Chapter 2: The Severed Pretense
Kyle spun around, his face flushing crimson against the grey morning light.
""Megan, relax,"" Kyle stammered, his hands waving in frantic, dismissive gestures. ""He’s just playing hardball because of that family dinner six months ago. Lucas is my older brother. He bought this four-bedroom house with money from grandfather’s estate. He lives alone! He’s not going to leave his own flesh and blood out in the rain with a moving truck full of furniture.""
""Grandfather’s estate?""
Lucas’s voice emitted from the intercom speaker once more, smooth and terrifyingly precise.
""Grandfather died fifteen years ago with forty thousand dollars in medical debt, Kyle,"" Lucas spoke from the café. ""I bought this property three years ago with my own architectural consulting fees and twelve years of sixty-hour work weeks while you were blowing your college allowance on ski trips in Tahoe.""
Megan stepped back, her hand flying to her mouth in utter shock.
""Kyle..."" Megan whispered, her voice trembling with rising fury. ""You told me you were co-owners on the title deed. You told me we were moving into the family estate so we could save money to launch the interior design firm!""
Lucas continued through the speaker, his words falling like measured hammer strikes.
""The lease on your apartment in Seattle wasn't terminated because the building was sold, Megan,"" Lucas said gently to the woman on his porch. ""Kyle was evicted for three months of non-payment after he spent your joint savings on speculative cryptocurrency options. I have the civil court records on my laptop right now.""
Megan turned her head to Kyle. The veil of charm, polished promises, and fabricated wealth he had draped over their two-year relationship was stripped away in three sentences.
She saw him clearly: a thirty-year-old boy whose entire existence was a parasite’s gamble, using people who loved him as shields to hide his own cowardice.
""Megan, don't listen to him!"" Kyle pleaded, reaching for her arm. ""I was going to pay it back! I have a client meeting on Friday!""
Megan pulled her arm back with a sharp, violent jerk.
""Don't you dare touch me, Kyle,"" Megan said, her voice shaking with devastating, hard-earned disgust.
She reached into her purse, pulled out the gold apartment key Kyle had given her, and threw it onto the porch mat.
May you like
She turned around, walked down the concrete steps in her camel coat, hailed a passing yellow cab on the avenue, and drove away, leaving Kyle standing alone in the rain with a twenty-foot truck he couldn't pay for.
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