So I worked two jobs.
I gave up nights out with friends. I postponed my dreams. Every decision I made revolved around one little boy who slowly became the center of my world.
Years passed.
Jake grew into a kind, funny, hardworking twelve-year-old. He called me Mom.
I never corrected him.
As far as I was concerned, I was the only mother he’d ever known.
Then, one afternoon, someone knocked on my door.
I opened it.
My heart stopped.
Olivia.
She stood there smiling as though twelve years hadn’t passed.
“Hey, sis! It’s been forever!”
I couldn’t speak.
Jake was in the next room doing his homework.
Olivia glanced past me and smiled.
“So… you’re going to let me see my son, right?”
My hands began to shake.
“Your son?” I asked quietly. “You mean Jake?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t make this dramatic. He’s my child.”
Before I could respond, she dropped the real reason she’d come.
“I think it’s time you paid your debts to me.”
I stared at her.
“What debts?”
She folded her arms.
“I gave you a child to raise. You owe me.”
For a moment, I genuinely thought I’d misheard her.
Then she continued.
“I want money. Twelve years of expenses. Everything you spent raising him. And if you can’t pay me…”
She paused.
“I’ll take Jake back.”
The room went completely silent.
Then Jake walked into the hallway.
He had heard everything.
He looked at Olivia.
Then at me.
And quietly asked:
“Mom… is she really my mother?”
I couldn’t answer.
Olivia smiled.
But Jake’s next words wiped that smile from her face.
“Then where were you when I needed one?”
And for the first time in twelve years, Olivia had nothing to say.
