.” I glanced at him, then turned back to Maya. “I was planning to hand this over and leave. But after hearing all of this and reading that note… I’ll give you the money, but if you give it to him, then nothing changes. He’ll never stop counting on you to save him.”
He let out a disbelieving laugh. “This isn’t your business.”
Maya just stared at me.
Darren took a step toward me. “Last chance, man. Hand me the envelope.”
The door across the hall opened wider. An older woman in a robe stood there now, one hand on the frame.
She looked at Maya. “I agree with that man.”
“This isn’t your business.”
Darren spun toward her. “Mind your own business, Teresa.”
Teresa did not blink. “I have, for two years. It hasn’t helped.”
Another face appeared behind a screen door down the walkway. Then another. Nothing dramatic. Just people no longer pretending not to hear.
That changed the air.
Darren pointed at me. “You don’t know anything about us.”
“No,” I said. “But I know what it sounds like when someone has been trapped in the same conversation for too long.”
